LANE S ACCOUNT OF THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE

MODERN EGYPTIANS.

MR. LANE appears to have proceeded to Egypt in 1825, and to have remained there some years, in order to study Arabic. On

his return to England, the notes he had made during his sojourn

were perused by some of the Useful Knowledge gentlemen, and a wish expressed by the Committee, to whom they were submitted,

for their completion and publication. To accomplish this desire, Mr. LANE returned to Egypt in 1833; and, adding to his former stores, proceeded to arrange his materials and write his book in the very place of which lie treated. A long residence in the country, and an acquaintance with its language. were not, however, the only advantages possessed by Mr. LANE. He informs us that he mixed almost exclusively with the natives, complying with their customs, adopting their habits, agreeing with their opinions when conscience would allow him, remaining silent when he dissented, and even going so far as to eschew pork, wine, and knives and forks. Through these means, he was mistaken in public for a Turk ; and as such, having studied their sacred ceremonies, he entered their mosques and mixed in their religious festivals without suspicion. His inti- mates of course knew him as an Englishman ; but he constrained them to treat him as a Moslem, by "acknowledging the hand of Providence in the introduction end diffusion of the Mohltammadan religion, and avowing his belief in the Messiah in accordance with

the words of the Ckoor-a'n" (in English Koran). Still there were

difficulties; the Mahometans being averse to discuss religious topics with persons " whom they suspect of differing from them in sentiments, but very ready to talk on subjects with those whom they think acquainted with them." Mr. LANE therefore wormed his way, by getting what little they knew out of the laxer faithful, and then gradually drawing out the more and more serious. In addition to all these sources, he had " two professors of Arabic, and of Mohammedan religion and law, as regular salaried tutors ;" and tested his general information by their opinions. "Occasionally, also, he has applied to higher authorities ; having the happiness to number amongst his friends in this city (Cairo) some persons of the highest attainments in Eastern learning." The result of this labour, time, and opportunity, has been to produce a very full and elaborate account of the modern Egyp- tians,—if it be not, indeed, the minutest and amplest description of

a people and their physical circumstances that has ever yet appeared. The author commences his task with a description of the country

and climate; a detailed picture of Cairo and its domiciles illus- trated with plates sufficient to enable his reader to build a house, if he wishes it, harem and all; as well as an approximate account of the population. The personal characteristics and dress of the Mahometan Egyptians, their management in infancy, the method and extent of their education, and the government, religion, laws, and administration of justice, are next treated. Then follow the

habits and behaviour in domestic life of the different classes of society ; the common usages, the language, literature, and science of the people; their superstitions, and black or occult arts, together with the general character both of men, and women. This enu- meration embraces the first volume only ; the second is devoted to their industry, recreations, entertainments, and festivals, the whole naturally ending with death and funeral rites.

In so wide a field of observation, and with such a multitude of objects on which to employ the attention, it follows that

some will be treated with more fulness and geniality than

others; but it can be asserted with truth, that much is said upon all. As regards the manner of saying, many parts are full of interest ; but they derive their attraction from the nature and novelty of the matter rather than from any peculiar spirit of man- ner. In mere general description, Mr. LANE is somewhat inven- torial; which is often increased by the outlandish nature of the subjects he has to describe, as well as by the peculiar mode of spelling their names which he has adopted : but when lie perso- nifies his generals in anecdote or individual instances, he is agree- able enough. Still, something of spirit and vivacity is desiderated. Although in the full sense of the term an original work, there is

an air of compilation about it ; whether traceable to the author, or

to the Committee of the Society, we know not. But possibly the latter may have a hand in it. However useful or valuable the

books may be that have appeared under their auspices, all that have fallen in our way have been deficient in spirit. The minds of the writers seem to have been in durance.

To the Orientalist who wishes to study the manners of the people without going from home, and to those who wish a book of reference upon Egypt, this work will be found invaluable. The best, indeed the only mode of giving others any idea of its con- tents, will be by letting them speak for themselves. The follow- ing passage opens that chapter of Domestic Life which treats of marriage and the harem generally. DILEMMAS OF A BACHELOR IN THE EAST.

