iw i " i !ii «» i a r i« ii« i i ti UNIvER;>lTY CF V^ALIFORNIA 3VNTlTOOPOLOG3f LIBRARY LIBRARY OF THF University of California. GIFT OF Uen . Chas, ii, Greewlsaf Class J /?-:^ift^ /^. y^ PANORAMA OF NATIONS; OR, JOURNEYS AMONG THE FAMILIES OF MEN: A DESCRIPTION OF THEIR Homes, Customs, Habits, Employments and Be- LiEEs; Their Cities, Temples, Monuments, Literature and Fine Arts. H. G. Cutler, >\ Author of "The Grimms," and Contributor to the Magaztne OF AMERiCAN History; AND L. W. Yagoy, M. S., Author of "Yaggv's Graphic Record," " Yaggy's Anatomical Study," "Yaggy's Geographical Study," "Museum of Antiquity," "Royal Path OF Life," "Our Home Counselor," " Little Gems." IT.LIJSTRATED. ^^^T^Xr^ f^' Of THE ( UNIVERSITY STAR publishing COMPANY, CHICAGO, 1892. \ OF ^ fj^ ?l CI ;l-:^ Rntered according to Act ol Congress, in the year 1888, by WK.SFKHN I'll IfLlSH I NU HOUSE, Id Uie Ollicc ut' tUu Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. (X >;^ ,,. ^CONTENTS. If FIVK GRKAT JOURNBYS. JOURNEY NO. I. A BiRTH-PLACE OF RACES. (PuBC 17.) The Plain of Mesopotamia— Floods of People Which Poured from it — Ruins of Assyrian Grandeur— t Nineveh and Babyloa — The Tower of Babel Located — A Journey Toward Egypt — The Sues Canal but an Ancient Work. THE EGYPTIANS. (I'agt- ,8.) The Copts, or Ancient Inhabitants — The Priests, Clerks and Scholars of the Land — The Coptic Religion and Churches — The Nile and its Rise — Record of the Niloraeter — Uarvests and Harvesters — The Fellaheen — A Day in tlieir Huts — Gliding up the Nile — A Panorama of the Land of Kuins A^loug the Way — Bedouins and their Villages— At the Last Cataract. THE NUBIANS. (Page 37.) The Gate to Nubia — The God of the Nile — Scenes Along the Way — Nubian Stragglers and Their Appearance — Nubia's Aborigines, the Savage Shangallas — In the Jungle with a Hunter — Good Traits — Omens and Superstitions — A Terror to Abyssinian Travelers — Another Native Tribe, the Dongolese — Old Dongola and the Faithful Priest — Dongolese Manufactures and Agri- culture. THE ABYSSINIANS. Grand Table-Lands and Mountains of Ancient jSthiopia — A Military Nation — The Ras. or Com- mander in-Chief and his Drummers — His Troops on Parade and in Action — The Laws of the Kingdom — Plaintiff and Defendant, Prisoner and Guard Chained Together — Blood Feuds, Coptic Curiosities — Boudda Doctors — Hardy Farmers and .Merchants — Their Oppressions. THE GALLAS. (Page 73.) With the ' Tartars of Africa —A Dash at the Abyssinian Army — Warriors and their Horses — A Chiefs Idea of Life — The Galla at Home — A Fair Land — His Houses, and Wives, and Ways — Off Again to Battle — His Omens — Galla Surgeons and their Feats — Republics of the Gallas — Slaves Treated as Equals — How Transgressors arc Punished. EAST AFRICANS. (Page 81.) Coast Tribes of the People of Zanzibar — Their Unfriendliness to Travelers — Zanzibar and the Slave Trade— Suspicious Natives— The Sultan's Residence — Across the Island to a Unique Tribe - The Original Inhabitants— Their Chiefs Waiul of Ollice. MOZAMBIQUE. (P.ige i?.) The Seat of an Ancient Kingdom — Cattle Better Than Gold — Remnants of the Native Empire Along the Zambesi River — A Kingdom Where Women Have More Than Their Rights — Economical Graves— Tribes With Clothes and Tribes Without Clothes, Side bv Side— Men Who Leave Orna- mentation to the Women. ZULU CAFFRES. (Pace U5.I Personal Characteristics — Dancing and Courting —Live Birds for Ornaments — A Cruel Barber — Married Life — Wife- Whipping by Proxy — The Caffres' Good Traits— Superstitions — Aiding the Poor and Helping the Sick — ^Going for the Doctor — A Native Physician — Rain-Makers — Their Failures and Successes — Zulu Warfare — Playing With Shot and Shell — Entire Negli- gence of Family Duties, Under Defeat. VI CUiN TENTS. BECHUANAS AND HOTTENTOTS. Superiority of the Former— Extent of Their Power— Tlie Bushmen —Tribal Slaves— Warfare cf the Bechuanas— Pitiful Plight of the Slaves- A Bushinan Hunt- Williholdiiig Products of the Chase — Bushmen of the Mountains — South African Aborigines, the Hottentots — Servants and Cattlemen — Their Character — European-Bechuanan Civilization — Tribes of Southwestern Africa — Scattered Tribes of Central Africa— Large Towns and Manufacturing Villages — Courts of Justice— Good Clothes and "Caste" in Society— A Stanch Native Kingdom in the Midst of Foreign Colonists. THE CONGO CAFFRES. Ancient Kingdoms of Congo— Fetich Worship — The Great Spirit and " Its" Uses— The Spirit of the Woods— A Feminine Retaliation— Detecting Witchcraft— The Red-Water Ordeal— How They Treat the Dead — Rights of Property — A Sweeping Revenge — Coast and Interior Tribes — Their DilTerent Habits — Bringing Ivory to the Coast — The King of Congo Inviting Homage — Native States — Their Peculiarities. THE SENEGAMBIANS (NEGROES). (r..ge 1 57-) The Jalofs, or Kigritian Aristocrats — The Foulahs and Fellatahs — Their Great Empire in Soudan — Its Fragments — Warriors as Well as Scholars — The Mandingoes — Combining Busi- ness with Religion — The Most Zealous Merchants and Mohammedans of Africa — Tribal Arbi- trators — True Negroes, in Certain Traits of Character. NEGROES OF UPPER GUINEA, (Page ,f-3 ) Fetich Upon Fetich — Superstitions of the Negroes — Driving Evil Spirits from a Town — Fourth of July Funerals — Coast Tribes and Kingdoms — The Sailors of Africa — Scenes on the Grain Coast — Ashanti — Dahome}' — Kings with Thousands of Wives — Human Sacrifices — Ama- zonian Warriors — Serpent AVorship — A Native Republic — How it Nearly Crushed Dahomey — The States of Soudan, Bornoo and Begharmi — Their Iron-Clad Cavalrymen. THE BERBERS. ' (Page iSi.) The Touaricks, or Bandits of the Desert— Their Skill in Striking Water— A Warrior on His Great Dromedary — Republic of the Seven Cities — Founding a Commonwealth in the Sahara — Artificial Oases — The Mozabitcs — Their Sacred and Their Military Cities, Founded upon Rocks — Mild Laws — People Who Return to Their Desert Homes to Die — The Wareglas — A Singular People — Their Immense Date Oases — Deposing Their Ruler. JOURNEY NO. 2. THE MALAYANS. (Page ,yi.) Spread of the Race Over tlie Islands of the Oceans— The Madagascan Malayans — The Two Tribes — Madagascan Slavery — -Vncient History — The Tribes and Their Chiefs— Degrad ing the Court — The Queen and Her Government — The Queen's Capital —Christian Persecu- tions—The Twelve Sacred Cities — Burning of the Idols — The Benefit of No Roads — Wonderful Embankments — Rice Culture — Madagascar Markets — A Conquered Rice Province — Hou.ses and Clothes — The Queen Appears — Borneo Malayans — The Dyaks — Marriages and Funerals — Other People and Other Kingdoms— Those of the Land and of the Sea— A Bor- neo Forest — An Independent English State — i\Ii.\ed Population — Sumatra Malayans — A Once Great Kingdom — Natural and Political Divisions — Village and Home Life — Acheen, the Native State— Cannibals and Mechanics —An Engineering Feat — Rice and Sugar Cane —Buffalo vs. European — The Javanese —Houses and People — Sports — Female Fashions — Reniains of Ancient Religions— The Timorese —The Commercial Tribes — Philippine Islanders — The Bughis or Commercial Tribe of the Indian .Vrchipelago. CONTENTS. VII THE POLYNESIANS. (Page 235.1 The Feejee Canoibals —Their Grim Chiefs and Awful Appetites— The Tongese — High Toned Society —Society High and Low— Royal Keforin — The Old and the New— A Tattooed Warrior — Houses and Mats— Home Manufactures — The Samoans— The Old Party and the New— Lovers of Flowers— Tahitian Idols — War Charms— Savage Marcpiesans- The Ilawai inns — The New Zealanders— How European Customs are Killing Them. THE PAPUANS. (Page =55.) Race Characteristics — Mental Contrasts — Dress and Ornaments — Coa.st and Mountain Tribes— The Government— Their Idol and Fetiches— DukDuk Dancers —Feeding tlie Dead — Weap- ons and Boats— Trepang and Pearl Fishing— Ways of the Trader— Social Kegulations — Pirates and Coast Tribes— House.';- The Philippine Negritos — Revenge upon the Malayans — Homeless Vagabonds — The E.vtinct Tasmanians — The Semangs— How they Capture the Ele- phant and Rhinoceros— Papuan Blood Sprinkled Over the Isles of the Pacific. THE AUSTRALIANS. (P;,Se .;,, ) Natural Obstacles to a Better Acquaintance With the Inhabitants of the Interior Tribes — The Great Inland Flood Breeder— Interior Savages — Native Superstitions — How They Look — The Mode of Using the Boomerang — After His Food — Native Dances — Mysteries of the "Bora" — Burial Customs— Eating Favorite Children— Spirits of the Woods and ".Tumped Up White Men"— Using Skulls for Drinking Cups— An Australian Cowboy —A Dying Race— Intem- perance and Disease Extinguishing tue Native Population— On the War Path — Aboriginal vs. Squatter— Australian vs. Australian— A Native Boy's Cool Jlurder of His Mother— The Native Police— Jlischievous Feasts of Flesh, Fish and Fowl— Their Results- Civilized Aus- tralia — ^England in Australia. JOURNEY NO. 5. THE TARTARS. (P.ii;.- 3. J,, I Turkestan, the Ancient Home of the Turks— Now it is the Country of the Tartars— The Settled Population — A Great BattleGround of Rices— The- Nomads —The Kerghez, Children of the Steppes— How they Look, Dress and Live— Tiieir Beliefs and Superstitions— The Civilized Uzbecks, Who Govern the Rest— The Way in Which They do it— Relation of the Native Gov- ernment to Russia— Siberian Calmucks— Homeliest People in the AVorkl— Sliamanism, or Spirit Worship— Lamaism, or ths C irrupted Buddliism— S):uething About the People of Mongolia, or Chinese Tartary— How They are Incorporated into the Great Empire, etc., etc. THE ARCTICS. iPiiSe 3=1 ) People who Dwell in the Frozen World of Asia, America and Europe— A Grand Mi.xture of Tartars and Mongols— Tlie Samoyeds —Formerly a Great Nation- Now Split into Two Widely Sepa- rated Tribes— How They Dress —How They Live— What They Eat— Att Insight into Their Ways of Thought— Shamanism and its Impostor of a Priest —The Ostiacks and Vog\ils — Fishing and Hunting — Their Idolatry — Native Honesty — The Finns —The Cleanly Native — Saving a Language — An Ancient City — The Lapps —A Matter-of-Fact People — A Religious Mi.xture — Sea-Coast and Jlountain Lapps— A Lapp School and Church — Towards Behring Str.ait— The Buriats —The Good of Lamaism — The Lama and Shaman — The Holy Sea — The Yakuts —A Horse-Eating People — Yakut Manufacturers- The Yakuts' City — '■ Fallen Stars"— The Tungoo.ses —A Native Huntsman- Mounting the Reindeer— Trapping and Eating— Amoor River People— The Kamlehadales —A Kamtchadale Village— Winter and Summer Huts— Wonderful Runs of Sal ■nou— The True Hyperboreans — Over Behring Strait into America— The Escjuimaux — Doctors Disagree —The Truth About Color— Uni- formity of Language— An Esquimaux Costume— How the Women Cradle Their Babies— Their Skill in Sewing— The Esquimaux.Pride- The Jlen as Sculptors— Ingenious Boats and Spears — Easy-Running Sleds— Hunting anil Fishing — Esquimaux as Travelers — Feasts and Pastimes— Their Christianity — Social and Hunting Regulations. VIII CONTENTS. NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. Alaska— Remnants of the Great Tribes— Present Ways of Living— The Indians' " Totem "—The Flatheads— Th« Apaches, tlie Navajoes, the Algonquius and the Chippewas— Indian Pio. neers— The Cheyennes— The Arapahoes— Other Noted Western Tribes— The Dakotas— The Sioux, the Shoshonces, the Utes, the Kiowas, the Pueblos, and tlie Huron-Iroquois Family— The Six Nations— The Five Nations— Tbe Cherokees— Creeks and Seminoles— Choctaws and Chickasaws— Tribal Government— Indian Religion and Medicine. THE MEXICANS. (Pai;.