MAHOMET
A vein of rich interest is tapped when one commences to read of Mahomet and the work of his followers. It is like a tale from the Arabian Nights, a tale full.of wonder and color, of glittering palaces and great battles, of a people sweeping north, and east, and west, and south, with the irresistibility of a vast storm: of strange practical wisdom and fantastic dreams. There are, interwoven with the history, legends of magic armor, of hidden treasure, of strange creatures supposed to live in the bowels of the earth and fly through the air, of heaven upon heaven through, which the faithful and the brave will pass, of beasts, and birds, and strange things of the sea. And, as you look at the world and its swiftly moving changes from century to century, you see the onward march of the Saracen checked, and Charles Martel at Tours winning his victory that saved Europe from the domination of the crescent; you see, again, vast floods of armed men pouring east in the strange madness of the crusades, you see bands of children wandering across Europe led to death by madmen moved with the idea of taking the cross into the land of the followers of Mahomet, and you come down to today, when in the ancient battle grounds of Asia Minor, things are still unsettled and European nations are at daggers drawn, wishful to carve out new empires, and seize fresh lands for exploitation, not daring
