Minor transgressions were punished by
confiscation of property or by imprisonment and chains. But the
rhinoceros whip was the favourite instrument of chastisement. Men
were flogged for drinking a glass of wine, they were flogged for
smoking; if they swore, they received eighty lashes for every
expletive; and after eighty lashes it was a common thing to die.
Before long, flogging grew to be so everyday an incident that the
young men made a game of it, as a test of their endurance of
pain.
With this Spartan ferocity there was mingled the glamour
and the mystery of the East. The Mahdi himself, his four
Khalifas, and the principal Emirs, masters of sudden riches,
surrounded themselves with slaves and women, with trains of
horses and asses, with body guards and glittering arms. There
were rumours of debaucheries in high places-- of the Mahdi,
forgetful of his own ordinances, revelling in the recesses of his
harem, and quaffing date syrup mixed with ginger out of the
silver cups looted from the church of the Christians. But that
imposing figure had only to show itself for the tongue of scandal
to be stilled. The tall, broad-shouldered, majestic man, with the
dark face and black beard and great eyes--who could doubt that he
was the embodiment of a superhuman power? Fascination dwelt in
every movement, every glance.
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