- 4,,.) Mythology of Mexico— Its Primitive People— The Holy Cross and Virgin— An Aboriginal Tribe— The Mexican as He Is — Miners and Muleteers — A Mexican Bonanza — Mexican Sports — City of Mexico— Holy Week— Female Beauty— In the Suburbs— The Central Americans— Remains of Kingdoms— The Honduraus— The Nicaraguans— The Guatemalans— Costa Rica— The San Sal- vadorians. SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS. (H.ige 420 ) The Patagonians— The Weak Terra del Fuegians— The Patagonians again — Dress and Horse Gear- Work of Both Sexes— Amusements— The Children— Entering Society— Hunting Ostriches— Guanacos, etc. — A Dreary Country — The Brazilian Indians — PIia>uicians of the Amazon — Burial .lars — Botecudos — The Amazons — Semi Civilized Life — Kitchen Utensils — More Femi- nine vVork — Human and Brute Fishermen — Reverence for the Aged — Their Religious Be liefs — The Brazilians — The Caribs and Arrawaks — The Mozcas — Panama Canal — The Ecuado- rians — The Andi-Peruvians — Traces of the Empire — Some Inca Tribes — The Antisians, or White Men— The Araucanians— The Chilians— The Centaurs of South America— The Gauchos. JOU RNEY NO. 4. THE TURKS. (P.ige 4r,7.l Founders of the Empire — The Apostles of Mohammedanism — Church and Slate One— Turkish Reforms — The Koran's Soldier — What Foreigners Have Done — Schools — The Koran's Laws — What Part the Woman Plays— The Turk at Home— The Bride of the Harem— On the Street- The Turkish Graveyards — Outside the Mosque — Fasting and Pilgrimages — The Dervishes — The Syrians — The Druses — The JIaronites — Smyrna — The Hebrevrs and Jerusalem — The Road to Jericho — Bethlehemites — Nazareth — Tbe Armenians — Their Powerful Church — The Kurds — Saving Remnants. THE ARABS. (Page 4yy.> Decline of Mahammedanism — The Marabouts — The Chiefs — Best Breed of Horses — Blooded Camels — The Bedouins — In the Tent — Bottomless Gulfs of Sand — As a Commercial People — Desert Travel — Town Life — Native Justice — Arabian Architecture. PERSIANS AND AFGHANS. ,Pa^._. ;,-.) Their Intimate Connection — Ruins and Historic Spots — The Country — Agriculture — Persian No- mads — Brave and Haniy Women — Town Life in Persia — Tbe Water Supply — Village Occupa- tions — Unattractive .\rchitecture — Clever Women and Managers — Social and Domestic Cus- toms — Calling and Gossiping— Wives and Children — ^A Persian Harem — Modern Fire- Worship- ers — Persian Mohammedanism — The Nestorians — Music and Religion — Persian Superstitions— The Shah — The Shah's Time — The Independent Afghans— Geogra]ihical Position — Tbe Clans- Religious Tolerance — The Belooches — Thieves on Principle — Brave Soldiers THE HINDUS (P.ig.- ;i' I The System of Caste— A Brahman— Castes and Tribes— A Native Hunt— The Tarauls— The Rajpoots — Tbe Gypsies' Land — Other Great Tribes — The Ceylonese — Religions of India — In- fluence of Buddhism — A Mohammedan — The Fakir — A Parsce — A Sikh — A Hindu Family — A Son's Birth — He Goes to School — The Girl's Education —Marriage Cel'emonies — Female Edu- cation — "The Order of Merit" — A Patriarch's Death — The Sacred Cilv. CONTENTS. IX THE INDO-CHINESE. ('■ag.- 575-) A Bewildering Antiquity — Neglect of Natural Advantages — The Basis of the Slate — The School Boy — Preparing for Ilis Degrees — Competitive Examinations — Ottices to be Filled — Manners Adapted to Intellectual Pursuits — Religious Tolerance — Chinese Doctrines — Chinese Gods^ Domestic and Social Life — ^Loyal Dress — They Refuse to Shave Their Heads — Chinese Houses — Chinese .Marriages— Filial Obedience and Respect— Agriculture — Fishing — Chinese Commerce— The Mongols — The Thibetans — Lamaism — The Two Lamas — Their Fine Woolens and Shawls — The Burmese — The Ancient Peguans— The Government — Robbed by Officials— The Royal Capital — Classes of Society — Costumes of Ladies and Gentlemen — Ornaments and Charms — Building a House — Outside of the House — Courtship and Marriage — Villages and Agriculturists — The Priests — Monasteries and Payahs — Buddhist "Shoots" — The Siamese — The Parent Race — Personal Appearance — An Asiatic Venice — Vast Palaces and Temples — The Two Kings— OneTliird of the People Slaves— Buddhism Absolute — The Anamese — The Cambodians — Aboriginal Tribes — Riches and Sloth. THE JAPANESE. Government and Religion — Corner Stone of Society— .\[arriage and Women's Duties— Dress and Personal Adornment — Amusements — Jugglers and Acrobats — The Nobility of Gladiators — The Theatre — Bathing and Tea Houses — European Habits — Unworthy of Japan — Style of Archi- tecture — Within the House — The Last Resting Place— Agriculture and Manufactures — The Japanese as Artists— The First, Last— The Coreans— Coming From Their Shell — Why They Fear the Priests — Their Superstitions — Men and Women. JOURNEY NO. 5. THE GREEKS. The Acropolis— Temples of Jupiter and Theseus— Law and Philosophy — The Academy — A Grand Stand — A Link Between Old and New — Modern Athens- The Greek and His Costumes — Por- ters and Merchants— The Greek at Home— Life and Death— The Famous Laurium Mines— Marathons Plain — Rocky Salamis — From Athens to Thebes — From Thebes to Jlount Par- nassus — On Sac'red Ground — Corinth and Peloponnesus — Agamemnon's City — The Most Ancient Greece— Sparta and Messenia — A Famous Statue — Pcactful Olympia and Her Games — Olyrapia's Ruins— Arcadian Simplicity — Soldier Monks— The Greek Church — The Styx — The Waters of Lepanto — Beyond the Historic Waters — A Famous Southern Isle — Among the Vineyards — Home Life in Country and Town — Greek Weddings — Brigand and Peasant — Ancient Greece in Turkey. THE ITALIANS. (Page 703.) Modern Rome — Capitoline Hill — The Pantheon — The Vatican and St. Peter's — Peter's Prison — The Life of To-Day— The Catacombs— The Coloseum and the Forum— The Italian Peas- ant—Florence and the Republics — The Medici Family — The City from the Medici Villa — Gali- leo's Homes — Vallambrosa's Valley — Within the City — Politics and Religion — Palaces and Gar- dens—Historic Bridges — The Genoese — Naples — The Buried Cities— The Dead and the Liv- ing—Venice Rising from the Sea— The Church of St. Mark — A Gondola Trip — Milan— Pisa— The Sicilians and Mount Etna— The Capital — Syracuse and Her Rival. THE SPANIARDS. (P.igc 735.J The Basques — Ignatius Loyola — Spanish Gypsies — Cadiz — Carthage in Spain — Spanish Morocco — Seville— Cordova— The Gardens of Spain— The Gothic-Roman Princes— Toledo— Granada and the .Uhambra- Southern and Eastern Coasts — The Cid— Barcelona— The Romans and Celts— The Mecca of Spain— Valladolid— Salamanca— The Escurial— Madrid— Amusements of the Native — Colonial Possessions — The Portusuese. X CONTENTS. THE FRENCH. (!'...;'■ 7";.) French Marriages — The Bretons of Fiance — Oul Into tlie Fighting World — The People of the Pyrenees — Royalty and Religion — A Wonderful Fortilied City — The Vineyard of the Earth — From Nice to Calais — Marseilles — Deserts and Ruins — Lyons and Her Weavers — Gleams from Eastern France — Cheery Normandy — The Conqueror's Home — Norman Girls — The Approach to Paria — A Bird'sEye View — Old Paris — North of the Seine — South of the Seine — St. Vincent de I^aul — Victor Hugo — The Military Quarters — Boulevards and Parks — Theatres and Delicate Economy — Supple and Muscular People. THE GERMANS. The Government and the Army — Educational Drill— Students' Nicknames — Duels — Great Univer- sity Lights — Heidelberg— Leipsic — Agriculturists — The Forests of Germany — The High and the Low Germans — The German and the Rhine — Folk Lore — The Harlz Mountains — The Brocken and Goethe — The Hartz Towns — JIanufacture of German Beer^Bavaiia and Wi'irtemberg — Cologne — Berlin — Some Famou> German Cities — Ostreich, or Austria — Vienna. THE SCANDINAVIANS. The Danish Peasant — The Danish Seamen — Copenhagen — Natural and Artificial Boundary — Rav ages of the Lemmings — Peasant and Cottager — The Swedes — Stockholm — The Norwegians — Wild Life on the Coasts — A Gigantic Snow Field — Uncertaintj-of Crops — A Man and Citizen — The Icelanders. THE DUTCH. (Page S53.) Their Dikes Assaulted— The Zuyder Zee Country — Further Ravages of the Sea — The Dikes, and How They Look — The Canals- Drawing off the Seas — The Sea as an Ally— Scenes on the Canals — Everyone Sedate and Clean — The Kermis and Home — Peat Beds, High and Low — The Herring Fisheries — A Little History — Winter in Holland — Promoting the Public Good — The Belgians — Belgium's City THE SWISS. I Page E75.) The Swiss Republic— Family Life in the Alps — Physical and National Center— Another Glorious Country— Hunting the Chamois — Land of the Reformation — The Swiss Capital — The Lake Dwellings— Zurich and Constance — Tracing the Rhine— St. Gothard's Tunnel — The Rhone Glacier — St. Bernard — Mont Blanc. THE RUSSIANS. I Paee B.,1 ) A Gigantic Land — The Pure Slavs— The Cossacks — The Circassians — The Georgians— Modes of Travel— Exiles to Siberia — Government and Army Life — The Sword and the Cross — Image Worshiping — Typical Ceremonials — Nobility and Peasantry — In a Peasant Village— Great Middle Class— St. Petersburg— The Winter Palace — Peter's Statue — Winter Sports and Scenes — Moscow— Outside the Kremlin — Kazan— Novogorod, the Great — The Russian Hunter — Crini Tartary — The Hungarians— The Bohemians. THE AN^LO-SAXONS. Basis of the Englishman — The Less Ruling the Greater — E.xploring the Thames— O.xford-From Oxford to Windsor— From Windsor to London — London and London "City" — The Fashion able West End— The C^ity — London Tower and the Docks— Where Peter Worked — Woolwich and Greenwich — Canterbury and Thomas a Becket — Dover and Hastings — The Chalky ClifTs and Old Forests— Eiisom Salts and Races— The Forest of Death— The Isle of Wight— To Eddy- stone Lighthouse — From the New Forest.Inland-AhmgBri.Ktol Channel — King Arthur's Land — A Literary Land— Dreary Dartmoor — Rocks and Flowers— Houses and Jlines— Among Miners and Fishermen — A Dead Language — Bristol and Baili— Shi kcspeaie'e Avon— A Second Holland — Cathedral Cities- Cambridge — Bunyan, Cowper an- £^^- "^€^,. ILLUSTRATIONS. -°K V^)^ .f^^ An Egyptian Temple, . 