ld us. There's a great
stirring in Islam, something moving on the face of the waters. They
make no secret of it. Those religious revivals come in cycles, and one
was due about now. And they are quite clear about the details. A seer
has arisen of the blood of the Prophet, who will restore the Khalifate
to its old glories and Islam to its old purity. His sayings are
everywhere in the Moslem world. All the orthodox believers have them
by heart. That is why they are enduring grinding poverty and
preposterous taxation, and that is why their young men are rolling up
to the armies and dying without complaint in Gallipoli and
Transcaucasia. They believe they are on the eve of a great deliverance.

'Now the first thing I found out was that the Young Turks had nothing
to do with this. They are unpopular and unorthodox, and no true Turks.
But Germany has. How, I don't know, but I could see quite plainly that
in some subtle way Germany was regarded as a collaborator in the
movement. It is that belief that is keeping the present regime going.
The ordinary Turk loathes the Committee, but he has some queer
perverted expectation from Germany. It is not a case of Enver and the
rest carrying on their shoulders the unpopular Teuton; it is a case of
the Teuton carrying the unpopular Committee. And Germany's graft is
just this and nothing more--that she has some hand in the coming of the
new deliverer.

'They talk about the thing quite openly. It is called the
_Kaaba-i-hurriyeh_, the Palladium of Liberty. The prophet himself is
known as Zimrud--"the Emerald"--and his four ministers are called also
after jewels--Sapphire, Ruby, Pearl, and Topaz. You will hear their
names as often in the talk of the towns and villages as you will hear
the names of generals in England. But no one knew where Zimrud was or
when he would reveal himself, though every week came his messages to
the faithful. All that I could learn was that he and his followers
were coming from the West.

'You will say, what about _Kasredin_? That puzzled me dreadfully, for
no one used the phrase. The Home of the Spirit! It is an obvious
cliche, just as in England some new sect might call itself the Church
of Christ. Only no one seemed to use it.

'But by and by I discovered that there was an inner and an outer circle
in this mystery. Every creed has an esoteric side which is kept from
the common herd. I struck this side in Constantinople. Now there is a