To abstain from marrying when a man has attained a sufficient age, and when there is no just impediment, is esteemed by the Egyptians improper and even disreputable. For being myself guilty of this fault ( to use no harsher term), I have suffered much inconvenience and discomfort during my stay in this country, and endured many reproaches. During my former visit to Egypt, having irecasion to remove from a house which I had occupied for some months in a great thoroughfare-street in Cairo, I engaged another house, in a neigh- bouring quarter : the lease was written, and some money paid in advance ; but a day or two after, the agent of the owner came to inform me that the inhabi- tants of the 110.1rter, who were inestlyshererfs (or descendants of the Prophet), objected to my living among them, because I was not married. He added, however, that they would gladly admit me if I would even purchase a female slave, which would exempt tie from the opprobrium cast upon me by the want of a wife. I replied that, being merely a sojourner in Egypt, I did not like either to take a wife or female slave, wham I must soon abandon ; the money that I had pith was, therefore, returned to me. In another quarter, I was less unfortunate ; such heavy objections on account of my being unmarried were not raised ; I was only required to promise that no persons wearing hats should come into the quarter to vi-it Ise; yet, after I had established myself in my new residence, the sheykh (or chief) of the quarter often endeavoured to pf spade me to marry. All my arguments against doing so he deemed of no weight. " You tell me," said he, " that in a year or two you mean to leave this country : now, there is a young widow, who, I am told, is handsome, living within a few doors of you, who will be glad to become your wife, even with the express understanding that you shall divorce her when you quit this place ; though, of course, you may do so before, if she should not please you." This young damsel had several times contrived to let me catch a glimpse of a pretty face, as I passed the house in which she and her parents lived. What answer could I return? I replied, that I had actually, by accident, seen her face, and that she was the last woman I should wish to marry under such cir- cumstances ; fur I was sure that I could never make up my mind to part with her. But 1 found it rather difficult to silence toy officious friend.

PEACE BEFORE POLTGA3IT.

Very free of the Egyptians avail themselves of the licence which their religion allows them, of having four wives; and still smaller is the number of those who have two or more wives and concubines besides. Even moat of those men who have but one wife are content, for the sake of domestic peace, if for no other reason, to remain without a concubine slave ; but some prefer the possession of an Abys- sinian slave to the lime expensive maintenance of a wife, and keep a black slave girl, or an Egyptian female servant, to wait upon her, to clean and keep in order the apartments of the hhareeim, and to cook. it is seldom that two or more wives are kept in the same house; if they be, they generally have distinct apartments.

" HANDSOME IS THAT HANDSOME DOES."

In general, the most beautiful of a man's wives or slaves is, of course, for a time, his greatest favourite; but in many (if not most) cases, the lasting favourite is not the most handsome. The love of a .Moos'lim, therefore, is not always merely sensual ; nor does the relative condition and comfort of his wife, or of each of his wives, invariably depend so much on his caprice or her own personal charms as on her general conduct and disposition.

GRADATIONS OF COLOUR.

The white female slaves are mostly in the possession of wealthy Turks. The concubine slaves in the houses of Egyptians of the higher and middle classes are generally Abyssinians, of a deep brown or bronze complexion. In their features as well as their complexions, they appear an intermediate race between the Negroes and White people; but the difference between them and either of the above-mentioned races is considerable. They themselves, however, think that they differ so little from the White people, that they cannot be persuaded to act as servants, with due obedience to their master's wives; and the Black (or Negro) slave-girl feels exactly in the same manner towards the Abyssinian, but is perfectly willing to serve the White ladies.

Of the corruption of justice Mr. LANE gives a most deplorable account ; but the infamy and trickery with which the judges are daily conversant, endow them with a cleverness in detecting fraud which might almost rival the wisdom of Solomon. The Oriental reader is familiar with instances of the sort wo speak of. Here is another, and not a bad one, to add to the store.

