446 NORTH-EAST AFRICA. 



obedience to tlie orders of the authorities. Nevertheless the recent years of civil 

 war and foreign invasion have given rise to many local disturbances. Bands of 

 marauders have made their appearance in the plains of the delta ; and for the first 

 time for many generations the unwonted spectacle has been witnessed of villages 

 attacked and plundered by brigands. 



The number of paid functionaries is estimated at no less than 21,000, amongst 

 whom as many as 1,280 were Europeans of all nations in the year 1882. But 

 besides these there are numerous rural dignitaries, whose salaries are drawn directly 

 from the products of the imposts. The large landed proprietors are the true masters 

 of the villages standing on their estates. Thus it may happen that a single person 

 may be at once the omdeh of a whole district ; that is to say, the official whose will 

 is absolute in all matters connected with the levying of taxes, and with the corvée 

 or forced labour service required for the maintenance of the irrigation works. In 

 the same way in the teftish belonging to the domains of the Khedive and the mem- 

 bers of his family, for whom are now substituted the employés of the European 

 bankers, the administration of affairs is in the hands of the representatives of the 

 territorial lord. 



In other villages the functions of mayor are exercised by the sheikh- el-beled, or 

 " district chiefs," each of whom has jurisdiction over a group of families. Some 

 villages have but one, others several, and even as many as twenty of these rural 

 headmen. In theory they are elected by the community ; but as a rule their 

 authority is transmitted from father to eldest son, or else within the same family 

 circle by seniority from father to brother, or from father to son or nephew. In 

 certain remote districts, and especially in the Berari of the delta, the sheikh-el- 

 beled are absolute masters — so many " petty kings," against whose decisions there 

 is no appeal. 



