MAGIC OF A MAHDL.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14327, 12 April 1912, Page 7

MAGIC OF A MAHDL.

Electric batteries, phosphorescent paint, and magic lanterns are p._ r t of tho equipment of Seyyide Idrissi?. the Mahdi who has'resisted the Turks in the north of thc Yompii (S.W. Arabia) for year.-, at tho head ot a band of < 20.000 Arab;-. Th* tnccial correspondent of tho Paris "Excelsior," writing from Hodoidab, iives details cf the manner in which this curious figure retains his hold over the fanalicaf tribes- ■■ moil. Highly educated. Seyyido Ido'if.- < si*, who studied at Cairo, claims to be a heaven-sent prophet, and his followers believe he converses nightly with Allah. He sits in a dark room with .his face daubed with luminous paint and holding in his hand a wand "connected with an electric battery. He : makes ali who conio to seek his" counsel touch his wand in homage, thus receiv- i ing a violent electric shock. Thc dis- : ciples flee, with profound obeisances, in abject fear. Sometimes he employs' the familiar -'Pepper's Ghost" trick, showing his-followers his "decapitated" head, from the lips of which fall words of wi'dnm, or he dons a kind of ballet costume sown with electric lamps. He uses n magic lantern for projecting his portrait "n the darkness.