A poor man applied one day to the A'gha of the police and said, "Sir, there came to me to-day a woman, and she said to me, ' Take ;his ckoors," and let it remain in your possession for a time, and lend me five hundred piasters :' and I took it from her, sir, and gave her the five hundred piasters, and she went away; and when she was gone away, I said to myself, Let me look at this ckoors ;' and I looked at it, and behold it was yellow brass! and I slapped my face, and said, I will go to the A'gha, and relate my story to him ; perhaps he will investigate the affair, and clear it up;' for there is none that can help me in this matter but thee." The A'gha said to him, " Hear what I tell thee, man. Take whatever is in thy shop, leave nothing, and lock it tip ; and to- morrow morning go early, and when thou hest opened the shop, cry out, Alas for my property !" then take in thy hands two clods, and beat thyself with them, and cry, Alas for the property of others!' and whoever says to thee, • What is the matter with thee?' do thou answer, ' The property of others is lost: a pledge that I had, belonging to a woman, is lost ; if it were my own I should not thus lament it;' and this will clear up the affair." The man pro- mised to do as lie was desired. He removed every thing from his shop, and early the next morning he went and opened it, and began to cry out " Alas for the property of others!" and he took two clods, and beat himself with them, and went about every district of the city, crying, " Alas for the property of others! a pledge that I had, belonging to a woman, is lost; if it were my own I should not thus lament it." The woman who bad given him the ckoors in pledge heard of this, and discovered that it was the man whom she had cheated ; so she said to herself, " Go and bring an action against him." She went to his shop, riding on an ass, togive herself consequence, and said to him, "Man, give me my property that is 10 thy possession." He answered, " It is lost.' " Thy tongue be cut out i " she cried ; " dust thou lose my property? by -APlah I will go to the A'gha, and inform him of it." "Go," said he; and • she went and told her case. The A'gha sent fur the man ; and when be had come, said to his accuser, "What is thy :property in his possession ? " She answered, A ckoors of red Venetian gold." " Woman," said the A'gha, " I have a gold ckoors here; I should like to show it thee." She said, 4' Show it me, Sir, for I shall know my ckoors." The A'gha then untied a handker- chief ; and, taking out of it the ckoors which she had given in pledge, said " Look." She looked at it and knew it, and hung down her bead. The A'gha said, " Raise thy head, and say where are the five hundred piasters of this man." She answered, " Sir, they are in my house." The executioner was sent with her to her house, but without his sword; and the woman, having gone into the house, brought out a purse containing the money, and went back with him. The money was given to the man from whom it had been obtained, • An ornament worn on the crown of the head-dress by women, described in the Appendix to this wt.ilt. awl the executioner was then ordered to take the woman to the Roomey/lels (a large open place below the Citadel), and there to behead her, which he did.

FAME OF ENGLISII VERACITY.

Constant veracity is a virtue extremely rare in modern Egypt. Falsehood was commended by the Prophet when it tended to reconcile persons at variance with each other ; also, when practised in order to please ones wife ; and to ob- tain any advantage in a war with the enemies of the faith, though highly re- probated in other cases. This offers some little palliation of the general prac- tice of-It ing which prevails among the modern Moosilinia; for, if people are allowed to lie in certain cases, they insensibly contract a habit of doing so in others. Though most of the Egyptians often lie designedly, they are seldom beard to retract an unintentional nnastatement without expressing themselves thus—" Ni, I beg forgiveness of God ( La.' astugh'fir Allaili) ; it wag so and SO: as, in stating any thing of which they are not quite certain, they say, " God is all-knowing (Allathoo asalam). I may here mention (and I do it with some feeling of national pride) that, some years at there was an Arme- nian jeweller in this city ( Cairo) so noted for his veracity that his acquaint- ances determined to give him some appellation signific.ait of his possessing a virtue so rare among them ; and the name they gave him was EI-Ingileelzee, or The Englishman, which has become his family name. It is common to bear tradesmen in this place, when demanding a price which they do not mean to abate, say, " One word, the word of the English" (Kiginet el Ingilee's) : they al -0 often say, " the wind of the Franks," in this sense ; but I have never heat(' any particular nation thus honourably distinguished excepting the Eng- lish and the Mugh'rebiees, or Western Arabs, which latter people have ac- quired this reputation by being rather more veracious than most other

Education is widely diffused in Egypt ; though it is of a very elementary kind, extending no further than reading and writing. Nor are the teachers for this always of very striking abilities, at least in the way of scholarship.

