AN ADVENTUROUS MARRIAGE.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1495, 20 May 1873, Page 2

AN ADVENTUROUS MARRIAGE.

"The marriage which took place at Tangier, on the 17th January, between His Highhees the Shereef of Guazan (6i Wazan) and Miss .Keen, .was," observes the Pall Mall Gazette, " a somewhat adventurous proceeding on the part of th§ bride. If, however, an Fnglish alliance maybe expected to sway the Shereef iii favor of freer intercourse with civilised Europe, there can be no doubt that his weight would contribute very largely to secure the triumph of the reforming party; The. Shereef, who is known to his Spanish" neighbors as <E1 Santo,' distinguishecLi himself in the war, with Spain in 1859-60 by the warlike enthusiasm with which hia religious appeals inspired the Moorish 1 soldiery. It is as supreme and hereditary chief of the great religious order of Muley Taieb that the Shereef (who, of course

claims lineal descent from the Prophet), possesses influence throughout the whole of Barbary exceeding that even of the Sultan himself. The Moors regard El Santo with superstitous awe, and the belief in his supernatural powers is widely spread. When he appears in a village the people crowd to look on him, and to kiss the hem of his garment. Nor is the Shereef's power simply spiritual. He is enormously wealthy, having immense estates at Wazan, where his palace is, and being credited with such a share of the serpent as ambitious and able ecclesiastics may by pre sription possess. The order of the Muley Taieb, over which the Shereef presides, is so powerful that a Spanish renegado, who has published for private circulation an account of it, describes it as rivalling the Society of Jesus in influence, craft and ambition. Its seat is in Barbary, but it is said to be widely spread throughout all the Mahommedan countries of the Mediterranean coasts, and to have ramifications in our Indian dominions. The recent activity of the Muley Taieb and the growing power of its chief have been traced to the Mussulman revival of which we have lately heard so much. But whatever may be the future of the organisation, the marriage of its chief with an Englishwoman is a curious and interesting fact. It may be added that the Sultan of Morocco, who is by birth a member of the Muley Taieb, and is invested by their chief with the Imperial authority, is thus in one sense the spiritual and social inferior of the Shereef of Wazan."