MOHAMMEDANISM IX THE ARCHIPELAGO. 51 



was tlie origin or signification of either I never could 

 learn, and believe the common people are as ignorant 

 as myself in this respect. Their whole ceremony is 

 to kneel, facing this niche, and repeat in a low, mum- 

 bling, nasal tone some parts of the writings of their 

 prophet. Theii- priests are always Arabs, or their 

 mestizo descendants, the same class of people as 

 those who introduced this faith. Any one who has 

 been to Mecca is regarded as next to a saint, and 

 many go to Singapore or Penang, where they remain 

 a year or two, and then retui'n and declare they have 

 seen the holy city. The first conversions to Moham- 

 medanism in any part of the archipelago occun'ed at 

 Achin, the western end of Sumatra, in 1204. It was 

 not taught by pure Arabs, but by those descendants 

 of Arabs and Persians who came fi'om the Persian 

 Gulf to Achin to trade. Thence it spread slowly 

 eastward to Java, Celel)es, and the Moluccas, and 

 northward to the Philippines, where it was just gain- 

 ing a foothold when the Spanish arrived. Under their 

 rule it was soon eradicated, and supplanted by Catho- 

 lic Christianity. Bali is almost the only island where 

 the people can read and ^vrite their native tongue, 

 and have not partially adopted this religion. On 

 the continent it spread so rapidly that, within one 

 liundred years after the Hegira, it was established 

 i Vom Persia to Spain ; but, as its promulgators were 

 not a maritime people, it did not reach Achin until 

 five himdred and seventy-two j^ears after the Hegira, 

 and then its followers had so little of the fanaticism 

 and energy of the Arabs, that it was more than three 

 hundred years in reaching Celebes, and fully estab 



