The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1890-07-10

OF whom are nomnally Christians and the
remainder are Mahometans. The houses arc
all Of unburni, sun-dried bricks, and there are
none over two stories. They are crowded to-
gcthcr into streets not over IL feet wide, and
YOU wind IN ana out through these IN all
the maaes Of Rosamond's bower. In taking
donkey ride | have often found myself
brought up against blank wall, and had
TO go back for mile before ] could find
my way out. Some OF the streets are so
narrow that you can touch the houses on
either side with your hands, and tbs great
baZaT. more than u mile long has shops
both sides of the narrow way, over which dur
ing the heat OF the day mating is stretched.
There is little onamcntation about these
Egyptian houses. They are nil fiat Toolcd The
majority of them have glass iu their win
dows, and the lower bali of each window Is
covered with wooden lattice work, through the
meshes of which you may sec the large. dark
eyes ofthc ladies of the harem pccpiug out.
asked one graybearded Mahonetan as 20 what
the people did IN case Of rain. lie did not APP
pear to know what the word rain meant and
was told that they have no billiards. or rain
storms in this part of the Nile Valley. One OF
our Spring rains would make this town Of 40.
600 inhabitants n vast mud pie The houses
are rude as well as out. Most Of them
are nero novels, and families live here In
quarters in which an American farmer wo3ld
not trust his best Jersey COW. During my stay
in Asyoot tried to learn all ! could about the
life OF the people, and found that several fam
lies often lived in one oftbese little mud huts,
and that most OF them slept on the ground, with
only blanket or cotton rag as covering Tho
poor Egyptian, like the poor Indian, sleeps in
the same clothes that he uses during the day
time, aud in these huts chickens doukeys aud
cattle arc kept in the same room with the fam
fbaus 49, rfa4
habitauts Of the hoase The lice aud heas Of
the hard hearted Pharoah still stick TO the land
and bed bugs are everywhere, I0u can have
no idea Of the lice OF Egypt. and the grayhacks
of army days are mild 10 comparison. The
chief business OF Egyptian leisure seems TO be
IN picking over clothes for body-lice. and
everywhere went about Asy0nt saw a man.
boy woman sitting half naked, and looking
and catching and cracking these insects. In
many cases two mon or two women combine
forces and work together, one picking from
the other, and vice versa. Every time ! took
walk through the streets treublcd TO think
Of the possibilities. and several times in search
ing my clothes returning 10 my room |
found that had carried away some other mans
property. These lice are very prolific, and one
good female viii in week eoonize whole
man. j spent about an hour every day in
searching the seams Of my undertaking for
eggs, and did not wonder that Pharaoh was
ready, when Moses sent this pest upon him. 10
allow the lsraelites 10 90. You can have no
idea Of the flies aud the heas Of Upper Egypt.
They cover everything and everybody. You
sec men sleeping by the roadside with great
han1fuls of hiea on their eyebrows Babies
have flies resting around their mouth, and
every child ia repose has a half dozen flies on
his eyelids Egypt has more sore eyes 20 iis
population than any other conBtry III the world,
aud eye diseases are caused by these flies. You
ind hundreds Of blind men in every Egyptian
city. They go abon: with long slicks and are
respected by the people