19 A Copt, .... 20 Egyptian Ornaments, 23 A Jew of Cairo, 24 Egyptian Singers, . . 29 An Egyptian Cliair, 31 Scene on tlie Nile, . . 34 A Nubian, .... 41 Dinka Huts, . 43 Central Africa War Weapons, 45 Tattooed Warriors. . 46 On tlie Shores of the Nyanza, 49 Princess and Warrior of Ugunda, . 50 Audience Hall of the King, 51 Ugunda Huts, . 52 An Abyssinian Warrior, 56 An Abyssinian King, . 57 Abyssinian Crown, 61 Abyssinian Household, . 63 Abyssinian Slave, 66 A Virgin, . 68 A Sacred Ark, 69 Wall Ornaments, . 70 Grave of a Damara, 88 The Zambesis, . 92 Utensils of the CafEres, 96 Building the Bride's Hut, . 99 A Native Warrior, 104 Notable Chief and Warrior, . 105 Agriculture Under Difficulties, 108 AGroup of Bushmen, . 109 Caves of the Bushmen, 110 A Civilized Bushman, . 112 The Slaves' Hiding Place, 114 A Europeanized Caffre, . 110 A Namaqua, .... 117 Scene in Southwestern Africa, . 118 Damara Warrior and Maiden, 120 Wooden Utensils of the Ovampos, 122 A Native Village, 124 A Native at Livingstone's Funeral, . 125 Central African Manufacturers, 127 Types of the Congos, . 130 A Congo King, 131 A Precious Pair, . 183 Killing Witches in West Africa, 135 A Fetich Man on the Coast, . 136 A Group of Musicians, 139 Head Dresses of the Congos, . 142 Congo Heads, .... 143 Congo Shields, . 145 A Collection of Arrows, 146 Natives of Loango, . 147 A Hoyal Pair, 148 A Boat of the Warlike Congos, . 150 A Carved Tusk, 151 Dreary Scenes in Southwestern Africa, 152 Mountain Warriors, 156 A Native Cup, . 160 In the Stocks, l(i4 A Village on the Grain Coast, . 167 Scene in Soudan, 180 Sladagascan Lady, . 206 A Head Hunter, 212 A Village Market House, . 218 ABalta, .... 220 A Javanese Plow, . . 223 A Native Rig, 224 A Javanese House, . 225 A Javanese Fork, 226 A Javanese Loom, . 227 A Malayan Prau, 231 A Native of Luzon, . 232 Home Manufactures, 233 A Feejee Chief, . 236 A Chief's House, 237 A Feejee Cannibal, . 238 Polynesian Beauties, 239 A Feejeean Village Scene, . 240 A Civilized Girl, 241 Women of Tonga, . 242 Tongese Braided Work, 244 Native Fashion, . 246 A Samoan Girl, 247 Of the King's Party, . 248 Head Protector, 249 Native Idols. . 251 War Anuilets, 252 Tatliic>ed Maoris, . 25.'i A Papuan Warrior, 258 A Temple on the Coast, . 259 Dancing Fiends. 262 A BoatSliaped Coffin, . 263 In Full Dress, 265 XIV ILLUSTRATIUN.S. A Sea-coast House, . 269 Last of the Tasmanians, 274 Two Views of the Queen, . 275 A New Ireland Boy, 276 A New Irelaiifler, . 277 Au Auslraliav Savage, 280 Australian Boomerangs, . 285 On the Hunt, . 289 The Corroboree, . 290 Traveling Women, 293 An Australian Grave, . 296 Hatchets of the Australians, . 301 An Australian Camp, . 302 Waiting for the Uiver Fall, 303 A West Australian Forest . . 307 A Native Victorian, 308 A Tartar, . 317 Camel of Tartar Emigrant, 318 Calmuck Tartars, . . 319 Calmuck Dwellings, 322 A Samoyed Cossack, . 324 An Ostiak, 326 An Ostiak Family, . 327 A Vogul Encampment, , 330 Cape Washington, . 334 Laplanders, 335 Lapland Sledges, . 336 Fishing in Lapland, 340 A Lapland Church, . 342 Native Siberians, 346 Implements of Siberia, . 348 A Yakut Woman, 353 A Tungoose, . 356 Hunters of Siberia, 358 Siberian Dog Sledge, . 361 Winter and Summer Huts, 363 Tchuktchis C;hildren, . 364 An Esquimau Group, 369 Starting on a Journey, . 374 A Greenland Housewife, 376 Lalirador Esquimaux, . 380 Indian Curiosities, 382 Totem Poles and Indian Huts, . 384 Indian Grave, 387 Muir Glacier, Alaska— front vie\i h . 389 A Sioux Warrior, 396 View of Muir Glacier, . 404 A Mexican, 414 A Mexican Girl, . 421 Scene in Patagonia, 432 Patagf)nian Dancers, . 436 Entrance to Fortescue Bay, 439 Amazonian Indians, . 442 War Trumpet, 444 Colossal Head Carved in Stone, . 455 Peruvian flarvings. 457 An Araiicanian Family, . 460 A Turkish Soldier, " . 471 A .Syrian, . . Village in Syria, A Druse Lady, An Old Turk, . A Man of Jerusalem, At Jerusalem's AVall, Au Armenian, An Armenian Bishop, A Woman of Aden, A Bedouin, Bedouins, A Loaded Camel, Bronze Workers, Field Hands, Wealthy Merchants, Smoking a Water Pipe The Bastinado, An Afghan, Burgliers of Ceylon, Water Carrier, Indian Tree Huts, A Brahman at Prayer, Chief of a Village, A Tiger Hunt, Women of Ceylon, House in Ceylon, . Hindoo Gypsies, A Baggage Animal, A Banyan Forest, Bas Relief, Indian Temple, Scene in Ceylon, Royal Palace at Agra. Cloth Vender, Scene at Benares, Hiver Scene in China, A Scene in China, The Emperor's Palace, A Burmese Couple, Arrangement of Ear-ring, Priest Sounding Bell of Tempi Siamese Men, Laotian Houses, Scene at Bangkok, Girl from Anam, A Japanese, A Noble Lady, Selling Marine Animals, A .lapanese Girl, Nobleman and Servant, Riding in a Palanquin, Interior of a Tea House, Temple Garden in Tokio, A Japanese Bedroom, Singers and Musicians, Temple of Neptune, Embossed Shoulder Strap, Venris of Milo, A Greek Cross, ILLUSTRATIONS. XV Bas Relief, Greeks of Fifth Century, 694 Renbrandt Van Ryn, . 860 Base of Statue of Ariadne, 696 A Nt.at Dutch Inn. . 863 Modern Greeli Peasants, (i9« Going to I5apti.>m, 865 Grecli Brigands, . 700 Exterior of a Dutch House, . 806 Street Scene in Rome. 706 Reading a Condemned Book, 873 The Fates — by Michael Angelo, . 717 Swiss Scenes, . 876 Design for an Ornament, 718 A Cossack Family, 893 Plaque — by Cellini, . 719 A Voter, . 893 Bronze Helmet Ornament, 720 Cossack Watch Tower, 894 Wall Painting. Pompeii. . 723 Ready for Action, . 895 Tombs of Pompeii, 724 A Circassian Girl, 896 Garden at Pompeii, . 725 On With the Dance ! . 898 Marble Table found at Pompeii, 726 A Siljcrian Exile, 903 A Gypsy CUiief, . . . 739 View of Omsk, . 904 A Spanish Girl, 745 Soldier of the Caucasus, 905 Gate of the Alhambra. . 749 Cossack of the Line, . 906 Peasant of Eastern Spain, 751 A Russian Village, 913 Port of Alicante, . 752 A Lady of Fashion, . 932 Scene in Salamanca, 757 Scene in Russia, 930 Spanish Water Carrier, . 760 Noted Picture of Lot's Wife, . , . 948 Bull Fighters, 763 Piece of Statuary, 949 A Farmer of Brittany, . 768 Waterloo Bridge. . . . . 951 A Beggar of Brittany, 769 St. Andrew's Church, Holborn, 953 Renaissance Window, Rouen, . 784 Fish Sale in Cornwall, . 966 A Modern French Painter, 793 Old English Doorway, 972 St. Vincent de Paul, . 794 An Old English Lady, . 974 Bust of Victor Hugo, . 795 A Derbyshire Inn, 977 Schiller, .... . 809 Old English Gateway, . 980 Heine, . . . . 810 English Pottery, 984 A Village Group, . . 816 In the Emerald Isle, . 1002 Watching the Rhine, . 819 Evangeline, 1008 ."cene on the Rhine, . 821 An American Palace, . 1010 Goethe, . . . . 823 Carved Oak Settee, 1013 Old German Gateway, . 825 Sculptor's Home, . . 1018 Museum at Berlin, 834 Falls in National Park, 1022 Frederickshaven. . 843 A Specimen Room, . , . 1028 Swedish Landscape, 846 Carmel Mission, 1029 In a Dutch Port, . 855 Cathedral Rock, . 1031 •^?r North America, Africa, A Central African Feast, - Australia and Ockanica - SoDTii America, An Arab Warrior, Asia, - - - Europe, - - . - The Pigeons of St. Mark — Venice, A Spanish Cobbler's Shop, A German Harvest Scene, On The Coast of Hollanii, A Mountain Maid — Switzerland, A Russian Wedding, An English Country Crossing, An American Home Scene, Frontispiece. 17 126 - 193 429 - 502 515 - 6G7 728 . 759 815 - 868 879 - 901 920 - 1033 COLORED RLHTES. Africa, - . . - . Types of Malayans and Negroes, Types of Australians and Malayans, - Australia, . . . . New Zealand, . . . . New Guinea, . . . - Types op Brazilians and Patagonians, Brazil, . . - . . South America, . . . . East India Islands, China and Japan, . - . . Types of Mongolians and Malayans, 39 103 199 203 250 261 440 451 462 541 58fi a.jli A LAND OF DECAY. BIRTH-PLACE OF RACES. liJOURING through a narrow mountain gorge into the broad plains of Mesopotamia, the River Euphrates was once the patron of a most ancient, energetic and splendid civiHzation. With the Tigris, it is now the boundary of a proHfic land of decay. From those plains once poured forth vast floods of people and yet those left behind were the founders of glo- rious empires, the builders of Nineveh and Babylon. These mio-hty capitals are now little more than unsightly mounds of clay and sun-dried brick, among which dirty Arabs are delvine for the building material of modern houses. From near the ruins of Babylon looms up a gigantic mound, standing alone in the midst of a vast plain — the tower of Babel! you recog- nize it at once. Other mounds of lesser note, now scattered, now grouped, now in the form of triangles; shafts of columns; Assyrian forts; rocks crowned with ancient castles; old towns filled with Roman and Saracenic architecture ; groves of palm trees ; clouds of scorch- ino- sand borne by the south winds; decaying walls of gigantic canals, vainly appealing to Turkish "enterprise;" a tribe of restless Arabs with their camels, horses, sheep and women, their crude furniture and all their effects, seeking fresh pasture; answering sheets of tlame rising from the fertile river tracts and springing from the hatred of the harvesters who have gathered their grain and are burning all o-reen forage to keep it from those same thievish Arabs; a wandering dervish, only interrupting his prayers to light his pipe, asks for gifts from the faithful, or to search for vermin; the sound of an Arab water-wheel in the distance; a Turkish