Travels in Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, and across the desert into Egypt ...

-66 TRAVELS IN ASIATIC TURKEY,
The inhabitants of Grand Cairo, like those of the other cities anci
towns of Egypt, are a mixture of Arabs, Copts, or ancient Egyptians,
Greeks, Armenians, Turks, and Mamelukes. The Arabs
arc considered as by far the most numerous class, which is indeed
the case in every part of Egypt. The number of the Christian
residents is very inconsiderable. Arabic, which is the language of
the country, is almost exclusively spoken at Cairo, the Copts, the
aborigines of Egypt, having, through disuse, almost entirely lost
their own language. It is true that their priests, in the performance
of the mass and other religious ceremonies, employ Coptic books ;
but I was assured by several of the inhabitants of Cairo, on whose
testimony I could rely, that they are not in general acquainted
with the language.
The Arab inhabitants of Cairo are a very active race, well pro-
portioned, and of a slender make. In all the laborious occupations
the females of the inferior class take an active part, and have a dark,
sallow complexion, with features calculated to excite disgust.
They marry when very young, and have a numerous offspring;
but their wretched condition of life exposes their children to a great
mortality. The appearance of the latter, and indeed of the newly
born infants, is truly distressing. The countenance is sallow, flac-
cid, and of a cadaverous hue ; and the
eyes
affected by ophthalmia,
to whieh disease they
are subject from their earliest infancy. They
are also much exposed to mesenteric enlargements. The children,
even of the superior classes of Europeans, such as merchants, set-
tled at Cairo, have a pallid and sickly appearance,
and are reared
with great
In
difficulty. general,
the young are swept off in
great
numbers by the small-pox. The frequency, indeed, of disease,
and the
great mortality which commonly prevails among the lower
classes of the inhabitants, are unquestionably to be ascribed to the
very filthy state in which they live, and to the want of a proper
nourishment, which latter cause affects more particularly the tender
condition of the infants.
The parade which attends the marjiage ceremonies at Cairo I
have already attempted to describe. The Mahoniedans take one
or several wives, according to their condition, and the circumstan-
ces in which they are placed.
The dress of the men belonging to the lower class of Arabs
consists of a blue cotton chemise, with a broad leathern belt fasten-
ed round the loins, and a white or coloured shawl twisted round
the head in the form of a turban. They wear neither shoes m>r