e neck after
repeating charms, and it is supposed that this will kill him at once.

Wahhabi Sect

_Wahhabi Sect._ [407]--A puritan sect of Muhammadans. The sect was not
recorded at the census, but it is probable that it has a few adherents
in the Central Provinces. The Wahhabi sect is named after its founder,
Muhammad Abdul Wahhab, who was born in Arabia in A.D. 1691. He set
his face against all developments of Islam not warranted by the Koran
and the traditional utterances of the Companions of the Prophet, and
against the belief in omens and worship at the shrines of saints,
and condemned as well all display of wealth and luxury and the
use of intoxicating drugs and tobacco. He denied any authority to
Islamic doctrines other than the Koran itself and the utterances of
the Companions of the Prophet who had received instruction from his
lips, and held that in the interpretation and application of them
Moslems must exercise the right of private judgment. The sect met
with considerable military success in Arabia and Persia, and at one
time threatened to spread over the Islamic world. The following is an
account of the taking of Mecca by Saud, the grandson of the founder,
in 1803: "The sanctity of the place subdued the barbarous spirit
of the conquerors, and not the slightest excesses were committed
against the people. The stern principles of the reformed doctrines
were, however, strictly enforced. Piles of green huqqas and Persian
pipes were collected, rosaries and amulets were forcibly taken from
the devotees, silk and satin dresses were demanded from the wealthy
and worldly, and the whole, piled up into a heterogeneous mass,
were burnt by the infuriated reformers. So strong was the feeling
against the pipes and so necessary did a public example seem to be,
that a respectable lady, whose delinquency had well-nigh escaped
the vigilant eye of the Muhtasib, was seized and placed on an ass,
with a green pipe suspended from her neck, and paraded through the
public streets--a terrible warning to all of her sex who might be
inclined to indulge in forbidden luxuries. When the usual hour of
prayer arrived the myrmidons of the law sallied forth, and with
leathern whips drove all slothful Moslems to their devotions. The
mosques were filled. Never since the days of the Prophet had the
sacred city witnessed so much piety and devotion. Not one pipe, not
a single tobacco-stopper, was to be seen in the streets or found in
th