other parts of China its devotees maybe numbered by tens of thousands. It is the religion of Egypt and of the whole of the Sudan, and its professors may be found not only in Zanzibar but as far inland as the Lake Victoria Nyanza, in Buganda and the neighbouring countries. We find it again in the Niger Basin, in the regions of Hausa and Sokoto, and it is by no means unknown or void of power at Sierra Leone. The Tawariks and other fierce tribes of the Sahara profess their belief in Muhammad, and the Arabian prophet is acknowledged by sovereigns and people alike throughout Tripoli, Tunis, and Morocco, and by the natives of Algiers.

To what extent this faith is still being spread¹ in Africa it is difficult precisely to ascertain, but it is already the

Still Spreading Its Past.

dominant religion of fully one half of the entire continent, and is still spreading there to a very considerable extent, principally though not exclusively by the persuasive power of the sword. The mighty billows of the ocean of Arabian faith and zeal swept over the Strait of Gibraltar in days

of yore, and hurled themselves far beyond the adamantine barrier of the Pyrenees, striking terror into all but the stoutest hearts that beat beneath the breastplates of the warriors of the Franks. The valour of John Sobiesky and his Poles was needed to check the hitherto irresistible advance of the Turkish armies as they rushed forward in their victorious career over the plains of Austria.

And although the sword of Islam¹ is broken

Its Present.

to-day and its political power is fading away, yet as a religion it shows little tendency to surrender its claims to the sovereignty of the human race. The Muslim boasts that the Crescent gleams and the cry of the Muezzin is heard even in London² and Liverpool. The, classic land of Greece has