An account of the manners and customs of the modern Egyptians

by Edward William Lane

A very great number of persons of both sexes among the lower orders in Cairo, and many in other towns of Egypt, obtain their subsistence by begging. As might be expected, not a few of these are abominable impostors. There are some whose appearance is most distressing to every humane person who sees them, but who accumulate considerable property. A case of this kind was made public here a few months ago. A blind felláh, who was led through the streets of the metropolis by a young girl, his daughter, both of whom were always nearly naked, was in the daily habit of bringing to his house a blind Turkish beggar to sup with him. One evening he was not at home; but his daughter was there, and had prepared the supper for his Turkish friend, who sat and ate alone; and, in doing this, happened to put his hand on one side and felt a jar full of money, which, without scruple, he carried away with him. It contained the sum of a hundred and ten purses (then equivalent to rather more than five hundred and fifty guineas), in kheyreeyehs, or small coins of nine piasters each. The plundered beggar sought redress at the Citadel, and recovered his property, with the exception of forty kheyreeyehs, which the thief had spent, but was interdicted from begging in future. Children are often seen in Cairo perfectly naked; and I have several times seen females from twelve to twenty years of age, and upwards, with only a narrow strip of rag round the loins, begging in the streets of this city. They suffer little from exposure of the bare person to the cold of winter or the scorching sun of summer, being accustomed to it from infancy; and the men may, if they choose, sleep in some of the mosques. In other respects, also, their condition is not quite so bad as their appearance might lead a stranger to suppose. They are almost sure of obtaining either food or money sufficient for supplying the absolute wants of nature in consequence of the charitable disposition of their countrymen and the common habit which the tradespeople have of eating in their shops, and generally giving a morsel of their food to those who ask for it. There are many beggars who spend the greater part of the day’s gains to indulge themselves at night with the intoxicating hasheesh, which, for a few hours, renders them, in imagination, the happiest of mankind.

The cries of the beggars of Cairo are generally appeals to God. Among the most common are—“O Exciter of compassion! O Lord!”—“For the sake of God! O ye charitable!”—“I am seeking from my Lord a cake of bread!”—“O how bountiful Thou art! O Lord!”—“I am the guest of God and the Prophet!”—in the evening, “My supper must be Thy gift! O Lord!”—on the eve of Friday, “The night of the excellent Friday!”—and on Friday, “The excellent day of Friday!”—One who daily passed my door used to exclaim, “Place thy reliance upon God! There is none but God!” and another, a woman, I now hear crying, “My supper must be Thy gift! O Lord! from the hand of a bountiful believer, a testifier of the unity of God! O masters!”—The answers which beggars generally receive (for they are so numerous that a person cannot give to all who ask of him) are, “God help thee!”—“God will sustain!”—“God give thee!”—“God content, or enrich, thee!”—They are not satisfied by any denial but one implied by these or similar answers. In the more frequented streets of Cairo, it is common to see a beggar asking for the price of a cake of bread, which he or she holds in the hand, followed by the seller of the bread. Some beggars, particularly darweeshes, go about chanting verses in praise of the Prophet, or beating cymbals, or a little kettle-drum. In the country, many darweeshes go from village to village begging alms. I have seen them on horseback; and one I lately saw thus mounted, and accompanied by two men bearing each a flag, and by a third beating a drum: this beggar on horseback was going from hut to hut asking for bread.

The most important of the occupations which employ the modern Egyptians, and that which (as before mentioned) engages all but a very small proportion of them, is agriculture.

THE SHÁDOOF.

Lane’s Modern Egyptians]

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The greater portion of the cultivable soil is fertilized by the natural annual inundation; but the fields in the vicinity of the river and of the large canals, and some other lands, in which pits are dug for water, are irrigated by means of machines of different kinds. The most common of these machines is the “shádoof,” which consists of two posts or pillars of wood, or of mud and canes or rushes, about five feet in height, and less than three feet apart, with a horizontal piece of wood extending from top to top, to which is suspended a slender lever, formed of a branch of a tree, having at one end a weight chiefly composed of mud, and at the other, suspended to two long palm-sticks, a vessel in the form of a bowl, made of basket-work, or of a hoop and a piece of woollen stuff or leather: with this vessel the water is thrown up to the height of about eight feet into a trough hollowed out for its reception. In the southern parts of Upper Egypt, four or five shádoofs are required, when the river is at the lowest, to raise the water to the level of the fields. There are many shádoofs with two levers, etc., which are worked by two men. The operation is extremely laborious.—Another machine much used for the same purpose, and almost the only one employed for the irrigation of gardens in Egypt, is the “sákiyeh.” This mainly consists of a vertical wheel, which raises the water in earthen pots attached to cords, and forming a continuous series; a second vertical wheel fixed to the same axis, with cogs; and a large, horizontal, cogged wheel, which, being turned by a pair of cows or bulls, or by a single beast, puts in motion the two former wheels and the pots. The construction of this machine is of a very rude kind, and its motion produces a disagreeable creaking noise.—There is a third machine, called “táboot,” used for the irrigation of lands in the northern parts of Egypt, where it is only requisite to raise the water a few feet. It somewhat resembles the “sákiyeh:” the chief difference is, that, instead of the wheel with pots, it has a large wheel with hollow jaunts, or fellies, in which the water is raised. In the same parts of Egypt, and often to raise the water to the channel of the “táboot,” a vessel like that of the “shádoof,” with four cords attached to it, is also used. Two men, each holding two of the cords, throw up the water by means of this vessel, which is called “katweh.”—In the process of artificial irrigation, the land is divided into small squares, by ridges of earth, or into furrows; and the water, flowing from the machine along a narrow gutter, is admitted into one square or furrow after another.

The “rei” lands (or those which are naturally inundated) are, with some exceptions, cultivated but once during the year. After the waters have retired, about the end of October or beginning of November, they are sown with wheat, barley, lentils, beans, lupins, chick-peas, etc. This is called the “shitawee” (or winter) season. But the “sharákee” lands (or those which are too high to be subject to the natural inundation), and some parts of the rei, by artificial irrigation are made to produce three crops every year; though not all the sharákee lands are thus cultivated. The lands artificially irrigated produce, first, their shitawee crops, being sown at the same period as the rei lands, generally with wheat or barley. Secondly, in what is called the “seyfee,” or, in the southern parts of Egypt, the “keydee,” or “geydee” (that is, the summer) season, commencing about the vernal equinox, or a little later, they are sown with millet (“durah seyfee”), or with indigo, or cotton, etc. Thirdly, in the “demeereh” season, or period of the rise of the Nile, commencing about, or soon after the summer solstice, they are sown with millet again, or with maize (“durah shámee”), etc., and thus crowned with a third harvest.—Sugar is cultivated throughout a large portion of Upper Egypt, and rice in the low lands near the Mediterranean.

For the purpose of separating the grain of wheat, barley, etc., and cutting the straw, which serves as fodder, the Egyptians use a machine called “nórag,” in the form of a chair, which moves upon small iron wheels, or thin circular plates, generally eleven, fixed to three thick axle-trees, four to the foremost, the same number to the hindmost, and three to the intermediate axle-tree. This machine is drawn, in a circle, by a pair of cows or bulls, over the corn. The plough, and the other implements which they use in husbandry, are of rude and simple kinds.