Evening star., 1925-08-14

France has two wars on her hands.
both with desperate fanatics, backed
by Moslems. The war with the Riffs
may be met with a "nut-cracker'
squeeze maneuvered by Marshal Pc
tain. the World War conqueror, who
has recently taken command in
Africa.
An outbreak of the Druses in Syria,
over whom France holds a mandate,
as part of the world adjustment fol
lowing the World War, is becoming
equally serious. United Press dis
patches state that the Druses have
routed an army of 5000 French sent
against them and that more than 500
French have been killed. captured or
wounded. The savage Druses are al
legged to be killing prisoners in re-
venge for the French killing sheiks
in battle. The French fear that the
Arabian tribes may join the Druses If
the latter gain consecutive victories.
K x x
The Druses are mysterious in re-
hgion and customs, and are terrible
fighters They inhabit Mount Leb-
anon--the great region whence
came the cedars to construct Solo
mons temple. They are neither Mo-
hanmedans nor Christians, yet they
of the Moslem Turks in fighting their
neighbors. the Maronites. 1t is the
jealousy between the Druses and the
Maronites which is stirring up the
present unrest and the attacks upon
their mandate rulers, the French, on
the ground that the Druses have been
promised native governor, meaning
a Druse governor, who would faVor
them against their traditional enc
al, y n
Christian people, who, because OF
their reverence for Mary, the mother
of Jesus. are called after her name,
the MaroniteS.
Who are the Druses? Attempts
have been made to prove thdt they
are descendants of the lost Moabltes
other attempts have been made
mostly bv the Druses themselves-to
indicate that they Sprang from Eng
hsh crusaders of 1000 years ago
All that is speculative and improved
| More scientifically, it is believed that
they are a mixture of Arab tribes,
who living segregated in the noun
tains. have developed and preserved
strong traits of their own, unlike the
J characteristics OF any other race.
They have a greater leaning toWaro
| Christianity than toward Moham
media nism. not Christian faith nor
virtues of religion, but simply their
! own doctrines woven in with the MS
| tory of Christ, whom they accept as
one of the several incarnations of the
| Deity on earth They believe in one
| God and that He has appeared IL
times in the flesh, the last appearance
J being in the person of Caliph Hakem
| of Egypt, a fanatic or insane ruler
who lived and reigned in 1929, when
| he set himself up as God 1ncarnate
and commanded his subjects to 'wor'
| shin him as such. Instead OF dolng
so. the mob, led by the Caliph's sister,
murdered him.
| Before the death of Hakem, his con
| fessor, Darazi, who was upholdinS his
masters pretenses, was mobbed, but
| he escaped and fed to Lebanon, where
| he undertook to teach the new re
ligion. History does not record that
| he made many converts in his lifetime
but he evidently left his impress upon
| the people of Lebanon, so that in
| later years, their descendants ac.
cepted the strange doctrine of Daraz
and, corrupting the name, called them.
selves after his name. "Druses.'
The Druses refuse to accept con
verts. They alone are the chosen
people of Gcd'' and destined to rule
the world, though there are, only 150,
900 of them, including women and
| children. God. they believe. has not
been reincarnated since Jesus, except