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 BV 3571 .W46 W46 
 Whately, E. J. 1822-1893. 
 The life and work of Mary- 
 Louisa Whately 
 
 
t^hii^^^jiir' 
 
■^ 
 
 MARY LOUISA WHATELY 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE AND WORK 
 
 OF 
 
 MARY LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 ].^ 
 
 E. J. "WHATELY 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'memoir OF ARCHBISHOP WHATELY ' 
 
 'cousin Mabel's experiences' etc. 
 
 ' Iberein is tbat saving true, ®nc sowetb, anb anotbec reapetb ' 
 
 yohn iv. 37 
 
 LONDON 
 THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 56 Paternoster Row, 65 St Paul's Churchyard 
 AND 164 Piccadilly 
 
PRINTED BY 
 
 SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUAUF 
 
 LONDON 
 
PREFACE 
 
 In presenting this little Memorial Sketch of my 
 sister's life-work to the public, I feel an apology 
 is needed that it has been so imperfectly executed. 
 It was, unavoidably, compiled in haste, and under 
 the combined hindrances of ill-health and a great 
 press of business, partly connected with that work 
 of hers described in the volume. But it may serve 
 as a slight indication of what the undertaking was 
 which she was enabled to commence : for she 
 herself would have been the first to endorse the 
 declaration that it was only the commencement — 
 the seed-sowing of what we trust will culminate in 
 a glorious harvest. 
 
 For centuries the Gospel, while preached to 
 many others in darkness and ignorance, seemed 
 never to have even approached the Moslem. And 
 Egypt, and especially Cairo, the site of the great 
 central College where Islamism is taught to stu- 
 dents from every part of the Eastern world where 
 Arabic is known, appeared more emphatically shut 
 out than even India or Persia, except among 
 the Copts, whose influence among their Moslem 
 neighbours was, virtually, scarcely felt. 
 
 Mary Whately was privileged to be a pioneer 
 in the great work of reaching the Moslem mind 
 with the Gospel message in this the stronghold of 
 Islam. The visible results are as yet not such as 
 
6 AfA/^y LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 eager Christians at home cry out for. The nature 
 of the work makes this impossible at first. But 
 the Great Day will declare how widespread and 
 deep that work has been. The number of young 
 men alone who have passed through her schools, 
 and are now holding good positions on railways, 
 in telegraph-offices and mercantile houses, &c. is 
 much greater than can easily be computed ; and 
 all of these have learned, at least intellectually, the 
 ' old, old story.' In secluded homes, where the 
 women are virtually prisoners — in well-to-do 
 harems and in humble fellaheen huts — the once 
 ignorant, dark Eastern women have heard, and 
 often joyfully welcomed, the Gospel message, fre- 
 quently using the very language of the Psalmist, 
 and declaring that the words were ' sweeter than 
 honey.' Nile peasants and boatmen have wel- 
 comed the Word, and gratefully received copies of 
 the Scriptures. Young girls in the school have 
 died declaring their sole trust to be in the Saviour 
 — ' Seid-na Esa ' (the Lord Jesus). 
 
 ' Will you not have some of your sheikhs to 
 come and pray with you ? ' said a good-natured 
 master (a nominal Christian) to an old dying negro 
 servant, the nurse of his two little boys, who 
 attended the school, and repeated what they had 
 heard to their old friend. 
 
 ' No, I do not need that,' she replied ; ' the 
 boys' Saviour is my Saviour, and in Him I trust.' 
 
 Further particulars will be found in her pub- 
 lished works,' in which so much of the substance 
 
 1 Among these we may name Peasant Life on the Nile, Lost in Egypt, 
 and the Story of a Diamond (R. T. S.), in which the results of her 
 
PREFACE 7 
 
 of her correspondence is found that it was thought 
 needless to repeat the details. 
 
 I can hardly conclude this introductory notice 
 better than in the words of the valued friend who 
 first wrote the notice of my sister's work in the 
 Record, after the news of her sudden removal had 
 appeared in the papers : — 
 
 ' As to the result of her well-nigh thirty years' 
 work in Egypt, " the day shall declare it " — the 
 day to which she looked forward with such joyful 
 hope — the day of the Lord's bright second coming. 
 If she were at any time depressed, " Why tarry the 
 wheels of His chariot ? " was her constant exclama- 
 tion ; and at all times, " Come, Lord Jesus, come 
 quickly," her continual prayer. 
 