The schoolmasters in Egypt are mostly persons of very little learning : few of them are acquainted with any writings except the Ckoor-a'n, and certain prayers which, as well as the contents of the sacred volume, they are hired to recite on particular occasions. I was lately told of a man who could neither read nor write succeeding to the office of a schoolmaster in my neighbourhood. Being able to recite the whole of the Ckoor-a'n, he could hear the boys repeat their lessons: to write them he employed the 'twee ff (or head boy in the school), pretending that his eyes were weak. A few days after lie had taken upon him- self this office, a poor woman brought a letter for him to read to her from her son, who had gone on a pilgrimage. The fick'ee pretended to read it, but said nothing ; and the woman, inferring from his silence that the letter contained bad news said to him " Shall I shriek ?" He answered " Yes." Shall I tear my clothes ?" she asked; he replied Yes." So the poor woman returned to her home, and with her assembled friends performed the lamentation and and other ceremonies usual on the occasion of a death. Not many days after this her son arrived, and she asked him what he could mean by causing a letter to be written stating that he was dead. Ile explained the contents of the letter, and she went to the schoolmaster and begged him to inffirm her why he had told her to shriek and to tear her clothes, since the letter was to inform her that her son was well, and he was now arrived at home. Not at all abashed, he slid, ‘• God knowlfuturity ! How could I know that your son would arrive in safety? It was better that you should think him dead than be led to expect to see him and perhaps be disappointed." Some persons who were sitting with him praised his wisdom, exclaiming, " Truly, our new fick'ee is a man of unu- sual Judgment ! " and, for a little while, he found that he had raised his repu- tation by this blunder.

Mr. LANE, throughout his book, bears testimony to the exact and lively picture of Eastern manners which is presented in the Arabian Nights Entertainment ; and many of the anecdotes with which he has illustrated his volume, bear a strong resemblance to the adventures told in that celebrated collection. The chapter on the Magic, Astrology, and Alchemy of the Egyptians, is very curious, and some of the instances given seem miraculous ; that is, the results are produced without obvious causes, and no ex- planation of the trick i4 offered or suggests itself. The following is part of an experiment made in Mr. LANE'S presence. The charm was certain passages from the Koran, and a peculiar arrangement of sonic Arabic numerals, the inspection of both of which was freely permitted : the magic mirror was a little ink poured into the palm of the seer's hand, who must be either a boy not arrived at puberty, a virgin, a black female slave, or a pregnant woman. In the present instance, the boy was taken by Mr. LANE'S ser- vants, promiscuously (as he supposes) from a manufactory. After certain incantations and a display of Egyptian second sights, it proceeded thus. He now addressed himself to me ; and asked me if I wished the boy to see any person who was absent or dead. I named Lord Nelson ; of whom tie boy

had evidently never heard, for it was with much difficulty that he pronounced the name, after several trials. The magician desired the boy to say to the Sooltlin—" My master salutes thee, and desires thee to bring Lord Nelson ; bring him before my eyes that I may see him speedily." The boy then said so; and almost immediately added, "A messenger is gone, and has returned, and brought a man, dressed in a black" suit of European clothes : the man has lost

his left arm." He then paused for a moment or two, and looking more in- tently, and more closely into the ink said, "No, he has not lost his left arm, but it is placed to his breast." This correction made his description more striking than it had been without it : since Lord Nelson generally had his empty sleeve attached to the breast of his coat : but it was the right arm that he had lost. Without saying that I suspected the boy had made a mistake, I asked the ma- gician whether the objects appeared in the ink as if actually before the eyes, or as if in a glass, which makes the right appear left. Ile answered, that they appeared as in a mirror. This rendered the boy's description faultless. The next person I called for was a native of Egypt who has been for many years resident in England, where he has adopted our dress; and who had been long confined to his bed by illness before I embarked for this country : I thought that his name, one not very uncommon in Egypt, might make the boy describe him incorrectly; though another boy, on the former visit of the magician, bad described this same person as wearing a European dress, like that in which I last saw him. In the present case the boy said, "Here is a man brought on a kind of bier, and wrapped up in a sheet." This description would suit, sup- posing the person in question to be still confined to his bed, or if he be dead. The boy described his face as covered ; and was told to order that it should be uncovered. This he did, and then said, " His face is pale, and he has musta- chios, but no beard ; which is correct.

Several other persons were successively called for; but the boy's descriptions of them were imperfect, though not altogether incorrect. He represented each • Dark blue is called, by the modern Egyptians, es'wed, which properly signifies Buck and is therefore so translated here.

object as appearing less distinct than the preceding one, as if sight were gradually becoming dim : he was a minute, or more, before he could give any account of the persons he professed to see towards the close of the performance ; and the magician said it was useless to proceed with him. Another boy was then brought in ; and the magic square, he. made in his hand ; but he could see nothing. The magician said that he was too old.

The volumes are profusely illustrated by wood-cuts; which, if not very striking as works of art., appear faithfully to represent the originals; and an appendix is added, containing a variety of infor- mation on subjects that could not consistently have had a place in the body of the work, or of modifications of the text which the rapid march of events in Egypt rendered no longer strictly true.