ellectual
dyspepsia. So we hear of students mugging parrot-like to pass
half-yearly examinations, in the hopes of getting Government
appointments for which there are far too many applicants; these young
men besiege the Press with complaints of unfair treatment if they fail,
or even go to the length of attempting suicide with carbolic acid
(fortunately with sufficient caution to ensure it usually being but an
attempt); this latter petulant protest at the temporary thwarting of
their material hopes is dead against all the teaching and tradition of
Islam, but it has become so frequent that a leading educational
authority suggests that no student who attempts suicide shall be allowed
to sit again for a Government examination. Among their seniors up at
al-Azhar are men of real learning and remarkably persevering scholarship
(their theological course makes the average brain reel to contemplate),
but some sheikh started a controversy as to whether Adam was a prophet
or not, which fell among those sages with the disrupting force of a
grenade, causing much litigation in the Islamic courts and culminating
in the divorce of the originator by his wife for _kufr_, or heresy as
ordained by Moslem law. Beneath these troubled waters the _fellah's_
life flows placidly, bounded on the one hand by his crops and on the
other by the market; his spiritual stimulus being supplied by an
occasional religious fair or a visit to the shrine of some local saint.
He toils as patiently as his water-wheel buffalo, and on that toil
depends the wealth of Egypt which supports saints and sinners, schools
and shops, with all our European schemes and enterprises thrown in.

As for us British, if our object is to enhance the prestige of our race
or creed, we fall very short of achievement. We have not even that
reputation for integrity which usually attaches to us in other parts of
the Moslem world. This may be partly due to our anomalous position in
the country, which was thrust upon us, but the pleasure-seeking tourist
of pre-War days has a lot to answer for. Some of them seemed to think
that so far from home their conduct was of no account (at least, that is
the only charitable explanation), and British personal prestige suffered
in consequence. Anglo-Egyptian officials, especially the subordinate
grades, which come into more direct contact with the people, tried to
counteract this by increased dignity of demeanour, but the natives now
knew them _en desha