to matter-of-fact people like myself, an English fireside, a Scottish mountain, or an Irish glen, have more attractions in this respect than any Zenana in Arabia; and the women who inhabit them, with purity in the heart and intellect on the brow, and a cottage-bonnet on the head, much better worth risking life for, than all the turbaned voluptuous beauty of the East.

CHAPTER XII.

THE MOSLEM.

Where'er the sun before them shone,
And paved the world with gold,

They passed. Round Earth's most favored zone
Their chief his turban rolled.

From Hagar's desert, Ishmael's plains,

To Ocean's western fold,

They reared their crescent-crowned fanes,

And cloistered fountains cold.

AUBREY De Vere.

How comes it that almost every event of vivid romance, and visible chivalry, and poetry of action,* belongs to the olden time of man; while woman, his inspiration—his goddess as a pagan, his idol as a Christian-remains to this day, in being and in influence, the same? From the garden of Eden to the throne, ay, and the village-green, of Europe, she has ever exercised despotic influence over the destinies of her "lord and master:" at this day, we meet Rebeccas at every well, and Hagars in every desert of the East; Ediths, moreover, it may be, and Erminias in the cities thereof; but where is the hunter Ishmael to be found? where the rash, generous Esau-outlaw of the Israelitish fold where are the chivalrous Saracen, and the bold Crusader now? Alas! the two former are represented by a swin- dling, camel-jobbing Sheikh, who will try to cheat you on Mount Sinai; the latter by the slavish Arab of the Nile, and the travelling dandy who employs him.

Far pleasanter would it be to enlist the reader as the follower of Mahomet through the following chapter, to take up the standard of the Prophet, and accompany it in its marvellous progress over the wide East, until it waved upon the towers of Jerusalem,

*"Sir Philip Sidney's life was poetry turned into action.”—CAMPBELL

and saw its green folds reflected in the waters of the Nile. Pleasanter would it be to go back to the old times of Egypt's mysterious history, when men were blended and confounded with the Gods, and the dreamlike glories of Karnak seemed almost to justify such presumption. However visionary the pur. suit, and however faint the approximation to the truth, it is still pleasant to be humbugged by the priests with Herodotus; to go. "body-snatching" in kingly tombs with brave Belzoni; or even to pick beetles, and read "handwriting on the walls" with Rozellini, Champollion, and Sir Gardner Wilkinson-pleasanter would any of these subjects be than the dry discussion of common-place life in these common-place times. But the attempt to introduce such subjects into these slight pages would be as vain as to embroider tapestry with Cleopatra's Needle: glimpses of men and things in our own time is all that I can hope to offer; and if not vivid and comprehensive, they shall be at least faithful, as far as in me lies.

The graceful garb, the flowing beard, and the majestic appearance of Orientals, are very imposing to a stranger's eye. The rich coloring, the antique attitudes, the various complexions, that continually present themselves, form an unceasing series of "tableaux vivans "in an Eastern city. And when over these is poured the brilliant sunshine of their climate, now making strong shadow of a palm-tree, or a pile of Saracenic architecture, now gleaming upon jewel-hilted scimitar or gorgeous draperies, daily life wears an interest and picturesqueness unknown in this cloud-stricken land of hats and macintoshes.

The population of Cairo is composed of the descendants of Ethiopians, Romans, Greeks, Persians, Saracens, Arabs, and modern Europeans: the general maternity of the middle classes is Abyssinian. The variety of feature, form, color, and character, resulting from such a mingling of races, may be easily conceived. With respect to color, the effect is pretty much the same as if all the tints in a paint-box were mixed up together, a variously modified brown being the result. In the women especially, the eye soon becomes accustomed to this complexion; and, as the Eastern people never become reconciled to ours, it would appear that we are not of the "right color," after all;

that our swarthy brethren have plausible grounds for asserting that Adam and Eve were copper-colored, or something more and that pallor of skin first appeared when Cain was questione as to the cause of his brother's death. One fact relating to colo. struck me as singular, that the Turks and Arabs were no darker in the face than on the arms or other parts usually protected from the sun.

On our return from Nubia, we found ourselves, on our first glimpse in a looking-glass after two months' absence, daguerre otyped into a very magpie complexion-face, neck, and hands, were demon-dark; while forehead and arms looked white as woman's from the contrast. The Turk seems to suffer little change from climate, notwithstanding the light-brown color of his hair and moustaches; and his olive-colored complexion never assumes that yellowish tinge that seems peculiar to the people of Lower Egypt. As you ascend the river, the color of the natives deepens so gradually, that you might almost calculate the latitude by their shade. Strange to say, however, after you have arrived at, and passed through, a nation as black as midnight, with coarse, crisp hair; you emerge, farther on, amongst a people of light-olive color, with smooth shining tresses : these characteristics show the Abyssinian, who appears to be the purest and most distinct race in Africa. As the Egyptian generally has his family by Abyssinian wives or slaves, instead of, or in addition to, his Arab wives, he degenerates, in every generation, from the pure Arab race. The Bedouin requires à chapter to himself; the Osmanli, or Turk, will be introduced under the head of Constantinople; the Copt will appear in better company than he deserves, in speaking of the missionary school; and our present concern is only with the Moslem-Egyptian Arab of the cities and the villages along the Nile.

His childhood is passed in his mother's hareem in languor and effeminacy; he is not weaned for eighteen months, and his infancy is proportionately prolonged. When he goes to school, his education is limited chiefly to reading and writing in Arabic, and sometimes a little arithmetic. Those who go to the Univer sity (in the mosque of el Az-har) acquire little more instruction of any practical utility. If an Egyptian can read, write, and

repeat the greater part of the Koran, he is considered learned; if to this he adds some knowledge of Arab poetry, he is a very accomplished and "promising young man."

The chief studies in the university are Mahomet's religion, and Heaven knows whose jurisprudence: medicine, chemistry, astronomy, and other sciences which we derive from the East, are very little cultivated. This, however, is to be understood only of the Egyptian when left to himself: Mehemet Ali has recently established numerous schools for boys, which I shall speak of when discussing the character of the Pacha.

An Egyptian infant is the most ill-favored object in human creation; a name is applied to him with as little ceremony as a nickname is with us; and, indeed, there are not perhaps twenty different names distributed among the 200,000 Moslem inhabitants of Cairo: they are almost all taken from the Prophet or his immediate relations and followers. In our crew of ten men, we had five Mahmouds, or Mohammeds, two Ibraheems, three Abdallahs, and a Jad. As the Egyptian grows into childhood, he appears still more deformed, and extremely corpulent; but in manhood he becomes well-proportioned, stalwart, and sinewy; those at least who are employed upon the river. The city Egyptian never takes any active exercise, and passes nearly all his time squatted on his divan or counter. Many of the shopkeepers at Cairo are merely amateur tradesmen, being possessed of private property, and carrying on business as good young ladies do in our bazaars, for amusement only.

Along the river, and among the villages, the poor man is occupied with agriculture, boat-building, or the most laborious occupation of pumping up water to irrigate the fields. His children of both sexes run about naked, or nearly so; and if the little girls have a rag upon them, they coquettishly cover their faces with it. The peasant's utmost exertions scarcely suffice to earn two-pence a day; and even this pittance is often wrung from him for the Pacha, when some neighbor has failed in the taxes, for which the community is answerable. Yet happy does he consider himself, if allowed even thus to struggle on through life. The bright sun shines, and the cool river flows for him, however deep his poverty; and the faint shadow of freedom that he en