EGYPTIAN BARBERS.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 August 1927, Page 3

EGYPTIAN BARBERS.

A MANY-SIDED OCCUPATION. The campaign for the improvement of hygienic conditions in the Egyptian provinces, which is now in full swing, threatens the existence of Lhe village bather, who is to he found in every village (writes a Cairo correspondent). The "post dates hack into the hoary past. No one exactly knows how or when it originated, hut the fact remains Hint the harbor bus hitherto | lP01 ! as essential a part of the village or.mnisatiim as the Onnln, who is the pivot of provincial administrative control. Apart from ordinary tonsortm work the duties of the village harbor consist in the registration of deaths, the performance of minor surgical operations, circumcision, ami general firstaid, and, since vaccination was made general, that operation also. " The village harliors and their wives, be. it noted, have, moreover, to examine every dead body, and they a,re expected to report am r..50,h,., , h ,.,- suspect foul play ov infectious disease. For this they ;• ■-■"■•v; no pay but enjoy many privileges, aim, o course, the monopoly of harboring »n the villages they serve. these men have no qunlifi.m.nons and no training beyond km" course in some hospital out-"arc . - though in the past, where a. trained staff was difficult to obtain, and luntb were lacking, they were bettor than nothing; to-day where money for training minor public health employees is available, it is obviously wrong to continue making use of this very rough material for the v.l n.ge control of public health, and the proposal has been made to do away with the d-lan-e barhoTs and replace them by paid officials, who will have received proper training in hygiene, first-aid, etc.