The barrier which exists between the fellah and the European official is almost insurmountable. Not many officials visit the country districts at all; when they do they stop at the shekhs’ houses, and are always attended by servants, before whom no man would speak if he could avoid it, as they would talk about him to the natives in the offices. Then the fellah is timid, dreads men who go about on prancing horses, and wear riding-boots and spurs—all that means police and terrorism to him. Unless therefore there is something very seriously amiss, the fellah in general will not fly to the European official, on the rare occasion when he sees him in the distance, and get himself into the fire by trying to put some one else into the frying-pan. If any one wanted to learn what was going on, and what was the state of affairs, let him go on foot occasionally and tramp through some villages, chat to the people by the way, avoid the shekhs like poison; and, while not at all disguising who he was in conversation, move about in as different a manner to the ordinary official as he possibly can. Some wiseacres have even said, ‘Well, let them petition if there is anything amiss.’ Petition, indeed! from people who cannot write, and have no knowledge in general of who is the proper official to appeal to, or where he is! If they go to one of the clerks at the wayside—where they sit about the office doors,—he will at once inform the natives in the very office which may be in fault: if they go to the village scribe, he is generally a right-hand man of the shekh, who may be the very defendant in question. No! European administration, except in important or flagrant cases, scarcely touches the life of the fellah directly.
When I first met the fellah, I had always impressed upon me by an old Arab that no one ever did anything rightly unless they were heartily afraid; and though this may be a harsh way to state it, the fact is true at bottom. There is no need to terrorise or to bully, and with most Egyptians perfect suavity is the best course; but if a man transgresses in any way he must be met by sternness, and emphatically put into his right place. One of the most effective of minor rebukes is to raise a laugh at the transgressor among the bystanders: to make a man’s doings ridiculous to his neighbours crushes him more than any expostulations. The fellah has a good sense of the ludicrous, though he very seldom originates a joke. I have known little comparisons or nicknames that I have given, taken up all round by the people with a relish, and be repeated sometimes for days afterwards. Nothing smoothes matters more than getting them into a cheerful mood; and I have often watched the faces when a discussion or difference has occurred, and by just throwing in a remark when a passing smile appeared, to bring it out into a laugh, the scale has been turned and business settled. The native in general squabbles over a difference with his fellows, shouts, and insists, shows fight, seizes the garments of his opponent, and threatens to tear them; all for, perhaps, a pennyworth of advantage one way or other. They think equally that persistent worrying will wear out the determination of the European; and, until they learn by long experience, they will try that method. I have known a shekh stand facing me for over half an hour persisting that I should employ certain men to work for me; and, though my refusals increased in strength, it was not until he was wearied out that he ceased: it is a simple battle of endurance in such cases. He knew that his position would prevent direct personal ejection by force, and he accordingly used up that forbearance as so much leverage for his request.
Two principles of the fellah nature which Europeans cannot realise at first are that they cannot exercise forbearance, as we have noticed; and secondly, that they cannot stand long-continued temptation. Residents sometimes say that the native is incurably bad; that he may serve you for years, and rob you at the end. But such cases are really the fault of the employer, who has no more right to tempt people to rob him than to tempt them to murder him. To reconcile such a view of the fellah with the astonishing honesty and particularity that I have often found, may seem difficult. But time is the source of the difference. A man who will at once correct his accounts against himself, or bring you some trifle that you have overlooked or forgotten, will be quite incapable of even far less honesty, if the temptation is before him for months. Their impulses are generally sound and honest; but if they begin to look on anything as being in their hands, they drift easily into regarding it as their own. It is only a more rapid application of what may be seen in England regarding long trusts, charities, tenant-right, &c. The straightforward honesty that I have found on most occasions when an immediate temptation was before the fellah, has surprised me, and makes it needful to remember that this must not be strained and tried by continual temptation, the exposure to which will almost certainly spoil the character, and oblige one to cast aside a man who might otherwise have been useful and honest. Knowing this, I regard these failings of the fellah as lying quite as much at his employer’s door as at his own.
One of the pleasantest points of the Egyptian character is the genuine and unfeigned hospitality so often met with. If in walking through a village I happen to pass the shekh sitting at his door, he will usually press the stranger to come in and have coffee, and hardly take a refusal. When pitching tent for the night, it is well to avoid coming under the shekh’s notice, or probably he will insist on your stopping in his house: and in the larger towns the shekhs have sometimes excellent guest-chambers, with European furniture. This is hospitality for which no return is expected, or would be accepted. Even with poor people it is the custom for them to press one to stay, and to have coffee or food with them. An Egyptian travelling in England would think it very brutal that neither the squire nor any of the inhabitants of a village should press him to stay for a meal or for the night with them: he would set us down as shamelessly mercenary, and without any sense of propriety or generosity.
