So serious is the situation, that the Sultan of Turkey has issued an order forbidding the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca.
The European Ambassadors in Russia and Persia are begging the rulers of those countries to forbid pilgrims to pass through their lands, or to embark from their ports.
You will understand what a very serious order this is, when you realize that the pilgrimage to Mecca is a part of the religion of every Moslem, and that about seventy thousand pilgrims go every year.
In all religions, there is some special ceremony or service that people must attend if they wish to be considered children of God.
With the Moslems or the followers of Mohammed, it is necessary that once in their lives they make the pilgrimage, or hadj as it is called, to Mecca.
It does not matter how many thousand miles of sea or land must be crossed to reach Mecca; once in his life every Mohammedan must make the pilgrimage, if he wants to reach paradise when he dies.
The Mohammedans believe that when they have made their pilgrimage, they are forgiven their sins, and can go back to the world as free from sin as when they were born. All Mohammedans who have made this pilgrimage are given the title of Hadji.
There are about one hundred and seventy-six millions of Mohammedans who believe this, and who have been believing it, and making their pilgrimages, since and even before the year 620 A.D.
These people are scattered through Asia, Europe, Africa, and Oceanica, which, as you know, is sometimes called the fifth division of the globe by geographers, and consists of Australasia and all the islands below Asia. The Philippine Islands, where Spain's second war is raging, are a part of Oceanica.
If you will take your map, and see what an enormous portion of the globe is inhabited by Mohammedans, and then find Mecca, which is in Arabia, close to the Red Sea, you will understand that the making of this pilgrimage is no easy thing to many of the Moslems, and that it must have a most serious meaning to them to make them undertake such terrible journeys.