WATCHED BY TUAREGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 242, 12 October 1929, Page 10 (Supplement)

WATCHED BY TUAREGS.

HEART OF MURDERED PRIEST DESERT-TRIBE'S TRIBUTE. The negroes of the desert wailed mournful laments when an oflicial caravan from Algiers removed for burial there the body of their friend, the Jesuit Father Charles, Viscount of Foucauld, who died to protect them. Evangelising among the fierce Tuareg tribesmen for several years before the war, this priest of noble birth was assassinated by a raiding party from Upper Tripoli, on December 1, 1916. Father FoucauM's recruiting activities on behalf of the French had been often reported to the Turks. Thn body had remained in the desert sands .'for thirteen years until the French Government decided to bring it'north and give it a funeral worthy 5 of Father Foucauld's career of abnegation and initiative. , Adornud with all the picturesque paraphernalia of his rank, AkamoukagIhemma, King of the Hoggar, accompanied by his wariors, called on Prefect Nouet in charge of the Frenoh expedition. "Father Foucauld is ouw," he pleaded. "Ho chose to live in the desert; in the desert he died like a soldier and a hero of charity and faith, let him lie where he fell." -

The French officials were moved. They did not wish unduly to sadden the tribesmen, but the orders were formal: the body must be brought back. So they left the heart of Father Foucauld with the King and in the southern foothills of the Atlas. With a guard of Tuaregs always in attendance, overlooking that desert to which he had dedicated it, the heart of Father Foucauld, apostle of the Hoggar, will remain.