Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-04-05

StliOm-The Fe1Iah at Home
aComparisOR between tlHe Egypt
ian ard Turkish Rajnh-Inde-
pendent COnduet OF the VlcerOy
= Towards The SnItan French
InIr1Sue-A6airsi i'm Crete, sc.
~ ALEXANDRIA, Feb. %, 1867.
No nation in the world has its represent
atives scattered so widely abroad as the
tAmeriean. Wherever there is anything,
Tor ought to be anything to be seen, one
| will see the genial good natured face of an
American. Here in Alexandria they may
be seen daily preparing for their trip up
the muddy Nile. The Pyramids, Memphis,
or the "Silent City" Thebes and other
banks of the river form the attractions
Fhich draw the young American away
from the pursuit of business in his own
happy land, to. gaze with admiration and
wonder on those grand monuments of the
glorious past .,.ur
The consurs office is besieged daily by
oar young countrymen for the purpose of
exchanging ''good morning, sir;' ''happy
| to make your acquaintance" to converse on
the topics of the day, to argue about the
! political affairs of America, to obtain all
the necessary information for his intended
trip up the great river, to seek advice from
one better acquainted with the manners
and customs of the country, or perhaps
merely to shake hands. Having done
which he loiters around the city of Alex
antlrla, his mind at ease, careless of the NOR
row, as If he had returned once more to
sallies and impulses of childhood. He can
be seen around the palace OF the VicerOy,
wonder and admiration depicted on his fea-
lytures, or taking a ride on donkey, follow
| ed by a f1eetfooteds Arab youth on foot, who
generally has one hand grasping the dom
keys tail while with the other he pricks
l0l0 Oh
and yelling atthe top of his voice. The
American may be seen also wandering an
concernedly through the baZaars, where he
| is jostled rudely by the wild Arab, the Copt,
kthe Turk, ,Sthe Moor and the woolly headed
Ethiopian, but our countrymen take it all
IloWing some .flarE-eyed angel in petticOats,
who reminds him of peri of Paradise" /"
while behind,him scowls the black eunuch,
| laying his hand on his scimetar and other
kthreateniDgi demonstrations, neither of
which is understood by our young country
man, who gazes with undisgnised wonder
at the beautiful features of the Oriental
ldamsel. Or, perhaps, he may. be seen
ldreamily looking down at the muddy. wa
ters of old Nile, seeing in his minds eye
| Moses, the little infant ia the ark of bull
rushes, and seeing the daughter of PharOah
finding the lovely boy, innoeently smiling
at the daughter of the enemy of his race,
other passes la silent review before him.
holding him entranced at the stupendous
and miraculous deeds performed ON this
river. until with deep sigh, he turns around
to look at the imodern city of Alexandria,
and finds, alas! /! twas but dream.
The Viceroy of Egypt intends to send to
the Exposition of Paris, among other speci-
mems of Egyptian art, the model of a fel-
| flah's house, with building for dromeda-
ries, &c. / hope / shall not be forestall-
ing the interest our people may take in
studying the Nile peasant in the Champ de
Mars by penning for the readers of the
Herald a briet sketch of the home and hab-
its of this modern Egyptian in advance.
! The style of architecture OF a fellah's
s'house'' is almost invariably the same, its
size varying from three to six metres square,
1 and in height little more than metre.
1 The sides of this hut are composed of marsh
reeds, plastered with cows dung, the top
covering being a fat earthen roof; hole
la the reeds of about ten centimetres diam
eter represents window, and there is a
larger aperture typical of door by which
the fellah enters on all fours. In this un-
partitioned wigwam sleeps the fellah, his
wife Cor wives) and children, and frequently
his children's husbands or wives and their
children. Here also about half a dozen
fowls and probably two or three goats
nightly seek shelter. The furniture is quite
in keeping with the house. Name the hal
lGh5 "a kind of saucepan), three or four
wooden spoons, straw mat, a primitive
Egyptian handmill used by the women in
grinding Indian corn for food the gulLeIs,
or earthen drinking vase, and a larger one
for carrying water, as in the days of Re-
becca; add to these a rude cushion, quilt
and aloOking-g the size of ones hand
and you have as f1attering an inventory of
the household goods and effects of an
Egyptian villager as any knight of the
hammer could present to the public, the
value of the whole being from ten to twelve
| francs, or two dollars and fifty cents.
It is not by inadVertence that the coffee
roasting, grinding and boiling apparatus are
absent from this list; for the luxury of a
leup of coffee is not among the home COM
| forts Of the Vieeroy's model peasant. The
] hat, or night covering, is the only article
/ approaching bed furniture which the fellah
possesses, and has for its basis cotton sewn
and patched over with coarse rags, the
whole forming an accumulation OF filth
and vermin. hence the common epithet,
'Washeek Sahil la haf," (your face is as foul
as a fellah's quiIt.) Towels and soap are
also, OF course, unknown luXuries to the
felIah, whose costume entirely aceords with
his other domestic equipments-his scanty
and only covering being coarse shirt gen
orally ragged, aud never washed, except by
immersion now and then in the river Nile
On such occasions the owner of the gar
ment IepOses in state of nature On the
banks of the river while the shirt is dry
ing.
Ismail Pacha's model subject, to be true
to real life, should appear at the Paris Ex-
hibitiOn in his native costume. If he does
even Partisan naodistes will, venture tC
think, pronounce the effect little too neal
the primitive fig leaf of mother Eve.
There are, need hardly tell you, no such
things as village schools, and the tellah has
| inStFnptinn
and, consequently, possesses no knowledge
whatever beyond the animal instincts of q
savage, the sleeping floor Of'whOse hut may
be taken as fairly typical of his morality.
, Since the days when Pharoah and hi!
, taskmasters ruled over Egypt, the bonds
man or fellah has in fact undergone little Of
no change, and none for the better; and ye
he is to be the constituent element, the basi:
of the new Constitutional Government,
! which is about to be established here, will
view to be acclimatized in Gambia, anC
, subsequently transplanted to the European
2 continent, to fructify and spread even per
/ haps to the coveted shores of the Bos
Z phOrus.
We all know the legend of mission I'm
r dertaken by a certain gentleman in black
r who, with all his crafty plausibility ant
8 golden promises, failed in executing hi
I design at the very moment when ne be
e lieved his object accomplished, namely, tn
accidental protrusion of his tail at the mo
: ment; and one cannot help thinking tina
e the less Ismail Pacha Obtrudes his fellah ol
: the notice of civilized Europe and enlight
s ened America, the greater will be his pres
r tige i'm the East, and what may be of NOR
i Importance to him, his credit in the West
{ Turkey may be poor and her peasan
D rejahs poverty stricken, still the condition
E. of a Turkish village is beyond any compar
e ison better than that of the Egyptian frllah
t cen. 1t is therefore to be hoped in tn
: cause of humanity. as well as in the inter
r est of free commercial enterprise, that tn
: plague of the courbGch and bdkal system