TTTE OMAHA RUXDAT BEE: ArOrST 19, 1907.
N
How Six Million Fellahs Make Their Living in the Valley of the Nile
E
(Copyright. 1907, by Frank O. Carpenter.)
' ANTA. Aug. lG.-For Ue past month
I " I I have been traveling through ths
, I farms of the Nile valley. I have
t visited tnfmy parts of the Delta
" 'f and have tsken run through
tho narrow strip which hr rdcrs the rivers
for several hundred miles ahove Cairo, t
am writing these notes at Tntm. a city
which Ufa about half way between Cairo
and Alexandria ami midway between ths
twj branches into which the Nile divide
below Cairo 'and fjows from there down,
into the Mediterranean sea. I am In
region where the tourist seldom stops, an
of which the guide books make little ao.
count. I refer to th? Delta, that great
fan of land, which begin at Cairo and la
a radius of about 100 mile reaches ths
Mediterranean sea at AlexHnArla and Port
Ea'd. '
ni Frivf for Parma.
The Delta Is the heart of Egypt. Is
contains the bulk of the population. It
haa the most land, the richest aoll and
the bluest crop. It la more thickly set.
tied than any other part of the world,
. and It yields more to I lie acre than any
other region on earth. Its farm landa
are worth more than those of any othe
country, and they bring in a greater prod
uct The average yield for all Egypt nets
profit of 115 per acre, and that of Iowa?
Kgypt amounta to much more. Somo
landa yield ao much that they are renting
for $50 per acre, and there are Instincts
where $100 an acre la paid. 8uch lands
bring two or three crops a year, and those
who rent them know what they are doing.
The renting value of the lands of Egypt
1n 1899 was over $110,000,000, and the selling
values of the best lands now range all the
way from $200 to $1,000 per acre.
I aee In today's newspapers an advertise
ment ot the Egyptian I,mi1s company, an
nouncing an Issue of 12.600,000 worth of
atock. The syndicate says In ita prospec
tua that It, exports to biry 5 010 ncres of
land at "the low rate of 200 per acre,"
and that by spending $150.yo It can make
that land worth $400 per acre within three
years." Some of this land la now worth
from $2T0 to $300 per acre, and Is renting'
for $20 per acre per annum. The tract
Ilea fifty miles north of Cairo and Is
planted In cotton, wheat and barley.
Egypt Belongra to the Egyptians.
Such estates as the above do not often
come Into the market. The most of Egypt
la In small farms, and there are thousands
here of one acre or less. The cultivable
land, all told, covers only a little over
$,000,000 acres.
Indeed. It Is not right to think of Egypt
as owned by foreigners. Six-sevenths of
all the farms belong to the Egyptians,
and there are more than 1,000,000 native
land owners. The most of the holdlnga
are small, and over 1,000,000 acres are In
tracts of from five to twenty acrea each.
Many are even less than an wore. In size.
The number of proprietors la increasing
every year, and the fellahs now seem
eraiy to possesss land of their own. It
Used to be that the khedive had enormous
estates, but when the British government
took possession some of the khedlvlal land
came to them. They have been divided
and have been Bold on long time and easy
payments, the lands going to the fellahs.
Many who then bought these lands havo
paid for them out of their crops and all
are rich. As It la now there are only 8,000
Vforelgnera who own real estate In the
J valley of the Nile.
Among; taa Farmers.
I wish I could show you the farmers of
Egypt as they live here In the Delta. They
have one of the garden spots of the globe
to cultivate, and the rich mud of which
their land la composed la from thirty to
sixty, feet deep. It rests on the bed rook,
of the desert, and haa been brought down,
- through the ages, from the highlands of
Abyssinia by the river Nile. The Nile la
bringing more every year, and the Und, If
carefully handled needs practically no fer-
tlllsatlon. As It Is now It Is yielding two
to three crops every twelve months and Is
seldom Idle. Under the old system of basin
Irrigation the farms lay fallow during the
'hot months of the summer, but the canals
and dams which have of late been con
structed enable much of the country to
have water all the year round, and as
soon as one crop Is harvested another la
planted.
