3S0 
EGYPT. 
from others, afford them fupplies of money either for ava¬ 
rice or debauchery. Some of them, admitted to peculiar 
favour by the beys, are elefted kiachefs, and afterwards 
beys: but this preferment generally arifes from political 
adherence to fome powerful leader. They are charadteridi- 
cally gay, thoughtlefs, and improvident; fond of (how, and 
unprincipled in their means of acquiring it. They feldom 
marry, which accounts for the infamous habit to which 
they are addidted. It is alfo extremely remarkable that 
thofe few who do marry, feldom have children. As the 
Ion even of a bey is not honoured with any particular con- 
(ideration, the women perhaps procure abortions. How¬ 
ever this be, of eighteen beys whofe hiftory I particularly 
knew, only two of them had any children. The only 
fiudy of the mamalukes is to be hardy, capable of every 
fatigue, of undaunted courage, of eminent {kill in horfe- 
manfhip, and of unrivalled dexterity in the ufe of the 
i'abre. Their horfes are of the fined Arabian breeds, and 
are often purchafed at three or four purfes, 150I. to 200!. 
fterling. The gratitude of tire young pieton is equal to 
the favour of their mailers, whom they never quit in the 
hour of danger.” The young pieton , or mamaiuke who 
attends on foot, is attired very light : his turban is a 
fhawl ; his veil or jacket is of fine cloth, of various co¬ 
lours, but mod commonly yellow or purple, fometimes 
ftriped; his pantaloons are of an enormous fize ; his buf- 
kins are of yellow leather, and his fandals or dippers are 
of the fame colour. He is alfo equipped with a diawl, 
by way of girdle, a fabre, a dagger, a pair of pidols, and 
on the left fide he ufually carries a kind of horn, which 
contains relics, talifmans, and oil for wounds. The figure 
of a young Georgian foot mamaiuke is exhibited in the 
fame engraving, and a foldier of the Bedouin Arabs,, with 
his firelock and cartouch-box. Thefe are the individuals 
which form the mamaiuke armies. 
The race of people next in confideration in modern 
Egypt, are the Greeks, who mud be claffed among the, 
foreigners by whom focieties diftindr from thofe of the 
indigenous inhabitants are formed. The fine delineations 
of their form, their arch and penetrating eyes, and the 
delicacy and flexibility of their traits, bring to remem¬ 
brance all that the imagination has figured relative to 
their ancedors, and all that their monuments have tranf- 
rnitted to us to atted their elegance and their tade. The 
degraded date to which they have been reduced, through 
a dread which the fuperiority of their intellectual facul¬ 
ties dill infpires, has rendered many of them deceitful 
and treacherous. Were they, however, left to themfelves, 
they would perhaps become in a little time what they 
formerly were, fubtie and ambitious. 
Next come the Jevis, who arc in Egypt what they are 
every where;—hated, without being dreaded; defpifed 
and perfecuted inceffantly, without ever being expelled ; 
plundering condantly without being very rich; and ren¬ 
dering themfelves ufeful to all the world, at the fame 
time that their only incentive is felf-intered. We cannot 
decide whether it is owing to their being nearer to their 
own country that their phylical character is better pre- 
ferved here than elfewhere : but it is a fa£t which drikes 
the obferver very forcibly. Thofe among them who are 
ugly refemble our Jews; while the handfome ones, and 
more particularly thofe who are young, bear a drong re- 
femblancc, in point of character, to the interefting figures 
pourtrayed by the bed painters of the difciples of our 
Saviour. In the-great cities of Egypt the Jews contend 
with the Copts for the places in the cudom-houfes, devv- 
ardfhips of edates, and, in general, for whatever requires 
calculation, and fupplies the means of amafling and con- 
cealing a fortune well or ill acquired, but which is alike 
expofed to the rapacity of the kiachefs, fiieiks, and beys. 