fortress perched upon a storm-beaten mound inclosing the ruins of centuries; narrow roads hanging to the mountain sides and dropping to the plain below; gorgeous mountain tints painted by a bold eastern sun and flung upon the background of a soft eastern sky; a valley in which nestles a village where Noah is said to have planted his vineyard; a dyke built by Nimrod, the mighty hunter; a griffin's 17 2 1 8 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. cave, at the mouth of which the Tiqris roars and foams — such is the country in which rose and fell the oldest known civilization of the world. Leaving the Euphrates river we enter the Syrian desert, and mid- wa\' between the great river and the Mediterranean sea, in a small oasis, find the famed ruins of Palmyra; the " Tadmor in the Desert." Across to Baalbek — grant! ruins again ! The omnipresent Arab is there also, as at Palmyra, sheltered by his crazy hut and raising his corn and olives among the ruins. Striking south, we are still oppressed by ruins — some thirty of them — before we skirt the coast of the Dead Sea, and cross a desert tract of country and the Suez canal into the land of pyramids. What more natural than that we should journey from the land of ancient Assyria to the land of Egypt; for we are following in the footsteps of the races and families of men, and the ancient Egyptians are supposed to have preceded us in that little trip, overland, by. some thousands of years. EGYPT. Straight toward the Mediterranean sea a black line shoots across the desert waste, binding together a chain of lakes and lagoons, and markincj the threshold to the land of shadows and sunshine. Another line winds toward Cairo, and still another seems to shoot more directly and with more momentum toward that great emporium to which our journey lies. In the ship canal constructed for the commerce of the world, and in the fresh-water canal built for the convenience of the isthmus inhabitants, are repeated the performances of the ancient Egyptians and Persians, accomplished before the wild Scythians ever dreamed of crossing the Bosphorus and laying the foundation of the most advanced of European civilization. Traces of that first canal are found deep in the desert sand of the isthmus country, where Egypt's frontier was threatened by those same savage tribes who now appear as Frenchmen, as Englishmen, as Germans, as representatives of nations which have sprung from the decay of the old. Here were her fortresses and from the banks of the Nile came fresh water, provisions and rein- forcements, if necessary, to the defenders of the civilization of those days ; and Persia had her ship canal from sea to sea ; but it was left to these days to shoot the railroad across the desert into the very haunts of antiquity, into the very shadows of the P)Tamids. But we pass them by, and the splendid mosques of Cairo, and the tombs of its rulers, and the beautiful villas in the suburbs, and ancient AN EGYPTIAN lEMPLE. 20 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. glory, and present attempts at mag^nihcence, and go into the " by-ways and hedges " to get acquainted with the people. We will have nothing to do with the Turk, for he is not a native ; although he has imposed many of his customs among the Egyptians. We shall avoid the Italians, French, English, Armenians and other nationalities who live in the "Erank" quarter of Cairo and Alexandria, and who A COPT. are traveling up and down the Nile country, viewing curiosities, traffic- ing in precious stones, or awaiting the return of the pilgrims from Mecca laden with the wealth of the far East ; who are the agents of commer- cial houses in their native lands, or the principals themselves in this central station of the overland route to India. Eor the present we Ecivrr 21 have no interest in these people-, except ni so far as they have relations to a very intelligent, courteous, industrious and humble class of the Eo-yptians, tiiI': Copts. They number about one-fifteenth of the entire population of the country, and are the sole remnant of the ancient Eo-yptians. 1 n Lower Egypt they are of a yellowish tinge, which shades into a dark brown further south. The Copts inhabit small sections of the larger cities, while in Upper Egypt they have settled whole towns and villages. What is their business ? They are clerks and account- ants in o-overnmentand mercantile offices ; they are the Christian priests of Eo-ypt, cheerful, humane and hospitable, with their convents and monasteries scattered along the Nile. They are the scribes, priests and scholars of Egypt, and an- ink-horn at the girdle (for they wear the turban and flowing robe) is a masculine badge, as is the cross, tattooed upon the hand of the Copt woman, her mark of honor. The Coptic priesthood have considerably lapsed from the rigor of their religious observances as primitive Christians, although in the regular monasteries their discipline is still severe. The dress is a simple skirt of coarse woolen fabric. Only on feast days are small quantities of animal food allowed, the ordinary food being black bread and lentils. The convents, when not situated on some inaccessible rock, are surrounded by a high and strong wall which has only a single iron door, and in some cases is wholly without opening, the means of entrance being a pulley from the top. The religious rites of the Copt are many and severe, the services lasting many hours at a time. Seven times daily he repeats his Pater Nosier, and begs for Divine mercy forty-one. The churches are deco- rated with ornaments of ostrich eggs and divided into four compart- ments. Furthest from the doorway is the chancel, or sanctuary, where the eucharist is celebrated, and which is hidden behind a high screen. Next is the room where the priests interpret in Arabic the Coptic service to the singers, the leading men of the congregation and to strangers. In the third compartment are the mass of the congregation, moving round in their bare feet to pray before the pictures of the saints, or leaning upon long crutches for support. The veiled women occupy the fourth room, which is dimly lighted, and usually situated in the extreme rear of the church. The domestic life of tlie Copts is ver}- siniilar to that of the Arabs who have settled along the Nile. They have adopted also many of the Moslem customs, such as the veiling of the faces of many of their women. Some Coptic women are allowed to go out from time to time and even to visit and shop pretty freely. Others, again, are as closely 22 l'AX(JRA.MA UF XATIUXS. secluded as if they were actual denizens of a harem. Nearly all keep black female slaves instead of hiring servants. There are some peculiarities in the Coptic marriage ceremony, EGYPTIAN DRNAMENTS. however. The bride, unlike the Moslem, has no canopy to cover her in the procession to the bridegroom's house. At the preliminary feast, THE NILE AXU EGVl'T. 23 pigeons are released from pies and tly around the room shaking- bells attached to their feet. After the marriage ceremon\-, the priests set on the foreheads of the new couple a thin gilt diadem. In entering her husband's house, the bride must step over the blood of a newly killed lamb. The whole pageant, after lasting eight days, ends with a grand feast at the bridesrroom's house. This is the custom, of course, amone the well-to-do classes, but certainly would not prevail in the hut of a poor chicken hatcher or fellah (farmer). But we shall soon be among these poor swarth)- sons of the Nile and it will become evident that they could not be the originators of pageants and feasts of superlative grandeur. THE NILE AND EGYPT. It is impossible for the humblest Egyptian to omit the Nile as an element in his life ; for in her bosom lie life and death. Food, drink and clothing spring from her brooding over the soil. " May Allah bless thee as he blessed the course of the Nile ! " exclaims the poor woman on its banks to the traveler. " Mohammed would not have crone to Paradise had he drunk of the Nile," says an Arabian proverb. She seems a living, moving thing — either a benefactor or a monster ; her benefactions, generally, make her the power for good in Egypt and an all-pervading influence of blessedness. A few days in the spring and fall she rests from her labors. Then the tributaries from the mountains and table-lands of Abyssinia and from the recesses of Central Africa commence to trickle into her mighty channel and the great event, older than the'pyramids and yet ever momentous, is soon recorded in Cairo. Across a branch of the river, near the metropolis, is a small island, in which is sunk a square wall or chamber. In the center of this chamber is a graduated pillar divided into cubits of about twenty-two inches each. Sometime in June the water commences to rise in the pillar, or nilo- meter, and Egyptian life again hangs upon the pleasure of old mother Nile. Every morning four official criers proclaim throughout Cairo the heiijht to which the water has risen. When the sixteenth cubit is reached, it is quite certain that there will be a harvest and the Sultan's land tax is levied — what portion of it is collected from the shrewd natives is another thing. While the water line is creeping between the six- teenth and the eighteenth cubits, Cairo and Egypt are breathless with interest and anxiety. A straggling street runs from the city down to Fostat, its suburb and port. From F"ostat a canal of irrigation runs through Cairo and is continued some miles be\ond. It is believed to 24 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. form part of an ancient canal, traces of which we found in the desert sands toward Suez. As the water line in the nilometer rises toward the eighteenth cubit, this becomes a locality of supreme interest. The talk even among the counting houses and government offices ; among the Europeans with their Coptic clerks; in the public gardens haunted by French and German strollers ; in the bazaars filled with the goods and nationalities of the East ; around the mosques in the city, and the cof- fee booths and fairs in the suburbs; among the serpent charmers and storj- tellers — the talk of Cairo itself is plentifully interspersed with refer- f / X A JEW OF CAIRO. ■.