Dehiiar,] ^i- [Oct. 2. 



tenancies in fee, estates for life or a term of years, rcetayersLips and 

 other tenures, except to the mosques, whicliheld directly from the Sultan. 



But Mehemet Ali simjilified all this by seizing the lands of the mosques, 

 canfiscating all the private titles, and appropriating the entire land and 

 its people to his own use. Cei'tain nobles and foreign adventurers have 

 since been allowed to obtain doubtful tenures of the land, the basis of 

 which is, however, in all cases, the Khedive's will. The portions not 

 managed directly by the latter and his beneficiaries are cultivated by the 

 wretched fellahdeen, and held, properly speaking, by no tenure except 

 that which naturally attaches itself to compulsory service. 



The Turkish laws of succession, designed by Mahmoud II. and Abd-el- 

 Mejeed to put an end to the great feudatories which existed in their days, 

 impejatively command equal subdivision of land among the heirs of the 

 first degree in descending or ascending line, male and female alike ; fail- 

 ing these, in collateral line, etc. Entails were abolished ; transfers of 

 real estate were to be made by entry at a public registry, and the trans- 

 action heavily taxed ; private deeds between the parties were not to be 

 recognized. How far these regulations have been applied in Egypt it 

 would be difficult to say. 



System of Culture. 



The system of culture hardly deserves the name, and simply consists of 

 -waiting upon the annual overflow of the Nile to fill the irrigating canals, 

 and when ihe river has subsided, of maintaining the level of the canals 

 and reservoirs by pumping, baling and ladling. This last-named work 

 and " the digging of fresh canals engross the labor of the people for 

 months," writes the British consul, Mr. Stanley, in 1873. Without this 

 lincessant struggle with nature, the lands would become uucultivable, and 

 •even with it the result is doubtful ; for if the next overflow of the river 

 exceeds thirty feet in height, everything on the land is demolished and 

 swept away ; while if it falls short of eighteen feet, the harvests fail and 

 famine ensues. Of the 66 inundations between 1735 and 1801, 11, or 17 

 per cent., were high and devastating ; 16, or 24 per cent., were feeble ; 9, 

 or 14 per cent., were insufficient ; and only 30, or 45 per cent., were good. 

 The chances, then, appear to be about even, as to whether, after all his 

 labor, the Egyptian gets a harvest or not. Such a system does not admit 

 of fallows, rotation or manuring. The irrigating canals or reservoirs of 

 the large estates are supplied with water from the river by steam power, 

 the coal being imported from England ; but for the most part this work, 

 and the digging and dredging of the canals, ditches and reservoirs, are 

 done by hand, and with the rudest implements. 



Sometimes two, three and even. four s'liadoufs or baling machines ai'e 

 placed close to each other and employed to raise the water by the pitcher- 

 ful at a time, to as many reservoirs at difterent elevations, until it reaches 

 the highest. Each shadouf requives, two men to work it. "During many 

 months of the year the whole Arab population appears to be engaged in 

 bringing water from the Nile to the adjacent fields." — MacGreggor. 



