270 Causes of the Attack [1897 



all night with a multitude of devotees, and a wild concourse of Oulad 

 AH Bedouins who had come in to Siwah from the north and west to buy 

 dates and attend the coming festival. The Oulad Ali are all more or 

 less adherents of the Senussia, and what may truly be called ' fanatic- 

 ism,' was rampant among them. It was a curious and impressive sight, 

 and cannot have been very different from the condition of things at 

 Omdurman and el Obeyd in the time of the Mahdi. At midnight and 

 again at the hour of the morning prayer a gong was sounded, apparently 

 by the blows repeated singly of an iron hammer, with the effect of a 

 series of sharp reports like those of a rifle, sharp and penetrating, fol- 

 lowed by the call to prayer splendidly chaunted by the mueddhin, and 

 then a general chaunting maintained for an hour or more, wild and 

 menacing as anything to be heard in the world.] The best explanation 

 of the attack made on me is Ramadan. The Siwans are mad with it. 

 Beseys tells me the Akhwan took part in yesterday's affair. It is quite 

 likely. Others say it is on account of our having gone on arrival to 

 Mohammed Sa'id, who is at the head of the opposite faction, that of the 

 Eastern town. But I think plunder had not a little to do with it, and 

 the recklessness which Ramadan brings. Certainly the whole of the 

 Gharbieh town was concerned in the attack. I regret it as upsetting my 

 plans for the Jebel Akhdar, but it cannot be helped. It may serve as a 

 useful instruction as to this western Islam of which I had hoped some- 

 thing. If the condition of Siwah is all the fruit the Senussia has to 

 show, the tree can be but little worth. 



" 2nd March. — The day has passed in going to and fro on the part 

 of the Maown to arrange matters for our start to-morrow. They have 

 imposed two kJiabirs (guides) on us, one from each village, for whom 

 I am to pay £4 each. This will leave me with only fifteen reals and a 

 piastre, all counted. The Sheykh of the Gharbieh, who is chief guar- 

 antor in the transaction, is the same who led the attack on us yesterday. 

 There is little doubt that the prime movers in the affair were the Akh- 

 wan. Some say that Mohammed, the Siwahi brother who recited the 

 prayer with us at Zeytoun, followed us on his white donkey, and that 

 he was the cause of the night visit paid us, and the questions asked of 

 us as to our projected journey. The Sheykh of the Western town led 

 the ghazu, but the men who first attacked me were, I am sure, slaves 

 of the Akhwan. I remember among their cries when they struck me 

 with the gun, ' ya kelb, la te jut and Sidi el Mahdi/ Indeed it was all 

 done in the name of Sidi el Mahdi. Now old Beseys says he recognized 

 one of the Akhwan as leader in the attack. 



" Of the Sheykhs there were three prominent leaders, Othman Hab- 

 bun, the old man with the naked sword (this I believe to have been 

 Hassuna), and the young dark man with the prominent eyes, who after- 

 wards sat next me at the mejliss, Mohammed Kuli. All these three 