- '■•,. <■ S\^'; •"■■■■■■ ences to the probable outcome of the rise. Famine has already been averted, and the Sultan has his tax — ^on paper. It now remains to be seen whether the Nile will come up to the standard of aljiimlancc which is marked on the fascinating nilometer liy tlie eighteenth cubit, and which determines whether the pacha shall cut the banks which confine the waters and lead it into this grand canal, and thence into six thousand other artificial channels and reservoirs scattered throughout the region. Millions of anxious fellaheen and Copts, and wandering bands of Bedou- THE NILE AND EGYPT. 25 ins and gypsies, are at the same time casting anxious eyes upon the broad, swelling bosom of the Nile, or, remembering her as generally kind, already see her muddy waters depositing their magic loam upon the parched land, and the fruits and grains of the world springing into crreen life. Bounty or famine depends upon what has been going on in the far-away regions of Central Africa and the mountains of Abyssinia. Nature has been good, and the rains have fallen which bring the waters of the Nile up to the eighteenth cubit of the nilometer. The command is given by the authorities of Cairo. The pacha, attended by his grandees, cuts the confining mounds, and another harvest and season of plenty is assured. All classes now flock to the river side and, it may be, the whole night is spent in festivity. Like scenes of jubilee occur for hundreds of miles along the banks of the god-like river. Between September 20 and 30 the river is at its greatest height, remains stationary for about fifteen days and then usually commences to fall. Should the v/aters rise above twenty-four feet then the river ceases to be a "good Nile," and woe be to the little villages which lie in the level strip along her banks should she go far above that point. The whole valley of the Nile is now a vast lake, and as the inundated country at length appears it is seen to be covered with a layer of rich loam, averaging not more than one-twentieth of an inch. The strip fertilized is only two or three miles in breadth, but the soil, thus annually replenished, has filled the granaries of eastern and western kingdoms, and as long as the Nile does her duty, cannot be impoverished. When the waters recede, vegetation springs up, crisp and green. The beautiful date palms, which are so sympathetic, look brighter and more martial as they rise from the river side or protectingly group themselves around little hamlets or villages. The sturdy peasant, or fellah, comes from his mud hut and casts his wheat and barley upon the loam. Later, he drives his sheep, goats and oxen upon the "sown" grain to trample it in. In some places plough- ing is thought necessary, but is usually dispensed with. Beans, peas, lentils, clover, flax, lettuce, hemp, tobacco and water-melons go through with much the same process, and yet the fellah confidently expects, from past experience, to harvest good crops within three or four months. In summer, chiefly by artificial irrigation, maize, onions, sugar cane, cotton, coffee, indigo and madder are brought from the bountiful soil, and tem- perate and tropical fruits vie with one another in lusciousness. April, the great harvest month, sees the fields of Egypt white with barley and golden with wheat. Later appear the tiny green oranges, which do not mature for six months. Then the corn, which crackles with dryness as it is heaped upon the camels, is carried off to be 26 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. threshed. Seated in his wooden chair the peasant drives his rude cart round and round over the grain. Some of the weaUhy land ov. ners have introduced modern threshing macliines, but tliis primitive object is still as famiHar a sight as the poor fellah who has abandoned his desert for the garden spots of Egypt. His wants are few, however, — " a draught of Nile water, a handful of lentils, or a pitjce of bread made like a pan- cake and touijh as wash-leather" — and, since fuel costs nothing;, he orets along very well. He has also various crude devices for irrigating his land. A large wheel may be run out into the river and, with its hollow paddles, turned by the current. The water is thus caught up and emptied into a trench or tank on the bank. Or our Egyptian farmer may call the creaking "sakieh" into service — a series of cogwheels brought to bear upon an endless string of leathern vessels which empty their contents into a pool. Over the wheels is a thatched roof, and under the roof camels or buffaloes are plodding around a beaten path. Thus is revealed the motive power. From the pool the water is car- ried off on its refreshing errand by a wooden shaft. Ruder, but more common than these quite-mechanical contrivances is an elevating machine consisting of a long pole working on a pivot, a lump of clay or a stone at one end and a bucket at the other, the whole arrangement being fastened to a simple framework of logs. Thousands of these "re-formed" Arabs — naked or half-naked men, women aixl children — virtually spend their lives before their "shadoof" in dipping water from the Nile to irri- gate the fields. The water which is thus ])oured into trenches on the bank runs into small channels or ridges of earth which divide the land into squares. The cultivator uses his feet to regulate the flow of water to each part. By a dexterous movement of his toes, he forms a tiny embankment in one of the trenches, or removes the obstruction, or makes an aperture in one of the ridges, or closes it up again, as the condition of the crop requires. After all their labor when the grain is about ready to be harvested the vast flocks of geese, wild cluck, hawks, pigeons, and cranes which darken the sky, may threaten a complete destruction of their crop. At these times, instead of scarecrows, the fellaheen place small stands or platforms in the fields, from which young boys armed with slines do wonderful execution. •&- THE FELLAHEEN. Next to the birds, the greatest enemies of the fellaheen are the tax .collectors, who do not hesitate to vigorously apply the stick when they find an unusually stubborn subject ; and after the application of such THE FEI.LAIIKKX. 2/ forcible arouments, if he still refuses to disgorge the coin which is clearly due the Sultan, as proven by the nilometer's record, his wife and his neiohbors exalt him as a hero and a patriot. Their many tricks to evade the dues, which trickery they consider one of the paramount duties of life, are illustrati\-e of their many-sided characters. Some years ago the tax upon country produce brought into cities was so increased as to be really a burden upon our rural friends. At the station where two coun- try roads meet, a poor fellah would be seen dancing about "hopping mad," because he hail been forced to pay more than he expected, or had been caught at some of his evasive tricks. But after swearing and lament- ing in his native tongue, he would re-load his ass, throw off all his burdens of spirit and proceed with as unruffled a countenance as though evei^ tax fiend in Hg}pt had started for Constantinople. Occasionally, however, they do escape the sharp-eyed officials, though this is not the case in the following instance. A funeral procession enters the city by the chief country road, the chanting mollahs (religious doctors) walking behind, accompanied by men carrying the coffin with a red shawl over it, as is the usual custom. But the official scents something in the wind which is not a badly preserved corpse, and orders a halt and an investiga- tion. The coffin, which in the East is only covered with a pall, is found to be filled with cheese ! If the cheese had been a corpse it w-ould have entered the city free of duty. Neither are the fellaheen always honest in their dealings with private parties. A traveler tells the story that he once observed a large heap of little clay balls on the banks of the Nile which, evidently, were not formed by nature. He asked a fellah who stood near what they were for, as there were two or three such heaps. "Oh," he coolly replied, "they are for mixing with corn. Many boats laden with corn stop here." A boatman added that the village was famous for a peculiar kind of clay, of a corn color, but weighing heavier than the grain. As a rule, however, the fellaheen, who comprise four-fifths of the Egyptian population, are honest, lazy, patient, merry and domestic. They are the brawn of Egypt and cling jealously to her most ancient customs, strenuously opposing the introduction of implements of modern invention even when the attempt is made by their Turkish masters. The men average five feet eisrht inches in height, and have broad chests, muscular limbs and generally black, piercing eyes, straight thick noses, large but well-formed mouths, full lips, beautiful teeth and fine, oval faces. Their dress rarely consists of more than a shirt, leaving bare the arms, legs and breast. The distinctive garl) of the fellaha, or peasant'swife, is the dark-blue cotton and black muslin veil. In the towns many wear 28 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. prints ot various colors for trousers, and for the sliort waistcoat without sleeves, which is worn in winter as an additional garment. The favorite hues are orange, pink and )'eIlo\v, or magenta crimson. The older women, even among quite poor people, frequently dye their grey locks a tawny orange color. When we speak of the "older women " Ave mean those far this side of thirty. From twelve — the usual aee of marriat)-e — to eighteen or nineteen nearly all the women are splendidly formed and many of them are real beauties, but after that they rapidly wither, THEIR WIVES. Having introduced the fellah and spoken of his occupation and dis- position, it is no more than just that we should do the same for his wife. While he is abroad tending his cattle or sheep, looking after his crops, selling fodder, fruit, milk or vegetables, or looking after the irrigation of his land, we shall enter his home, meet his wife and family, and see how and where they live. The houses of the fellaheen are all of the same general type, the wealthier of them, of course, living in a large mud "mansion" instead of occupying one about four feet in height. The well-to-do may have carpets and mattresses, little coffee cups and some brass cooking vessels instead of a sleeping mat, a