The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-08-16
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THE MODERN EGYPTIAN.
; Victim Of Over Rapid Civilization.
A Child In Politics.
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A Child In Politics, .
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The term Egyptian is elastic-it in
cludes In color anything from the shiny
of the Sudanese to the yellow white of
the Circassian, but the overwhelming
majority Of the dwellers in the lower
valley of the Nile is light coffee color.
ed. and 1t calls itself fellah, or fella-
heen in the plural.
The fellah Is essentially an agricul-
turist-it Is important to realize this
II one Is to fathom his aims and OBJ
jects. The vital questions of his life
are those which arise on the few fed
dams of land which he cultivates.
writes A. H. Trapmann, late Egyptian
police, In the London Express. A ques-
tton of 80 extra gallons of water on
his cotton field interests him vastly
more than all the politics of Europe
combined.
The fellah leads purely local ex-
istence. He seldom travels outside
the boundaries of his own countryside
even the happenings in the adjoining
village are to him matters of SUI
preme Indifference. provided that his
own date palms show prospect of a
good yield.
AS for the politics of Egypt as we
understand the phrase-they are quite
beyond his ken and interest. OF the
0.O00.0O0fellaheen inhabitants of the
Nile valley, doubt If there are 10000
who know that there are British troops
in garrison in the country.
In politics the fellah Is child. He
has no local magnates to lead him, for
no such class exists. He is not led by
the native press, for only one in
thousand can read. and even with those
the daily paper has not yet become an
institution. The fellah who can read
buys paper (El Moyad for choice)
twice month or so, and it takes him
the better part of the week to master
the contents
That there Is unrest at the present
moment among the native population
cannot be denied. Those who have but
superficial knowledge of the native
will attribute this to religious fan
atheism. But no such thing exists,
nor ever did exist in the Nile valley.
The fellah is far too placid an indiv-
idual to be reused to frenzy by any
passing wave of religious passion. or
all the nations that call Mohammed
prophet the Egyptian is perhaps the
least religious, and certainly the least
fanatical.
To what, then, are we to attribute
the present unrest? Politics, local
influence, religion pass over the hads
of the fellaheen and leave them I'M
moved-what is this mysterious UNDER
current which is running through the
country and undermining the dominat-
ing influence of the white man?
1t is the result of over rapid and
superficial civilization. Twenty years
ago the fellah was slave, his func-
ton in life was to dig and delve and
to obey. Latterly he has been taught
that he has an ally and champion in
the Code Napoleon"
He does not in the least understand
the equity of that code, but in all his
troubles he looks upon 1t as possible
way out of difficulty, and he con-
tinually appeals to the law on the of
chance that he may gain thereby.
Twenty years ago the fellah was a
serf, today he is a very bad amateur
lawyer, and 1t is over these questions
of his legal rights (of which he knows
nothing), that he is working himself
into state of frenzied excitement.
The claw" is the new fetch of the
country. Every man is loud in claim
ing his rights, and as every man is
his own lawyer the result is somewhat
chaotic. But, as is only natural, they
all unite whenever they can do so with
impunity.
This is not national or local move
ment; it is essentially individualist,
and the only weapon that we have
with which to combat this movement is
the moral influence of the individual
Englishmen on the spot.
These are few and far between. In
Behera, for instance( the northern
province of the Delta), there are IA
Englishmen, who carry on their var
ious duties among 100000 natives. If
at any moment one of these English
men were to show signs of weakness
or hesitation in his dealings with the
native his authority would be at an
end and his life in danger.
There is no real malice in the Egyp-
tian. He is child ready to obey
tutor whom he respects, but ready to
rise in revolt at the least sign of weak
ness.
But there is floating nomad popu-
lation in Egypt Of some 100000 half
caste Arabs. These men are opportun-
Observation-Disclosures one year, thieves
the next. cattle dealers the year after
ward; of no fixed abode, they travel up
and down the land, and being beyond
the control of the authorities them
selves they incite the fellah to sedi-
tious acts against the dominant power
There is one treatment to which the
fellah never fails to yield. 1t is the
rough word accompanied by a rough
and perhaps personal-jest. Allah has
blessed the Egyptian with keen sense
of humor. Time and time again have
| seen seething mob of fellaheen
crying aloud upon Allah and urgently
anxious to do grievous bodily harm
converted into a good humored crowd
of smiling agriculturists by a jest
by a we'll chosen taunt.
An Event in Sunday journalism.
The people of the middle west are
rapidly discovering that the Sunday
magazine of the Chicago Record-Her-
aid is not only real magazine but
also one Of tho greatest in thie aga Of