EGYPTIAN RESEARCHES.

Colonist, Issue 12, 1 December 1857, Page 4

EGYPTIAN RESEARCHES.

In addition to the account of his discoveries in the necropolis of Thebes, Mr. A. H. Rhind, of Sibster, contributes to the Literary Gazette an interesting description of the Fallaheen or peasantry of Egypt, with whose mode of life and character he had reason to become intimately acquainted while residing in that country during the past winter. *In natural intelligence and quickness of perception,' he considers the Fellaheen of Egypt will compare advantageously ' not only with most races in the same general condition of semi-civilization as themselves, but with the peasantry of countries which stand much higher in the scale.' JThe constant practice of deceit, all but inevitably induced, has, however, effected a complete perversion of moral sense as regards truthfulness or fidelity; and in various parts of the country, but especially at Goorneh, no statement made by a Fellah on the simplest question of fact is likely to be correct; and no attestation of it, however -solemn, is necessarily accurate, if he has the slightest interest in misleading, conceives any of the extravagant suspicions to which he has too good reason to be prone, or imagines, according to his most tortuOus judgment, that giving wrong. information might positively, negatively, or remotely benefit him in any way whatever. *In fact,' he says, c poverty among the class in question is all but an unknown virtue. I do not mean that thievery, in the common signification of the term, was universal, for I am glad to say that I was never aware of any ordinary piece of property being stolen; but I have had constant reason to be familiar with attempts at cheating and deception in every form which the circumstances admitted. Diogenes in search of a very reduced standard indeed, would wander among the Fellaheen or Goorneh in vain. He might perhaps find rare instances of fidelity springing from a sentiment of gratitude, but I doubt if he would meet in that community a single case of honesty arising from principle. In religion they retain little more than the strong fatalism of their faith, and the conventional waiting on Providence which induces a digger among the tombs, if marked as to "his success, to return the stereotyped answer, ' God will send.' The ordinary outward observances they seem completely to neglect, never, so far as I could perceive, visiting the mosque in the neighbouring town of Luxor: and I have no recollection of ever seeing one of them engaged in the prescribed formality of daily prayer, which elsewhere in the country is so commonly attended to. Not certainly that these evidences of irreligion could be plainly said to be indicative of, or produced by, their perverted morale. For Muslim prayer is a barren formula* a mere act of obedience, rather than a contrite offering or aspiration after better things; and some of the most accomplished graduates in the arts of deceit that I have met with in the East, were rigidly devout in performing their frequently recurring devotions—an anomoly, unfortunately* by no means confined to their race and faith. But the difference is this, that while in the one case the religious exercises may be themselves a deception, the Mahomedan, especially of the lower grade, although also very familiar with the vice of hypocrisy, does not himself seem to think that repeating his prayers is incompatible or inconsistent with untruthfulness or roguery.' Their mode of living is simplicity itself, their dwellings, their dress, and their food being of the most primitive kind. The outer rockcut chambers of the tombs, in conjunction with mud erections in front, serve them as abpdes, and these they share with the few cattle which the richer of them possess-— the sheep, goats, dogs, fowls, and pigeons, which always go to constitute the household. A heap or two of thick dhoora straw, some earthern pots and cupboards of sunbaked clay, would complete the inventory of the furnishings of an ordinary habitation, the luxury of raised beds formed of aframe-work of palm branches being of rare occurrence. The dress of the men is merely a waistcloth, or cotton trousers, and a loose sack garment, either of cotton or woollen material —the nearly universal costume of the country—which reaches to their heels, has a hole for the head to slip through* and wide pendant sleeves. ' This last, however, is always laid aside when the wearer has to engage in^any active work. The head is protected by a dirty brown felt skull-cap, the red tarboosh not being possessed at all, and for the most part only being used, along with the turban, as holiday attire. The clothing of the women is in essentials pretty much the same as, and not more complex than, that of the men, only the outer garment is scarcely so voluminous, and instead of a cap the head is covered by a shawl with flowing ends, one of which is arranged to conceal the face when passing a stranger. In their persons they are very uncleanly, although they are not the less fond of ornament ; and long matted hair will have its greasy plaits looped up with pendants of shells or mother-of-pearl, glass beads, coins, or bangles of silver. Nose-rings of silver or brass are common; ear-rings universal, and when from poverty or illiberality on the part of the husband they cannot be procured of some more precious metal, they are worn of thin beaten brass, at a cost of not more than a farthing a-piece. Necklaces of variegated glass beads are equally popular, and to most of them is attached an amulet or two of some coloured stone, as onyx or cornelian, which are usually heirlooms, and looked upon as the most precious of possessions by their wearers, to whom they have been handed down as invaluable aids to the attainment of the dignity of maternity, without which an eastern woman is held in contempt, and will probably be divorced. Bracelets, anklets, arid finger-rings are also greatly coveted, and almost never wanting. The women never divest themselves of these in any of the occupations of their daily life, such as carrying water from the well, baking bread, or kneading the manure of cattle into cakes for feul, an employment still more incon-

gruous with bracelets, necklaces, and rings. Besides these duties, a little sewing, and twisting wool into thread with the handspindle, they have almost no other household work to perform, for the dietary is generally so simple as not* to requijfe any of the preparation of cooking. It consists almost entirely of bread, milk, and raw vegetables, chiefly onions, rarely accompanied by any sort of animal food. They have usually large families of children; but except the Shekhs, who can afford to have three or the full complement of four, they are obliged to be content, for the most part, with one wife, on the score of expense. This is the limit; for the possession of corresponding means of maintenance proportionally widens the circle of their conjugal affections, which easily become so comprehensive and elastic as to expand even beyond the prescribed boundary.