Egypt of the Pharaohs and of the Khedivé

by F. Barham Zincke

Every brain is a world any of these may grow in, and in which some must grow. For the seeds of some are carried about in the air. The seeds of others circulate in the blood. Others come from the heart. Some also are the growth of good seeds deposited in the mind by human intention and care.

What, then, are the ideas which have been implanted, or have somehow come to exist, in the minds of these inmates of the hareem? As a rule they have been taught nothing. Not even their religion. They have not been permitted to enter a Mosk at the time of prayer. All the ideas which get established in the minds of educated women in our happier part of the world, through some religious instruction, through some acquaintance with history, or art, or science, or poetry, or general literature, have never had a chance in the minds of the ladies of Cairo. They were left to those ideas, the germs of which float about in the air, or circulate in the blood, or come from the heart. And the only air that could convey ideas to them was that of the hareem; first of the hareem in which they were brought up, then of the hareem in which they must pass the remainder of their days. They have never breathed, and will never breathe, any other air. And as to the ideas, the germs of which are in the blood, and which come from the heart, they never had any chance of regulating them. Womanhood came upon them at the age of ten. Many were married at twelve. Why, before it could have been possible, had the attempt been made, for them to receive the ideas that come from religion, literature, poetry, science, art, or history, the germs that come from the blood, and from the heart, had got possession of the whole ground, and had absorbed all the nutriment the ground contained. There was no room for, nor anything to feed, any other ideas: for them time was necessary, and that, precisely, was the one thing it was impossible to have.

No wonder, then, that the lords of the hareem suppose the ground incapable of producing anything better. Under the circumstances perhaps they are right. Hence comes their thought that a woman is a houri, a toy: nothing more. But a toy that is very liable to go wrong: perhaps they are right again under the circumstances: and so must be carefully guarded. All experience, however, teaches that there is nothing so difficult, almost so impossible to guard. This is a case in which no bars or sentinels can save the shrine from profanation, unless the goddess within herself will it. The supple and soured guardians, too, are often useless; often, indeed, the intermediate agents in the very mischief they were to guard against. And so the toy goes wrong. And then it must be ruthlessly crushed. The men have their business, their money-making, their ambition, their society, their religion. In their minds all these implant counteracting ideas. And yet all these we are told are with them sometimes feeble in comparison with the ideas that come from the blood. How, then, can we wonder that the frailer, and more susceptible minds, being absolutely deprived of all counteracting influences, should at times become the victims of their susceptibility and frailty? Nor need we be surprised that, when detected, their brothers, and fathers, and husbands should avail themselves of the permission, given both by law and custom, to wipe out their disgrace, by putting out of sight for ever the cause of it. Disgrace they feel keenly; and pity is not one of their virtues.

CHAPTER XLIV.
CAN ANYTHING BE DONE FOR THE EAST?

Well begun is half-done.

Can the oriental mind be roused into new life and activity? Can it be made more fruitful than it has proved of late, in what conduces to the well-being of communities, and of individuals? I see no reason why Egypt and Syria should not, in the future, as they did in the past, support populous, wealthy, and orderly communities, which might occupy a creditable position, even in the modern world, in respect of that moral and intellectual power, which is the distinguishing mark of man. But what might bring about this desirable result among them could only be that which has brought it about among other men.

The first requisite is security for person and property. No people were ever possessed of this without advancing, or were ever deprived of it without retrograding. The pursuit of property is the most universal, and the most potent of all natural educators. It teaches thoughtfulness, foresight, industry, self-denial, frugality, and many other valuable, if secondary and minor virtues, more generally and effectually than schools, philosophers, and religions have ever taught them. But where the local Governor, and the tax-collector are the complete lords of the ascendant, the motive to acquire property is nearly killed; and where it does in some degree survive, it has to be exercised under such disadvantages, that it becomes a discipline of vice rather than of virtue. Such, for centuries, has been the condition, under the rule of the Turk, of these by nature, in many respects, highly-favoured countries. The first step, then, towards their recovery must be to give them what they never have had, and never can have, we may almost affirm, under Eastern despots, perfect security for person and property. That would alone, and in itself, be a resurrection to life. It would lead on to everything that is wanted.

An auxiliary might be found in (which may appear to some equally, or even more prosaic) a larger and freer use of the printing press, that is, of books and newspapers. This would, of course, naturally, and of itself, follow the security just spoken of. It would, however, be desirable in this fargone and atrophied case, if some means for the purpose could be discovered, or created, to anticipate a little, to put even the cart before the horse, and to introduce at once, I will not say a more extended use, but the germ of the use, of books and newspapers. I am afraid the effort would be hopeless, as things are now; and I know it would spring up of itself, if things were as they ought to be. Still the effort might be made. It is the only useful direction in which there appears to be at present an opening for philanthropic work.

And, to speak sentimentally, what country has a more rightful claim to the benefits of the printing press than Egypt? It is only the modern application of the old Egyptian discovery of letters. To carry back to Egypt its own discovery, advanced some steps farther, is but a small acknowledgment that without that discovery none of our own progress, nor much, indeed, of human progress of any kind, would ever have been possible. There are a printing press, and even a kind of newspaper at Cairo, and, of course, at Alexandria; and at Jerusalem it is possible to get a shopkeeper’s card printed. But what is wanted is that there should be conferred on the people, to some considerable proportion—if such a thing be possible—the power of reading; and that there should be awakened within them the desire to read. No efforts, I think, would be so useful as those which might have these simple aims.