The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1925-02-11

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 1883 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
bas Hilmi, long FESTIVE under English
control, threw in his lot with the
Turks ,who had never relinquished
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. 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. It astounded
I even the East-this sudden, sensational
| leaping to life of a race so long bent
to alien Jokes. Dramatic as the story
is, however, 1t 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, flea-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 fsh-net into the Nile,
he is, in face and physique, startlingly
like the pictured Egyptians of the
Pharaoh's times
Since prehistoric days this race.
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
centuries of submits
sion to Persian. Macedonian. Roman,
Arab, Mameluke, Turk, and Britton.
Four-ffths 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
zed; he speaks a form of Arabic and
urns to Mecca In his prayers. Other
wise he is the same silent. melancholy.
person who doggedly
ragged granite blocks for hundreds Of
niles to build the pyramids, who blind
y bent to the big sweeps of the early
Egyptian galleys. or who conceived
md began to dig the Suez canal CEN
uries before De Lesseps was born.
Hard work is his lot from the cradle
o the grave. Riding through the great
Ielta region. you will see boy or girl
# eight leading the OK in the fields.
While the father holds the rude pillow.
'he children herd goats. too. and aid
n cotton picking.
In the daily home life of the country
ellaheen, the influence of Arab cul- |
ure is uppermost. Marry what you :
Ike of women, by twos and fours." ;
avs the Koran; so polygamy exists;
ut 1t is too expensive for the average !,
elijah.
Every village has its coffee shop
here water pipes are for rent. Here,
90, is the ever-present professional I
tory teller. the letter writer the snake n
harmer, the fakir, and the dancing
irl. From our viewpoint such life
! hopelessly dull.
Plainly, new era has been dawning 6
/ Egypt. 1t Is admitted through all
lie East that far-reaching economic =
nd cultural changes have been sweep
lg the country. But 1t probably will a
Ike many years of progress to trans p
'rm the slow-moving, fatalistic fellah n
the lower rural class. he still sticks o.
his humble mud hut. scantily fur :,
shed with earthen pots, tin cans. and =
raw mats, and to the habits of life
1d work that long ceLturies bayS d
Tiled into him. II