It is certain that the perceptions of an Egyptian are far less keen than ours. Their feeling of pain is hardly comparable with our own: with bad injuries, such as torn or crushed fingers, they do not seem at all distressed; and a boy said to me that it was no wonder I healed quickly, as I did not disturb a wound, ‘whereas an Arab would pull a cut open to look at it inside.’ With pain, so with the senses in health. They cannot distinguish one person from another by the footstep; they do not easily distinguish a voice; they seldom respond or seem to perceive any words when called from a distance, unless the attention is aroused by loudly calling the person’s name; they never notice slight or distant sounds, and seem to suppose that you will never perceive a whisper from one to another. That the sense of smell is not much developed is only too evident from the fearfully filthy condition of the village surroundings, which are sometimes poisonous to an European.
Unfortunately the result of education is rather to spoil than to develop natural ability. Of the very few peasants I have met with who had been taught to write, two were fools in other matters, all common sense and ability appearing to have been crushed out of them. Nor is this at all surprising, when we know that the cardinal part of Muslim education is the learning of the pointless prolixities of the Koran by heart, as a pure matter of rote, without the use of the reason or intellect. To burden a child’s mind with such a fearful task is enough to ruin it, if not strong. It is a sad sight to see the whole of the coming intellects of a town rocking themselves to and fro while they gabble through sura after sura of the Koran in a gusty sing-song voice without pause or point; and then to reflect that this is the end and aim of nearly all their education. The native Coptic schools are the only encouraging sight of indigenous training; and the ability shown by some of their boys is astonishing.
What then can we look forward to as the hope of improvement of such a people? In the first place, a strong and just government, with a sufficient amount of an incorruptible European element to crush out bribery and ensure justice; this, in a couple of generations, would go far to alter the national character. To trust one’s money to the care of the government at the post-office, is the idea which astounds a fellah more than anything else he can learn of England. An education in which the Koran is but incidental, and not a crushing load on the memory, is another necessity. A spread of some sanitary ideas, and a cheap supply of some staple medicines for the commonest ailments, would be a great step: the utter ignorance and lack of all common sense in such matters is appalling. Probably improved dwellings, on some large estates, would be the most powerful means for changing their notions; only such must not be Europeanised, but thoroughly native houses reasonably arranged as to ventilation, dryness, and disposal of all refuse; thus they might lead to imitation; and a small premium on well-built houses would push the subject. The only class yet appreciably affected for the better by foreign influence is the Coptic community; and in that the energy of the American missionaries, and the good example of their followers, has produced a healthy awakening amid the body of the race, which is perhaps the most promising sight in the country at present. The enterprise of the Copt in education and improvement, with the advantage of the higher standard of Christianity above the ethics of the Koran, may now develop a better moral fibre in the nation, without which its advance is hopeless. The great snare to be avoided is the foreign character of improvements; so long as speaking a foreign language, wearing foreign clothes, and aping foreign manners are thought to be the objects of a change, we cannot expect to see a real progress in the character of a nation. That English influence has a vast field for philanthropic enterprise in this six millions of people is obvious; but the best intentions may be too easily nullified by ignorance of the conditions of the case, and by the incapacity and resistance of the average native official, by whom it is useless to expect any serious change or solid advance to be carried out to order.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE ACTIVE TRIPPER IN EGYPT.
So much is Egypt the resort of the invalid, that the guide-books seem all infected with invalidism; and to read their directions it might be supposed that no Englishman could walk a mile or more without an attendant of some kind. In reality, Egypt is one of the most delightful countries for a walking tour, as regards circumstances. For three months from the middle of November there will never be a day too warm for active exercise; there will be hardly any rain above Cairo, nor as much in the Delta as during the summer in any European country. There is the same safety as in England or France: in very lonely places, as upon the desert, an occasional robbery may be committed, but I have never been molested by either fellahin or Bedawin. Of course, the native language is as much needed as in any foreign country; but a sufficient amount of colloquial Arabic can be learned in a few weeks. Three friends of mine have come out with only what could be briefly learned in England, and each has been able in a week or two to make his way sufficiently. Learn first of all what you want in Baedecker’s vocabulary; refer to Murray, or better, to a dictionary, for any further words you want; and absorb the addenda of very common words which come at the end of this chapter; then a week or two in Cairo, talking to the natives as much as possible, would quite suffice to float the active tripper. The main trouble is to catch what is said to you; and for this there is no better practice than listening to short sentences heard in the streets, and analysing them.
Many would-be trippers think of Egypt as so vastly expensive that they dare not attempt it. I will therefore be explicit as to means as well as ways. The P. & O., Orient, &c., are a needless cost. If a long voyage is no objection, Moss’s line from Liverpool to Alexandria will provide all sufficient comfort, for £14, or £24 return ticket; this is a favourite way of despatching the families of English officials, to save the trouble and cost of the Overland route. For quickness and cheapness the Messageries from Marseilles to Alexandria is best; the second class is excellent, as good as the first on some lines; cost about £14, from London in six days. But all except hand baggage should be sent to Alexandria by long sea route. From experience I can say that for all expenses from London for three or four months and back again, from £50 to £100 will suffice, according to the amount of travelling in Egypt, &c., including food and wages.