Dar-el-Islam.” Four years ago El Mehdi withdrew himself from his followers, and, becoming a hermit, sought to involve his very existence in mystery. This proceeding at once increased his fame. From _zaouia_ to _zaouia_ of the Senoussia, and consequently from Mecca to Morocco, the attention of the faithful was assiduously called to the following prophecy:— “On the first of the month of Moharram in the year 1300 (12th November 1882) will appear the El Mehdi, or Messiah. He will be exactly forty years of age and of noble bearing. One arm will be longer than the other; his father’s name will be Muhammed, his mother’s Fatima, and he will be hidden for a time prior to his manifestation.” The conclusion to be drawn from this is easy enough—El Mehdi of Djaghbub is none other than the Messiah of Islam. Persons who have seen Senoussi the younger now remember that his right hand reached as far as his knee. The Sultan sent emissaries to Ben Ghazi. The vali of that place (himself an affiliated Senoussia) managed to secure their return to Constantinople without effecting the object of their mission. Meanwhile, the power of this great confraternity continues to increase; the neighbouring tribes take the name of _maraboutin_, and pay no tribute; the great _zaouia_ in the Libyan desert is enlarged and adorned, and the Senoussia look anxiously for the day when El Mehdi shall fulfil a second prophecy of “reigning from a T to a T,” which they interpret as meaning from Tangier to Tripoli in Syria, the much-longed-for Arab Empire of the future. The French expedition to Tunis has raised the bitterest feelings of the Senoussia, who view with alarm this fresh attack on Islam, made on the very eve, as it were, of the fulfilment of their dream of power. Even these austere sectaries are now leaving the condemnation of Egypt and Turkey out of their catechism, and seek to conceal the severity of their ultra-Moslem puritanism under the cloak of a great Pan-Islamite union. After all that has taken place in Tunis one can hardly be surprised at the movement having many sympathisers throughout the Moslem world. The action of France has converted a passive dislike into an active and militant antagonism, and hastened and intensified a movement which would have been dangerous at any time and under any circumstances. Although the Turks are quite prepared to contest inch by inch the advance of any invader on Tripolitan soil, I have good reason to believe that the active encouragement which seems to have been given to the Tunisian Arabs proceeded rather from the _khouan_, or religious confraternities, than from the Ottoman authorities. The Turks in Tripoli cannot, it appears to me, be accused, with any show of justice, of fomenting the discords in Tunis, nor can the steps they have taken to defend the province which is on all hands admitted to be theirs, be reasonably called in question.