have been placed under the government of your paid creatures. The Europeans would have been none the worse for allowing these holy cities to be under the direct government of the Khalif, nor would they have menaced the security and advantages of those provinces which the Europeans have seized for themselves out of the Ottoman Empire. The Moslem conception of the Khalif, the writer points out, is different from that of the Christian conception of the Pope, for the Khalif is not regarded as spiritual priest alone, but also as earthly king and as long as the Europeans do not appreciate this distinction there can be no peace between Moslem and Christian.
Unhappy Islam, Ali Bayrak cries, forced back to its last resources, threatened in its very cradle and its holy sanctuaries, defends its rights and will go on doing so; and it will be a shame after all the concessions it has made to Europe if the last vestiges of its independence incarnated in its Sultan-Khalif of Stamboul are taken away
It would be well if Europe's chancelleries would give as much con sideration to these pleas as they do to the reports of their young men, who are by no means infallible, and to the decisions of their old men, who look at today's problems through the spectacles of six years ago.
The Holy Carpet
A correspondent of the Manchester Guardian gives an account of the ceremony held in connection with the Annual Departure of the so-called Holy Carpet from Cairo. He sa "The fabrics are of three orders. Most important of all, in the center of the hall, guarded by Egyptian sentries with fixed bayonets and illuminated by four enormous candles in candlesticks, each of full human height, stand the elaborate embroideries which are to cover the tomb of the Prophet at Medina. Round the surrounding walls are draped the plainer curtains of woven black which are to be suspended round the walls of the Ka'aba at Mecca. And in a separate hall the crowd throngs round the gorgeously embroidered 'Mahmal,' its motive colors red silk and gold thread, which is in form and purpose a species of 'howdah' hung round a wooden frame and carried, empty save for a copy of the Koran, at the head of the great caravan of pilgrims by a finely capari soned camel
"The night of the 'Kisweh' is marked merely by the passive spectacle above described. The Cairo crowd walks round, listens to the band, chatters in criticism or admiration, aηd goes home to bed. The second act of the drama takes place on the following morning, when the Mahmal' and its attendant tapestries are carried in procession round the vast open space below the Citadel, where the Manchester Regiment held its last melancholy muster before marching from Cairo to its fatal landing at Gallipoli. On this occasion the display is one of much more vivid life and color. The great sandy square is enclosed by Egyptian troops. At one end the Lancers are extended in line; behind them the guns which fire the ceremonial salute. Another side is lined by infantry and opposite them stands the gaily decorated pavilion reserved for the ultan's representative, the Ministers of State, and the grandees and sheikhs from the Mosque of Azhar, the latter, perhaps, the most picturesque sight of all, in their elaborately colored robes and white tur bans, instinct with the dignity of Doctors of Islam. On the fourth side Digitized by Microsoft®
