Year: 1877

7 The fellah wears but one garment,
and suffers from cold in winter, for he
has no fire and no bed clothes, except
perhaps kind of quilt. He lives on
unleavened bread, sour milk, raw vege-
tables, but sometimes for weeks together
has nothing but dried dates. In towns
the food is sold ready-cooked, and con-
sists of different kinds of haricots and
lentils. His house is roofess, except for
a few canes laid across the low mud
walls. 1t contains no furniture; but in
upper Egypt there is generally mat at
the door and sort of raised divan made
of mud. He can afford but one wife,
who, like himself, has but one garment
naked. In this respect, indeed, travellers
remark great poverty year by year.
There is immense mortality among the
children-partly, no doubt, from the
dirt in which they are kept, as they are
never washed before they are seven
years old, but partly also from the alb
sence of medical aid and the universal
ignorance of the cause of disease. The
women are in every respect inferior to
the men. They are too poor to have en-
ployment; they have no stockings to
darn, no house linen to mend, no fTrni-
ture or cooking supplements to clean.
They wash their one garment in the
river, cleaning it with piece of mud
which acts like soap and pumice COM
bined. They wear their bracelets and
necklaces in the field where they pull corn
or herd the cattle. They carry all the
water required in their houses from the
river in heavy jars, and sit long on the
bank gossiping. Women in Egypt do
not say prayers like the men, and have
soulless expression which contrasts
strangely with the intelligent and even
noble look frequent among their hus-
bands. Their highest idea of life con-
sists in doing nothing. The daughters
of family are kept at home as long as
possible. as it is o mark of respectability
to retain them at least till they reach
fifteen; but this advanced age is only
attained in comparatively wealthy
homes. In Nubia the position of women
is better. Though the clothing is even
scantier than in Egypt, they have some
idea of working embroidery, weaving
mats, and making baskets; and they keep
their houses in better order, spreading
the golden sand on the floor and sweep
ing it clean. There are doors to all the
houses, and sometimes an iron lock and
even aknocker. Over the doorway there
is an attempt at ornament, and a plate
or saucer begged from passing daha-
beeah is sometimes inserted. Before the
door is row of round mud bins, like
barrels, for storing corn; and there are
separate pigeon-houses. The pigeons
everywhere eat more than they are
worth, and contribute greatly to the dirt
of the houses in lower Egypt. Fever
is rare, considering the filth, but there
are stomach complaints and innumerable
skin diseases of great severity. Oph-
thalmia is said to be decreasing in Cairo
since the opening of wider and better
watered streets, but everywhere else it is
very common, and seems to be carried
by the flies from child to child There
is also mysterious sleeping sickness,
about which doctors differ; it is always
fatal. A man comes home from his
work, lies down, and sleeps for three
days, when he dies. 1t is impossible to
get leave to make a poSt-mortem exami-
nation, though English physicians have
repeatedly attempted it.