Street Singer, Assuan, Egypt; a Moslem from the Nyam nyam Tribe Warriors of the Bisharin Tribe, pagans, in the racial hostility towards Islam. The first acquaintance which many pagan tribes have had with Islam has been through the threatening advances of the Moslem slave raider. In such instances the pagan government has naturally assumed an attitude of intense hostility towards Islam, as towards a common political enemy seeking the enslavement, if not the extermination, of the whole tribe. This attitude of hostility has been a providence of inestimable value in safeguarding the life of pagan tribes from the insidious advances of Islam. This attitude was once that of many pagan tribal governments of Northern Nigeria and of the Eastern Sudan. 3. In many cases, there appears to be among pagan tribes a racial sympathy if not with Christianity as a system, at least with the white man as the representative of Christianity. Dr. Karl Kumm, who has just completed a most remarkable journey across Africa, from Nigeria to the White Nile, and who traversed the very area of Africa most involved in this discussion, writes, "The white man's prestige amongst some of the unreached tribes of the Sudan, such as the Musgun, the Sara, the Banda, the Kreish, the Nyam-Nyam, the Bongo, and others, is very great. The pagan chiefs so far from desiring to hinder the missionary are proud to have a white teacher living in their country." Rev. E. H. Richards sends a similar report for Inhambane, Portuguese East Africa. It will be remembered also how eager was Robosi, king of the Barotsi, to have Coillard settle among his people. On the other hand, pagan governments have frequently opposed Christianity and favoured Islam because the teachings of the former religion condemned the practices of these pagan governments; whereas Islam called for little, if any, governmental change. Uganda, again, furnished the most instructive illustrations of this fact. The Rev. Donald Fraser, also, writing for Nyasaland, reports, "Few of the chiefs have professed Christianity. The temptations to sensual indulgence are great for them. A plurality of wives increases their prestige. Drunkenness is a royal condition." Here, for the most part, the advantage is on the side of Islam which contravenes few, if any, of the practices or methods of a pagan government tyranny, polygamy, slavery, cruel punishments and warfare. The uniform testimony of missionaries is that, given a choice between a Moslem government and a pagan government, they would greatly prefer to labour under a pagan government. Of course, it is not always clear that when this preference is expressed, a clear distinction has been observed between Islam as a religion and Islam as a political force. We are here concerned only with the governmental side of both Islam and paganism. What Islam has meant as a government those know, to their sorrow, who have laboured under Islamic governments. What its dreadful possibilities are those know who are acquainted with conditions in Afghanistan. What paganism has meant as a government those know also who have read the story of Uganda's bloodshed and martyrdoms. But when the two systems are fully weighed, the one over against the other, the missionary eagerly asks that his lot may be cast under pagan government rather than under the Moslem. Irresponsible, unreliable, vacillating, bloodthirsty, as a pagan government may be, it possesses as a government no such capacity for sustained, unrelenting opposition, for unwearied petty persecution as well as for tragic outbreaks, such as history has shown African missionaries generally will agree with what one of their number writes, "I prefer decidedly to deal with the free pagan, in government and in person." The displacement of pagan governments by Western governments has been, generally, to the advantage of the missionary enterprise as a whole. Yet, when we consider only the way in which that change affects the status of Islam, it is with regret that the statement must be made that the change from a pagan government to a Western government has generally been to the advantage of Islam. It was pointed out that both in Nigeria and Eastern Sudan a racial hostility has existed between pagans and Moslems, because the latter appeared as slave raiders and public enemies; and it was seen that this very racial hostility served as a providential check to the progress of Islam. It is a most sobering and saddening thought that while the occupation of these sections of Africa by the British has protected the pagan tribes from the slave raiding of their Moslem enemies, the pacification of these tribes has also removed that tribal warfare which so long held Islam in check, and the opening of the highways of trade has also opened the way for the rapid entrance of Islam into the very territory from which it was formerly excluded. The second advantage gained by Islam through the extension of Western governmental authority over pagan territory comes from the establishment of military posts throughout this territory. These military posts are manned, if not commanded, by Moslem soldiers and officials. The fact that the agent of Islam in this case is a soldier brings him into immediate relationship with the tribal chieftains and gives him an influence which the unofficial missionary does not have and cannot have unless he earnestly seeks after it. A missionary from German East Africa writes, "Though Islam has not yet taken root, it is seeking to gain admittance on all sides. Wherever a government station or a military post is established, a community of |