Mustapha was right; and when I quitted him, crossing the bivouac, already buried in sleep, I thought of the difficulties perpetually renewed, which overcome to-day, were sure to spring up under a new form to-morrow, and of our African dominions, which seemed to rest upon a moving sand bank, ever ready to give way under our feet, and swallow up all our labours. We had indeed not only to contend against the instinctive martial propensities of the Arabs, but against their superstitions and the prophecies which make part of their faith; and these were our most formidable foes, for in them they have the most absolute confidence. Some of them had announced our arrival; others had predicted our departure and the apparition of wonderful men to accomplish the regeneration of the world. One of their saints, Si-Akredar, had many years before our conquest of Algiers, announced it in the following verses, which were known all over the country.

"Their arrival is certain; for by the power of God, I know all the matter. The troops of the Christians shall come from all parts. The mountains and the cities shall be too narrow for us. They shall come with their armies from all parts, foot soldiers and horsemen; they shall cross the

sea.

"They shall descend with their troops upon the coast like a violent conflagration, like flying sparks.

"The troops of the Christians shall come from their own country. Certainly the kingdom which sends them is a powerful one.

"Verily all France shall come. Thou shalt have no repose, and thy course shall not be a victorious one. They shall come all like a torrent in a dark night, as a sable cloud driven by the winds. "They shall enter by the eastern wall.

"Thou shalt see the Christians coming all in ships.

"Christian churches shall rise. The thing is certain; and you shall see the spread of their doctrine.

"If thou wilt find protection, go into the land of Kairouan when the Christian troops advance; for the thing is certain. And after the expedition of the Christians against Algiers, they shall come to Kairouan, and spread out afresh. They shall have dominion over the Arabs by order of the most high God; the daughters of the land shall submit to them.

"After them shall appear the powerful one of the golden mountain. He shall reign for many years, according to God's will and ordinance. On all sides, the inhabited places shall be in agony,

from the east to the west. Verily, if thou livest, thou shalt see all this."

Our arrival in the country being predicted, our departure was equally so; and Si Aissa-el-Lagrhouati, another venerated saint, has confirmed the prediction in these terms:

"Publish, O watchman, publish what I saw yesterday in a dream!

"The calamity to come is an evil which shall surpass all imaginable evils. The eyes of mortals have seen nothing equal to it. Man shall abandon his own child. A Bey in subjection to Christians shall come to us. His heart shall be hard. He shall rise up against his master of noble birth, of tender heart, beautiful and prudent, and just in all his commandments.

"Publish abroad; say, return to your rest; he who has come has dispersed them; they have taken refuge behind the salt lake; they have ascended to the top of Kahars; the Christians have abandoned Oran.

"The sultan shall be just and equitable; the Arabs shall submit to him; he shall be the destroyer of traitors, to them the exterminating sword."

The prophecies also distinctly point out the person who is to accomplish these marvels. He

is Mouley-Sâa, the master of the hour. All is described; his name, the marks which distinguish his person, his character, his features; and wandering poets have kept up this belief in chanting it from Douar to Douar, all over the country. Sidi-Boukari, the great authority, the father of the church, whose name every good Musselman has continually in his mouth, has also in his book, which contains solely the words of the prophet himself, the following prophecy:

'A man shall come after me; his name shall be like mine, that of his father like that of my father, and the name of his mother like that of mine. He shall resemble me in character, though not in the features of his face. He shall fill the

earth with justice and equity."

Si-Lakredar is more explicit still:

"There shall come," he says, "a Cheriff of the race of Hassam. He shall raise himself up behind the river, and shall destroy the French with the soldiers of the Darha."

In these prophecies we have the reason why the Arabs have so little belief in the duration of our authority, and are always so ready to follow those who call themselves the Envoys of God. And this is the reason, too, why all the instigators to revolt call themselves Mohamed-ben-Abdallah, the

name of the Prophet and that of his Father. Such was the origin and the influence of the new Cheriff.

sea.

The day after our conversation with Mustaphaben-dif, the column, on leaving Ain Tetinguel, followed a path traced by a range of hills along the After an hour's march, having crossed a ravine planted with firs and mountain pines to the other side of the river, the frontier between the Orleansville and Mostaganem subdivisions, General Bourjolly established his bivouac at the foot of a cluster of mountains inhabited by the Achachas, Ouled-Ouness, and the Mediounas, tribes against which we were commencing operations. During the whole of this day we had not seen a single Kabyle. The highly cultivated fields, the orchards all in bloom, were quite deserted. The birds alone had not abandoned the country; but solitude did not grieve us, and our spirits were as light as a campaigner's ought to be. Towards noon, however, the soldier seeing great clouds travelling from the west, and overspreading the sky, shook his head very ominously, and presently the rain fell in torrents. By the time the bugle had sounded a halt, we were soaked through to the skin. The men nevertheless were at work at once. In cutting down wood, in pitching tents, in lighting large fires, and in cooking our dinners, which we had well