16 OCTOBER 1852, Page 16

BT. JOHN'S VILLAGE LIFE IN EGYPT..

IT is a law in material production that you can only get one first- rate article out of one subject-matter. The second pressure of the grape is poor compared with the first yield ; if you venture a third, you only get wish-wash ; and a second brewing gives no- thing better than small beer. A similar result follows when the nature of the article does not admit of depreciation. Gold is gold, but you find less of it when somebody has been before you in the digging, till at last the produce does not pay : and it makes no difference if, as Paddy might phrase it, you've been before yourself. Mr. Boyle. St. John has tried to make too Much out of Egypt as if. subject. His journey to the Temple of Jupiter Ammon gave us travel in Egypt. His two years' Residenoe in a Levantine Family presented the results of his observation on Egyptian town life and character, but- in -a -way, as we observed in a notice at the time, which would pot bear much repetition. Had he in the present work stuck to his nominal subject, Village Life, he indeed might have sketched a mode of existence which helad formerly left un- touched,: bnt be has not confined, himself to his text, and he has fallen back upon the leavings of his other books. The framework Of Pillage _We in Egg,* is a passage up the Nile as far as the Ca- taracts; and, by rigidly adhering to his avowed object, sketching the villages and villagers as he passed along, Mr. St. John might have produced a sufficient picture of the Fellahs. The same end could have been reached by a general account sprinkled with native tales and incidental sketches without the framework of travel. the author. has adopted both modes, and combined with each as much of extraneous matter as he has allowed to his main subject. Disquisitions about Mehemet All and his rule—the misery that rule produced, and its failure in effecting its own objects—compa- risons of Oriental.and European life and character, with hits at the civilized man, fair enough but out of place, as well as numerous discussions, and descriptions of Egyptian scenery and antiquities —occupy some half of the whole. In fact, Mr. St. Sohn only fairly starts from Cairo on his voyage towards the end of his first volume.

An ill-arranged plan is not the sole cause of the deficient interest in much of the work. In the disquisitional part there is a want of solidity in the matter and a dash of flippancy in the style. As long as the subject has weight and interest in itself, it loses nothing by Mr. St. John's treatment ; the writer has been too long in the East not to have caught the Oriental manner and form of thought, so that he maintains a dramatic keeping. In the dis- quisitional passages, especially where the value depends upon the soundness of the judgment and the weight of the infused mat- ter, the composition does not rise above the lucubrations of a news- paper's foreign correspondent. .

As regards the Fellahs or native rural Egyptians, Mr. St. John's proposition is that they are a better race than travellers represent them. It is true that they are a lazy, lying, pilfering, cheating, tribe, so far as their stolidity enables them to cheat ; but he traces their faults to their rulers, and thinks they would be better in bet- ter circumstances,—a Foposition that might be predicated of many peoples. The oppression under which they groan is, however, of the harshest; for their rulers are not their countrymen, andthe contempt of a superier to an inferior race seems to mingle with their treatment, though not consciously. Tyranny in the high produces tyranny in the low, and the bastinado is ever at work. This is a taxgathering scene.

"This subject of beating is unpleasant, and I will dismiss it at once. The stick governs Chins, says Montesquieu ' • the naboot governs Egypt. It is a mistake to suppose that the punishment is always inflicted on the soles of the feet. I believe it is more common to horse the patients in true Eton style. Few men can boast of not having smarted at one or other extremity,— if, indeed, impunity be a subject of congratulation. The fellahs arc proud of the number of blows they receive, because they generally suffer in a good

• Village Life in Egypt, with Sketches of the Said. By Bayle Si. John. Author of "Two Years' Residence in a Levantine Family," "Adventures in the Libyan De- Wert," Sm. In two volumes. Published by Chapman and Hall. cause—the refusal to pay excessive taxes. These village lianipdens' know perfectly well that tranquil payment would only generate increased de- mands, and they rarely come down with the money until they have been down themselves. It is curious to see the quiet family 'way in which this important matter is transacted, in the palm-shaded agora of some sequestered hamlet ; and how one sufferer, having paid his double quarterly contribu- tion, goes and squats down as well as he IS able, to see the same game-played over again with another. His countenance though still wincing with pain • be- trays, nevertheless, a consciousness of duty per armed ; and whilst accepting a pipe from some expectant ratepayer, e slily congratulates himself on having saved the few fuddahs which he had held in reserve under his tongue, in case the torture became too exquisite. Meanwhile, the sheikh, burly and fat, with paternal solicitude and main appeals to Allah and his Prophet, exhorts all whom it may concern to think of their latter ends; and having collected at length about the sum required, retires from the scene, hugging himself in the hope that he can keep back a reasonable proportion. But the inevitable naboot again comes into play, and the Nazir avenges the prior fellah in the most satisfactory manner. To this tune the dollars travel gently towards the treasury, and used of old to arrive about in time to buy Mies Nefeesa a necklace of Orient pearls or Madame Nazlet a service of plate from Storr and Mortimer's—as now to furnish a succession of flimsy palaces, or provide an elegant campanella for the viceroyal breed of pigeons."

