A large bottle was broken up and eagerly devoured. The frenzy then became general. While one Aïssaouí plunged a knife through his cheek, another transfixed his shoulder- blades with a prong, and a third pierced his hand. A brazier of cinders was speedily emptied. Twenty different tortures were now going on in twenty different parts of the hall. Three large bushes of the thorny Indian fig or prickly-pear were eaten up in almost as many minutes; and at last, before we had time to prevent it, a living sheep was thrown into the midst of the maddened Aïssaouia: it was in a trice torn into shreds by eager hands, and still more eager mouths, and its still quivering and bleeding flesh gnawed to the bones with apparent relish. We left the college of Sidi Aïssa as quickly as we could, and the orgies waxed more furious and more horrible in our absence. I believe that the disciples of Sidi Aïssa at Kairwán number nearly one thousand, but only about fifty are fully initiated into the performance of the rites; and these all assume the distinctive cries and habits of some animal. The rest are merely honorary members, but are bound to support the common brotherhood. The Zaouia Sidi Bou Aïssa is the last of the public buildings of Kairwán which needs description. The institution it represents is certainly not one of the least curious features of the conquered city. The inhabitants themselves seem almost stupefied by the fate which has overtaken them. Many of them asked me what England said of their misfortunes. “Tell us,” they said, “what your Queen will say to our brothers in India when they know that the sanctity of our mosques and our holy places has been violated.” It was useless to explain that our Ministers had been deceived. The Moslems of Kairwán, even in their hour of agony, still trust to God, the Sultan, _and_ England. There is one word in every one’s mouth—Tripoli. One of the chief men of the place spoke thus: “Between our Bey and the French we have little to choose. Muhammed es Sadek’s recent conduct has rendered him an unbeliever, and one unbeliever is as bad as another; but we never forget our allegiance to the Sultan and Caliph: if he does his duty by us, we shall be faithful to him.” The action of the Sultan is watched with far more anxiety in North Africa than people in Constantinople either know or suspect. The Arabs feel that their very existence is now in peril. If the Sultan declines to protect that faith of which he is the head, the Moslems will find a chief and Caliph who will.