The characleridic traits of another race of men, who 
are very numerous, are ilrongly delineated. Thefe are 
the Barabras, or people from the upper countries, inha¬ 
bitants of Nubia, and of the frontiers of Abyflinia. In 
thefe fervid climates nature has, in an economical mood, 
denied them every fuperfluity. They have neither field 
nor fat, but Amply nerves, mufcles, and tendons, of 
greater eladicity than vigour. They perform by adfivity 
and addrefs what others effedt by firength. It would 
feem as if the barrennefs of their foil had exhauded the 
fmall portion of fubdance which nature has bedowed on 
them. Their (kin is of a (hining black, exadtly fimilar 
to that of antique bronzes ; yet they have not the fmalled 
refemblance to the negroes of the wedern parts of Africa. 
Their eyes are deep fet and fparkling, with the brows 
hanging over; the nofe pointed ; the nodrils large; the 
mouth wide; the lips of moderate dimendons; and the 
hair and beard in fmall quantity, and hanging in little 
locks. Being wrinkled betimes, and retaining their agi¬ 
lity till the lad, the only indication of old age among 
them is the whitenefs of the beard, every part of the 
body remaining flender and mufcular as in their youth. 
Their phydognotny is cheerful ; and they are lively and 
well difpofed. They are mod commonly employed in 
fubordinate offices of trud, to guard the magazines, tim¬ 
ber-yards, and other property of the merchants. They 
are clad in a piece of white woollen cloth, gain but little, 
and fubfid on alrriod nothing. They are faithful to their 
maders, to whom they are drongly attached. During the 
pilgrimage of Mecca, all the nations which are ranged un¬ 
der the denomination of Maugrabians, or wedern people, 
pafs through Egypt, and occadonally mix witli and ob¬ 
tain permanent fettlements among the other inhabitants 
of the country. 
But the mod numerous, as well as the mod fingular, of 
the inhabitants of modern Egypt, are the Arabs. With¬ 
out polfefling an influence proportioned to their numbers, 
they feem to be placed there to fupply the great depopu¬ 
lation of the country, to cultivate the lands, to tend the 
flocks, or to be themfelves in the degraded date of ani¬ 
mals. They are, however, lively, and have a penetrating 
phyfiognomy. Their eyes, which are funk in and over¬ 
arched, are replete with vivacity and character; all their 
proportions are angular; their beard is fhort, and hang¬ 
ing in filaments ; their lips thin and open, difplaying fine 
teeth ; their arms are fleftiy ; and in other refpedts they 
are more adtive than handfome, and more mufcular than 
well fhaped. Thefe charadteridic traits are mod common 
in the fmall villages and folitary habitations, and more 
particularly among the inhabitants of the defert^ Three 
claffes of thefe people, altogether different .from each 
other, are, however, to be didinguidied. Fird, the Arab 
diepherd, who feems to belong to the original dock, and 
who mod refembles the above defeription. Next, the 
Bedouin Arab, on whom a n>ore exalted independence, 
and the date of warfare in which he lives, have bedowed 
a character of favage ferocity, leannefs, and poverty. 
Ladly, the Arab cultivator, the mod civilized, the mod 
corrupted, the mod degraded, inconfequence of the date 
of bondage in which he is held, and the mod varied in 
perfon and in character; as may, be remarked in moil of 
the villages ; in the fellahs or peafants, who are the chief 
labourers in hutbandry; in thofe of the boufackirs or 
beggars; and, finally, in thofe of the artifans, who con- 
fiitute tlie mod abjedt clafs. Thefe two claffes of Be¬ 
douins and artifans or labourers, are fprung from the 
preceding one, that of the Arab fhepherds. 
On invedigating the opprefled condition of the Fellahs, 
it is impoffible to urge as fo many reproaches againd thefe 
cultivators of the land, that they are fallen, midniftful, 
avaricious, improvident, and carelefs about the future, 
when it is confidered that, independently of the exadlions 
of the proprietor of the land w hich they till, and thofe 
of the covetous flieik and bey, a wandering enemy in 
arms, the Bedouin, watches unceafingly the favourable 
opportunity to fnatch from him whatever fuperfluities he 
may venture to difplay. The money which lie can hide, 
and which is a reprefentative of every enjoyment, is 
therefore all that he can truly confider as belonging to 
him. Accordingly the art of burying it in the earth is 
his 