The Cities of the Delta.
The whole of the Delta Is one big farm
dotted with farm villages and little farm
cities. There are mud towns everywhere,
and there are half a dozen agricultural
centers of considerable size outside the
big cities of Alexandria and Cairo. Take
for Instance Tanta, where I am at this
writing. It haa 67,000 people and ia sup
ported by the farmers. It Is a ootton
market and It has a great flair, now and
then, to which the people come from all
over Egypt tp buy and sell. A little to
the east of It Is Zagaclg, which haa more
than 40,000 people, and further north, upon
the east branch of the Nile, Is Man sura,
another cotton market, with a rich farm
ing district about It.
Damletta and Rosetta, at the two mouths
of the Nile, are alas big places, and Dam
anhur, which Ilea west of the Rosetta
branoh of the Nile la not far from Lake
Edku, la also large. There are a number
of towns ranging m aise from 5,000 to 10,000,
and the whole country la peppered with
mud villages. The people do not live on
their farms, but In towns. They go out to
work In the morning and come back home
at night. They usually bring their cattle
tn with them, a ad never allow them te
grass at will in the field.
How an Egyptian Farm Looks.
Indeed,, these farms are nothing like those
of the United States. We should have to
change the face of our landscape to Imitate
.them. There are no fences, no barns and
no haystacks. The country Is as bare of
such things aa an undeveloped tralrte. The
.only boundaries of the estates are little
mud walls; and the fields are divided Into
patches some of which are no bigger than a
bed quilt. Each patch haa Ita wall, and the
furrows within are ao made that the water
. from the canals can Irrigate every Inoh.
Irrtaatton.
The whole country la out up by oanala.
There are large waterways running along
the branches of the Nile, and smaller ones
connecting with them, to such an extent
that the whole country Is hound, as It were,
ia a laoework of little streams from which
the water can be let In and out. The drain
ing of the land Is quite aa important aa
watering, and the system of irrigation ts
ported, Insomuch that it brings the Nile
to every part of the country.
The methods of raising the water from
one level to another are different from ours.
Id some places there are ateam rumis
which do the work. In others gravity ia
employed and on some of the higher lands
half-naked men labor for months at a tl-ne
scooping water up In baskets and pouring
It out on the fields above. There are alse
great creaking cog wbeela which work In
wh a way that the water la eangtit In
clay pots attached to their rtona. and thu
raised and poured Into the little eara'S
through whlPh It flows to the fields. These
wheela are moved by blindfolded buffaloes,
bullocks or camels. There are thousands
ef mem In Ue vaney or the nil.
The Jaerka farrne wsnid sneer at the
- ' - J y
TfTREPHTWT TV UK.' AT IN" K i V FT
old-fashioned way In which these Etrj'ptlan
fellahs cultivate tne soil. He would tell
them that they were 2.000 years behind the
time, and, still. If he were allowed to take
their places he would probably ruin the
country and himself. Most of the Egyptian
farming methods are the. result of long ex
perience. In plowing, the land la only
scratched, and the farmer Is careful not
to turn up the earth a foot or so below
the surfnre. This Nile mud Is full of salts,
and the silt from Abyssinia Is of such a
nature that the people have to be careful
In order that the salts may not be raised
from below and ruin the crop. In many
cases there Js no plowing at all. Tho
seed Is sown on the soft mud after tho
water Is taken off, and pressed Into It
with a wooden roller or trodden In by
oxen or buffaloes.
Odd Farm Tools.
Where plows are used they are Just the
same as those of 5,000 years ago. I havo
seen carvings In the tombs of the ancient
Egyptians representing the farm tools
used then,' and they are abnut the same
aa those I see In use today. The average
plow consista of a pole about six feet
long fastened to a piece of wood bent In
ward at an acute angle. The end piece Is
ahod with iron and does the plowing. Tho
pole Is hitched to a buffalo or ox by
means of a yoke, and the farmer walks
Long Sleep of Corea Awakened by Ambitious
HE western world Is not likely
to lament the fall of the kingly
house of Corea, even though the
ancestors of the deposed emperor
sent forth law from Seoul for the
government of a great people even before
Hengist and Horsa sailed from Jutland.
