The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1889-10-05
A Nation of Peasants Who Dwell in
Squalid Mud Houses-Their
Wretched Food and
Poor Apparel.

tians. They have been oppressed through
out the ages until they have no spirit lef
in thcm- and they are happy if they cal
get enough to keep themselves alive. Yo,
see their mud villages everywhere, anC
they slave from morning until night il
the fields. Their houses are rarely NOR,
than ten feet high, and often not NOR,
than eight feet square. In an Egyptian
village the houses are built close topether
There are no pavements, gas lamps mol
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 little earthen pot-like stove.
The fuel is OF dried COW, camel or
buffalo manure, and the food of the fam
lily is mixture of sorghum seed, millet
and beans ground up into a flour and
baked into sort of a big, round, fiat
cake. A large part of the food of the fell
laheen consists of greens, and watched
one eating turnip yesterday. He began
at the tip of the root and ate the raw, in
iigestible 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 he buffalo and cow they
make a 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, a 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 a 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 cyelashes are very long on both lids !
and the edges of the eyelids are often
Dlackened 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 fairness. In the country you
ind much darker women than you do in
Cairo, and see scores of them working
n the fields without wells. These fella-
lecn are Mahommedans. Very few of
hem attain riches and but few rise to
power. Arab Pasha was ''fellah,"
md he was one of the few exceptions to
his rule.
1t is no wonder they remain poor.
They have been taxed for ages to such
IN extent that they could barely live.
small Pasha, the last Khedive, would,
am told, often collect taxes twice a
ear, coming down upon the farmers for
second sum after he had handed the
ocular amount. If they were not able to
upply it the tax-gatherers sold their
took at auction, and he had the right to
make such as he pleased work for him
or nothing. At present there are about
We million acres of land under cultiva-
ion in Egypt, and there is an agricul- {
lral population of more than four mil .
ons. This gives less than one and
ne-tifth acre per person, and the taxes s
mount to from 81 to 50 an acre. The ,
est lands of Egypt pay 50 an acre, and
MS is only one form of Egyptian taxa 1
on.
Just outside of Cairo there is a {
government office, through which every
iece of produce brought into the city {
IF sale must pass, and every article is t
lxed. The farmer who brings donkey !