wretches who cover their baseness with hypocrisy. It would be unjust, however, not to declare that there are Europeans whose feelings will not allow them to treat their slaves, male and female, otherwise than with kindness, who adopt all their children by the latter, and do not aggravate an offence which our manners and our religion alike condemn."

Here we may bestow a passing word on the Egyptian domestics; for these are held in high regard by the Mussulmans. They feed, clothe, and pay them. It is true the salary they receive is inconsiderable, and no less so that they are very fond of money. Clot-Bey's account of the begging habits of these servants reminds us of Kotzebue's amusing description* of the like practice at Naples, to which, indeed, it is an exact parallel. The constant demand of a baschich in Egypt is as troublesome and vexatious as the buona mano in certain provinces of Italy... The Egyptian servants carry their exactions to such a pitch that they solicit a baschich not only for the services which they or their masters have rendered you, but also for those you have bestowed upon them. Have you given an entertainment, you must also give a present to whoever comes to claim it. Do you invite a dinner-party, you must satisfy with a baschich the domestics of your guests." After making a gratuitous professional visit," says our author, "I am assailed by the servants of the house that I am leaving, and forced to throw some pieces of money to these impudent beggars, if I wish to escape from their importunate cries." The viceroy has endeavoured to get rid of this nuisance, but it is too deeply rooted in the customs and habits of the people to be very easily destroyed.

To the philanthropists of Europe, we would here suggest an object well worthy of their Christian regards and stedfast efforts : and we beg to present it, for obvious reasons, in the author's own language, uniting cordially as we do, in the sentiments of the writer, as expressed in the latter portion of the extract :

"C'est exclusivement en Egypte que la mutilation est aujourd'hui pratiquée. C'est ce pays qui fournit les eunuques aux harems. Syout, Girgeh sont les seules villes où s'accomplit l'opération. Croirait-on que les exécuteurs de cette œuvre ignoble sont des Chrétiens-des prêtres même-des Cophtes? Ces hommes, rebut et honte de la religion dont ils usurpent le nom glorieux, sont flétris par l'opinion, dans les lieux même où ils exercent leur industrie, coupable de lèse-humanité. village de Zawy-le-Dyr, près de Syout, est la métropole des mutilateurs; trois cents eunuques environ sortent annuellement de leurs mains. Leurs victimes sont de jeunes nègres de six à neuf ans, amenés par les caravanes du Sennaar ou du Darfour; on les vend ordinairement, suivant les chances de vie ou les qualités qu'ils possèdent, de quinze cents à trois

In his " Die Bettelei in Neapel."

Le

mille piastres (de 325 à 750 francs). Le quart des enfants qui subissent cette opération ne survivent pas à ses suites; ceux qui conservent la vie sont condamnés à une existence étiolée et souffrante.

"Certes, s'il a jamais existé des crimes dont la société entière soit coupable, aucun, parmi eux, ne surpasse celui par lequel l'usage des eunuques a été créé et maintenu. L'esclavage a été activement attaqué de nos jours, non seulement par les philosophes, mais encore par les gouvernements, et l'Europe marche rapidement vers l'époque de son entière abolition; Mais l'usage des eunuques est un double outrage fait à la nature, une violation simultanée de ses lois physiques et de ses lois morales, et néanmoins, je ne sache pas que les nations qui sont à la tête de la civilisation moderne, et qui ont réuni leurs efforts pour faire cesser la traite des nègres, aient rien tenté pour détruire l'usage des eunuques. L'intervention Européenne si funeste aujourd'hui à l'empire Ottoman, qu'elle comprime sous le poids de mille intérêts politiques, dont la lutte sans issue l'énerve et le ruine; cette intervention aurait pu lui être utile, et bien mériter de l'humanité, en le dirigeant, en l'encourageant, en le soutenant dans ses réformes civilisatrices. Or, parmi celle-ci, l'une des plus louables eût été sans contredit l'abolition des eunuques. Pour l'honneur de l'Europe, je souhaité que les cabinets songent à l'obtenir du sultan et du vice-roi d'Egypte. Je suis persuadé qu'il leur soufferait d'exprimer à ce sujet leur désir philanthropique pour le voir promptement satisfait. Méhémet Ali, qui est connu pour sa docilité aux utiles et nobiles avis, mérite presque aussi précieux que la spontanéité des grandes idées, s'empresserait sans doute d'écouter leurs remonstrances, et l'Egypte ne serait bientôt plus le théâtre d'une pratique qui ne peut pas être tolérée par notre siècle.”

