Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1889-09-13
LIFE In EGYPT.
THE SAD CONDITION OF THE
TAXRIDDEN FELLAHS.
A Nation of Peasants Who Dwell in
Squalid Mud Houses Their
Wretched Food and
Poor Apparel.

writes Frank G. Carpenter. They are
known as ''fellahs." They are the tillers
sf the soil and they are the people who
do the work, and make the money which
pays the immense yearly debt of Egypt.
These 'fcllahs" are the ancient Egyp-
tians. They have been oppressed through
out the ages until they have no spirit left
in them, and they are happy if they can
get enough to keep themselves alive. You
see their mud villages everywhere, and
they slave from morning until night in
the fields. Their houses are rarely more
than ten feet high, and often not more
than eight feet square. In an Egyptian
village the houses are built close together.
There are no pavements, gas lamps nor
modern improvements OF any kind. The
furniture of each house consists of few
mats, sheep skin, a copper kettle and
some earthenware pots. The bed of the
family is ledge of mud built in the side
of the room. There are no windows, and
the cooking is usually done out of doors
in a little earthen pot-like stove.
The fuel is of dried COW, camel or
buffalo manure, and the food of the fam
lily is a mixture of sorghum seed, millet
and beans ground up into flour and
baked into sort of big, round, fiat
cake A large part of the food of the fel-
laheen consists of greens, and watched
one eating IA turnip yesterday. He began
at the tip of the root and ate the raw, in
digestible vegetable to the very end of
the green, leaving not visage of it. |
have seen them eating clover and | am
told that they seldom have any meat. Out
of the milk of The buffalo and COW they
make sort of curd like cheese, which
is extensively used. They use no knives,
forks nor spoons, and at supper they have,
in addition to their vegetables, sauce of
onions and butter, into which they dip
pieces of bread and eat it.
These Egyptian peasants wear little or
no clothing while working in the fields,
and here in Cairo the apparel of the men
consists of long blue gown which comes
below the knees and brown skull cap
of wool. The women have gowns of blue
cotton, and the better class of them cover
their faces with long veil, which is fas-
tened Just under the eyes so as to hide
the lower part of the features. Between
this veil and the cloth head-dress there
is brass spool about three inches long,
on each side of which the eyes show out.
Some of the girls are beautiful, but
imagine that many of them look better
with their wells on than off. The Egyp-
tian eye is large, black and sensuous.
The eyelashes are very long on both lids
and the edges of the eyelids are often
blackened with kohl. The eyebrows are
straight and smooth, and never bushy.
The cheek bones are high, the fore
head is receding and the nose somewhat
inclined to fatness. In the country you
find much darker women than you do in
Cairo, and | see scores of them working
in the fields without wells. These fella-
heen are Mahommedans. Very few of
them attain riches and but few rise to
power. Arab Pasha was a ''fellah,
and he was one of the few exceptions to
this rule.
They have been taxed for ages to such
an extent that they could barely live.
Ismail Pasha, the last Khedive, would,
l am told, often collect taxes twice
year, coming down upon the farmers for
second sum after he had demanded the
regular amount. If they were not able to
supply it the tax xgatherers sold their
stock at auction, and he had the right to
make such as he pleased work for him
for nothing. At present there are about
five million acres of land under cultiva-
ton in Egypt, and there is an agricul
tural population of more than four mil
lions This gives less than one and
one-fifth acre per person, and the taxes
amount to from 81 to 50 an acre. The
best lands of Egypt pay 50 an acre, and
this is only one form of Egyptian taxa
ton.
Just outside of Cairo there is a
Government office, through which every
piece of produce brought into the city
for sale must pass, and every article is
taxed The farmer who brings donkey
load of grass to the city for sale must
pav percentage on its value before he