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EGYPT

590

EGYPT

care anything about Protestantism as a religion, was anxious to do justice to all the members of that body. When Margaret, duchess of Parma, was made regent of the Netherlands, he and the Prince of Orange entered the council of state and had charge of the few Spanish troops. But when insurrections took place, he broke with the Prince of Orange. He seems to have restored order, and when the Duke of Alva entered the country as lieutenant-general of the Netherlands, Egmont tried to secure his favor, though the Prince of Orange and other chiefs of the insurrection left the country. He seemed to have gained the confidence of Alva, when suddenly he and Count Hoorn were treacherously seized and carried to the citadel of Ghent. He was tried by a court, which, he claimed, had no right to try him, and along with Count Hoorn was condemned, and beheaded in the market place of Brussels, June 5, 1568. A statue now marks the place of their execution. One of the dramas of the great writer, Goethe, has Egmont for its hero. See Motley's Rise of the Dutch Republic.

E'gypt, a country in the northeastern part of Africa, between the Great Desert and the Red Sea. It extends from the Mediterranean to the first cataract of the Nile at Assuan. The population is over 10,000,-ooo. Egypt is nominally dependent on Turkey; but under the reigning khedive (Abbas Hilmi) it has since 1883, after Arabi Pasha's rebellion, been practically governed by Great Britain. Sir Eldon Gorst is the English resident-agent at Cairo; while the English army of occupation is under Maj. Gen. Sir Reginald Wingate, K.C.B., who succeeded Lord Kitchener as sirdar and governor-general of the Sudan. The area of Egypt is 393,000 square miles, its greatest length being more than 600 miles and its width 500 miles. The chief cities are Cairo (population, 654,476), Alexandria (population, 332 246), Damietta, Tantah, Mansurah, Zagazig, Rosetta, Port Said and Suez. There are in Egypt about 148,000 foreigners, chiefly Greeks, Italians, British and French.

The area of the subject territory, known as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, is about 950,000 square miles, with a population roughly computed at 2,000,000. This area extends southward from the frontier of Egypt to Uganda and the Belgian Congo, a distance of about 1,200 miles, and stretches from the Red Sea to the confines of Wadai in Central Sudan. The chief towns are Khartum (population 20,956), the capital, Omdurman (population 42.779), Haifa, Berber, Suakin, Kassala and El Obeid.

Topography. The main feature of the country is the Nile, with its course of 3,400 miles, which empties into the Mediterranean through two great mouths, its other five having long ago been filled up. The trian-

gular space inclosed between its mouths forms the delta, now called Lower Egypt. The cultivated and settled area of Egypt is that of the Nile valley and delta, comprising 12,976 square miles. A great peculiarity of the Nile valley is the general absence of rain, the land depending on the yearly overflow from the river for the watering. In the middle of July the rise begins to appear, due to rains in the mountainous regions of the south. It reaches its highest point—an average of 35 feet at Thebes and 25 at Cairo—at the end of September, and begins to go down again in the middle of October, falling to its lowest point in April. By the end of November the irrigated land, over which the water has been evenly spread by drains and embankments, has dried and is sown; and in March the crops are ready to be reaped. The course of the river is broken by cliffs and masses of rock which form great cataracts. Over a large extent of the country the rocks are covered with moving desert-sands, and close to the Nile they are covered to a depth of about 30 feet with the soil brought down by its waters.

Agriculture. There is an entire absence of woods and forests in the Nile valley. Even clumps of trees, except the palm, are rare. The fig, pomegranate, orange, lemon, watermelon and grape are common fruits, and the most celebrated flower is the lotus or water-lily. The ordinary beasts of burden are the ass and camel. Egypt is an agricultural country, and in some parts three crops in one year are raised Wheat is the chief grain; but barley, corn and clover are largely grown. Sugar-cane, cotton, indigo and tobacco are common products. The country is divided into Upper and Lower Egypt, each of these divisions being subdivided into numerous departments and there now being 15 provinces in all.

Races and Religions. The people, with the exception of 731,235 Christians, are Mohammedans. They call themselves Arabs, but probably are descended from the ancient Egyptians. The native Christians are called Copts. There also are pure-blooded Arabs, chiefly Bedouins, who live in tents in the desert, with a small number of Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Berbers and Jews. The ancient race probably was of mixed origin, partly Asiatic and partly negro.

The ancient religion of Egypt was a worship of many gods. The principal cities had each a family-group of gods, consisting of a father-god, a wife or sister and a son; these three were usually accompanied by inferior gods. But the worship of some of the groups of three was universal, and not confined to any one city, that of Osiris, Isis and Horus being found all over Egypt. Special animals were also held sacred, the most common