Egyptian Village Life. 325 



ascended from the cabins, casting out an intolerable stench, 

 the fuel being cakes of dried camel's dung, and added to the 

 abominations accumulated in every corner, as if traps for pesti- 

 lence had been purposely set by this degraded race. The sun 

 set behind with a lurid glare, as if in anger, and the palm-trees 

 waved like the feathers of a hearse over departed greatness, as 

 the wind sighed hot and heavy amid their branches, and told 

 of suffocating aridity in the bordering desert. 



It must be in a better spirit that we look upon the Egyp- 

 tian villager. To invest his position with " the poetry of the 

 East " would be an absurd falsity, to dwell entirely on his dis- 

 comfort would be to complete a picture of wrong and hopeless 

 misery. The evil of many taskmasters and irresponsible tyrants 

 infesting every place of government, from lowest to highest, 

 make his life one long struggle against evil influences, and 

 teach him craft and dishonesty as weapons of self-defence. 

 The chief man, or Sheikh, of a village, curries favour with the 

 local governor- of his district by aiding his extortion, or sup- 

 porting his tyranny. An appeal to a legal tribunal is useless 

 without a bribe to the judge ; and should an opponent's bribe 

 be heaviest, he wins as a matter of course. The Pasha of 

 Egypt himself is considered fair game for plunder by every 

 local pasha beneath him; nor is this to be wondered at, when 

 he is broadly accused of seizing, at his own will and pleasure, 

 land and other property, on any pretence. To covet his neigh- 

 bour's goods is but the preliminary step to taking them, accord- 

 ing to the current report of his people, sometimes under the 

 colourable pretext of purchase or exchange. But such pretexts 

 deceive nobody, and go for nothing in the estimation of those 

 most immediately concerned in them, who barely listen to such 

 transparent fallacies. 



The effect of such an evil system is everywhere visible in 

 Egypt. In a land so wondrously blest by nature, whose soil is 

 the very perfection of fertility, the European cannot but feel 

 how different its people would become under just laws, and a 

 government they could trust in, for due justice, or common 

 honesty. The germ of the glory and power of ancient Egypt 

 lies still in its soil, dormant for many ages, but not dead. The 

 people are energetic, nay, anxious to improve; the greed of 

 gain is as strong with them as with any people, but their 

 powers are restrained by their poverty, and they are still more 

 crippled by the rapacity of dishonest governors. Why should 

 they work, against nature, in a climate where rest is felicity, 

 where nature requires very little, and where industry is rewarded 

 by plundering it of its gains ? 



Wondrous is the soil of this grand old country^ scratch but 



