The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-02
ONTHE WAYT0 UPPER EGYPT
Hints as to Objectionable Features of
Some of the Old Religions.
The Modern Copts Descendants of the Ancient
Egyptians-American Missions on the
N%ile-Piazzi Smiths Iumbuggery.
Correspondence Of the indianapolis Journal.

WHICH i suspended UeCduSb OF the many
fetes connected with the inauguration of the
Sater works at Naples, and because of the erup-
siOH Of Mount Fesuvius. Although my letter is
aaiSd from old Memphis. yet write it from my
notes, spread before me in a little rustic village
IN a quiet nook of the Apennines, where. In the
Gay time, / hear the merry voice of the itahan
peasants, and at night,
cit is the honr when from the boughs
The nigLtingale's high note is heard
Byron said that in his little read ''Parisina,"
and it is a pretty accurate description of the
tine and the sound. But neither Byron nor
nightingale must now WOO me from Egypt.
In the le tier sent to the Journal last April, I
carried my readers as far as the railway station
in Boolah. a little east of Cairo. and within a few
mikes of the great pyramids of Gizeh. and I was
JDs4 setting out for Upper Egypt.
The whir of a railroad and the scream of a
losemotive are the same In every country, but
ths road bed in the greater part of Egypt-or
rather the substructure on which the rails rest,
is so different from any in the United States
thss it would delight your railroad "colyume"
editor to investigate it, and make a note" OF
IT The very nature of the country-that
is, the sand in the desert portion.
and the unstable earth in the fertile portion
haFo brought into play an iron sleeper, which
was invented for Egypt, and though it may be
ia Sse elsewhere l have never seen it out of the
land of the Pharaohs. Instead of a beam of
wood it is the regular old fashion sugar kettle of
my boyhood days, turned upside down, like this
-, only there are iron protuberances on either
side Of the apex for fastening securely the rails.
] should say that it has the appearance of being
about three-fourths of q bushel in size. Its
usefulness and its economy, when you count its
durability, can be taken in at a glance. When
wooden s~leepers are used up they are good for
nething but for fire wood; and are very poor fuel
n: 2hat, but the ola iron of these inverted kettle
saae pers sell at a good price in the foundries in
Cairo and Alexandria.
On the way we can investigate our fellow
passengers. There are two Indianians, an ex-
British officer from India, and All attache to the
French Consulate, general at Cairo. The Indian
iAns want TO reach Khartoum; the English ex-
O1icer, who, while a member of the Episcopal
church, holds Baptist views, and does a good
deal Of open air preaching at his home in Wales,
which American Christian and independent way
of doing troubles his rector-for our ex%- officer
is not only a man of wealth. but is an English
t1rguire," and hence is looked upon as the lead
ing man in his neighborhood. is a man of
great Intelligence, a modest man withal, and the
royerent and earnest manner in which he speaks
OF religion is truly admirable. Religion is a great
~leYeier, and this man, born to wealth and place.
takes his place with true humility at the foot of
the cross. One of our party is a pronounced
AEZ ~ I1- n1y rr1yl@ 49, on a. 2&
have never seen him so respectful on the ques-
ton of religion as when listening to this earnest,
modest professor of Christianity. Our ex officer
- On his way to Wady halfd to see some of his
odd companions in arms who were with him in
India. Suffice to say, in two days after our
leaving Cairo we learned of the downfall of
KhartOum and the death Of Gordon, and we
were none of us permitted to go beyond Assouan.
the place famous in history as Syene. or the
granite quarries whence came the red granite
out of which all the Egyptian obelisks were
hswn. The word 'syenite" is derived from
Syene. One French fellow passenger was on
his way to Aekmin, or m on the Nile.
the ancient Panopolis of the Greek period Of
Egypt, where that animal old god, and that old
sso6 animal. was worshiped under the grossest
PhAlic form. 1t must be admitted that there is
= great deal of nonsense in many writers who
rSIseak of the beauty of the Greek and Egyptian
mythology and worship. There is not one of
Eheir gods but that would be indicted by any
grand jury in the most corrupt community on
the remotest borders of the United States.
Tbese old gods, by the accounts written by their
worshipers. were guilty of every crime. The
worship of Pan was peculiarly dirty. And vet
he IS only the Grecian type of the older Egyptian
Osiris, who was adored as "Osiris generator
dissemination of feeundity, father of the child
dren Of the sun"
Well, it was to the modern Achmene, the
snrsent Panopolis, that our Frenchman was
going ia order that he might fetch up with O
round turn the Copt who had been acting at
A. as French consular agent. and who had not
Earnei over certain monies he had received from
Frenchmen. This Copt Coptos, Goptos, Gyptos.
Egyptianl is, like all mis- name. adeseendant of the
ancient Egyptians. The Copts are nominaliy
Christians, and the so-cailed Christianity of the
AbySsinians is Coptic, and the Copt patriarch at
CAIRO is also the Primate of Abyssinia. All
sbrough Egypt the Copts and the Greeks are the
xnrA who do the chief business of the country.
Tha HohatNmedanS are. as a general thing. iliit-
crate, and the COpts are the scriveners. book keep
eS and accountants for the Arabs. The Copts, like
IKE Jews. practice circumcision. They also used
the knife in a different way, for, previous to the
abolition of the slave trade, only II few years
age. the Copt priests at Assiout were the persons
always employed, and at a good salary, too, to
take the poor slave boys brought with the cara
waos from the Soudan and prepare them for
future guardians in the harems of Cairo. Alex
aAalria, Damascus. smyrna and COnstantinople.
Ia pIain words. moOlaks or priests
would not be guilty of unmanning the males of
our race as if they were horses or swine.
Vet these Copts have much about them that
arrests our attention. They are, as / said, the
true descendants of the ancient Egyptians, and
they have great shrewdness and ability. Like
The Jews. they have been kept under until
within this century, when worldly wise old
MOhMmet Ali saw in them the men who could be
of service to the state. Their religion is corrupt
Christianity. and their priests who conduct the
services are not learned men. but few of them
beSng able to understand the ancient Copt
languaee, which is a dead tongue. like the Latin.
only more So" for no Roman Catholic priest
exists but who can atleast translate Latin, while
unasy of them are adept scholars in that Ian.
gaAse. In all Egypt the Copts form a popula-
ton of 300. 600. and it is an interesting fact that
tAey mostly iuhabit the cities and towns that
were the seats of power in the days of their
ancestors. like Thebes, Esneh, Dendera, GlrZeh,
AsziOut Tor Siout) and Achmene.
These ancient people / look upon as greatly
tie hone of E,ynt althongh they have much