The subject of the usages and manners of the modern Egyptians has been so ably and fully treated by Mr. Lane, that, though it constitutes one of the largest and most entertaining portions of the present treatise, we shall limit ourselves to a reference which the author makes to that gentleman's implied credulity in the processes of necromancy, and to an anecdote of Mehemet Ali, in connection therewith. After describing various Mussulman superstitions, as the belief in genii, or djinns, the evil eye, divination, &c., he proceeds to magic, and observes, that its exhibitions are pretty well confined at the present day to the imposture of necromancy, Sorcerers and sorceresses restrict themselves almost entirely to foretelling la bonne aventure; sometimes they evoke, in a cabalistic mirror formed of a spot of ink upon a piece of paper, the dead or the living, who are made visible to a child chosen by him for whom the experiment is prepared. The child describes the images that the power of the magician causes to pass before him; and there are not wanting credulous people who depose to the exactness of the portraits which he traces aloud, "Among the Europeans attracted by curiosity to these absurd scenes," says our author, "the English, above all, are induced to have faith in their results-results as marvellous, if they were true, VOL. XXVII. NO. LIV.

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as those of animal magnetism. The exact and judicious author of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, Mr. Lane, describes with complacency the processes of Egyptian necromancy, and does not show himself at all sceptical in regard to their results." Now, we demur to this mode of arguing, and to the conclusion here attempted to be drawn-a conclusion which supposes a person's belief of a thing, if he does not express his disbelief. Would not the writer himself object to be scrutinized by this process of reasoning. Even taking it for granted that Mr. Lane does not declare his scepticism in respect of the success of these magical performances, what is the legitimate inference? Not surely that he believes in their miraculousness-but that they are a cleverly contrived piece of jugglery, and thus he estimates them at their due worth. Would it not have been somewhat puerile and beneath the dignity of an educated man to have given us his formal opinion as to whether they partook of the preternatural or not?

While the debasing influence of the most gross superstitions is widely spread throughout Egypt, not only among the Mussulman inhabitants, but also the native Jews and Christians, the viceroy is resolved to show in this respect the superiority of his intelligence, as he has done on several occasions. One instance may suffice. At the commencement of his reign, when his power was not yet established, a sort of sibyl made her appearance at Cairo, and gained a vast number of proselytes. It was given out that she had at her command a familiar spirit, whose very hand could be touched and mysterious voice heard in the dark. It was chiefly among the soldiers and their officers that she found her most zealous dupes and partizans. Mehemet Ali was anxious to know something more certain about this magician whose influence might become dangerous. He caused her, therefore, to be brought to the palace, and told her he desired to have some conversation with her genius. She consented to exhibit before him. It was night; the lights were extinguished in the mandarah, where the principal officers were assembled. Mehemet Ali had strictly warned his servants to bring a light immediately he should call for one. The sibyl evoked her spirit. The djinn answered; and his hollow voice, like that of a ventriloquist, seemed to issue from the wall. He gave his hand to the Pasha to kiss, when the latter, seizing it firmly, called instantly for lights. It was the hand of the magician herself; who, on perceiving the cheat discovered, implored his pardon. The bystanders, astonished at the boldness of Mehemet whom they looked upon as irreligious, began to murmur. The Pasha, after having reproached them for their base credulity, ordered the sibyl to be thrown into the Nile.

The officers manifested some unwillingness to execute the sentence, but Mehemet overcame their scruples by telling them, that if she really had so powerful a spirit at her service, he would take care she was not drowned: but that if, on the contrary, she had him not, she would be justly punished for having abused without fear the pity of the faithful.

