ALONG THE NILE, THROUGH EGYPT AND THE SUDAN 



401 



predetermined by Allah, and is it not a 

 sin to fight the will of Allah? 



Should an enemy with the "evil eye" 

 turn his glance upon one's camel, the 

 camel will go lame, of course ; what's the 

 good of worrying? Kismet! 



FOUR CHILDREN IN EVERY HUNDRED ARE 

 BUND 



Four children of every hundred in 

 Egypt are blind in one eye, a horrified 

 scientist estimates, simply because fatal- 

 istic parents sought no timely remedies. 

 Infant mortality reaches 27 per cent. 



Any precise definition of Egyptian 

 racial groups is impossible. "Who is 

 an Egyptian?" is an ethnological enigma 

 handed down from Pharaoh to Pasha. 

 Even the official Egyptian census-taker 

 has divided the Egyptians, as well as he 

 could, into, first, natives ; second, Syrians 

 and Armenians ; third, semi-sedentary 

 Bedouins — that hybrid between fellah and 

 Bedouin, who has one foot on the culti- 

 vated land of the Nile Valley and the 

 other on the desert; and, fourth, nomad 

 Bedouins, who are Bedouins pure and 

 simple. 



There are many other foreign elements 

 in Egypt besides the English. Alexan- 

 dria, for example, is said to be as cos- 

 mopolitan to-day as it was 2,000 years 

 ago. Greeks were to be found there in 

 great numbers under the Ptolemies, and 

 to-day they permeate every branch of 

 commerce. Italians are encountered in all 

 walks of life. More than a hundred years 

 ago French civilization was implanted 

 along the Nile, and French is still the 

 most widely spoken foreign tongue. 



The Turks, who have lived in the coun- 

 try five or six centuries, still constitute 

 the aristocracy of Egyptian society; but 

 till recently, at least, they intermarried 

 little with the Egyptians. Syrians, as 

 money-lenders, pawn-brokers, and mer- 

 chants, swarm in all the towns and trad- 

 ing centers. 



THE COPTS, MOST NUMEROUS OF 

 CHRISTIAN GROUPS 



Of the three Christian groups — Ar- 

 menians, Syrians, and Copts — the last 

 named are by far the most numerous, 

 nearly 700,000, according to the last 

 census. 



Though Christian in name for 1.500 

 years, as Lane says, the modern Copt 

 has become in manners, language, and 

 spirit a Moslem. Coptic women are al- 

 most as secluded as Moslems. Their 

 children are generally circumcised, and 

 the Coptic marriage and funeral cere- 

 monies are very similar to those of the 

 Moslems. 



In his great work, "Modern Egyp- 

 tians," Lane sketches the Copt as a 

 sullen, bigoted, avaricious, and dissem- 

 bling character. Sir John Bowring is less 

 harsh. Although the Turks, he says, 

 have always considered the Copts "the 

 pariahs of the Egyptian people, yet they 

 are an amiable, pacific, and intelligent 

 race. They are to the counting-house 

 and pen what the fellah is to the field 

 and plow." 



Cromer compromises by saying that the 

 chief difference between the Copt and 

 the Moslem is that the former is an 

 Egyptian who worships in a Christian 

 church, and the latter is an Egyptian who 

 worships in a Mohammedan mosque. He 

 adds that the Copt has a more accurate 

 habit of thought than the Moslem, and, 

 therefore, makes a better bookkeeper, 

 surveyor, or engineer. Many Copts have 

 been educated in the American missionary 

 schools of Egypt. The late Minister of 

 Finance, Yussuf Wahba Pasha, belonged 

 to this group. 



THE SYRIAN A POWER IN EGYPTIAN 

 PI NANCE 



The Syrian — bland, shrewd, and cos- 

 mopolitan — is to Egypt what the inter- 

 national Jew is to Europe — a power in 

 finance, a silent partner in politics. 



Cromer says: "Whether judged from 

 a moral, social, or intellectual point of 

 view, the Syrian stands on a distinctly 

 high level. He is rarely corrupt. There 

 are many gradations of Syrian society. 

 A high-class Syrian is an accomplished 

 gentleman. ... It may be said with 

 truth that he is really civilized. In this 

 respect he is probably superior not only 

 to the Copt, but also to the Europeanized 

 Egyptian, who is too often but a mere 

 mimic." 



Though certain Armenians of distinc- 

 tion, like Minister Tigraine Pasha, have 

 held high offices in Egypt, they are repre- 

 sented along the Nile mostly by the shop- 



