410 



NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



supernatural powers. Coming out of the wild 

 mountain region, he reached the town of Tesa on 

 Oct. 25, where he was received as a prophet and 

 deliverer. He preached the massacre of Chris- 

 tians and the overthrow of the fatherless Sultan, 

 .and said that when his army, miraculously pro- 

 tected from harm, marched into Fez, the Jews' 

 quarter would be consumed by a fire from 

 heaven, leaving none but true believers to greet 

 the Messiah of Islam when he appeared ; but he 

 himself should rule over Morocco, his Sharifian 

 descent being equal to that of Mulai Abdul Aziz, 

 for he claimed to be the Sultan's elder brother, 

 Mulai Mohammed, freed from prison by divine 

 power to become the Moorish prince of true be- 

 lli -vers. Prince Mohammed, whom the fanatical 

 Moslems had desired for their Sultan when Sid 

 Ahmed ben Musa had placed Abdul Aziz on the 

 throne without giving the people a free choice, 

 his acclamation as successor of . Mulai Hassan 

 by the people in Fez having been a sham mani- 

 festation arranged by the Vizier, was immured in 

 the palace at Mekinez, where he was still kept 

 under guard because the tribes wanted him still. 

 When the rebellious Berbers attacked Mekinez 

 they intended to deliver Mohammed and make 

 him Sultan. The pretender was in fact Omar 

 Zarahuni, born of a common family in Ulad 

 Yusef, but he convinced the people that he was 

 the Sharifian prince because Mohammed was 

 known to have a birthmark over one of his 

 eyes and he had a similar mark. From Tesa 

 he sent messages to the tribes announcing his 

 holy mission and calling upon them to obey 

 him as the rightful Sultan. When he raised his 

 standard and prepared to march on Fez the Gov- 

 ernment was stirred to action. Mulai el Kebir, 

 brother of the Sultan, led out a force of 2,000 

 infantry and 600 cavalry, reenforced later by 

 more horsemen. The armies came face to face 

 at Ulad Taher, and there both pitched camp, and 

 each waited for the other to strike a blow. Bu 

 Hamara's force was swelled daily by new re- 

 cruits who continued to flock in; yet the imperial 

 army, in spite of imperative orders from Fez, 

 still remained inactive until on the dawn of 

 Nov. 3 the pretender's horsemen dashed into the 

 unguarded camp, massacred the sleeping soldiers, 

 seized the stacked arms, and would have slain 

 the whole helpless, panic-stricken army had not 

 the irregular horse of the Beni Hassan tribe 

 opened fire, upon which Bu Hamara's warriors, 

 undeceived as to their immunity from death and 



wounds, in turn smitten with terror, fled quaking, 

 and were pursued by the surviving remnant of 

 the Sultan's troops, who captured many prison- 

 ers and returned to Fez with the heads of a score 

 of the pretender's slain adherents, to be nailed 

 at the city gates as a warning to traitors. Bu 

 Hamara himself slipped away during the fight 

 with his lieutenants and his treasure and es- 

 caped to the mountains, where he easily per- 

 suaded his routed followers who found him there 

 and others who arrived in increasing numbers 

 that the rash attack was the act of others who 

 depended on human initiative, and that the slight 

 mishap was needed to try the faith of his army 

 and teach men to trust only in his inspired lead- 

 ership. 



The Benadir Kabyles, contaminated with the 

 antiforeign and restless spirit with which the 

 whole country was rife, demanded of the Gov- 

 ernor of Tetuan the release of the murderer of 

 an Englishman and of other prisoners confined 

 in the city, and when he refused they threatened 

 to raid Tetuan. The Government sent a steamer 

 with ammunition and stores, and Spanish, Brit- 

 ish, French, German, and Russian war-vessels 

 assembled. The Kabyles plundered caravans and 

 took captives, but released them, surrendered the 

 booty, and prayed for pardon before the imperial 

 forces moved. The pretender, w r ith a larger and 

 more enthusiastic army, advanced again from 

 Ghiata to ward 'Fez. The Sultan's army, affected 

 by the wave of reljgious zeal, depressed by doubt 

 and fear, fought half-heartedly when the forces 

 met east of Fez on Dec. 28, was defeated with a 

 loss of 300, and could not be rallied, but fell back 

 upon Fez and allowed the rebels to invest the 

 capital and cut the aqueduct that supplied the 

 city with water. The Sultan attempted to break 

 out with his most reliable troops, but was foiled 

 by the rebels. The fortress of Raselma, close to 

 Fez, was evacuated by the Sultan's troops. The 

 pretender invited the Berber tribes late in rebel- 

 lion to embrace his cause, while the Sultan's hopes 

 lay in the Kabyle tribes in the south. When 

 Fez was seriously threatened and the soldiers and 

 populace showed a hostile spirit against the Sul- 

 tan, so that he dared not appear unless sur- 

 rounded by his faithful body-guard from the 

 south, he sent for his brother Mohammed, exhib- 

 ited him to the people to prove that the rumor 

 that he and Bu Hamara were the same was fal-e. 

 and went through the form of a reconciliation, 

 though he kept him still under guard. 



NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 

 The officers in 1902 were: President, Alexander 

 Agassiz; Vice-President, Asaph Hall; Foreign 

 Secretary, Ira Remsen; Home Secretary, Arnold 

 Hague; Treasurer, Charles D. Walcott till April 

 20, when he was succeeded by Samuel F. Emmons. 

 Two meetings were held in 1902. The first or 

 stated meeting was held in Washington, D. C., 

 April 15 to 18. On that occasion the following 

 papers were presented : On the Coral Reefs of the 

 Maldives and On the Theory of the Formation 

 of Coral Reefs, by Alexander Agassiz; The 

 Physiological Station on Monte Rosa, by Henry 

 P. Bowditch; Psychophysical Fatigue, by J. 

 McKeen Cattell; The Present Aspect of our 

 Knowledge as to the Constant of Aberration, by 

 Seth C. Chandler; On Catalysis, by James M. 

 Crafts; The Disintegration of Comets, by Asaph 

 Hall; Determination of the Weight of the Vapor 



of Mercury at Temperatures below 100, by Ed- 

 ward W. Morley; On Some Optical Propertir- of 

 Asphalt, by Edward L. Nichols; Evolution of the 

 Titanotheres : III. Models and Restoration-. 

 Homoplasy and Latent Homology: A Correction, 

 and Evidence that North America and Eurasia 

 constituted a Single Zoological Realm during the 

 Mesozoic and Cenozoic, and that Correlations can 

 be established as a Basis for Uniformity of Geo- 

 logical Nomenclature, by Henry F. Osborn; 

 Monograph of the Bombycine Moths of Amorira. 

 including their Transformation, with a Revision 

 of the Known Genera: Part III. Sphingieain- 

 pidae, by Alpheus S. Packard: The Classification 

 of the Sciences, The Postulates of Geometry, and 

 The Color System, by Charles S. Peirce; The l)i- 

 tribution of the Stars and The Variability in 

 Light of Eros, by E. C. Pickering: The Atomic 

 Weight of Cesium and The Significance of Chan- 