water jug and a few rude kitchen utensils ; and their daily bill of fare may include more items than coarse bread and onions, cheese, dates, beans and rice. In some of the houses of the more pretentious peasants there is a separate apartment, called " hareem," for the women ; but it is usually dirty and disorderly and a pitiful par- ody upon the magnificence of its Moslem prototype. The wife of the rich fellah displays gold ornaments, a brocaded silk vest, a black muslin veil and, on special occasions, trousers; the poor fellaha has her silver bracelets and her dark cotton garments, often thin and ragged. As soon as it is light the poor woman gets up from her mat, spread in the low one-room hut, and shakes herself ; or, if the weather is hot, she has been sleeping outside, with her family. Having thus completed her toilet, she and her husband and children gather round a small earthen dish containing boiled beans and oil, pickles or chopped herbs, green onions or carrots. Possibly the family do not go to all this trouble, but each takes what pleases him, when he likes, the substantial part of the food being a coarse kind of bread in which is mixed some most bitter seeds which seem to immensely tickle the palate of the average Egyp- tian. The father now, in all probability, goes to his work, and the mother, if she has none to do, wanders away to gossip with the neigh- EGYI'IIAX SIN(;ER. PANORAMA Ol-' NATIONS. bors, leavini^r the children to roll in the dust or otherwise shift for them- selves. If she has no neighbors and lives in the country, she may go ofi with her husband and the children to assist him in drawing water to irri- gate their land. If it is baking day, or she has some other simple household duty to perform, she deposits her infant (in appearance a heap of dirty rags) upon the first spot which strikes herj eyes, when the idea comes to her. It ma\' be on a heap of rubbish, with the sun beating down upon it or the flies swarming over it. If she is a country fellaha working with her husband, the infant may go down in the mud. Should she be eating an onion, or a pickle, or a raw carrot, and the baby cries — and has teeth — she will, as likely as not, fill its little mouth with whatever she is enjoying. But bread-making day has really arrived, and approaching the windowless mud-hut, with its wooden door and huge wooden key, we find that the woman has brought the strength of the whole family to bear upon her task. Perhaps the smaller children and an old grandmother are pick- ing and cleaningf the corn, the older boys or the father carrying it off to be ground and bringing back the flour. A grown daughter or a sister is sifting the flour and with the fellaha's assistance mixing the leaven, working up the dough and shap- ing it into round cakes. These are then baked in the mud oven of the hut, or, if the fellaha lives in a village, the batch may be taken to the public oven. When evening comes a pretense is usually made to unite the family. They sit in a circle, often on the eround — mother, father, children, sister and grandmother — and dip their cakes of bread into a veeetable mess before them, contained in a coarse earthen pan. They eat in comparative silence., often, and when each is satisfied he gets up and goes away. Sometimes the man eats alone, or with his sons ; and the women finish the bowl. But this practice obtains only among those upon whom the Moslem customs have a strong hold. If the fellah fam- ily, in whose house we visit, is above the average in respectability, after supper is finished, wife, daughter or slave brings in a basin and pours water EGM'TIAN VASE EGVi'TIAN SCIIUULS. 31 over the hands. Whether the family sleep indoors or out, depends, principally, upon the season of the year. But let them sleep, for the present, wherever they are and whoever they are — whether the Mos- lem who has gone through with his evening devotions on a carpet spread on the ground, or the Coptic Christian who has said his prayers and counted his beads forty and one times during the day. EGYPTIAN SCHOOLS. In many of the villages along the Nile, Moslem and Copt dwell in comparative peace, the men working together in the fields and their children attending the same school, when one has been established in a rural district by some European missionary. The boys, however, far outnumber the o-irls, from the fact that maidens are more useful at home than their brothers ; that they are called away from school before they have made much prog- ress, to become wives, and that Moslem Egyptians are generally imbued with the Turkish indifference to female educa- tion and advancement. The little girls attend in loose frocks called " ofellebeehs," I with muslin or gauze veils, slippers in winter, and in summer wooden clo^js which are kicked off when they seat them- selves. In the native schools little is taught besides the Koran and the merest elements of arithmetic. Though the school-master may be blind, if he can repeat the Moslem bible without stum- bling, the permanency of his position is AN EGYPTIAN CHAIR. assurcd. The school is generally attached to the village mosque, which is built of mud with a white-washed spire. Its locality can be ascertained beyond a doubt by the tremendous hub- bub which always proceeds from a Moslem school ; for all those who are learning to read are sitting upon the ground with the school-master, vig- orously rocking their bodies back and forth, and reciting their lessons from their wooden tablets and at the top of their voices. Before the older pupils, on little desks made of palm sticks, are copies of the Koran or some of its thirty sections. They also are going through with the same form of gymnastics, which is thought to be an aid to the memory. 32 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. In the small towns and villages the masters of the schools are nearly as ignorant as the pupils, but manage by their native shrewdness to hide their lack of learning. Naturally the " salary " is a mere nothing. But in Cairo, where the course of instruction is somewhat broader, the remuneration to the school-master is correspondingly greater ; from the parent of each pupil there is sent to him, every Thursday, what would be equivalent to three cents. The master of a school attached to a mosque or public building, in Cairo, also receives yearly apiece of white muslin for a turban, a piece of linen and a pair of shoes. Each boy receives, at the same time, a linen skull cap, eight or nine yards of cotton cloth, half a piece of linen, a pair of shoes, and in some cases from three to six cents. These presents are supplied by funds bequeathed to the school. Although several -Sultans of enlightened views have attempted to reform the cause of education in Egypt, they have found it a graceless task, the prejudice and ignorance of the bulk of the population being as firmly set against any innovation here as they are in the field of agriculture. So the boy continues to shout his les- sons, and the poor little maiden is often not allowed to know much of her Koran, for, when a mere child, she is hurried away from home to wed somebody whom, perchance, she has never seen. In a few short years, when she begins to fade, she fails to understand the cause of the great rejoicing which then took place ; or of the bright-hued procession which followed her red silk canopy, under which she herself walked cov- ered from head to foot with a large red shawl ; or why discordant bands of music and sweetly tinkling singers should do their best to celebrate the event, as if her world did not know that marriage was the stepping- stone to dismal, neglected old age. GLIDING UP THE NILE. In this general view of the customs, dispositions and daily life of the Copts and fellaheen, who really are the two components of the modern Egyptians, we have failed to even touch upon salient points, which to omit, would leave the pitture of the Land of the Nile and its people incomplete and colorless. We have got acquainted with some of the people, so that they do not seem like strangers to us, and now must just skim the surface of their mysterious country — another' land of decay — stopping at a point or two which is typical of their modern institutions. As you pass through the delta of the Nile, the flocks. of pelican, wild duck and other fowl make the waters hum and you might imagine, if it were not for that narrow strip of desert, that you GLIDING UP THE NILE. 33 had by mistake wandered into the State of Louisiana. The tremendous fields of grain which, in season, would be stretching down to the river's edge for three miles on either hand, would also soon dispel the illusion caused by the presence of these myriads of water fowl. Alexandria, a strange combination of decay and life, being left behind, the fertile strip of country grows quite narrow as Cairo comes into view — Cairo, with its dark and gloomy streets, its great mosques and its seven miles of area which is the focal point of three distinct civilizations. The slaves of Africa, the spices and fabrics of the East and the gold of Europe are all cast into Cairo, and a tremendous jumble of English- men and Germans, French and Americans, Arabs, Copts, Armenians, camels, asses, dogs, funeral and marriage processions, bazaars, veiled women, Turks, caravans and noise is the result. Opposite to Cairo, and extending along a slope to the river, are the sixty pyramids ; the ravages of time, and the depredations of Arab builders for ages, having given some of them a somewhat irregular outline as they stand up against the clear sky in their gloomy grandeur. The mountains now approach nearer to the river than they did in Lower Eo-ypt, and over the desert a picturesque group of Bedouins are wandering. They have been brought into subjection by rigorous governmental treatment, but still proudly cling to their nomadic ways notwithstanding their race has been abandoned by so many tribes who have settled down into the drudgery of partial civilization. They are therefore harmless to travelers. They are dressed in clothes of camel's hair, with girdles of leather, and their wives wear the dark cotton robe of the fellaha, with an additional veil of crimson or white crape. Entering the river's fertile strip the Arab band is seen to approach a cluster of mud huts, under a