380

REQUEST OF A TURK.

ness and triumph, as one sometimes says - You will —will you?' It was a Turk who had shot the bird, and he was now watching the affair from the bank. I hastened towards him, and neither understanding the other's language, we commenced, after the usual salām, a sort of telegraphic conversation, the bird and our guns being the chief topic. The Turk had taken mine to examine, and appeared much pleased with it, particularly with the locks, when the vulture renewed his attack upon the man. Requesting permission to end the business with my gun, he ordered his myrmidon to stand aside, and the bird immediately fell. His head was under him, and he bled profusely, and seemed, after being convulsed for a moment, to be quite dead. He was shot from less than four yards distance, and the gun contained six small Turkish bullets; notwithstanding this, after we had finished our communications, which lasted some minutes, I saw him struggling again. He stood higher than a full-sized turkey-cock, measured about ten feet from point to point of the wings, and his beak and talons were terrific. I pity Prometheus if such was his guardian. However, he was avenged, and by fire too. On getting into my boat, I received a message from the Turk, requesting that I would give him my gun; but this I declined; not however, abruptly, for that is not ton in the desert, but with the usual string of oriental compliments.

DCXXXIX. The Coptic inhabitants of Egypt are said to amount to one hundred and sixty thousand,

MANNERS OF THE COPTS.

381

ten thousand of whom are found in Cairo. In the villages they are devoted, like the fellahs, to the labours of agriculture; though many of them exercise different trades. At Siout, for example, they are weavers ; in the Fayoom, distillers of rose-water; mat-makers at Menouf; and in Cairo goldsmiths, tailors, masons, or cabinet-makers. Under the Mamalooks they were tax-gatherers and financiers; but this class are now reduced to mere clerks. Bigotedly tenacious of their ancient customs, their women, among whom a kind of circumcision* is still practised, pass their lives in extreme retirement, never appearing unveiled, even before their nearest relations. Their religion enjoins auricular confession, the administering of bread and wine in the sacrament of the Lord's supper, and the bathing of the whole body before communion. Intermarriage with the members of a different church is prohibited. The condition of women, as among other barbarous nations, is degraded and servile; but the mother of many children is held in much higher esteem than she who is barren. Under all circumstances, however, the husband and wife, who neither eat nor sit together, live estranged from each other, being destitute of that impassioned vivacity which breaks down the restraints of custom, and transforms a legal union into an affair of the heart. Girls, who are frequently married before the age of puberty, from ten to twelve years old, wear a

* Mengin, who likewise mentions this circumstance, observes, moreover, that," Le plupart font aussi circoncire leurs enfans mâles à l'âge de cinq à six ans, par mesure de propreté." ―t. ii. p. 294.

382

TEMPORARY MARRIAGE.

white veil; married women are distinguished by a black one, ominous of their melancholy state of servitude.

DCXL. Notwithstanding, however, the severity of their exterior, the Copts are no less lax in their morals than the Mohammedans. Adultery is common; and they likewise practise a kind of pro-tempore marriage, little different from prostitution. When a stranger arrives at Cairo, or any other large city, and is desirous of entering, like a Chinese, into a matrimonial arrangement for a certain number of weeks or months, he applies to a Coptic priest, who immediately provides him with a wife. A contract, binding for the time as any other marriage contract, is drawn up; the usual ceremonies are performed; and the parties regarded as legally united. But, as might be expected, these women are seldom faithful to their temporary husbands, and the connection usually terminates in mutual disgust and premature separation. The history of one affair of this kind was related to me at Cairo. A Pole, not choosing to burden himself with a harem of black women, and preferring a Christian helpmate, made regular application to a Coptic priest, who, like the servants of Athor on the ancient establishment, attended to his wishes without delay. The contract was drawn up and signed; the husband engaged to defray the expenses of the marriage; to maintain the lady in a certain style while she remained in his house; and, in the event of his death, or desire of annulling the

ANECDOTE OF A POLE.

383

engagement before its expiration, to make over to his spouse two thousand piastres. On the other hand, the lady - - a pretty young Copt - promised to be honest and faithful, in short, to perform all the duties of a wife. For the first day their happiness was unclouded; but on the second or third, a strange man was observed entering the house in the husband's absence, and after remaining some time, again departing before his return. Being well known, his neighbours very kindly informed him of what had taken place; but, upon inquiry, the visitor was pronounced to be her father. Her relations, however, who appeared to be numerous, invariably made their visits in the husband's absence. He at length began to complain, the lady to be angry; and a quarrel ensuing, the enraged Pole desired her to quit his house, to which she made no objection, merely requiring that the two thousand piastres should first be paid. the marriage contract had Tearing it to pieces in his fury, he placed his wife, with her whole wardrobe, on a number of asses, and desiring her to return to her confessor, rudely closed the door. After her departure he found, in a recess, a quantity of blood*, mingled with milk, which, among the Copts, is said to be a potent poison; so that he did not doubt her intention was to inherit his property in a short time. It is, however, more probable, that the horrid mixture was meant to be administered as a philtre; since the same superstitious

But, by good fortune, remained in his hands.

τὰ καταμήνια γυναικεία, ἡ ἔμμηνος κάθαρσις.

practice prevailed in the middle ages, among the Christian ladies of the West. *

DCXLI. The number of Jews in Egypt is now much less considerable than formerly, not exceeding three thousand at Cairo, and five hundred at Alexandria. Like the rest of the inhabitants, they are generally reduced to poverty; none, indeed, are rich, and few possess even a competency. The exceptions that occur are found at Alexandria. They are now, like the professors of all other religions, exempt from persecution of every kind, being hampered by no civil disability, having it in their power to purchase lands or houses no less than the Musulmans. Poverty, however, operating in their disfavour more effectually than the ancient laws, confines them, at Cairo, to the most wretched quarter of the city, where they live in streets resembling the interior of a slaughter-house, ‡ where the plague commonly makes its appearance first, and exercises its most fearful ravages. The character of the Jew, which appears to unite a great degree of indolence with an insatiable appetite for gain, exhibits in Egypt the same

* Burchard (Bishop of Worms) De Pœnitentia Decretorum, 1. xix. + In the time of Benjamin of Tudela, there were three thousand Jews in Alexandria.—Travels, &c. part i. ch. v. Kerr's Collection, vol. i. p. 112.

Mengin, who speaks still more disparagingly of this part of Cairo, relates the following characteristic anecdote :-" Une dame juive, venue d'Egypte à Paris, me disait avec l'accent de regret: Ah! Monsieur, où est le Kaire, où est le quartier juif!' Et je me disais alors: 'L'amour de la patrie est-il donc si puissant?'"-t. ii. p. 281.