Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/433

 TIIE "PLAGUES OF EOYTT." 861 at Cairo and in the other large towns bring up their children succciwfully, provided they are careful to observe the onlinary laws of health. lufuut mortality is even less amongst them than amongst the natives, whose poverty for the most part pre- vents them from bestowing the necessary care on their offspring.* Nevertheless the foreign colony, in which the men are far more numerous than the women, increases not by an excess of births over deaths, but only by immigration. At present the European element is represented in Eg^'pt, or at least in Alexandria and Cairo, by much more numerous communities than those of the Turks.t In 1882 it exceeded 90,000, and will probably acquire still further expansion now that the country has been placed under the protectorate of a Western power. Thanks to their greater intelligence, strength, and resources, the Euro- peans rather than the Turks are the true masters of the land. To this immigration of conquerors from the north corresponds that of the Nubian Bar&bra or Barbarins from the south. These Barabra, engaged almost exclusively in menial occupations, are the "Auvergnatsof Cairo."+ The figures of Nubians carved on the ancient Egyptian monuments show that this immigration has been going on for ages. There remain to be mentioned the Ghagars, those Hindu tribes to whom the Spaniards and English have given the name of Gitanos and Gypsies, that is, " Egyptians," and who are still found in the Nile Valley. Amongst these wandering communities the men are chiefly horse-dealers, tinkers, mountebanks, and fortune-tellers. They also supply the tattooers and serpent- charmers, as well as the dancing dervishes, who are usually but wrongly supposed to be zealous disciples of the Prophet. Notwithstanding their Asiatic t^'pe and wild penetrating glance, by which the Gypsies are everywhere distinguished, they all claim to be pure Arabs, pretending to have migrated at first towards West Africa, whence they returned to Eg}-pt many centuries ago. The most " noble " tribe of the Ghagars even takes the name of Barmecides, though more commonly known by the appellation of Ghaw&zi, whence may possibly be derived the terms Gabachos and Gavaches, applied in Spain and in the south of France to the Gitanos and even to all despised immigrants. Amongst the Ghawdzi are chiefly recruited the dancing-girls, wl^o are not to be confused with the more respectable class of the Almeh, or singing- women. The "Plagues of Egypt." The numerous population of Egypt, which has increased threefold since the beginning of the century, and which is progressing at the mean yearly rate of about 50,000, is a sufficient proof of the salubrity of the climate.Ji In Upper Egypt especially, where the atmosphere is not charged with moist exhalations, the climate is very healthy notwithstanding its high temperature. It is even • Mortality of children under ten years in 1878 : Europenns, 39-97 per cent. ; nntivrs, 65-6-5 per cent, t Europeans in Eg^ypt, according to the census of 1882 : men, 49,Ud4 ; women, 41,832. X Edmund About, " Ahm^d le Fellah." § Population of E^'pt in 1800, under the French oocupition : 603,700 hoos s, or 'J,ol4,400 sools, reckoning 8 per hoiue. Average mortality, 26 to 27 i>er l,0o0.