THE MODERN EGYPTIANS.

The total population of Egypt proper may be fixed roughly at 8,000,000, of whom about 130,000 are foreigners.

Sir Francis Grenfell, G.C.B., is of opinion that the population of Egypt is now nearer nine than eight millions. In a country where an increase in population always means an increase in taxation, it is quite impossible to obtain an accurate census. As far back as the time of David* the idea of "numbering the people" has been unpopular in the East.

It is exceedingly difficult to obtain an exact idea of what the population of Egypt actually was in Pharaonic times, for the inscriptions tell us nothing. Herodotus gives us no information on this matter, but Diodorus tells us that it amounted to 7,000,000 in ancient times. The priests at Thebes informed Germanicus, A.D. 19, that in the times of Rameses II. the country contained 700,000+ fighting men; it will also be remembered that the Bible states that the "children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them.” Exodus xii. 37, 38. In the time of Vespasian 7,500,000 persons paid poll-tax; we may assume that about 500,000 were exempt, and therefore there must have been at least 8,000,000 of people in Egypt, without reckoning slaves. (Mommsen, Provinces of Rome, Vol. II., p. 258.) It is probable, however, that the population of Egypt under the

*“And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel." I Chronicles xxi. I.

Septigenta milia aetate militari." Tacitus, Annals, Bk. ii., 60.

rule of the Pharaohs has been greatly exaggerated, chiefly because no accurate data were at hand whereby errors might be corrected. During the occupation of the country by the French in 1798-1801 it was said to be 2,500,000; Sir Gardner Wilkinson, however, set it down at as low a figure as 1,500,000. In 1821 the population numbered 2,514,000, and in 1846 it had risen to 4,456,186. The last census was ordered by Khedivial decree on December 2, 1881, and it was completed on May 3, 1882. According to the official statement published in the Recensement Général de l'Égypte, at Cairo, in 1884, it amounted in 1882 to 6,806,381 persons, of whom 3,216,847 were men, and 3,252,869 were women. Of the 6,806,381 persons, 6,708, 185 were inhabitants of the country, and 98,196 were nomads. It showed that there were in the total 245,779 Bedâwin and 90,886 foreigners; the number was made up in the following manner :—

Cairo, 374,838; Alexandria, 231,396; Damietta, 43,616; Rosetta, 19,378; Port Said, 21,296, and Suez, 11,175. Of the provinces Beḥêreh contained 398,856; Sherkîyeh, 464,655; Dakhalîyeh, 586,033; Gharbîyeh, 929,488; Ķalyûb, 271,488; Menûf, 646,013; Asyût, 562,137; BeniSuêf, 219,573; Fayyûm, 228,709; Gizeh, 283,083; Minyeh, 314,818; Esneh, 237,961; Girgeh, 521,413; Ķeneh, 406,858. The dwellers in the Oases* and the Peninsula of Sinai were not reckoned in the total given above. The annual increase in the population was estimated at 56,202, but at this rate the population of Egypt would only number a little over 7,000,000.

* The Egyptian Oases are five: Wâḥ el-Khârgeh, or Oasis Major, 90 miles from Thebes; Wâḥ ed-Dakhaliyeh, or Oasis Minor with warm springs, to the west of the city of Oxyrhynchos; Farâfra, about 80 miles north of Oasis Minor; Siwa, where there was a temple to Jupiter Ammon, to the south-west of Alexandria ; and Wâḥ el-Baḥriyeh, to the north of Wâḥ el-Khârgeh.

The population of Egypt to-day comprises the Fellâhin, Copts, Bedâwin, Jews, Turks, Negroes, Nubians and people from Abyssinia, Armenians and Europeans.

The Fellâhîn amount to about four-fifths of the entire population of Egypt, and are chiefly employed in agricultural pursuits. In physical type they greatly resemble the ancient Egyptians as depicted on the monuments. Their complexion is dark; they have straight eyebrows, high cheek bones, flat noses with low bridges, slightly protruding jaws, broad shoulders, large mouths and full lips. The colour of their skin becomes darker as the south is approached. The whole of the cultivation of Egypt is in the hands of the fellâhîn.