There are many similar sketches of village life, and Mr. St. John further illustrates the subject by popular tales. These, we think, are among the best parts of the book ; for they seem to ex- hibit in an easy way the incidents, manners, and feelings of the people, while the adventures show the current of their ideas when they pass beyond the bounds of their experience ; what is best of all, they are amusing. Some of the stories are designed to show the stupidity of the rustic compared with the keenness of a towns- man. The tale from which the following extract is taken was told. of one Hak Hair, a hunchback, who among other adventures was sent by his adopted mother to Cairo to sell some fewle, but gets robbed of his poultry and his clothes .to boot. A Caireen wag hears his story, feeds and clothes him, and gives him a cosmetic to sell to his villagers, which will cause their beards and wits to in- crease.

" Hak flak thanked his benefactor, and departing with the case returned to his village, where he announced what he had for sale before the whole assembled population. To his surprise they all burst out laughing, and made fun of him. He returned desponding to his adopted mother's house, and the world was black before his face ; but presently the sheikh sent privately to buy a small packet ; and then the barber ; and then the tobacco-seller ; and then the coffeehouse-keeper --all in private. In fact, before the evening, the whole of his merchandise was sold ; and every man in Rs* Remaly went to bed with his chin steeped in the cosmetic, each believing that both his beard and his wisdom would have doubled in length next morning.

"I wish I could reproduce the pantomime by which 'the morning scene was described ; the snorings, the grunts, the yawns, the impatience for the dawn ; for it appears all the patients had been ordered to keep their jaws carefully wrapped up until daylight. At length the wished-for moment ar- rived. "Then they all hp-rose, arid hastily taking off the cloths which had nearly stifled them, found that their beards came off likewise ! They clapped their hands to their chins, and felt them to be as smooth as their knees ; they jogged their wives, and were greeted by screams of laughter : they ran out into the streets, and learned the truth, that the whole population had been rendered beardless by the ointment which the Caireen wag had given to flak flak. As all were equally unfortunate, all laughed ; but they resolved to punish the unlucky hunchback. Ile was called before the sheikb, where the elders of the village had assembled ; and when he saw the circle of smooth faces, could not help giggling. "'He laugheth, because he bath defiled our beards exclaimed the con- clave. 'It is necessary to put him to death. We are all friends here; us thrust him into a bag, carry him to the river, and throw him in, so hat no more may be heard of him.' "This idea was unanimously accepted ; and Flak flak, in spite of his strug- gles, was carried away in a sack, across an ass's back, towards the river. About noon, his guards stopped to rest, and, lying down, fell asleep, leaving the hunchback still in his sack. Now it happened, that an old man, bent nearly two-double, came driving by an immense flock of sheep ; and seeing these people asleep, and aeack standing up in the middle, was moved by cu- riosity to draw near it. "flak flak had managed to open it a little and to look out with ono eye ; which observing, the old shepherd marvelled, saying, A bag with an eye did I never see before.'

"He demanded, in a low voice, what was the meaning of this. The eye became a mouth, and replied, I am the unfortunate flak flak, whom these people are taking by force to marry the Sultan's daughter.' What ! ' said the old man, who had married thirty-three wives in the course of his life ; and dost thou repine at such good fortune ? ' "'So much, that I would give all I possess to find a substitute.' "'Would not I do Perfectly well?' quoth the shepherd. I am not very old; I have two teeth left, and one of my eyes is good enough: but they would not take me in exchange.'

"'Oh, yes, wallah, they would, if you call yourself Hak flak: it appear- eth that the name is fortunate, and I have been chosen Only on this account. Untie the bag, and let me out.'

"The shepherd, whose hands trembled from age and excitement, liberated flak flak, made him a present Of his flock, and bade him tie the bag very tightly, lest the change should be discovered. The hunchback did as he was desired, and hastened to retire with his sheep. Meanwhile, the villagers, waking up, threw their prisoner again upon the ass, and, proceeding on their journey, plunged the poor old man into the river, just as he was dreaming with delight of his first interview with the Sultan's daughter ; how he would smile and look pleasant, and how she would bid him be of good cheer. "This was thought a particularly amusing incident. There is little re- spect for human life in the East, and the hunchback was considered to have done a very clever thing. The great point of the joke was, that just as the poor old shepherd opened his mouth to address his imaginary bride, it was filled with cold water ; and the Tantawi represented, with horrible contor- tions, deemed highly comic, the somewhat tardy disenchantment of the drowning man."

It is not only the Orientals that will be amused with the mis- fortune of the old shepherd; and the cause seems to be that he has brought it on himself by his egregious vanity, and by being a willing party to a double fraud. True, he is foolish ; but in fiction, as in real life weakness under most circumstances excites little sympathy, if it escape being esteemed, according to circumstances, a fault or a crime.