THE "PLAGUES OF EGYPT." 351 



at Cairo and in tlie other large towns bring up their children successfully, provided 

 they are careful to observe the ordinary laws of health. Infant mortality is even 

 less amongst them than amongst the natives, whose poverty for the most part pre- 

 vents them from bestowing the necessary care on their offspring.* Nevertheless 

 the foreign colony, in which the men are far more numerous than the women, 

 increases not by an excess of births over deaths, but only by immigration. 



At present the European element is represented in Egypt, or at least in 

 Alexandria and Cairo, by much more numerous communities than those of the 

 Turks.t In 1882 it exceeded 90,000, and will probably acquire still further 

 expansion now that the country has been placed under the protectorate of a Western 

 power. Thanks to their greater intelligence, strength, and resources, the Euro- 

 peans rather than the Turks are the true masters of the land. 



To this immigration of conquerors from the north corresponds that of the 

 Nubian Barâbra or Barbarins from the south. These Barâbra, engaged almost 

 exclusively in menial occupations, are the " Auvergnats of Cairo." + The figures of 

 Nubians carved on the ancient Egyptian monuments show that this immigration 

 has been going on for ages. There remain to be mentioned the Ghagars, those 

 Hindu tribes to whom the Spaniards and English have given the name of Gitanos 

 and Gypsies, that is, " Egyptians," and who are still found in the Nile Yalley. 

 Amongst these wandering communities the men are chiefly horse-dealers, tinkers, 

 mountebanks, and fortune-tellers. They also supply the tattooers and serpent- 

 charmers, as well as the dancing dervishes, who are usually but wrongly supposed 

 to be zealous disciples of the Prophet. Notwithstanding their Asiatic type and 

 wild penetrating glance, by which the Gypsies are everywhere distinguished, they 

 all claim to be pure Arabs, pretending to have migrated at first towards West 

 Africa, whence they returned to Egypt many centuries ago. The most " noble " 

 tribe of the Ghagars even takes the name of Barmecides, though more commonly 

 known by the appellation of Ghawâzi, whence may possibly be derived the terms 

 Gabachos and Gavaches, applied in Spain and in the south of France to the Gitanos 

 and even to all despised immigrants. Amongst the Ghawâzi are chiefly recruited 

 the dancing-girls, who are not to be confused with the more respectable class of the 

 Almeh, or singing- women. 



The " Plagues of Egypt." 



The numerous population of Egypt, which has increased threefold since the 

 beginning of the century, an-d which is progressing at the mean yearly rate of 

 about 50,000, is a sufficient proof of the salubrity of the climate.§ In Upper 

 Egypt especially, where the atmosphere is not charged with moist exhalations, 

 the climate is very healthy notwithstanding its high temperature. It is even 



* Mortality of children under ten years in 1878 : Europeans, 39-97 per cent. ; natives, 55-5-5 per cent, 

 t Europeans in Egypt, according to the census of 1882 : men, 49,054 ; women, 41,832. 

 X Edmund Ahont, " Ahm°d le Fellah." 



§ Population of E^ypt in 1800, under the French occupition : 603,700 houses, or 2,514,400 souls, 

 reckoning 8 per houcje. Averag(! mortality, 26 to 27 per l,0u0. 



