Unfortunately there are missionaries, I hastily add well-meaning missionaries, chiefly from England, who have settled in North Africa, as they have in other Moslem countries, in order to convert the natives. They are too few to do any real harm, but they are wasting their time and their money on people who consider that their own religion is far superior to any other and who see no necessity to change it—a religion which preaches charity and which carries it out, for it is by the rich that the poor live. “After all,” said an Arab chief one day, “our religion is six hundred years younger than yours, and therefore based on later experience, but, even if it wasn’t, what would you say if a band of Arabs, chiefly women, landed in England and tried to interfere with your faith?” There is no answer. It is folly of the well meaning, who would do better to turn their attention to their own people, who as a whole do not believe, or, at any rate, do not practise their beliefs in the same conscientious manner as do the followers of Mohammed in Algeria. CHAPTER XV RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES Apart from the daily prayers there are various feasts which are celebrated regularly by all good Mohammedans. They do not come at regular dates as, owing to the fact that the Moslem year is lunar, all the months begin ten days earlier each year. In order of rotation these feasts are as follows: Race el Ame, new year; Aschana, the tenth day of the first month, sometimes known as the Feast of Moses; those who observe it are promised ten times of all they have; Makante, or Mouloud, the birth of Mohammed; Aïd Serrir, which is celebrated at the end of Ramadan or Mohammedan Lent, and the Aïd el Kebir. The most important are the Aïd Serrir, or Lesser Feast, in opposition to Aïd el Kebir, the Greater Feast or Feast of the Sheep. As a matter of fact the Aïd Serrir causes more rejoicing and lasts three days, probably because it succeeds the Ramadan. The austerity of this Ramadan fast has given cause to much controversy; it is not for us to discuss its merits, but until one has seen the people actually observing the rites it is difficult to realize how strictly they are kept. The Ramadan starts the day after the _mufti_ or _kadi_ in some definite center has seen the new moon of the season with the naked eye, or, in the event of a cloudy evening, on the report of some trustworthy person in some other place. Far away in the South the local _muftis_ or _kadis_ are permitted to judge the moment for themselves, but generally speaking the fast starts at the same time all over Algeria.