868 



EGYPT. 



the customs are therefore different, in the different classes. The Arabs are cheerful, quiet, 

 and have many good quahties. The Jews are fihhy and avaricious. They, with the Copts, 

 are generally merchants and officers of the customs. The Bedouins, or pastoral Arabs, are 

 warlike and free, living by plunder, as much as by industry. The inhabitants of the cities are 

 indolent and sensual. They have little employment, and their amusements are of a depraving 

 kind. Women are veiled and secluded, as in all oriental countries, but they have still much 

 freedom. Beauty is esteemed by weight, as in many Mahometan countries. The modern 

 Egyptians are so inert, that they have hardly a national character. They have many things in 

 common with the mass of orientals. The Copts are dexterous and adroit, and receive suffi- 

 cient education for clerks and accountants, and they generally fill these offices. As in other 

 Mahometan countries, the Christian remarks various trifling practices, totally at variance with 

 those to which he has been accustomed. He will remark, that the beard is worn, and the hair 

 shaven ; that the men wear petticoats and trowsers, and the women trowsers. Fingers supply 

 the place of forks, a cushion is used instead of a chair, and a tray, instead of a table, is set 

 upon the floor. To inquire for the health of the ladies of a family, is a mortal affront to the 

 master, and to praise his children, is to be suspected of fascination, and the " evil eye." Fe- 

 males hide their faces, and display their bosoms. Many things seem to be studiously adhered 

 to, because they are at variance with European usage. The morality and religion differ no 

 less than the manners ; and an Englishman, says Madden, calls oriental courage, ferocity ; re- 

 ligion, fanaticism ; wisdom, craft ; policy, perfidy ; philosophy, taciturnity ; dignity, arro- 

 gance ; sentiment, sensuality. On the other hand, a Mahometan considers European morality 

 to be infidelity ; science, witchcraft ; precaution, impiety ; peacefulness, imbecility, &c. 



21. Jlmusements. In Cairo, the inhabitants delight in the exhibitions of wrestlers, rope- 

 dancers, &c. Swimming is a common amusement, and it is common to see a party of youths, 

 swimming far into the Nile, to visit a distant village. Sometimes they float downwards, on 

 their backs, holding a pipe in their mouth. The exhibitions of the serpent-charmers are ter- 

 rific. They handle the serpents with perfect familiarity, and are seldom bitten, or have de- 

 prived the reptiles of the power to do harm. The dancing women are numerous. They per- 

 form in public, and also in the harems. Their exhibitions conform to the state of moral senti- 

 ment, and are, of course, such as would not be tolerated in Europe. 



22. Education. Among other means of raising the character of the people, the present ruler 

 has established a college at Boulak, near Cairo, which, several years since, had 700 students. 

 Various books were translated for the use of the institution, and instruction given in the French 

 and Italian languages. The general mass of the people, however, are sunk in ignorance. The 

 arts are in a state equally low. 



23. Religion. The general religion is the Mahometan. The Copts, however, profess 

 Christianity, though they practise circumcision. They have auricular confession. Marriages 

 are generally contracted by the intervention of friends, and frequently the parties do not see 

 each other till the ceremony. The wedding is attended with rejoicings. The females are 

 often married at 15, and at an earlier age, and are past their prime soon after 20. 



24. Government and Laws. Egypt is an independent and absolute government, under the 

 rule of a prince, who, at present, styles himself a Pacha. He has passed many good and use- 

 ful laws, but the country is, nevertheless, much depressed. Various losses have compelled 

 him to raise a revenue from the small gains of the industrious, and the Fellahs receive so little 

 of the crops, that they would cease to cultivate the earth, unless compelled to plant and to sell 

 the produce to the Pacha. Of course, he sets the price ; and, moreover, makes a part of the 

 payment in his own merchandise. He has mistaken the resources of the country, and the dis- 

 position of the people, in establishing his immense manufactories of cotton. Agriculture is the 

 true wealth of Egypt, and the manufactures have impoverished the country. To Egypt be- 

 long, beside the country of Egypt proper, part of Nubia and Nigritia ; Syria, and part of Arabia, 

 in Asia ; and Candia, in the Mediterranean. These possessions contain about 500,000 square 

 miles, and 5,000,000 inhabitants. 



25. Antiquities. Egypt is to be seen in the past, more than in the present ; in the vast and 

 wonderful masses, shaped by labor and art into structures, that defy the power of time. Ev- 

 erything raised by the ancient Egyptians, seemed to be designed for the latest posterity ; all 

 the designs were vast, all " the conceptions are those of men a hundred feet high." The me 

 chanical labors and monuments of the ancient Egyptians, are beyond not only the imitation, 

 but the conception, of modern times. The traveler, landing at Alexandria, will see, among 



