ashes, broken crockery, rubbish, and filth of every description. It is characteristic of Egypt, where the most splendid antiquities are surrounded by the vilest environment, that this unsavoury and unsightly eminence should command a scene of surpassing loveliness. On one of the many excursions which we made to the Tombs of the Khalifs, we, like other pilgrims, pushed our way from the mosque of Barkûk across the sanded space to the foot of the hill. At first sight, no conceivable spot could seem to be less promising; but when the traveller has once ascended by the unsavoury paths to the crown of the hill, he forgets the tainted air, and the uncouth pathway. Under the level rays of the setting sun the black masses of cinder, the yellow sand, and the brown hills beyond, are all transformed by hues of delicate beauty. Westward the white roofs and walls, broken by countless minarets and domes, lie at his feet. Just beneath him is the mouth of the New Street, which, together with the Muski, forms a black line that stretches right across the city. He is so near, that the murmur and the breath of Cairo rises around him. To the north-west a line of creamy white shows where the waters of the Nile are flowing. Beyond it, in emerald and opal stretches, are the fields watered by its overflow, melting into low blue hills, whose crests rise dark-blue against the opal sky.

The dreary

Nor was the view eastward less significant. stretch of sand, through which we had waded rather than walked, had become a smooth surface of pure yellow. The domes and walls of the mosque tombs, dust-coloured and dim though they had seemed an hour ago, stood out in sharp relief against the yellow plain, themselves blood-red; and their background, no longer a scarcely distinguishable bank of mud, but a delicate accompaniment of their own rich hue, served to complete a contrast strangely simple, infinitely beautiful. Scattered among them the lesser structures, tombs, houses, and what not, took a tone of dead-white, and upon their surfaces the shaded recesses of the windows and doors showed squares of black.

But it was on the south-west horizon that the marvels gathered. Beyond the violet domes of Mohammed Ali's mosque, and the rising towers and bastions of Saladin's stronghold, two sharp angles showed above the low clouds that wreathed the horizon. They were yes, they could be nothing else than the Pyramids of Cheops and Chephren. As the sun fell—a crimson globe, the purple clouds gathered in ampler masses, and spread a veil over desert, hill, palm-trees, and city; but above the veil two blue triangles remained, beckoning us to Memphis as they had beckoned the Syrian merchant on his camel five thousand years ago.

CHAPTER VIII

THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

European Cairo-Absence of public buildings-Civilizing influences-System of education-Vernacular schools or kuttabs-Primary schools-SecondarySpecial schools and colleges - School of Law - Engineering - Technical schools-Training colleges for teachers-Total attendance in Government schools, and cost of education-Policy of Government in respect of teaching of French and English-" Linguistic free-trade "--Results of this policyProportion of boys learning French or English-Relationship of the educational machine to population of Egypt-Reform of the kuttabs-Commencement of national education-Various attempts to improve the kuttabs-The results already obtained-Opinions of Artin Pasha-Prospects of education -Narrowing the interval between the educated official and the ignorant masses-The progress of women's education-Visit to the School of Agriculture-Practical work in the fields-Cost of students to the state--The Khedivieh school-Fasting and school work-Difficulty of maintaining social influence on boys after they have left school-A provincial school-Eton jackets.

THE regeneration of the Arab is being accomplished in more ways than one. Apart from the direct processes, of which the school and the prison are the instruments, other influences, less direct but still powerful, are ceaselessly at work to mould his character. These influences, which may be summed up as the environment of Western society, spread along the track of the railroad and the telegraph over the country at large, but they are strongest in the towns, and in Cairo they concentrate their forces. Alongside of the Arabian town, with its half a million of inhabitants, lies the European Cairo, an ever-present objectlesson in Western civilization. It is quite true that the great mass of the Arabian population regard this other Cairo as a neighbour whose encroachments should be repelled, yet there is nevertheless a minority which finds it advantageous to be on

speaking terms at least with the intruder. The commercial instinct is strong in the Arab; and the same greed which led the Sultans to grant the capitulation teaches the donkey-boy and the itinerant vendor of Cairo to court the presence of the Frank.

European Cairo dates from the succession of Ismâîl, in 1863, and the short-lived prosperity which came to Egypt from the failure of the American supplies of cotton during the Civil War. The new quarter, which was designated in honour of its founder Ismailiyeh, was laid out under French supervision. French capital raised the houses, and constructed the fine iron bridge which unites Cairo with the island of Gezîreh. French architects built the palaces, and French gardeners laid out the pleasure-grounds. During the period of the English occupation, that is, since 1882, the general condition of the town has been materially improved. The drainage of the streets has been partially accomplished, and arrangements for lighting and watering them, and for the regulation of the traffic by police supervision, have been carried into effect. In all these ways the convenience of the European resident has been already secured; but a system of drainage, a vital necessity of European Cairo, has not as yet been provided. "The subject," Lord Cromer writes, "has been under consideration since 1890, but owing to financial and other reasons" nothing has been done. He adds, however, that a scheme for draining Cairo at an approximate cost of £E750,000 is now being submitted to the Government by the Cairo Water Company; and that there is a prospect of this necessary work being commenced at no distant date. Nevertheless, private enterprise has in the meantime furnished Cairo with many comfortable, and even artistic, residences; and in the case of these new houses the authorities have rightly insisted, that only such structures shall be erected as will permit of adequate arrangements for drainage in view of the new system which is in prospect.

The feature of European Cairo, as thus developed, which 1 Report (1899).