Beverly banner. [volume] (Beverly, N.J.) 1877-1964, 1925-01-16

rebellion, which the British crushed at
the battle of Tel-el-Kebir.
For the next 35 years khedives of
the Mehemet Ali dynasty nominally
governed. being advised by the British
consul general at Cairo, whose advice.
not strange to say, was usually taken.
Long Under British Control.
From 1888 to 1907 Lord Cromer, a
most able officer, held this advisory
| post, and raised Egypt from bank
ruptcy to prosperity. When the World
war began, the reigntng khedive, Abb
bas Hilmi. long FESTIVE under English
control, threw in his lot with the
| Turks who had never rellnqnished
their claim to sovereignty over Egypt,
and a Turkish army moved down to
GAIA to drive the English out. But
England, regarding the Suez canal as
the jugular vein of her empire, could
not then risk losing her foothold on
the Nile. &c. on December IS, 1914,
Egypt was openly declared a British
protectOrate.
Hardly were the guns of Europe 81
lent before Egypt began her daring
drive for independence. 1t astounded
even the East-this sudden, sensational
leaping to life of a race so long bent
TO alien yokes. Dramatic as the story
is, however, it need only he said here
that in 1922 the British relinquished
their protectorate and acknowledged
Ahmed Fuad as king of Egypt.
Tourists know superficial Egypt
the donkey boys, the beggars whining
for bakshish, the smirking guides they
have seen the tawdry cafe chantant,
and Shepherds, and have been photo
graphed astride blase, fea-bitten old
camel standing on the sands before the
sphinx.
But what do any Westerners really
know of the Egyptians?
These strange people, isolated here
for ages, have developed and main
tanned certain distinct physical and
racial characteristics. When you see
the modern fellah at work with mallet
and chisel, or scratching the sun
baked plain with his crude hoe, or dip
ping his clumsy fish-net into the Nile,
he Is in face and physique startlingly
like the pictured Egyptians of the
Pharaohs times.
Since prehistoric days this race. a
vast farming colony, has lived along
the Nile and in that great G@ta which
ages of floods have built out into the
Mediterranean Though the Persian
conquest, about 521 B. c., ended the
period of native rule, the mental and
physical aspects of the modern fellah
are, so far as we can judge, exactly
like those of his early ancestors who
sweated under the Pharaohs-and this
Notwithstanding centuries of submis-
sion to Persian, Macedonian, Roman,
Arab, Mameluke. Turk, and Britton.
Four-fifths of all Egypt's population,
or something near nine millions. be-
long to this ancient race
Life of the Feliaheen.
Culturally, the fellah has been Arab
ized he speaks form of Arabic and
turns to Mecca in his prayers Other
inscrutable person who doggedly
dragged granite blocks for hundreds Of
miles to build the pyramids. who blind
ly bent to the big sweeps of the early
Egyptian galleys, or who conceived
and began to dig the Suez canal CEN
turtles before De Lesseps was born.
Hard work is his lot from the cradle
to the grave. Riding through the great
delta region. you will see boy or girl
of eight leading the OK in the fields,
while the father holds the rude pillow.
The children herd goats, too, and aid
in cotton picking.
In the daily home life of the country
fellaheen, the influence Of Arab cul-
ture is uppermost Marry what you
like of women, by twos and fours,"
says the Koran; so polygamy exists;
but it Is too expensive for the average
fellah.
Every village has Its coffee shop.
where water pipes are for rent Here,
too. is the ever-present professional
story teller, the letter writer, the snake
charmer, the faklr, and the dancing
girl. From our viewpoint such life
is hopelessly dull.
Plainly, new era has been dawning
in Egypt. 1t Is admitted through all
the East that far-reaching economic
and cultural changes have been sweep
ing the country. But 1t probably will
take many years of progress to trans
form the slow-moving, fatalistic fellah
OF the lower rural class He still sticks
to his humble mud hut, scantily fur
nished with earthen pots. tin cans. and
straw mats. and to the habits Of life
and work that long centuries have