Evening journal., 1897-09-14
BACKBONE OF EGYPTIAN RACE.
Formed by the Hard-WoriSing. Pa
tfeat Scrfs OF the Soil.


tieat serfs OF the Soil.
We had come into the region of the
up-country fellahin-the peasants and
cultivssors of the soil, who form the
backbone of the Egyptian race and have
from earliest times persistently main
tanned the type of field laborer, the serf
of the soil. The horrible expressions
practiced upon these poor creatures in
times past, the exactions, cruelties,
butcheries, monstrous injustice from
which they have suffered, have not dis
turbed their conservative temper OF
destroyed their passionate fondness for
their native soil or their stubborn re-
sistance to taxation. 1tis said that girls
often refuse to marry men who will not
bind themselves to live in their native
village. Occasionally one meets a man
or boy who went to the exhibition of
Old Cairo, in Chicago, and, while there,
received good offers to remain in Amer
lea, but refused them all because of
homesiclSness. This climate is the per-
petual friend and consoler to the poor;
and, if they were only little cleaner, a
little less degraded and superstitious,
there would be small occasion for pity.
The filthy condition of the Arab chill
dren, both in town and country, is con-
slant source of sorrow and disgust to
the tourist. It is said that they are
wilfully neglected by their parents,
that they may escape the baleful ef-
fects of the evil eye, universally be-
lieved in by the natives. AS you ascend
the Nile, the face veil disappears, and
nose-rings and curious tattooing be-
come common. A casual visitor is at
great disadvantage in the effort to ac-
quire accurate information as TO the
domestic arrangements of the people.
The guides and others with whom you
come in contact generally tell you the
tales that seem to them appropriate
and polite for the ears of foreigners.
The donkey-boys and others who have
had some intercourse with strangers
know that the idea of a plurality OF
wives is abhorrent to the ordinary Eng
lish and American mind. They there
fore express a dislike of it themselves;
and each afirms that he has taken but
one wife, and does not intend to bur-
den himself with more.
Concurrent testimony seems to show
that it is rather rare for a well-to-do
Egyptian to take more than one legal
wife at q time, though the number of
his female slaves may be unlimited
The law Of the prophet allows four legal
wives; and l am told that the fellahin
often take the full complement of help
mates, in order to use them as field la.
borers without wage. AS you ascend
the Nile, you often see women at work
in the fields and busy at all sorts OF
menial tasks except the hardest-thai
of raising water from the Nile by means
of the shaduf for purposes OF irrigation
One realizes how cheap labor must bC
in Egypt, when, for a few pence a day
men will stand half naked, in mud anC
water, lifting skin buckets to the leve
of hollow in the steep bank, bymeani
of long pole and weight balanced OF
a support; while another man aboy'
repeats the paianful process of raising
it to the level of the irrigating ditch
1t is one of the saddest sights one see
Dn the Nile-this pouring of water. b,
iuGuu5 VI AlNAAN DnthtA0s AAAO hAANhN7
and growing old in fertilizing a small
patch Of land. This appliance is prob
ably as old as the awkward, unhand,
plow one sees the peasants using in tn
fields to turn over the soil, and show
the stationary character OF peopl
who, in many respects, seem brigh
and quick-witted. The water-wheel
t,,rpod hr- oven nv. 1,ufa1oac alec no
comes a familiar sight, and the mourn
full crealS of the wheel is the only soun
one hears at night, when the steamer
tied up to the bank. Thus the grea
river is meat and drink and life an,
health to all the people-the only sourc
of moisture in an otherwise sterile lant
This fact is brought home to you agai
and again, and the wonder of it neve
ceases.-Christian Register.