grove of palms, and connected with a farm. They talk with the bailiff in charge of the land and the fellaheen, and quickly pitch their tents beside the hut. They have returned to watch his crops and cattle, for they have been found trust- worthy before, although it is impossible to foretell when their thieving propensities will seize upon them. Wandering, like the Arab, through the pyramid section, we find that an opportunity is given them to rob us in genteel civilized fashion. The sheik of a tribe has founded his village at the foot of one of the pyramids and compla- cently levies his tribute upon curiosity seekers, who, under the hallucina- tion that they will be "conducted" are rushed up its sides at railroad speed, over steps of three or four feet in height, by his impetuous and "lungless" Arabs. Still skirting along the Nile, or through Egypt, with its mid-days of white heat, its purple mountain shadows, its cold 3 faiiiBaaiMiMiBaiiiiiiisiiiiaiiiiiiiiiiiiiKiili^ GLIDING UP THE NILE. 35 twilights and mellow " after-glows," its deserts and gardens, its hills pierced with pictured tombs, its bee boats stopping wherever the flowers bloom, its boatmen's chants heard with choruses and clappings of hands, its boats built as they were in the days of the Pharaohs with their trian- gular sails, its limestone pyramids and sandstone temples — while wonderful nature and human life cast themselves and their moods over this country of Egyptian, Grecian and Roman ruins — " our special artist" finds — what ? Another specimen village, and the Bedouins have actually so far ventured into the confines of civilization as to settle in it. The village, which is a short distance from the beach, is thickly sprinkled with palms. A plot near by is also covered with gum trees. The houses are of the vulgar mud, but the large herd of cattle in the vicinity and the rich ornaments worn by the women, who are grouped near the river bank, are sufficient evidences that the Bedouins have gained by changing their ways of living. If you had been inclined to visit the sheik of the village he would, perhaps, have spread a Persian carpet for you under the shade of one of these gum trees, and, in the presence of his chief men, would politely have inquired as to your goings and comings. His house is also open to you. But, it may be, j'ou had better rest content with seeing the outside of the village, especially it you have any valuables which you wish to retain. Let us now pass Siout, from which the Nubian caravans are departing, and to which some of our fellah acquaintances have journeyed to lay mat- ters before the governor of Central Egypt which are too momentous to be settled by any village authority. Let us pass the Christian town of Ekhmin, with its Coptic convent and its great ruins, and even the broad plain covered with the remains of fallen Thebes, her dark mountain tombs in the back-ground. All these wonders, of which you may read in hundreds of books and see them stand forth from thousands of bold engravings, are lightly skimmed over, only to enter a modest village beyond and see what is going on there. In Siout the governoi may dispense justice as he pleases for all the interest we takt in his grand ways — but here is a village court-house ! It would correspond to our county court, several villages and towns bringing their legal affairs to it, and is crowded with handsome, sturdy peasants. At the door stand the keepers — two half-naked lads with long sticks. The room is small and approached by a narrow, dirty staircase. Many of the windows are broken, the panes being stuffed with rags or a ragged curtain to keep out the sun. At a number of inky, crazy-looking wooden desks in front, sit several scribes writing ; while on a ragged divan, with soiled cushions, sit a dozen more, each with paper or inkhorn of brass in his girdle or his 36 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. hand. Each head scribe chants out the contents of his paper, in a sonorous, but not very loud tone of \/oice, to his assistant, who copies it. The dinner hour having arrived, does the court adjourn? That would hardly accord with the dignity of the Turkish judge. A lad brings into the court-room a tray, upon which are vegetaoles, bread, cheese and a watermelon ; whereupon the Court, with two of his assistants, calmly proceed to dip their bits of bread in the vegetable dishes and go through the whole course. Then, leisurely wiping their hands, they resume work. In the village, outside of the sleepy court-room, a lively scene is found in the shape of the weekly market. We see no booths, but each seller spreads his wares before him on little mats , cloth, wool, tobacco, butter, salt, curds, handkerchiefs, sugar, coffee, thread, etc., are displayed for sale. Veiled women, decorated according to their condition with colored glass or white shells, silver bracelets, golden coins or antique jewels, chat, examine and sometimes buy. Gentle Egyptian cattle wander about unmolested. The fellaha even appears as a ' sales-lady" beside her pile of egg-plants or gourds, and shrilly proclaims their virtues. A Bedouin chief even appears upon his strong horse, his saddle furnished with cases of pistols. Elderly peasants, in turbans of white or crimson sit in sunny spots, smoking and chatting over their bargains. All this animation and enjoyment and indolence are fondled by a bright Egyp- tian sun. These fairs are certainly a great institution of Egyptian peasant and village life. But adieu to the fair and to the village with its mud huts, some standing alone and some clustering around a common court-yard, some filled with vermin and others with chickens in all stages of artificial development ; to clerical, priestly Copt, to brawny, mercurial fellah, and to picturesque, thievish Bedouin. We are traveling into Upper Egypt, where the valley of the Nile so contracts that the sandstone rocks over- hang the water. From these rugged cliffs were quarried the huge stones which went into the building of the ruined monuments and temples of Upper Egypt and Nubia. Here is the home of the Copt and his vihages are scattered all along the rocky banks, his convents often crowning a precipitous height or the ruins of some imposing structure. He and his priest chose these dreary dwelling places when their ways of living were more ascetic than they now are ; when the early Christians hid themselve. in caves both from choice and from necessity; but having once planted their feet in this rocky gorge the ties of kindred and the bonds of poverty have kept them there. With the roar of the cataracts in our ears we say good-bye to Egypt, but not to the Nile. ETHIOPIA ALONG THE NILE. 37 ETHIOPIA ALONG THE NILE. The name " Ethiopia " calls up all the savage tribes, the mystery and darkness of Central Africa. To our childhood mind an Ethiopian could be nothing but the blackest of the black; a great, uncouth, thick-lipped beast, roaming over a vast territory which stared at us with fearful blankness from the center of Africa. Ethiopia included all the unknown, and the Ethiopian everything in man which was calculated to produce a ni'^htmare. But the truth of the matter is that ancient Ethiopia was renowned even in Greece and Rome as a land of high civilization ; the Ethiopians were called " the blameless race " and the favored friends of the gods. In her mightiest days, Ethiopia was the rival of Egypt in all that was grand and glorious, as is attested by the ruins of her vast temples in Nubia, some of which were hewn from mountains of solid rock. Her tribes are now scattered from the northern confines of the Sahara desert, through Nubia, Abyssinia, along the banks of the Upper Nile and around the shores of its lakes, and into the most hidden recesses of the continent, where they merge with the true negroes of Soudan and Cen- tral Africa. They have scattered, and been driven, and settled in a ter- ritory stretching from Northern to Southern Africa, and from the Red Sea to the Atlantic, the best physical specimens of the ancient Ethio- pians being found in the Tuaricks of the central Sahara desert. Nubia was evidently the center of Ethiopian civilization, her present popula- tion consisting of the descendants of her ancient people, and of various tribes of Arabs, most of whom invaded the country in Mohammed's time. The first ray of intelligence which pierces the darkness enshrouding Ethiopian history and which bears upon the origin of the Nubians, as we find them to-day, is that in the early part of the Christian era a pow- erful tribe of Lybians appeared south of Egypt who were called Nobat^e, or Nuba. The Nuba now occupy a small tract of country below the ter- ritory of the Dongolese in Southern Nubia. They are supposed to be Berbers. THE DONGOLESE. The two most distinct tribes of Nubians, however, who have least of the Arab blood, and are the truest types of natives in the country, are the Dongolese and the Shangallas. The Dongolese are also supposed to be the remains of the Lybian tribe of Nuba to whom the Romans granted land south of the first cataract in return for which they protected 3S PANORAMA OF NATIONS. Egypt's frontier from the fierce attacks of Southern Ethiopian tribes. At first they were a Christian people and formed quite a powerful nation, whose capital was at Dongola and whose territory covered most of Lower Nubia, now inhabited by their Moslem conquerors, the Arabs. The vicinity of old Dongola, in the center of Nubia, seems to have been the nucleus of the ancient as well as the more modern Christian civilization. Here a Christian queen reigned over the Dongolese, and at the foot of a cliff which rises four hundred feet and formed the site of her capital are found five or six rock-hewn temples of vast magnitude. Their walls are covered with hieroglyphics, in high relief, representing figures and deeds of kings and gods. The houses of old Dongola are now mostly in ruins, but on the highest part of the rocky cliff a simple Coptic church rises into view. The walls are ornamented with crude paintings, and the attendant priest in his black robes, with his long and ragged hair, is wiping their unsightly and cracked surfaces with an old rag. Services have not been held in the church for many years, but the priest keeps guard within it and reads his Amharic bible all