But there Is, nevertheless, tragedy In the
present atate . of affairs In Corea; the
tragedy of decay and the fall of the weak
before the strong. . Because the shell of the
ancient kingdom of Corea was threatening
to collapse and because there was a chance
for a little benevolent assimilation Japan
haa stepped In and ruthlessly shaken the
life out of the poor shadow of sovereignty
that still existed. ...
Seoul, the capital city of Corea for over a
thousand years, Is emblematical of the
death that haa gradually stolen over the
whole of the land and the people. It lies
,n the hollow ' blek basalt cliffs, resemb
ling when viewed from one of the surround
ing heights nothing so much as the mush
room growth that gathers Inside a hollow
stuira
The city la mud colored and sprawling; It
orawla over the ancient city walls on all
aldea and dwindles Into the swamps of the
Hau river on the north. The houses, the
palaces and the gabled gateways through
the walla are aa they have been for
years past.
. e)
Me Beaablaaeo of Caaag.
There Is not a semblance of change ex
cept In the grotesquely modern trolley road
which an American company ran through
tha tortuous streets soma tea years ago.
Seoul waa content to aleep In the dust ot
ita decay until the tread of Japanese In
fantry through Its streets at the opening
of the war with Russia Bounded the slsnal
for the awakening.
In the heart of the city and under the
shadow of Puluhan, the highest of the
ellffs that has re Seoul about, there Ilea the
enclosure of the old Mulberry palace. Once
the Oats of All Wisdom gave entranoe to
this park of palaces, banquet halls and
council pavilions and klnga en ebony seats
received vassals from the northern prov
inces. New the brass studded doors of the
gate are closed and the palaoe within
moulder tn tha decay of a haunted place.
For it was In one of tho women's apart
ments of the , Mulberry palaoe that the
queen of the emperor recently deposed was
murdered by Japanese aeaasslns at the
order of tha Japanese representative at
Seoul.
Back of the royal library In
the treee
of Um B"rk' Vxan x ,on" "alow
Wn'c" the Corean guide will point out te
foreign .visitors. He will stand at far range
" Indicate one of the porches in front of
tha building, but no amount of silver will
juv u n-rr approacn.
It ts visitor clliue the porch and applies
ggH;r
tep . , : ;
- : ' ' ' V'-"': r : : : :
' - r- . - - .... .-..m
- BTTtLOCK AND CAMETi WORKINCJ TOO
along behind the plow holding Its single
handle, which consists of a stick set al
most upright Into the pole.
The harrow of Egypt Is a roller provided
with Iron spikes, and the chief digging In
strument is a mattock-llke hoe. Much of
the land Is dug over with the hoe.
The most bf the grain here Is cut with
sickles or pulled out by the roots. Wheat
and barley are threshed by laying them
Inside a ring of well pounded ground and
driving a sledge which rests on a roller
over them. The roller has sharp semi
circular pieces of Iron set Into it, and It Is
drawn by oxen, buffaloes or camels. Some
times the grain Is trodden out by the feet
of the animals without the use of the
rollers, and. sometimes there are wheels
of stone between the Bled runners which
aid in hulling the grain. Peas and beans
are also threshed In this way. The grain
Is winnowed by the wind. The ears are
spread out on the threshing floor and the
grains pounded off with clubs or shelled by
hand.
I
Much of the corn Is cut and laid on tho
banks of the canal until the people have
time to husk and shell It. Then the leaves
are stripped off for fodder, and the stalks
are tied up and laid on the tops of the
houses for fuel. .
Camels aa Hayracks.
The chief means of carrying farm prod
uce from one place to another Is on bul
his eye to a hole that has been punched In
the paper screen of the door he may see
the room In which the queen was hacked
to death by Japanese swords. Not a thing
has been touched In the room since the
queen's body was carried out and burned
by the assassins.
Where Spirit of Quern Rests.
