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    by the " well educated " young men in this country 5 fciit th % Egyptians have not , like uS > bodies of men devoted to re&l science , literature , and useful arts , who are the truly educated classes of the country . On physics , the science at the basis df nearly all the rest , they have the most errofaeous notions : — ** Some few of the learned venture to assert that the earth is a globe ; but they are opposed by a great majority of the 'Ool ' ama . The common opinion of all classes of Moos'lims is , that the earth is an almost plane expanse , surrounded by the ocean , which , they say , is encompassed by a chain of mountains called Cka'f . "—Vol . I . p . 281 .

    Their astronomy should be more properly called astrology their chemistry , alchymy . Of geography they are almost totally ignorant . Medicine is neither studied nor practised as a science . Ignorant barbers are their practitioners ; but the more usual resource in illness is the use of charms and incantations .

    This fact should not be forgotten in any calculations of the length of life in Egypt , or the salubrity of the climate . No statistical comparison on these subjects can be instituted with countries in a more advanced state of knowledge , without reference to the certainty that acute diseases must necessarily prove mortal in almost every case among the Egyptian people * Music and dancing are cultivated by them . There seem to be

    nothing like dramatic representations . Painting and sculpture are prohibited by the laws of the Ckoor-a ' n ! Of their poetry several specimens are given in the present work , consisting chiefly of love songs , and of no great merit . It will be conjectured that people in such a state of ignorance are the victims of all sorts of superstitions , and this we find to be the case . The Ba ' sha , however , among his other innovations , has lately established a printing-press ; as yet it is chiefly used to promote his military plans , but it will do its work in time .

    The condition of the peasantry , who are chiefly agriculturists * appears to be extreriiely wretched . The following anecdote jjaay serve as a specimen of the kind of tyranny to which they are subject : —

    " A Turk , infamous for many barbarous acts , presiding at th 6 town of Tun ' ta , in the Delta , went one night to the government granary of that town , and finding two peasants sleeping there , asked them who they were , and what was their business in that place . One of them said that he had brought 130 ardeb'bs of corn from a village of the district ; and the other , that he had brought 60 ardeb'bs from the land belonging to the town . i You rascal T said the governor to the latter : * this

    man brings 130 ardeb'bs from the lands of a small village ; and you , but 60 from the lands of the town . '—' This man / answered the peasant of Tun ' ta , ' brings corn but once a week ; and I am now bringing it every day . * — ' $ 6 silent ! ' said the governor ; and , pointings ft neighbouring tree , ordered one of the servants of the granary to

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    S ( $ Manners and Customs

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 1, 1837, page 86, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1828/page/39/