Mohammedans fought to the bitter end, returning again and again to the attack, even when there was no hope of success. An almost incredibly large loss of life was the result. To the casual reader unfamiliar with African history, this might, on the surface, appear to have been a curious little war, with a dozen white officers and four hundred regular black troops on the one side, and a couple of hundred Arab chiefs, supported by a few hundred half-bred Arabs and commanding large numbers of irregular soldiery, on the other.

But it must be borne in mind that, unlike the Soudan struggle, this war took place in a thickly-populated country, whose whole population, used to savage warfare, took part in the fighting, and that large bodies of men were constantly changing sides as the prestige of one or other party increased or