344 NORTH-EAST AFRICA. 



suit ever reaches the governor's or judge's ears at all, and this favour is only to be 

 obtained by hard cash, so that unless the peasant has enough money about him to 

 bribe the Coptic intermediary he never wins audience of the judge himself at all. 

 Tlie only plan is to ' square ' the scribe, and thus you obtain, not necessarily 

 justice, but your suit. These Coptic scribes arc found in every town, and at some 

 places, such as Girgey, a large proportion of the population is Coptic. The black 

 turban and kaftan would always distinguish them, but a glance at their face is 

 generally enough. It is difficult to say exactly in what they differ in appearance 

 from Mohammedans, but one is seldom wrong in identifying them. They constitute 

 the lower official class, and are decidedly more corrupt and voracious than the 

 Tui'kish governors themselves. There is an exceedingly good understanding 

 established between the two orders of thieves, so far resembling that wliich exists 

 between a local justice of the peace and the clerk of the justices, that it is really 

 the clerk who knows and administers the law, while the great man takes the credit 

 of it. Probably any other official class would prove as venal as the Coptic scribes 

 — indeed the experiment has been tried with native Muslims without improving 

 matters — but tlicrc can be no doubt that so long as our friend Girges or Hanna 

 holds the clerkly inkstand and portfolio there will be no justice in the land." * 



The Fellahtn. 



The fellahin, or peasantry, belong, like the Copts, to the indigenous race, more 

 or less modified by crossings. Tliose living away from the great cities of Cairo and 

 Alexandria call themselves Aulad-Masr, that is to say, " Children of Masr," or 

 " I^^gyptians." Like their ancestors, both Copts and fellahin are in general of 

 mean height, 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 7 inches, with pliant body, straight and 

 strong limbs. The head is of a fine oval shape, the forehead broad, the nose regular 

 and rounded at the tip, the nostrils dilated, the lips full but finely designed, the 

 eyes large, black, and soft, with the lids slightly raised outwardly. Most of the 

 children are of sickly constitution and sullen temperament, with dull eyes, wan 

 complexion, and full paunch. But such as escape the ravages of endemics grow 

 up handsome and robust figures. The stranger wonders how such fine young men 

 and women could have developed in the wretched hovels of these villages. Men are 

 frequently met of really grand forms, recalling the characteristics of the sphinx, 

 and most of the young women are endowed with an agreeable figure, a graceful and 

 haughty carriage. There is no more pleasant sight than that of a young mother 

 carrying her naked babe astride across one shoulder, as is their habit. 



In the rural districts the women do not veil themselves so closely as in the 

 towns. JSTearlj^ all paint the lips a deep bhio, and tattoo a floral device on the chin. 

 Some even decorate the brow and other parts of the body in the same way. All but 

 the abjectly poor also wear diadems and necklaces of true or false pearls, coins, or 

 gilt discs, the whole family fortune being tlius tit times lavished on them. The 

 fellah has, so to say, no otlier want except tliis superfluous wealth, which he 



* "Social Lil'o in Egypt," pp. ()2-3. 



