| PAGE | |
| Door of a Private House | [6] |
| Specimens of Lattice-work | [7] |
| Fountain | [9] |
| Suffeh | [10] |
| Specimens of Panel-work | [12] |
| Ceiling of a Durká’ah | [13] |
| Ceiling of a projecting Window | [13] |
| Wooden Lock | [15] |
| Fellaheen | [27] |
| An Eye ornamented with Kohl | [30] |
| Muk-hul′ahs and Mirweds | [30] |
| Ancient Vessel and Probe for Kohl | [31] |
| An Eye and Eyebrow ornamented with Kohl, as represented in ancient Paintings | [31] |
| Hands and Feet stained with Henna | [32] |
| A tattooed Girl | [34] |
| Specimens of Tattooing on the Chin | [34] |
| Tattooed Hands and Foot | [34] |
| A Lady adorned with the Kurs and Safa, etc. | [36] |
| Lady attired for Riding or Walking | [38] |
| Fellah Women | [40] |
| Ornamented black Veils | [41] |
| Postures of Prayer (Part I.) | [64] |
| Postures of Prayer (Part II.) | [65] |
| Interior of a Mosque | [68] |
| Pipes | [123] |
| Coffee-service | [125] |
| ’A’z’kee and Mankals | [127] |
| Washing before or after a Meal | [129] |
| Tisht and Ibreek | [130] |
| Kursee and Seeneeyeh | [131] |
| A Party at Dinner or Supper | [132] |
| Water-bottles | [135] |
| Sherbet-cups | [137] |
| Lantern, etc., suspended on the occasion of a Wedding | [149] |
| Mesh′als | [154] |
| Kumkum and Mibkhar’ah | [185] |
| Magic Invocation and Charm | [248] |
| Magic Square and Mirror of Ink | [249] |
| Water-carriers | [296] |
| Hemalees | [298] |
| Plan of a Bath | [309] |
| Section of the Harárah | [311] |
| Foot-rasps | [312] |
| Mankal′ah | [315] |
| Seega | [320] |
| Kemengeh | [327] |
| Kánoon | [328] |
| Egyptian Musical Instruments, Pipe, Ornaments, etc. | [330] |
| Náy | [331] |
| Rabáb esh-Shá’er | [332] |
| Ságát | [334] |
| Tár | [334] |
| Darabukkeh | [334] |
| Earthen Darabukkeh | [335] |
| Zummárah | [335] |
| Mouth-piece of the Zummárah | [335] |
| Arghool | [335] |
| The Mahmal | [404] |
| Diamond Kurs | [520] |
| Gold Kurs | [521] |
| Kussah | [522] |
| ’Enebeh | [522] |
| Kamarahs | [523] |
| Sákiyeh | [523] |
| ’Ood es-Saleeb | [523] |
| Mishts | [523] |
| ’Akeek | [523] |
| Belloor | [523] |
| Ear-rings | [525] |
| Necklaces | [526] |
| Bracelets | [527] |
| Bark | [529] |
| Másoorah | [529] |
| Habbeh | [529] |
| Shiftish′eh | [529] |
| Anklets | [529] |
| Hegábs | [530] |
| Nose-rings | [531] |
THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
OF THE
MODERN EGYPTIANS.
INTRODUCTION.
THE COUNTRY AND CLIMATE—METROPOLIS—HOUSES—POPULATION.
It is generally observed that many of the most remarkable peculiarities in the manners, customs, and character of a nation are attributable to the physical peculiarities of the country. Such causes, in an especial manner, affect the moral and social slate of the modern Egyptians, and therefore here require some preliminary notice; but it will not as yet be necessary to explain their particular influences: these will be evinced in many subsequent parts of the present work.
The Nile, in its course through the narrow and winding valley of Upper Egypt, which is confined on each side by mountainous and sandy deserts, as well as through the plain of Lower Egypt, is everywhere bordered, excepting in a very few places, by cultivated fields of its own formation. These cultivated tracts are not perfectly level, being somewhat lower towards the deserts than in the neighbourhood of the river. They are interspersed with palm groves and villages, and intersected by numerous canals. The copious summer rains which prevail in Abyssinia and the neighbouring countries begin to show their effects in Egypt, by the rising of the Nile, about the period of the summer solstice. By the autumnal equinox, the river attains its greatest height, which is always sufficient to fill the canals by which the fields are irrigated, and, generally, to inundate large portions of the cultivable land: it then gradually falls until the period when it again begins to rise. Being impregnated, particularly during its rise, with rich soil washed down from the mountainous countries whence it flows, a copious deposit is annually spread, either by the natural inundation or by artificial irrigation, over the fields which border it; while its bed, from the same cause, rises in an equal degree. The Egyptians depend entirely upon their river for the fertilization of the soil, rain being a very rare phenomenon in their country, excepting in the neighbourhood of the Mediterranean; and as the seasons are perfectly regular, the peasant may make his arrangements with the utmost precision respecting the labour he will have to perform. Sometimes his labour is light; but when it consists in raising water for irrigation it is excessively severe.
The climate of Egypt, during the greater part of the year, is remarkably salubrious. The exhalations from the soil after the period of the inundation render the latter part of the autumn less healthy than the summer and winter; and cause ophthalmia and dysentery, and some other diseases, to be more prevalent then than at other seasons; and during a period of somewhat more or less than fifty days (called “el-khamáseen[[12]]”), commencing in April, and lasting throughout May, hot southerly winds occasionally prevail for about three days together. These winds, though they seldom cause the thermometer of Fahrenheit to rise above 95° in Lower Egypt, or, in Upper Egypt, 105°,[[13]] are dreadfully oppressive, even to the natives. When the plague visits Egypt, it is generally in the spring; and this disease is most severe in the period of the khamáseen. Egypt is also subject, particularly during the spring and summer, to the hot wind called the “samoom,” which is still more oppressive than the khamáseen winds, but of much shorter duration, seldom lasting longer than a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. It generally proceeds from the south-east, or south-south-east, and carries with it clouds of dust and sand. The general height of the thermometer in the depth of winter in Lower Egypt, in the afternoon and in the shade, is from 50° to 60°: in the hottest season it is from 90° to 100°; and about ten degrees higher in the southern parts of Upper Egypt. But though the summer heat is so great it is seldom very oppressive, being generally accompanied by a refreshing northerly breeze, and the air being extremely dry. There is, however, one great source of discomfort arising from this dryness—namely, an excessive quantity of dust; and there are other plagues which very much detract from the comfort which the natives of Egypt, and visitors to their country, otherwise derive from its genial climate. In spring, summer, and autumn, flies are so abundant as to be extremely annoying during the daytime, and musquitoes are troublesome at night (unless a curtain be made use of to keep them away), and sometimes even in the day; and every house that contains much wood-work (as most of the better houses do) swarms with bugs during the warm weather. Lice are not always to be avoided in any season, but they are easily got rid of; and in the cooler weather fleas are excessively numerous.