GENERAL GORDON'S HEAD.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2471, 2 March 1893, Page 4

GENERAL GORDON'S HEAD.

Dr Barnado gives the following account of an interview he had with a Soudanese boy he ]»s in his Home. The boy being interrogated as to his early life replied : —- '■ My name is Yoxell Mahzabouzie ; my mother's name was Kadlza; my father was a soldier in Khartoum under General Gordon. At the fall of Khartoum, the M'didi's troops killed my father, mother, sister, and younger brother. I was also .stabbed in the neck by one of the Mahdi's soldiers, a;d left for dead. A Soudanese soldier, however, disguised me in some Arab clothing, and removed me a few days afterwards from Khartoum io Dhurman, where I was placed in the scr«i or Stranger's Fl.oine. I remained there for seven months, when I was seized by some Arabs and sold to another man as hi; slave. After being so disposed of two or three times, I eventually reached Alexandria, whereupon my then owner gave me my liberty." He was then asked through the interpreter if he remembered Khartoum, and if he saw General Gordon, the brave British officer who was killed, there. He replied : "My recollections of Khartoum are vague ; but I remember having seen General Gordon's head being carried about the town by the Arab soldiers, and the General's body being thrown out of a window. It was four o'clock in the morning, and the town was in great excitement, the Mahdi's soldiers rushing about killing all of us they could find. I did not actually witness the Pasha's death, but I saw his head subsequently placed in a net, covered with some kind of spirits to preserve it, that it might be kept iu a natural state as long as possible as a trophy. The last time I saw General Gordon's lisad it was still in the net, and had been fastened to the top of a long pole. This pole was fixed in the centre of the town, and the head used to be lowered during the day so that people could see the features plainly ; while during the night the head was pulled up to the top of the pole by pulleys."