The Copts are also direct descendants from the ancient Egyptians, and inhabit chiefly the cities of Upper Egypt, such as Asyûṭ and Aḥmîm. The name Copt is derived from Kubt, the Arabic form of the Coptic form of the Greek name for Egyptian, AiyúπTios; it may be mentioned, in passing, that AquaTos, Egypt, is thought by some to be derived from an ancient Egyptian name for Memphis, Het-ka-Ptaḥ, "The house of the genius of Ptaḥ." The number of Copts in Egypt to-day is estimated at about 350,000, and the greater number of them are engaged in the trades of goldsmiths, clothworkers, etc.; a respectable body of clerks and accountants in the postal, telegraph and government offices in Egypt, is drawn from their community. They are clever with their fingers, and are capable of rapid education up to a certain point; beyond this they rarely go. Physically, they are of a finer type than the fellâḥîn; their heads are longer and their features are more European.

The Copts are famous in ecclesiastical history for having embraced with extraordinary zeal and rapidity the doctrines of Christianity as preached by St. Mark at Alexandria. Before the end of the third century A.D. Egypt was filled with hundreds of thousands of ascetics, monks, recluses

and solitaries who had thrown over their own weird and confused religious beliefs and embraced Christianity; they then retired to the mountains and deserts of their country to dedicate their lives to the service of the Christians' God. The Egyptians, their ancestors, who lived sixteen hundred years before Christ, had already arrived at the conception of a god who was one in his person, but who manifested himself in the world under many forms and many names. The Greeks and the Romans, who successively held Egypt, caused many changes to come over the native religion of the country which they governed; and since the conflicting myths and theories taught to the people of Egypt under their rule had bewildered their minds and confused their beliefs, they gladly accepted the simple teaching of Christ's Apostle as a veritable gift of God. Their religious belief took the form of that of Eutyches (died after 451), who sacrificed the "distinction of the two natures in Christ to the unity of the person to such an extent as to make the incarnation an absorption of the human nature by the divine, or a deification of human nature, even of the body." In other words, they believed that Christ had but one composite nature, and for this reason they were called Monophysites; in their liturgies they stated that God had been crucified. They formed a part of the Alexandrian Church until the Council of Chalcedon, A.D. 451, when it was laid down that Christ had a double nature-human and divine-but after this date they separated themselves from it, and were accounted heretics by it, because they obstinately refused to give up their belief in the one divine nature of Christ which embraced and included the human. To the sect of Monophysites or Eutychians the Copts still belong. The orthodox church of Alexandria and its heretical offshoot continued to discuss with anger and tumult the subtle points of their different opinions, until the fifth Ecumenical Council, held at Constantinople A.D. 553,

made some concessions to the Monophysite party. Shortly after, however, new dissensions arose which so weakened the orthodox church that the Monophysite party hailed with gladness the arrival of the arms of Muḥammad the Prophet, and joined its forces with his that they might destroy the power of their theological opponents. After 'Amr had made himself master of Egypt (A.D. 640), he appointed the Copts to positions of dignity and wealth; finding, however, that they were unworthy of his confidence, they were degraded, and finally persecuted with vigour. From the time of Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, A.D. 1235 and onwards, but little is known of the history of the Coptic Church. The Copt of to-day usually troubles himself little about theological matters; in certain cases, however, he affirms with considerable firmness the doctrine of the " one nature."

The knowledge of the Coptic language is, generally speaking, extinct; it is exceedingly doubtful if three Coptic scholars, in the Western sense of the word, exist even among the priests. The language spoken by them is Arabic, and though copies of parts of the Bible are found in churches and private houses, they are usually accompanied by an Arabic version of the Coptic text, which is more usually read than the Coptic. The Bible, in all or part, was translated from Greek into Coptic in the third century of our era; some, however, think that the translation was not made until the eighth century. The versions of the principal books of the Old and the whole of the New Testament, together with lives of saints, monks and martyrs, form the greater part of Coptic literature. The Coptic language is, at base, a dialect of ancient Egyptian; many of the nouns and verbs found in the hieroglyphic texts remain unchanged in Coptic, and a large number of others can, by making proper allowance for phonetic decay and dialectic differences, be identified without difficulty. The Copts used the Greek alphabet to write down their language, but found it neces