A sprig of withered flowers stands In a
bronze vase. One-half of a lamp shade,
whlch had been shorn In two by a sword
stroke, dangles on Its lacquer staff.
Here Is the home of the murdered queen's
restless spirit. Because the spirit roams
through the palace park at night and calls
for vengeance, the ancient seat of the
kings has been declared a haunted place
by the emperor that was and from the day
of the assassination until the present he
has lived In a new palace built outside of
the old enclosure.
The ex-emperor'B new palace Is located
in a compound, near the various houses of
the legations by the little West gate. Be
tween the new nalece and the main gate
V' rWll ISM
I : - V v 'rTV .jvv V 41
S BU Ma . ri2.
JAMNJ XCirOA ?F COXA,VJ
of the old Is situated the barrack wlcr
were occupied by the Corean regiments at
tached to the bedy ot the emperor. It wis
tn the compound of these barracks and
about the little Went gate that the flglitlng
between the Curean and Japans truops
t reported to have occurred,
When one remembers the equipment and
the ridiculous military semblance of the
Corean soldiers, the fighting attending their
oiearming aasumea the aspect r pitiful
heroism Tbe Jsae ptta reaoru aduilt
- J LA ' 'jT-'kjS'-- ' A'"-''A. .A?'&' -7V -.i.oA.
. ..... . 1 . J I V" "-Jp.lr:'r 1?a .--iV':r?. JW J A . r.i.. 'Jl1,Vl?Ai,44
. -. v tv r-'f.X'
ETHER.
locks and camels. The camel Is taken out
Into the corn fleldx while the harvesting Is
going on. As the men cut the corn they
tie It up Into great bundles and hang one
on each sido of his hump. The ordinary
camel can carry about one-fifth as much
as one horse hitched to a wagon or one
tenth as much as a two-horse team. Hay,
straw and green clover are often carried
from the fields to the markets on camels.
Buch crops are put up In a bag like net
work which fits over the camel's hump,
and makes him look lUe a hay or stray
stack walking off upon logs. Some of the
farmers who cannot afford camels, use
donkeys foil such purposes, and these
little animals may often be seen going
along the narrow roads carrying bags of
grain balanced upon their backs.
A Land of Wheat and Barley.
I have always looked upon Egypt as de
voted to sugar and cotton. I And It a land
of wheat and barley as woll. It has also a
big yield of clover and corn. The sugar
and cotton fields all told cover about
1,500,000 acres, and they take up only about
one-fourth 'of the tillable land. There Is
twice as much farming country devoted to
grain. The wheat and barley fields cover
1,750,000 acres, and there are more than
1,000,000 acres In Indian corn. There are
something like 600,000 acres In millet and
sorghum. The delta raises almost all of
the cotton and some of the sugar. Central
L tC -ocvi;, '?pi
. - r ' i..uf.xit.s iff
fCtTfTLP wssTGArs-jems errGMrm bttvi'Emmpanixa ho cowan jaOvZsj.
'at V re Tsnreoe v'li e mm-
dtr ia that there .cie an.. ' -all
on tho JiViun-e u.du dm.u Lie s.augii
tcr of the Coi'ians.
Kaaaiana First Tried It.
The Russians first undertook to drum the
Corean into at U-ast the picture of a .sol
dier. That was curing the period of great
est Russian Influence Just after the inur-
der of the queen In 1U6 and 1M. Russian
drill nutr. Imported for the purpose,
clothed the Corean conscripts la a uniform,
EQTPT TTAf OTTfH Mn.TTOW ACRES OV
and upper Egypt are grain countries, and
in central Esypt Indian and Kaffir corn
are the chief summer crops. Kaffir corn
Is, to a large extent, the food of the
foor fellahs, and it la eaten by the Bed
ouins .who live on the deBert along the
edges of the Nile valley.
Egypt raises a great deal of hay and It
produces some of the very best clover. The
Egyptian clover Is known as berslne. It
has rich feeding' qualities, and a small
bundle of It Is enough to satisfy a camel.
It Is cut and carried Into cities for sale
on the backs of camels and donkeys, and Is
also grazed.
Stock Farming: to Egypt.
