ALONG THE NILE, THROUGH EGYPT AND THE SUDAN 



403 



keeping class and are comparatively few 

 in numbers. 



THE BERBER'S PEACE IN EGYPTIAN UEE 



The Berbers, strung along the Nile 

 from Aswan to the Fourth Cataract, and 

 known also as Nubians, are quite differ- 

 ent from the rest of Egypt's peoples. 

 Though lazy and incapable, they look on 

 the Egyptians with contempt and never 

 intermarry with the fellaheen. Many 

 white men, moreover, will tell you the 

 Berbers are more honest and dependable, 

 when they do work, than are many other 

 natives. 



The small, sandy farm of the Berber, 

 with its meager fruit crop, is hardly 

 enough to support him, so he and his 

 older sons usually go to work as farm 

 laborers for a part of the year in Lower 

 Egypt. 



In Alexandria and Cairo the Berbers 

 are in demand as servants, grooms, and 

 coachmen ; and there the modern idea has 

 caught on, for we find the one-time "big 

 black Nubian slaves," who used to stand 

 naked beside Pharaoh's throne, waving 

 peacock fans to keep the flies off His 

 Idle Majesty, now organized into a labor 

 union and using the strike to force their 

 demands ! 



EGYPTIAN WOMEN HAVE COME TO THE 

 FRONT 



In fact, among the political phenomena 

 of Egypt, the strike as an economic 

 weapon is becoming quite common. And 

 another phase of the national idea, or 

 emotion, is the part Egyptian women are 

 playing. Sharing their husbands' am- 

 bitions, they helped put the Egyptian 

 nation on the map. 



Like the modern Turkish women of 

 Stamboul, many of these Egyptian 

 women, Moslem and Copt alike, are 

 versed in the literature and politics of 

 Europe, and often during the struggle 

 for independence they joined with the 

 men in signing petitions to the British 

 Government. 



The famous University of el-Azhar, 

 the chief seat of learning and center of 

 political thought of the whole Moslem 

 world, is located in Cairo. Though 

 pupils come from all over the Moham- 

 medan world, Egypt sends most of them ; 

 and, as a sign of the times, it is signifi- 



cant that many of these students are the 

 sons of the fellaheen. To a certain ex- 

 tent it was these students who, returning 

 to the rural regions, spread the new 

 doctrines of freedom and equality learned 

 at the university, and helped to win inde- 

 pendence. 



The Egyptian native press, too, is in- 

 fluential ; one paper printed at Cairo has 

 a circulation of about 20,000 copies. Egyp- 

 tians who cannot read gather in the 

 bazaars in the evening to hear the papers 

 read aloud by students. In all towns 

 the mosques are sources of propaganda 

 and political teaching, and the Copts, 

 though Christians, are, oddly enough, al- 

 lowed to speak on political subjects at the 

 mosques. 



THE FUTURE OP THE SUDAN 



The economic and political future of 

 the Sudan is closely linked up with that 

 of Egypt. 



Since that day in January, 1885, when 

 the mad men of the Mahdi killed General 

 Gordon with their spears, many a stirring 

 scene in the drama of civilization has been 

 staged in the Sudan. Like Bagdad, Af- 

 ghanistan, and the Forbidden City, the 

 Sudan is one of those picturesque places 

 whence adventure and romance seem al- 

 ways to spring. 



Because of our own growing cotton 

 shortage, the Sudan holds new interest 

 for us, as it is called the greatest potential 

 cotton land in the British Empire. In 

 area it covers about a million square miles. 

 No count has ever been made of its peo- 

 ple, but they are estimated at three and a 

 half million. A few British officials 

 (about one to every 10,000 square miles), 

 with the help of minor Sudan and Egyp- 

 tian assistants, administer the govern- 

 ment. 



A THINEY PEOPLED EAND' OP AMAZING 

 DISTANCES 



A sort of Arab mixture inhabits the 

 north of the Sudan, and in the south are 

 the blacks. In the east you find your old 

 friend the "Fuzzy-Wuzzy." On the 

 whole, it is a thinly peopled land of amaz- 

 ing distances. You can go south from the 

 Egyptian frontier six hundred miles by 

 rail before you get to Khartum. From 

 there south you can go another thousand 

 miles on a flat-bottomed, paddle-wheel 