day long, and far into the night, by the light of the stars. So he does not mind the fact that nearly all its people have crossed the river and built themselves houses, and have gone to raising grain and fruits and cotton. This latter product requiring an abundant supply of water, a rude canal has been constructed communicating with the Nile. When the canal is dry water is conveyed across country in numerous small aqueducts, built on upright tim- bers, to the cotton fields beyond. None of this cotton finds its way to Lower Egypt ; but the people along the river for many miles and thous- ands of wandering Arabs wear clothes made in Old Dongola, or opposite its former site. There are many primitive looms in the vicinity, the light-colored Dongolese women working at them and turning out strips of cloth about ten feet in length and fifteen inches wide. A strip of this- cloth, simply rolled around the loins and shoulders of the Arab, with a pair of drawers, completes the dress of our nomadic customer. It is said to last him five or six years. Many of the children are sent out to mind the oxen which propel the "sakieh" wheels. You have seen them in the land of Egypt but did not know that under a palm, or rock near by, a half-naked girl or boy was lying apparently asleep. But let the monot- onous creaking stop for a moment and a shrill cry would start the patient beasts on their everlasting rounds, and the water would continue to flow over the fields. If not thus employed they are seen along the river banks fishing with hook or trap for the muddy-tasting shall, bultee or kharmoot ; they are waging an exciting warfare with the white ants which sometimes threaten the scant household furnishings of their homes; or "*?^- AFRICA. THE SHANGALLAS. 39 they are out picking cotton or sewing seed. We find the Dongolese living in the same wretched huts as the Egyptians, consisting often of one room, with a court-yard for the goats and fowl. Though the fertile strip of the Nile averages ten or twelve miles through the one hundred miles covered by the territory of the Dongolese, and bears two annual crops of corn and dates, cotton, tobacco, coffee, opium, indigo, sugar- cane, beans and saffron, they are indolent by nature and [)rcfer to collect slaves in the further regions of the Nile and sell them in Egypt. They raise fine cattle, also, which require less attention than the crops, and pride themselves on the superior breed of their horses, which are, indeed, larofer than the Arabian. As has been intimated, the Dongolese are whiter than the Nubians in general. They seem originally to ha\e been a tribe living north of the Ethiopians, and have had a slight mixture of Arabian and Mameluke, or Circassian blood. Driven from Egypt, where they were once the ruling power, the Mamelukes founded New Dongola, but finally, as a people, became extinct. The Mamelukes were driven out by the Turks who still garrison the town with negroes from the White Nile. THE SHANGALLAS. A relic of the most degraded of the Ethiopian tribes are the Shan- gallas found in the country to the west of Abyssinia and in Southeastern Nubia, although the boundary line between the two countries is very indefinite. Though savage and bloodthirsty in an extreme degree in their attacks upon rival tribes and travelers entering Abyssinia, some rays of humanity still gleam from their natures; for they always spare women and children. They are powerfully built, from the waist upward, and so swift of foot that they scarcely ever employ beasts for riding. They use the spear and the two-edged sword common in all this por- tion of Africa, and though they are at constant war with the partially Europeanized people of Abyssinia who are armed with comparatively modern weapons, they are so fearless and hardy that their numbers do not seem to diminish. In their mode of warfare, they also evince a singular love of "fairness." They never mutilate the persons of the fallen and, except in a regular attack, two will never attack one. Let twenty Shangallas meet an enemy, and instead of a cowardly and over- powering onslaught, lots would be cast, and he upon whom the choice fell, would go forth fiercely to meet his adversary, the others looking on at the combat, with perfect indifference, even if it should end in their comrade's death. Their chief food is meat and wild honey, with which 40 PANORAMA OF NATIONS. their country abounds, and in the rainy season they Hve often in caves, where large fires are kept hghted night and day. Many of these caves are capable of containing a whole village, and in them they often take refuge from the attacks of the Abyssinians who seldom venture into their country except in large force. The Shangallas live to a great extent on roots, and on the carcasses of elephants, slain by Abys- sinian hunterswho have ventured over the border. These they frequently dispute with the lions. They eat also snakes of all kinds. When alone in the jungle the Shangalla fills his large gourd with water and wild honey, catches his snake and cuts off its head with his sword, lights two immense fires, roasts his snake on the embers, then he gorges himself, and stretches out his naked body between the fires. If he is not seized by a man-eating lion, or trampled upon by an elephant, he awakes, drains the contents of the gourd well fermented by the heat, and starts off in search of man or beast. His courage is fortified by the same liquor ("pale mead") which the ancient Britons drank. Strange to say, the Shangallas have a deep-rooted prejudice against making any attacks at night and they never start on an expedition with- out consulting the birds, whose chirpings they say they understand. If a bad omen encounters them on the road, they quit the prey even if in sight of it and return for the day. The hunters from Abyssinia who come into the Shangalla's country for elephants have many like notions ; they, for instance, will only descend from the hills into the jungle below for seven days at a time. Although the border people of the Shangallas have an exciting time of it with Abyssinian hunters and soldiers, ele- phants, rhinoceros, buffaloes and lions, and live as they can, those in the interior have fat flocks of sheep and herds of cattle. From these few particulars it will be seen how widely separated they are from the indo- lent and fair-skinned Dongolese with their crude cotton looms, their cultivated lands, their boats coming from the Blue and the White Nile laden with gum, senna, ivory and slaves, their bazaars and dancing girls, their neero soldiers and their Turkish officials. Here are the two extremes. Remnants also of the northern race or tribes who assisted Egypt in her continual war with Ethiopia are supposed to exist in the Bisharien, who inhabit the desert east of the river and live entirely upon flesh and milk, and the Takas who live in the mountains. A number of negro or Ethiopian tribes are scattered along the Blue and White Nile, some of them beingf the remnants of a crude state called the Kingdom of Sennar which gave the Egyptians an imniense amount of trouble before they were brought into any kind of subjection. There are also several collections THE SHANGALLAS. 41 of oases in South Nubia inhabited by black warUke tribes, some of whom are clad in iron armor and are fine horsemen. Generally speaking, the Arabs proper occupy the northern third of Nubia, the majority of those who make even a pretense of having an occupation acting as guides to caravans and as camel drivers, and letting out camels for hire. The only tax which the government imposes on the Arabian population is to fix a price at which their camels must be sup- jdied. This is somewhat less than they can obtain from traveling merchants, and although they are allowed to roam the country at their own " sweet will " they are great grumblers when called upon by the fortunes of a great chief, and as his master was besieged in a mountain fort he offered with a lens which he carriei^l, to set fire to the enenn's camp, which was pitched upon a plain some distance away. Although he heartily prayed for the success of his enterprise, he did not take into account the ridiculous ABYSSINIAN FARMERS. 6^ weakness of his burning-glass — and over the mountain side he went, sewed up in the hide of a cow. Small differences between the natives are usually brought before the elders of the tribe for settlement. They form a kind of jury with the nagadaras of the village, or chief of the tribe, or large land owner as judge. Seating himself on the ground, attended by his grey beards, the plaintiff, defendant and witnesses are brought into court, always with shoulders bared. The oath administered afid often repeated during the trial is in this form : " May the King (or the Ras, as the ruling power may be) die if I speak not the truth." (On the contrary the Arabs always swear by the life of a person.) The plaintiff first presents his case, all parties to the controversy maintaining a decorous silence. When he has finished, he puts a period to his remarks by seizing the judge's cotton robe and making a large knot in the corner. When the defendant has concluded, he ties a like knot in the opposite corner. Dur- ing the progress of the case this tying and untying goes on, it seeming to be a part of the court procedure to mark the progress of the suit. The cause of the trouble may be a blow or a petty theft, and the award to the injured party consists of money, honey, butter, or other food. These minor judges are subject to call, night and day. ABYSSINIAN FARMERS. It requires, in fact, no great amount of perception to see that the Ras, his chiefs and sub-chiefs, the drummers of every grade and the judges are the hardest worked individuals in Abyssinia. In Abyssinia, as in many other countries, the basis of the state is the land, and its farmers stand the brunt of taxation levied for the sup- port of its military system. They furnish a tax in crops or money to the Ras, and oxen to plow his lands or those of the king. They deliver a portion of their grain to the governor or chief of their district, and hold themselves in readiness to quarter a certain number of soldiers in their houses. The governor has a right to take anything for his personal subsistence. His daily bill of fare must, truly, have a broad and deli