necessities of the age. It is conceivable, however,
that should the revival of Islam take the form of a religious war, the
races of Africa may be found taking the leading part in it. Tripoli,
Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco contain hardy races of fighting men who may
yet trouble Europe; and fifty years of rule have not yet assimilated the
French Sahara.

It is difficult to gain accurate statistics as to the proportion of
pilgrims sent to Mecca by these various States, but it would seem the
Algerian pilgrimage is the smallest. This is due mainly to hindrances
raised by the French Government, whose policy it is to isolate their
province from the rest of the Mussulman world. An Algerian pilgrim is
called upon to produce the sum of 1000 francs before he is permitted to
embark for Jeddah, and he is subjected to various other needless
formalities. Still the number sent is large and their fervour undoubted,
though the upper classes, from a fear of losing credit with the French
authorities, rather hold aloof.

The mainstay of the Mogrebbin Haj are the Moors. These have an immense
name for zeal and religious courage at Mecca, and for the great
scrupulosity with which they perform their religious duties. There is
too among the Moors a far wider level of theological education than
among most Mussulmans. I made acquaintance while at Jeddah with a young
Arab from Shinghiat in Senegal who, Bedouin as he was, was an Alem, and
one sufficiently well versed in the Sheriat to be referred to more than
once in my presence on points of religious law and literature. I
expressed my surprise at finding a Bedouin thus learned, for he was
evidently an Arab of the Arabs, but he told me his was no exceptional
position, and that most Bedouins in Southern Morocco could read the
Koran. The Moors would have a still higher position in Islam than that
already given them were it not that they are on one point at variance
with the mass of Sunites. They do not acknowledge the modern Caliphate.
Those therefore of the Sunites who have acknowledged the Ottoman claim
are at issue with the Moors. On all other points, however, the Moors are
Sunites of the Sunites.

From the Moor to the negro is but a step, though it is a step of race,
perhaps of species. The political and religious connection of Morocco
with the Soudan is a very close one, and, whatever may be the future of
the Mediterranean provinces fronting the Spanish coast, it cannot be
doubted that the Moori