MOROCCO. 



409 



tingent of soldiers deserted on Sept. 25 and 

 burned Arab villages near the town that were 

 still left standing. The country was already dev- 

 astated, the Arab farmers having fled north- 

 ward. In the town the riotous soldiery, between 

 3,000 and 4,000 in number, were as dangerous as 

 the rebels, robbing by wholesale and murdering 

 those who defended their property. The com- 

 manders were so jealous that no two of them 

 would take part in the same action. In this 

 perilous situation, while the Berbers held all the 

 roads and had burned the Government granaries 

 within the outer wall, the Zimmur and Geruan 

 chiefs unexpectedly on Sept. 26 came under a 

 flag of truce to seek peace. They were ready to 

 make absolute submission and to make good all 

 da mage they had done and pay any tine or suffer 

 any punishment that the Sultan ordered. While 

 negotiations were proceeding they were inter- 

 rupted on Oct. 15 by an attempt of 500 Zimmur 

 tribesmen to capture the camp of the Govern- 

 ment troops by surprise. Failing in this, they 

 sought shelter with the other tribes, and when 

 this was refused, they surrendered. While the 

 Sultan's troops occupied their country all the 

 rebel chiefs went to Fez to make their submission 

 to the Sultan. 



On Oct. 17 a fanatic who had come to Fez from 

 the neighboring Udaya tribe with the set pur- 

 pose of killing a Christian, murdered Dr. David 

 J. Cooper, a British medical missionary. Al- 

 though he was a Sharif, or descendant of the 

 Prophet, and although he took sanctuary, the 



be stabled in the university building. There ia 

 another, a wide-spread legend, that in the time of 

 imminent peril a prophet would come out of the 

 east, the forerunner of the Mahdi, the deliverer 

 of Islam, and gather about him a body of de- 

 voted followers who would march into Fez, pro- 

 tected by his miraculous powers from all weap- 

 ons; and there, in the great mosque, lie would 

 summon the master of the hour, the Mahdi him- 

 self, and arm him with a sword plucked from the 

 center of a marble column with which to go 

 forth to conquer the world. 



A man appeared who was hailed as the fore- 

 runner of the Mahdi. He was of low birth, but 

 had received an education, and having disgraced 

 himself in some way, went abroad and in Algeria 

 and Tunis gained knowledge of the world and 

 skill in legerdemain. Returning to Morocco, he 

 went among the Berber tribes, convincing them 

 of his sanctity by his humility in riding a 

 donkey while his servant was mounted on a 

 horse, and by his power to work miracles, as his 

 conjuring tricks were deemed to be. He col- 

 lected alms to a large amount, and finally, in 

 Ghiata he was either spontaneously acclaimed 

 or designedly assumed the role of the forerunner 

 of the Mahdi. The fame of Bu Hamara, the 

 donkey father, as he was called in recognition of 

 his humility, spread, and devoted followers gath- 

 ered about him from Fez and all parts of the 

 land who made him take the part of prophet 

 of the Mahdi and destined deliverer of the coun- 

 try from the Christian peril. He need but thrust 



GENERAL VIEW OF FEZ. 



Sultan had him arrested and summarily exe- 

 cuted. It was the love of the Sultan for Euro- 

 pean things, his friendliness to Europeans and 

 adoption of reforms and innovations suggested 

 l>y them, that prompted the murderer, that was 

 one of the causes of the Berber insurrection, that 

 gave rise to doubts and fears among all classes 

 and angry dissent in the official world. There is 

 a legend at Fez that Christian horses would yet 



his hand into his donkey's pannier to withdraw 

 it full of money; he need but wave his cloak, 

 and tribes rose in arms against each other : he 

 need but gaze into the face of intending assas- 

 sins, when their bullets would fall harmless into 

 his lap: he need but curse a village to have it 

 devoured by flames: the army led by him was 

 invincible because the lead in the enemy's rifles 

 turned to water such were the tales about his 



