kery to the Sunites. Among the more
respectable Shiite beliefs, however, there seems to be a general
conviction in Persia that a reform of Islam is at hand, and that a new
leader may be expected at any moment and from any quarter, so that
enthusiasts are constantly found simulating the gifts of inspiration and
affecting a divine mission. The history of the Babites, so well
described by M. de Gobineau in his _Religions of Asia_, is a case in
point, and similar occurrences are by no means rare in Persia.

I met at Jeddah a highly educated Persian gentleman, who informed me
that he had himself been witness when a boy to a religious prodigy,
notorious, if I remember rightly, at Tabriz. On that occasion, one of
these prophets being condemned to death by the supreme government, was
bound to a cross with two of his companions, and after remaining
suspended thus for several hours, was fired at by the royal troops. It
then happened that, while the companions were dispatched at the first
volley, the prophet himself remained unhurt, and, incredible to relate,
the cords which bound him were cut by the bullets, and he fell to the
ground on his feet. "You Christians," said another Persian gentleman
once to me, "talk of your Christ as the Son of God and think it
strange, but with us the occurrence is a common one. Believe me we have
'sons of God' in nearly all our villages."

Thus, with the Shiites, extremes meet. No Moslems more readily adapt
themselves to the superficial atheisms of Europe than do the Persians,
and none are more ardently devout, as all who have witnessed the miracle
play of the two Imams will be obliged to admit. Extremes, too, of
morality are seen, fierce asceticisms and gross licentiousnesses. By no
sect of Islam is the duty of pilgrimage more religiously observed, or
the prayers and ablutions required by their rule performed with a
stricter ritual. But the very pilgrims who go on foot to Mecca scruple
not to drink wine there, and Persian morality is everywhere a byword.

In all these circumstances there is much to fear as well as to hope on
the side of the Shiite sect; but their future only indirectly involves
that of Islam proper. Their whole census does not probably exceed
fifteen millions, and it shows no tendency to increase. Outside Persia
we find about one million Iraki Arabs, a few in Syria and Afghanistan,
and at most five millions in India. One small group still maintains
itself in the neighbourhood of