Evening star., 1925-12-27

For brief interval the world
turned its eyes to Syria and watched
weary France once more deal with
a rebellion. when the Druse tribes
men kicked up q quantity of dust and
caused a French general TO GO TO
Paris to explain his conduct At Da-
mascus And then the Syrian Incl
dent pa ssed by and the worlds in
terest in it passed with II. for new
things. such as the Greco Bulgarian
spat and the Turco British squabble,
arose TO monopolize the stage.
1t is A Kaleidoscope age and the
turmoil with which the world is be-
set has dulled the minds of people
to the significance of things. OBJ
viously the cause is the World War.
and the many outbursts in almost
every part of the globe are some
thing like the minor tremors that
follow in the wake of a tremendous
earthquake. Taken alone their force
would be powerful, but following
each other rapidly and after the
great cataclysm that preceded them
their Importance is lost in the gen
eral confusion.
Numerous Wars.
There was the Turco-Greek war.
There was the war between Russia
and Poland. There are the Riffian
revolt the Chinese mess. the Syrian
trouble. the Persian tangle, the quar-
rel over Mosul between Turkey and
Britain. the border war between
Greece and Bulgaria and the TaCna
africa controversy, and the average
person. seeking to keep abreast of
the times can we'll be justified in
his hewilderment at the chaos about
him.
Some force IS always advancing on
some city. Some general has Won an
important victory. Somebody has All
dicated and some one has made a
triumphant entry. a war is not news
any more: it is table talk.
And the thing that is lost sight of is
that all these human eruptions are As
vital to their participants as the
American Revolution or the Civil War
was to the United States. AS this
Nation during those years was trying
to find A solution Of its problem of ma
tionality. so are all these nations and
peoples trying to solve a problem
which concerns the nationality and
we'll being of each one of them.
Each group has its national and
ethnic consciousness and in each case
this is much older and more deeply
rooted than that of the United States
The Druses are one of these groups.
A Small But Ancient Race.
They inhabit a district on the edge
Of Syria. comprising the southern por'
ton of the Lebanon and the western
slope Of AntiLebanon. as well as a
large district in the Hauran. Accord
ing to most authorities, they are a
mixture of Kurdish. Persian and Arab
stock, and they number somewhere
between 100000 and 100000.
They have had trouble with France
hut they were old when France was In
raw medievalism. They roamed thei,
mountains and their desert, their re
ligion seems to assert, when Moses led
his people out of Egypt. when Christ
preached His sermon on the mount
and when Mohammed arose from pas
| toral obscurity to found = ''''-~'NtT he
| lief Tradition and religion are &C
strong with them thai they assume a
stern fanaticism that neither French
| bayonets nor bullets will stamp out.
Their religion Is peculiar one. II
| mikes the teachings of Moses and
Christ and Mohammed and includes
| certain pagan beliefs. 1t tells them &c
| be pure in body and in speech and for
bids them to use alcohol, tobacco ol
! profanity. But. with curious twist
| it admonishes them that the ineXora
| BILE law is an eye for an eye, to take
life when life is taken, when one OF
their tribe is killed. Perhaps this last
explains their belief that the worlds
population remains constant and tina,
| times duration is exactly 343 900 ,00C
years.
Origin of the Druses.
| The name Druses proba bly, made its
| first appearance in the eleventh cen
tury, and it's incipience reveals an in
teresting incident in their history
which added to their peculiar religion
In the eleventh century Hakem. the
Fatimite caliph of Egypt, cruel ant
| hated by his people. caused the in
carnation of God in himself to be
preached publicly in Cairo by his con
fessor, Darasi. This man incurred