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very pi*etty ; but of the lower classes of Egyptian women, 

 whose long single wretched garment, generally open in 

 front above the waist, ill conceals their unsightly forms. 

 Nor do the pendulous bosoms, the sunken eyes, the 

 wrinkled and insipid face, with other indications of pre- 

 mature decay of mind and body, tend to render them 

 more attractive, any more than the habit both women 

 and girls have, of anxiously covering their faces, at the 

 expense of leavingmuch of the rest of the body uncovered. 

 Miss Martineau states that she found " the people through- 

 out the country sleek, well-fed, and cheerful," nor was 

 " she sure that she saw an ill-fed person in all Egypt." 

 Unhappily her experience in this matter is nearly, if 

 not quite, unique, 



George Sandys gives a most graphic description of 

 the people as he found them at the beginning of the 

 seventeenth century, and in many particulars, if not all, 

 it would obtain at the present time. The demoralizing 

 influence, and most baneful effects of the Mahomedan 

 imposture had then, as now, become patent. After 

 describing "the Egyptians of the middle times," who 

 " Avere a people degenerating from the worth of their 

 ancestors ; prone to invocations, devoted to luxury, 

 cowardly, cruel ; naturally addicted to scoffe and to cavill, 

 detracting from whatsoever was gracious and eminent," 

 he says " The countrey people doe follow husbandry. 

 They are not long in dressing themselves, being onely 

 wrapt in a russett mantle : nor have the women a better 

 coverture : hiding their faces with beastly clouts, liaving 

 holes for their eyes ; Avhich little is too much to see and 

 abstain from loathing. A people breathes not more savage 

 and nasty ; crusted with dirt, and stinking of smoke, by 

 reason of their fuell, and their houses, which have no 

 chimneys. Some of them dwell under beggarly tents, 

 and those esteemed of the old inhabitants." Yet. " the 

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