Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-11-05

last Mediterranean seaport that was free
from European touch. faint and spying
not only on the STEAMBOAT slave trade. but
on untrammeled commerce and undefiled
travel in general.
1t does not mean. necessarily, a holy
war on the spot, but all along the mystic
line fiery souls are watching, planning,
Fastening to and fro among the powerful
converts, consulting.
Convent fortresseS in the GASES.
They are exactly like the ruined towers
which automobile tourists meet in the
passes of the Pyrenees, Provence and
Dauph1ny. built 1000 years ago by the
Iempiars and other Christian brother
hoods against the encroaching Moors
Their purpose is similar-but exactly op-
posite. History reverses itself. These
are the watchers of the desert-watching
against the European advance.
Battling guerrilla warfare waits for ItaI-
ians or Spanish who would force their
way beyond the seacoast. Even Frances
patient progress behind Algiers is com
promised.
have this all from French army doc
tor who. with his wife, passed eight years
where Algiers and Morocco taper off into
the caravan tracks. They know the lam
gudge and ways of the Arabs and Per-
bers who hold the GASES where Islam
reigns alone. His wife cared for the
women OF shereefs and sons of the
prophet: and he has passed through doz-
ems of the great ''Zaouias' that are con-
tinually receiving pilgrimages from the
Sudan, Egypt, Arabia. Persia, India
The Blind Brothers. whom the Span
iards are up against at Melilla were or
ganized by blind man. of the
prophet, Bou-el-Amama, born at Figuig
in 1910 with the divine mark = he was
epileptic. From 1873, when he began
spreading his order, to 1851 when he
brought off his first instruction against
the French, his zaouias converts grew
10 fifteen in number. Now they are 100
and wherever their teachers wander in the.
Moslem world they find snug convent
of the order to work from.
Blinded by an enemy at the age Of
thirty. Bou-el-Amama forgave him. con-
verted him and made him his lieutenant
His blindness gave him fame. You don't
need eyes to see Gods way" he said In
allegory, and 50 his followers became
Blind Brothers.
Above the dome or tower of each of his
converts he ordained a crescent of giIded
iron that should be large" Being blind.
he could not see that the first construct
ors, anxious to obey, had exaggerated
tnelf size dDSurdiy. out or all proportion.
The crescent Of Islam can never he too
large he replied blandly to suggestions.
and the disproportion took with the
simple minded. who imagined mystical
virtues I'm the big quarter moons. His
nephew now leads the order.
The kadrias. of whom the Blue Broth
ers are a branch, were founded back in
A. d. 1910. in Damascus. They have fifty
converts in Arabia, India and Turkestan;
but their mother house has been for a
century in the Sahara, at Meta, behind
French Tunis. and they have thirty con-
vents in Algiers alone
Away down in Senegal, where the
kadriaS had single convent, a son of
the prophet grew in holiness under the
name of Dum-el-Buk. which signifies
spring water. Starting the snappy
branch Of the Blue Brothers, he affiliated
two entire great tribes to IL, and drove
the French back hundreds of miles His
son was the terrible Ma-el-Ainin who died
a year ago, leaving his two sons to carry
on the work. The whole south of horoc
co believes in their divine mission. and
IL the Germans should land at Agadir
they. too, would be up against the mystic
line.
In the shade of their palm trees the
Blue Brothers cite miracles vouchsafed.
to warn them against European civiliza-
ton.
The Blue Brothers dress I'm flowing
robes of blue wool. Blue only do they
their skin. Once. instead OF naive
weaves. a certain convent tried a Job lot
Of Manchester goods. After the first rain