Egypt Is a great stock country.' .For Its
small size It supports, I venture, as many
animals as any 'other part of tho world.
The Nile valley Is peppered with camels,
donkeys, buffaloes and sheep, either
watched by herders or tied to stakes, graz
ing on clover and other grasses. No ani
mal Is allowed to run at largo, for there
are no fences and the cattle thief Is every
where In evidence. The fellahs are as
shrewd as any people the world over, and
a strayed animal would be difficult to re
cover. Much of the stock 13 watched by
children. I see buffaloes feeding in the
gron fields with naked brown boys sitting
on their backs and whipping them this way
and that If they attempt to get Into the
crops adjoining.
1
I ' . ,Lti.hw-4 Hi
h'- 'rii
replaeed tlielr old i'vyn'.r and fliiitlo'ks
with moderi. rlflea, tliuuh of a discarded
puyeiii. und gave them u few disabled ma
ililt.e guns and field pieces. '
When JJiajieie intlueiice In a measure
supplanted the Russian power at Seoul,
the Corean regiments received another
. veneer tt luUitary sducation from Japan ess
INDIAN C?ORJJ
The sheep and goats are often watched by
the children or by men who are too old
to do hard work. The donkeys, camels
and cowa are usually tied to stakes and
can only feed as far as their ropes will
reach. The sheep of Egypt are fine. Many
of them are of the fat tailed variety, some
brown and some white. The goats and
sheep feed together and there are some
goats In almost every flock of the farmer.
The donkey Is the chief riding animal. It
Is used by men, women and children, and
a common sight Is the veiled wife of one
of these Mohammedan farmers seated
astride on a little donkey with her feet
high up on 1M sides In (the short stirrups.
Hut few camels are used for riding except
by the Bedouins out In the desert and it
Is only In the cities that buggies, car
riages or wagons are to be seen.
In the fonntry Villages.
Suppose we go Into one of the villages
and see how these EKyptlan farmers live.
The towns are collections of mud huts with
holes In the walls for windows. They are
scattered along narrow roadwaya and the
dust Is thick. ' '
The average hut Is so low that one can
look over Its roof when seated on a camel.
It seldom contains more than one or two
rooms, In which the children and chickena
roll about In the dust and where the
donkey Is sometimes tied.
Above some of the houses are towers of
drill masters. Iater the army was allowed
to shift for Itself when Jupan and Russia
began to come to grips over the land, and
the result was that the Corean soldier
slipped back into something between a
scarecrow and an up-state constable.
When the palace guard was changed
dally foreigners enjoyed the spectacle of a
squad of lanky yellow men trailing their
muskets in the dust and dressed In trousers
and jackets either too short or too long.
As often as not a sentry would stick his
gun, bayonet down, Into the dirt and go to
sleep on the road, oblivious of passing
officers and certain of respect for his pros
trate form from the lowly citizen.
lef nae to Lay Down Arms.
It was this motely array 'of half baked jlve(j by for a Japanese military reserva
oldlers that refused to lay down arms tlon
ind stood up in open fight against trained' Tne japane.e seemed bothered by tho
-cternns of the Japanese with machine fact that tha pnrty f foreigners- had un
,'uns. After the Coreans had been beaten expectdly passed through that village and
.nd cuffed ibout obbed of their land and tne gallows. One of the officers, who
spoke English, pointed out with great,
pa'ns the fact that the men hanged had.
1 1 . 1 Indeed been guilty of rank insubordination.
. li;.it(d tn Jupanese courts for 'hree years
without a murmur, theru tudcitnly came
to the inple n.en of the Beoul regiments
some flicker cf the s:trit that made their
forefathers conquerers In the dim ages,
and they died fighting.
Reports from Seoul have It that the Jap-
anese bavs followed u the outbreak by
mud with holes In their sides. These tow.
era are devoted to plgeor.s, wlch are
kept by the hundreds ami which are aoU
In the mnrkets as we sell chickens. The)'
pigeons finnlsh a large pa't of the manure
of Egypt, and this Is so of both gnrdena
and fields. The manure is mixed wlthl
earth and scattered over the soil.
