Next we come to the Nubians, a part of the so-called Nuba-Fellah family, whose western branch we have already met on the Niger. Their complexion is a reddish-brown, often nearly black, and their hair is thick and frizzled, frequently almost as crisp as that of the negroes. They are a savage and unfriendly race; drink the warm

blood of animals, and live generally from the products of their flocks and herds. Their hair, of which they are very proud, is arranged in a series of curls covering their necks; and so matted with grease, that combing it is an impossibility. A slender wooden pin, something like that used by ladies for Berlin wool knitting, is stuck into a lock which projects from the forehead.

Their country, like that of the Abyssinnians, is subjected at times to terrible inundations from the mountain floods, in which whole

families, or villages with their flocks and herds, are not unfrequently destroyed.

At the first cataract of the Nile, at Assuan, we enter Upper Egypt, whose magnificent ruins have been for centuries the wonder of the civilized world, and among which we might gladly linger, if our business were not rather with the living races of the present, than the splendid memorials of the past, and we turn from them to the inhabitants of the Nile districts, the harems of Cairo, and the wretched Fellah women, the most miserable of their sex, and the shame of modern Egypt.

The reign of violence in Egypt is older than the pyramids. Her princes have lived for ages in luxury, wrung from the impoverished peasantry, whose birthright seems to be only to suffer. The Ottoman satraps have generally been rapacious and cruel, and the late Khedive has merited a bad eminence among them, notwithstanding his services to science, and in some confused and uncertain way to humanity. Instances of the lavish profusion, which finally overwhelmed his administration, abound; but the gift of the magnificent yacht to the Empress Eugenie, which by the way, she never used, and the more than regal' splendor of the marriage of his favorite daughter, Zenat, are the only examples of his reckless profligacy that we have room to note. On this occasion, diadems, crowns, necklaces, bracelets, girdles, and spangles, all glittering with the finest diamonds, were only a part of the trousseau of the bride, which was displayed to the wondering eyes of more than two hundred thousand people, none of whom stopped to think that each of the gems was the concentration of the tears of hundreds of wretched beings. The princess died shortly after, and the Khedive ordered dates to be scattered among the people, who shouted enthusiastic thanks for such unheard of magnanimity. At the marriage festival, two hundred thousand candles lighted the palace grounds, and the streets through which the procession passed, were sprinkled with rose water.

European ladies have been freely admitted to the residence of the modern Pharaohs. Some have even penetrated into the inmost recesses of its secret chambers. But these visits, after all, fail to convey a

very reliable picture of the lives of the Egyptian royal ladies. Anticipated beforehand, each detail was carefully arranged, and the visitor saw only the brighter side. In the frequent festivities which Ismail Pasha was fond of arranging, European ladies saw only what was cal

culated to impress them with the best features of the harem and its life-dances and masquerades, accompanied by a female orchestra, sumptuous feasts, etc., etc. Connected with all this was a certain amount of ambitious display, as by the orders of the Khedive, the vice-regal princesses distributed costly presents plentifully among their gnests. Had these gifts been bestowed upon the wretched Fellahs, whom the extortions of the Pasha robbed without mercy every day, they might have borne better fruit. And after all these efforts to display the glories of the harems, the ladies who saw them have little of a really pleasing character to communicate. The princesses themselves were far from satisfied with the magnificence with which they were surrounded, and which dazzled their guests with its unheard of splendors, and declared they would gladly exchange it for a fragment of the freedom which made the European women in their happiest of mortals.

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Severe judges of female beauty, before whose eyes the Grecian ideal is constantly present, are somewhat sarcastic in speaking of the Egyptian women, saying their faces are as round as the moon, and their gait very awkward; and this is moderately true, especially of the Arabian women of the country. But nearly all of them have finely formed hands and feet, and their movements are not without a certain grace. Their deep dark eyes, ever varying in expression and full of melting tenderness, are not entirely concealed by their veils. Their street dress, like that of all Eastern women, is arranged to conceal rather than to illustrate the charms of the wearer. It consists of trousers of plaid silk, with a sack-like garment thrown over them, which is puffed into a balloon by every breeze, and a thick veil with a horse-hair mask, which covers the face and enables them to see without being recognized. When riding astride of their steeds, as is usual in the East, they display little dignity or grace; but in their carriages they appear to better advantage.

The characteristics of the remaining women of Egypt may be summed up in a few words. The Nubians may be known by their breasts adorned with gold, and massive rings of silver in their noses and lips; the Bedouins wear numerous trinkets, their masks