His dress, or the absence of it, caused the ladies to make a precipitate retreat, and to fall again to their reading, with an appearance of deep absorption. Soon another beggar joined the fellow, and we tossed a few coppers into the boat. They took the money in their mouths, as they had no other way of carrying it, and one of them got so much copper that it nearly strangled him. About a dozen made the attempt to board the steamer, and more than half of them succeeded. Remember that the steamer was going at full speed against the stream and you will wonder how they got on board. I watched one fellow, and here is his mode of operations.
These men swim, not after the Occidental manner, but with a hand-over-hand motion, analagous to the swimming of a dog. When a man wanted to board the steamer, he took a position near her supposed track, so that when she passed him the wheels were not more than a yard from his head. The instant the wheel had gone by, he struck out most vigorously towards the stern of the steamer, and by great effort was able to climb into the small boat, towing behind us. Formerly they came on the steamer itself, and rendered it necessary for the ladies to retreat to the cabins, but at present they can come no further than the small boats.
The Copts are supposed to be the descendants of the ancient Egyptians, but they have become so mixed with the Arabs and others, that it is hard to say what they are. They form about one-sixteenth of the population, and the most of them are Christians; the name is generally applied only to the Christian natives, but there are many Copts who are Mohammedans.
Their ancient language is almost lost; it is used in the churches for reading the prayers, in the same way that the Catholics use Latin, and the Russians the Slavonic. Their language in daily life is the Egyptian Arabic of the rest of the country; as a rule, they are better educated than the rest of the people, and are extensively employed as clerks and bookkeepers, not only in shops, but in various government offices. They have a cleaner and better kept appearance on the whole than the Moslem Arabs, and some of them are such great rascals, and show so much skill in swindling, as to indicate considerable familiarity with the principles of civilization.
The Copts were among the earliest converts to Christianity, but they embraced heretical doctrines, which received the denunciation of the Church in the sixth century. Several of their churches may be seen in the Fostal quarter of Cairo.
We passed in this part of the river a great many sugar-mills, most of them in full operation, as it was then the proper season of the cane-harvest. The boat stopped at Minieh long enough to allow us to visit one of these mills.
The mill is on a grand scale, the machinery for crushing the cane and reducing the piece to sugar is all of French manufacture, and is of the most perfect character. I was unable to ascertain what amount of sugar is made there, or at the other points, but the product ought to be very large, to judge by the size of the mills and their number. The mill at Minieh covers a large area, and is so arranged that from the time the cane enters the crushers until the dry sugar is ready, there is no occasion for lifting or handling the material, except in a few instances. The sugar culture ought to pay a handsome profit, but I was told that it is really a loss, and that the Khedive would gladly sell it out to private parties. The cause of this unprofitableness is due, I was told, to the frauds of the managers of the mills. Such a state of affairs is not confined to Egypt alone; there are many countries where government factories have been run at a loss, but when turned into private hands, have yielded a handsome profit.