Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1925-01-14


rebellion, which the British crushed at
the battle of Tel-el-Kebir.
For the next 80 years khediyes of
the Mehemet Ali dynasty nominally
governed, being advised by the British
consul general at Cairo, whose advice
not strange to say, wasusually 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 reigning khedive, Alb
Das Hilmi, long FESTIVE under English
control, threw in his lot with the
| Turks who had never relinquished
their claim to sovereignty over Egypt),
| and 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. SO, on December IS, 1914,
Egypt was openly declared a British
| protectorate.
Hardly were the guns OF Europe ST.
| 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 be 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 Sinking guides; they
have seen the tawdry cafe chantant,
and Shepherds, and have been photo
graphed astride blase, f1ea-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
he is, in face and physique, startlingly
like the pictured Egyptians of the
Pharaoh's times
Since prehistoric days this race, a
vast farming colony, has lived along
the Nile and in that great delta 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 submits
sion to Persian. Macedonian, Roman,
Arab, Mameluke, Turk, and Britton.
Four-fifths of all Egypts population,
or something near nine millions, be-
long to this ancient race.
Life of the FelIaheen.
Culturally, the fellah has been Arab
lied; he speaks form of Arabic and
turns to Mecca in his prayers. Other
wise he is the same silent, melancholy,
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 cid
in cotton picking.
In the daily home life of the country
fellaheen, the influence Of Arab Gull
ture is uppermost. Marry what you
like of women. by twos and tours"
says the Koran; so polygamy exists;
but 1t 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 fakir, and the dancing
girl. From our viewpoint such life
is hopelessly dull.
Plainly, a 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
drilled into him.