in the cemeteries in little booths made for the purpose.

You will have noticed how large a place _religion_ takes in the life
of the people, and in their idle hours no subject of conversation is
more common. To the average Mohammedan his religion is a very real
matter in which he fervently believes, and Allah is to him a very
personal God, whom he may at all times approach in praise or prayer in
the certain belief of His fatherly care. Nothing impresses a traveller
more than this tremendous belief of the Mohammedans in their Deity and
their religion; and though many people, probably from lack of
knowledge, hold the view that the Moslem faith is a debased one, it is
in reality a fine religion, teaching many wise and beautiful
doctrines, and ennobling the lives of all who live up to the best that
is in it.

Unfortunately the teaching of Mohammedanism is so largely fatalistic
that it tends to deprive the individual of personal initiative. "The
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the
Lord," is a general attitude of mind, and this, combined with their
long centuries of servitude, has had so much effect upon the national
character of the Egyptian that they almost entirely lack those
qualities of alertness, confidence, and sense of personal
responsibility without which no race can become great or even, indeed,
be self-respecting.

The higher education now general in Egypt has already had its effect
upon the present generation, among which a feeling of ambition and
independence is growing, while the Egyptian army has shown what
wonders may be wrought, even with the poorest material, by sustained
and honest effort in the right direction; and if the just and
sympathetic guidance which it has enjoyed for now a quarter of a
century is not too soon withdrawn, Egypt may once again become a
nation.

As it is, to-day the great mass of the people remain much as they have
been for ages; a simple, kindly people, ignorant and often fanatical,
but broadly good-humoured and keenly alive to a joke; fond of their
children, and showing great consideration for age, they have many
traits which endear them to those who have lived among them, while
their faults are largely on the surface, and due in some measure to
the centuries of ignorance and slavery which has been their lot.

The greatest blot upon the Egyptian character is the position accorded
to their women, who, as in all Mohammedan countries, are consider