railing, with their arms folded and their heads bent slightly forward. All were barefoot, having left their shoes at the door.
"Half a dozen dervishes were in a little balcony overlooking the floor, and when the chief gave the signal that all was ready three of them began to play upon flutes, such as we have already described, and three upon tambourines. Then the dervishes on the floor began to whirl; the music, at first slow, soon quickened, and the dancers or whirlers quickened their movements with it.
"Before getting into motion each man extended his arms, holding the palm of the right hand upward while he turned down that of the left. We asked the reason of this peculiar position of the hands, but the guide could not tell us. He simply said that they always did so, and he did not know why.
"As they whirled, their skirts spread out so that they resembled wheels, or rather cones four or five feet in diameter. They kept their hands always in the same position, and as they whirled they moved slowly around the floor; it was a wonder that they didn't run against each other, but they didn't. The music went on, and so did the dancers, and they kept up their whirl for half an hour or more. We looked for some of them to fall down; but they were accustomed to this kind of[Pg 83]
[Pg 84] work, and wouldn't oblige us. Nobody fell; and finally, at a signal from their sheik, one after another stopped, made a low bow to him, and retired to the edge of the circle. We had seen enough, and so came away.
"Another day we went to see a sect called the howling dervishes; they are much like the Mevlevies, except that they howl instead of whirl. They sat on the floor in a circle, and began to pronounce the names of Deity ninety times each, and as there are ninety-nine different names for God in the Arabic language, you can readily see that there were a great many words altogether. They bow each time they pronounce a word, and very soon after commencing they rose to their feet, joined hands together, and became greatly excited. They bent their bodies nearly double at every utterance, their turbans fell off, their hair flew wildly about, they stripped off their upper garments, perspired freely, and some of them, after a time, actually frothed at the mouth like mad dogs. We did not stay to see the end of the performance, but were told that it continued till the fanatics were exhausted, and one after another fell insensible to the floor.
"Let us turn to something more agreeable.
"Frequently while going around the city we have passed near school-rooms, where boys were studying their lessons under direction of their teachers, and once we went inside and saw a school in operation. It reminded us of the one we saw at Allahabad, in India,[4] as the boys were seated on the floor in front of their teacher, and were studying their lessons aloud. Each boy had a wooden tablet like a large slate, with some sentences on it in Arabic, which he was to commit to memory. They rock back and forward as they study, as the motion is thought to assist the memory. When a dozen boys are repeating their lessons all at once you can imagine what a din they keep up. The sentences they learn are from the Koran, and as soon as they can repeat the first chapter of the sacred book they learn the last but one, and then the one preceding; the second chapter of the book is the one learned last of all, and when they can repeat the whole of the Koran their education is considered complete, unless they are intended for occupations where they must know how to write. For instruction in writing they go to another school, or have special teachers at home. The teacher receives a small sum of money from the parents of each boy at the end of every week, and the room where he keeps his school is generally the property of a mosque, and costs nothing for rent.
"Mr. Lane tells of a teacher who could not read or write, but managed to keep a school for some years without being found out. He could repeat the Koran from memory, and under pretence that his eyes were weak he used to have the lessons written by the head boy or monitor. When people brought letters for him to read he made the same excuse, or gave some other reason for avoiding an exposure of his ignorance.
"Doctor Bronson says girls are rarely taught to read, except among the wealthy inhabitants, and not always even them. One of us asked him if there were no schools at all for girls.
"'Yes,' he answered, 'but there are not many, and it is only within a few years that they have been established. One of the wives of Ismail Pacha took hold of the matter, and opened a school in an unoccupied palace of the Khedive. Invitations were given for parents to send their daughters to be educated, but for three weeks not a pupil came. Gradually the prejudice was overcome, and in a few months there were three hundred pupils hard at work, while a great many who wished to come were unable to obtain admission for want of room. There are now several schools for girls in Cairo, and there is hardly a large town in Egypt without one or more.'
"We next asked what was taught in the schools for girls.
"'More than half the time,' said the Doctor, 'is devoted to instruction in household duties, embroidery, and plain sewing, so that the girls can become intelligent servants or wives. Then they are taught to read and sometimes to write, and if they show any marked aptitude for music, there are music-teachers for their special benefit. It was the idea of Ismail Pacha that the best way to improve the condition of his people was to make them intelligent, and to begin the work with the girls who are to be the mothers of the next generation of Egyptians.
"'It was also his idea that the abolition of slavery would be hastened by training a class of household servants to take the places of the slaves. The indications thus far are that his idea was an excellent one, and the education of the girls of the working-classes of the people will go far in the right direction.
"'The Khedive also did much toward giving Egypt a system of public schools like those of Europe and America. He appointed two Europeans to superintend the matter, and gave large sums of money for establishing schools that could be free to all, in addition to the primary schools already described. Foreign teachers were employed, together with the most intelligent native ones that could be found, and the system has already made great progress. The course in the lower schools covers four years of study, and after that the pupils may enter one of the higher schools and study medicine, engineering, surveying, law, mechanical construction, and the like. Those who can pay for their instruction may do so, but any pupil can enter whether he has money or not. Those who do not pay are liable to be called into the government service, and many of them are assigned to teach in the lower schools.
"'The American and English missionaries have schools in various parts of Egypt, and have done a great deal toward the cause of education. For a long time they labored under many disadvantages; but of late years the government has recognized the importance of their services, and made large donations in lands and money for their schools. Miss Whately, the daughter of Archbishop Whately, has a school here in Cairo, which she has established by her own exertions, for the purpose of educating the girls of the lower classes; she devotes her entire time to this work of charity, and I am happy to say that she is fully appreciated by the native as well as the foreign population. It is quite possible that the example of this self-sacrificing woman led the wife of the Khedive to establish the schools already mentioned.
"'Probably the largest school in Egypt,' the Doctor continued, 'is the