Almost every village hus its mosque ot
church, and oUten in addition the tomb of
Borne saint or holy man Vim has liveil
there In the pnst. The people worship at
such tombs and think tlmt prayers made
there avail more than those made out In
the fields or In their own huts.
There are no water works In the ordinary
country village. If the locality Is close to
the Nile the drinking and washing water
Is brought from there to the huts on the
heads of the women, and if not It conies
from the village well. It is not difficult to
get water by tlluffl ig down a few feet any
where In the Nile valley, anil every town
las Its well. The vlllnfre well Is usually
Shaded by pshn trees. It Is there that the
men gather about and gossip at night, and
there the women come to draw water anil
carry It home upon their heads.
How the Farmer II e.
The farmers' houses have no garden!
about them, nnd no flowers or other orna
mental decoration. The surroundings of
the towns are squalid and mean, and the
peasants have no comforts In our sense
of the word. They have but little fural
ture inside 'their houses. Many of them
sleep on the ground or on mats, and many
wear the same clothing at night that they
wear In tho daytime. Out In the country
shoes, stockings and underclothes are com
paratlvcly unknown, and It Is only upon
dress-up occasions that a man or woman
puts on slippers. '
The cooking and housekeeping Is done
entirely by the women. The chief food la
a coarse bread made of corn or millet.
This la baked into a kind of a bean stew
seasoned with salt, pepper and onions.
Almost every sort of vegetable grows well
here, and onions and tomatoes are raised
for export. The ordinary peasant seldom
has meat, and It Is only tho rich who; ran
afford mutton or beef. At a big feast on
the occasion of a wedding a farming nabob
sometimes brings in a sheep which haa
been cooked whole. It Is ciiten without
forks, and Is torn limb from limb, plecea
being cut out by the guests with their
knives.
Everyone In Elgypt who can afford It
smokes. The men have pipes of various
kinds, and of late many, cigarettes have
been coming Into use. A favorite smnka
Is with a water pipe, the vapor from the
burning tobacco being drawn by means of
a long tube through a howl of water
upon which the pipe sits, bo that It cornea
cool into the mouth.
FRANK G. CARPENTER.
Neighbor
running down and punishing with deatbj
and Imprisonment all the offending
Coreans who resisted the orders ot
Oeneral Haswgawa, commander of tho
Japanese forces In Seoul. Morel than once
since the occupation of the country by Jap
anese, Coreans suspected 1 ot treason
against the new regime have been led.
outside of their city, trussed up to rude
wooden crosses and shot without trial.
Foreigners wno happened to be passing;
through an obscure Corean village in tho
north on a certain day in ' August, 1906,
came across a rude gallows, made of logs
hoisted up on poles from Which dangled
twelve Coreans. Their crime was that of
firing on some Japanese who came with
llttla at D It am in mark nut tha land thsv
Boy's Life Saved by Dog
The timely Intervention of a little dot"
aved the life of 10-year-old Nathan Qreen
r.rg of Philadelphia. A number of boys
were teasing the dog by means of a corn
s)b tied to a piece of braid, containing"
erpper wire, such as Is used in the frame-,
work of women's hats, when It was sug
gested that they throw the string over tho
trolley wire. Greenberg did bo and the
next moment uttered a cry of pain and fell
V the street unconscious.
Myman Donln, 11 years old, snatched tha
cord and the current slightly stunned him,
but, letrplng to his feet, he ran off. Lil
ian' Greenberg, a sister of the unconscious
Vjy also went to his aid, but the current
was communicated to her as soon 'as
hand came In contact with the body's
clothing. At that Juncture the dog jumped
and with i-'.3 Itrti: sratched the wire from
I
A . (AAA " -. V.ai.utfiA tm
the boy's grasp .tu a yell ot pain
tlie dog dropped the wire.
Tho unconacious b y.J Aiirrled to
Mount Binal hosultal, where "tux.. . ","''
said he had icceived the full force ot i...
current. Besides being badly shocked.
young Greenberg's back, heed, chest and ,
arms were bdr burned'
