As soon as I put foot upon the shore, and my arrival was signalled by the barking of the watchdogs, the chief of the nearest hamlet always came to meet me.

A dignified man, in a long robe of striped silk or modest blue cotton, he accosted me with formulae of welcome quite in the grand manner; insisted on my following him to his house of dried mud; and there, escorting me, after the exchange of further compliments, to the place of honour on the poor divan of his lodging, forced me to accept the traditional cup of Arab coffee.
***** To wake these fellahs from their strange sleep, to open their eyes at last, and to transform them by a modern education--that is the task which nowadays a select band of Egyptian patriots is desirous of attempting.

Not long ago, such an endeavour would have seemed to me a crime; for these stubborn peasants were living under conditions of the least suffering, rich in faith and poor in desire.

But to-day they are suffering from an invasion more undermining, more dangerous than that of the conquerors who killed by sword and fire.

The Occidentals are there, everywhere, amongst them, profiting by their meek passivity to turn them into slaves for their business and their pleasure.