The Aberdeen Democrat. (Aberdeen, South Dakota) 1???-1909, 1904-04-22
ENGLAID's UNcANMY FOES.
Warfare in Thibet and somaliland
Putting the Nation to Great
Trouble and Loss.

Trouble and Loss.
Never before has this country been OPP
posed by two such mysterious and uncan-
ny foes as she is graphing with at the
present time, says London Tit-Bits, in
the persons of the Grand Dalai Lamao
Thibet and the Mad Mullah," who, with
his followers, is a trouble to us and
others in the regions round about Abys-
sinia. In both cases we have now big
expeditions out against these enemies,
and the curious thing is that at no time
has any Englishman ever seen either of
them, nor is ever likely to do so unless
the campaigns are SO completely success
defeated.
Not only no Englishman, but no white
man at all, has ever set eyes on tt e per-
son of the grand lama, who never leaves
his palace at Lhassa, to which city no
whites are permitted admission. He is
probably the strangest monarch who
ever sat upon any of the thrones of the
world. The country is entirely under the
rule of the lamas, or priests, and he, be-
llS Liz CulCl VI ILlSll, Is ~ supreme i ulS1
and a kind of Buddhist pope. He is
thought to be omnipotent; but, though
the people are not supposed to under
stand the course of procedure, in actual
practice the reins of government are
chiefly in the hands of a prime minister
and a council of nine, of whom a bare
majority are lamas.
Some very extraordinary duties de-
volve upon this prime minister. 1t is the
tradition of the grand lamas, brought
down from time immemorial, that they
lever live long, but that when they are
about Is the spirit carries them away,
and then descends upon another little
child, who forthwith becomes the grand
lama and is duly worshiped as the all
powerful monarch of religious Thibet.
This part of the business has to be very
carefully arranged by the reigning prime
minister, who sees to it that in n way
or another the grand lama at about Is
duly and most mysteriously dies, and
then he to the people that if
tn y visit a certain house in a certain
street they will find there a little child
upon whom the spirit has descended and
who will thenceforth be the grand lama
and their chief ruler.
They visit the house in question, and
to their joy find a child exactly answer
ing to the description given by the prime
minister. who, of course, though he does
not tell them so, has been there before
hand. The child is then carried off to
the great palace, or Potala, and, notwith-
standing the limits which he Don begins
to understand are assigned to the dura-
tion of his life, he appears to have a very
good time. q
He sits upon a, fancy oriental throne,
wearing a yellow hat and a yellow gar
ment. The last grand lama that was seen
by anybody was described as being bright
and fair, with rosy cheeks and large
and penetrating eyes. He was then about
eight years of age, and was already de-
scribed as being emaciated and looking
fatigued and weary.
Once ayear the grand lama is vindicat-
ed before all his people, as it were, by a
most curious proceeding. A demon" is
brought out to toss dice against the
grand lama's representative. The grand
lama has never been known to
lose, aid it usually happens that shortly
afterward the demon, who is an ordinary
Thibetsn, dies or disappears. The dice
are loaded, so that the grand lama must
win; if he did not everybody would think
there was something very radically
! wrong with either him ortheir country.
Now the Mad Mullah,' who is giving
so much trouble to us out in Somaliland,
is q maah moro practice! person, but only
, a little less mysterious. He, too, is a
religious chief, of the Mohammedan per-
suasion, who has been several times to
Mecca, where he is held in great esteem.
Though the nickname which has just
been mentioned sticks to him, he is not
really mad at all, and the better title for
him is THE New Mahdi." His real name
is Abdulla Achur. His father was a
shepherd in the Somali country, and the
son was brought up among the herds.
One day a Mohammedan missionary
came along and offered to buy him from
his parents and to train him up to a re-
ligious life. The offer. was closed with,
and the result is that British expedition
after expedition has nowadays to be dis
patched to Somaliland in a hitherto vain
endeavor to catch this late shepherd boy
and break his enormous power.
He is now about SO years of age, is tall
and thin, with a dark skin and a small,
goat-like beard. He Is a very learned
man, eloquent and possessed of much
c%onjuring ability, which m in useful
for impressing his followers as to his
great powers. His influence over these
followers is irresistible. He excom-
municates every one of them who does
not ohsdo hy aunry detail of hic foaohin0