The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-11-02
ENCLAND'S AFRICAN FOE.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
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 habitants as Mullahs. They are also called sheiks or widads. They are the religious leaders of the Somalis, all followers of Islam. Comparatively few of the Somalis have been regarded as fanatical Mohammedans; small European hunting parties have repeatedly travered through their country in safety and most of the white visitors have had a good word for the people, and also for the Mullahs. who have been represented to be very quiet and respectable persons, generally on the side of order and peace and civil in their treatment of travellers
 In all inner Somaliland there are no permanent settlements except those oc- cupied by these Mohammedan leaders. Each Mullah has settlement around his home. These centers of population are on an average at least seventy miles apart. The largest of them is the town of the Mullah Seyid Mohammed, in Oga- den The next most important settle- ment is supposed to be that of the Null lah Hargesia in British Somaliland, be- sides these two religious leaders there are about dozen other Mullahs of less importance over several degrees of lati- tude and longitude.
 The Mullahs have been enabled to settle down, form permanent villages and culti- vate the land around them because all the people hold them in the greatest re- spect. The Somalis are great looters and one tribe does not hesitate to send an armed party to rob another tribe of it's horses, donkeys, camels or grain; but a footing party would be driven to the last extremity of hunger before it would at tack the village of Mullah and even then 1t would take no more plunder than necessary to provide food for few days
 It IS thus seen that the Mullahs have great influence; and as a rule they have not used the power they wield over the people to turn them against the whites
 One of the less important Muuahs however, man who was never known outside his country until he began to be heard of as "The Mad Mullah," sudden ly assumed in 1901, an attitude of hostil- ity to the white race. He is known as Haji Mohammed Bui Abdullah. He is religious fanatic, one of the leaders in Islam whose religion has become a frenzy. and he has exhibited magnetic and persuasive qualities sufficient to inn bue those around him with his own rabid ideas. He is called by Europeans the Mad Mullah, simply because he has been preaching a war of extermination agairst the whites. He has rallied around him thousands of fairly we'll armed natives who are devoted to his cause The reports from Somaliland have been very meagre and it is not known how many of the other Mulahs, if any, have joined his standard; but the Mad Mullah has been exceedingly active since he began to attract atten- tion. Within the past year he has met the forces sent against him in British Somaliland In Italian Soma1iland fur ther south and in the Obyssinian terri tory to the west He has generally been repulsed and has fled to a considerable distance only to recruit his forces and take the field again At latest accounts the British who had had a hard fight with him near the border between Brit ish and Italian Somaliland found it nec- essary to retreat north to the center of their territory.
 This war Is going on only 100 to 300 miles south of the Gulf of Alden where steamers are constantly passing on their way to the Suez canal. The scene of disturbance