The literature of the Arab race is one of the richest that ever existed; but the epoch of its splendour having passed away, it is of course now considered as defunct. The language indeed survives; but ignorance and helotism having enveloped those who employ it, they have lost with their independence the glorious and fruitful muse, which once inspired in them elevated thoughts, generous emotions, and a noble and dignified bearing. The works which flowed from the pens of the writers of Bagdad and Bassora are highly elegant, ingenious, and moral. Nearly the whole of the Arabic literature of the present day, however, is confined to some popular romances or tales handed down by tradition, which never tire in the repeating or the hearing. These tales, where prose and verse are blended together, celebrate the ancient Arab-life, the nomadic and pastoral existence of the Bedouin tribes. And inasmuch as they tend to throw light on the manners of these primitive people, the sturdy inhabitants of the desert, they are not without interest. They are generally a series of warlike, chivalric adventures, built upon a dramatic intrigue, in which the marvellous holds always a conspicuous place. The principal of these romances is that of Abou-zeyd, which appears to have been written about the tenth century of our era. other popular fictions are those of Antar, Ez-Zahir, and Delemeh. The adventures of Antar, the great hero of the Arab race, have been translated into several European languages, and therefore are well known. The romantic literature of the modern Egyptians has been lucidly treated by Mr. Lane, to whose work the curious reader is referred.

The

Chapter the seventh gives us a sketch of the other inhabitants of Egypt, as the Bedouins, the Osmanlees, the Cophts, the Jews, and Franks, &c. As Dr. Clot confesses to having had frequent opportunities of studying the character and the manners of the Bedouins, during several journeys which he has made in the desert, we are bound to place the greatest reliance on his traiture of that singular race, which does not in the main, however, substantially vary from the descriptions of some other writers and travellers. He gives us an interesting episode of one of these excursions, with the citation of which we may gratify the reader :

por

"At the time that the French evacuated Egypt, a part of the garrison

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at Mansourah was attacked quite unexpectedly by the redoubtable Bedouins of Abou-Koura, a famous chief who had always resisted the power of the Mamelukes, and had now become master of the province. He inhabited a fortified village, called Mit-el-Hummer, six leagues south-west of Mansourah. In this skirmish, the Arabs carried off a young female, who became the wife of their chief, and who is known in the country under the name of the Signora. I had often heard speak of her, and wished very much to see her. In travelling in 1834 in the province of Charkyeb, I visited the village where she resides, and went to lodge at her house, which is a palace contiguous to other Arab dwellings. I was very well received by one of her sons. Knowing that I was French, he spoke to me of his mother. I expressed to him my desire to see her. My being a physician constituted a sufficient privilege; I was therefore conducted to her apartments. She saluted me in French, but I very soon recognised by her accent that she was Italiaṇ. I learnt that she was a native of Venice; that her father, a hat merchant, was called Bartholi, her mother, Marguerita, and berself, Julia; that she had been united to a French lieutenant, named Dévaux; that, taken prisoner by the Bedouins at the sortie at Mansourah, she was thrown on the back of a horse which carried her across the sandy plains until at eventide she found herself in a spacious dwelling in presence a man enveloped from head to foot in a large white mantle, who lavished upon her demonstrations of the most passionate tenderness, caused her to be stripped of her European dress, and clothed her himself with a vast robe in the Oriental fashion, gave her six hundred purses of jewels, (about the value of 100,000 francs), and a great number of slaves to attend upon her. This man was the puissant Abou-Koura. But all this luxury and blandishment served only to disconcert and trouble her; she wept incessantly, and supplicated by her gestures and lamentations to be restored to her own people. However, at the end of eleven months she was delivered of a son. Maternal affection somewhat calmed her imagination, and rendered her captivity more supportable.

"Her sidi, whom she loved much, and with whom she was accus. tomed to live, having died, she was constrained to espouse the brother of the deceased, who was far from entertaining for her the same regards as Abou-Koura. Four years afterwards, this man died also, leaving one daughter, Aphisa, aged about two years, and his wife enceinte with a son who was named Ali. Though she might often have had to suffer the bad treatment of her husband, the Signora lost much by his death ; for some greedy relations, taking advantage of the state of distress and helplessness into which she was plunged, succeeded, by force of intrigue, in appropriating the greatest part of the fortune of this family, already considerably diminished. Mansour, the eldest son, too young to defend the paternal heritage, was so affected at seeing it pass into other hands, that he has been insane ever since. His brother Ali is now the only support of this house once so colossal; it possessed forty-four villages, many thousand camels, numerous flocks, and more than five hundred slaves. Of these riches there is left but a feeble remnant, but sufficient nevertheless to maintain the family in ease and comfort.

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