 ' " The Lord gave the word, and great was the 
 company of the women that published it." The 
 words seem prophetic of these latter days. And 
 among such favoured women, one more simple, 
 more trustful, more single-eyed, more self-forgetful, 
 would be hard to find. " She rests from her 
 labours, and her works do follow her." And when 
 at length it shall be said, " Blessed be Egypt, my 
 people," it may become manifest that her patient 
 pioneering was used to prepare the way of the 
 Lord to an extent we do not dream of 
 
 Such is the testimony of one who had excep- 
 tional opportunities of watching those labours of 
 love ; and further words are scarcely needed. 
 
 E. JANE WHATELY. 
 
 own experience are given from life : and as well the Letters from 
 Egypt, and other similar works, besides many papers in the seria's of 
 the day. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. PREPARATION FOR WORK 9 
 
 II. WORK BEGUN l6 
 
 III. THE GIRLS' SCHOOL IN CAIRO 39 
 
 IV. THE boys' school AT CAIRO 4^ 
 
 V. WORK IN CAIRO AND ON THE NILE . . -55 
 
 VI. GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE MISSION . . • • 77 
 
 VII. SUMMER LIFE IN CAIRO 93 
 
 VIII. FIVE SMOOTH STONES OF THE HROOK . . . . IO9 
 
 I.\. THE WO.MEN OF EGYPT II8 
 
 X. LAST DAYS 133 
 
 APPENDIX 153 
 
LIFE AND WORK 
 
 OF 
 
 MARY LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PREPARATION FOR WORK 
 
 Mary Louisa Whately was the third child and 
 second daughter of Richard Whately, Archbishop 
 of Dublin, and Elizabeth Pope, daughter of J. C. 
 Pope, Esq., of HilHngdon Hall, Uxbridge. She 
 was born on August 31st, 1824, at Halesworth, in 
 Suffolk, of which place her father was rector. In 
 1827 he removed to Oxford, being then Principal 
 of Alban Hall. Here the family lived till Dr. 
 Whately's appointment in 1 83 1 to the See of Dublin. 
 From this period till she left it for Egypt, Ireland 
 continued to be Mary Whately's home. The family 
 resided in Dublin during the winter months, but 
 the larger portion of the year, when not in England, 
 
lo MARY LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 was spent at Redcsdale, a charming country seat 
 five miles from town. Here Mary and her sisters 
 passed many happy years. Their life, for the most 
 part, was quiet and uneventful — only diversified 
 by yearly visits to England, and on two or three 
 occasions a trip to the Continent. 
 
 As the influences that surround our childhood 
 have so much to do with the life's future story, it is 
 well to notice what were the circumstances in Mary 
 Whately's quiet home life that first nurtured the 
 seed which was to bring forth fruit in her life's 
 after-work. 
 
 A few words first as to the character that was 
 thus to be prepared. Mary was from her earliest 
 years ardent and impulsive, hot-tempered and 
 generous. She was quick at lessons, and possessed 
 of a retentive memory, though the active brain 
 and lively imagination made schoolroom routine 
 somewhat irksome to her. She had great readiness 
 in picking up knowledge of all sorts, and turned it 
 to good account. She was always a very good 
 'story-teller,' and from the various incidents of travel 
 or history which she met with in her reading, she 
 found materials for many a fanciful and ingenious tale, 
 which, however wildly improbable, always enchained 
 
PREPARATION FOR WORK \\ 
 
 the interest of her young audience. In games her 
 disposition naturally led her to take the lead, and 
 she showed in early life that independence of 
 thought and action, and fertility in expedient, 
 which afterwards were so conspicuous in her. 
 
 The mental development of herself and her 
 sisters was carried on a good deal by conversation 
 and reading aloud on the part of their parents ; and 
 though this mode of education may have had some- 
 what less of system and minute accuracy in details 
 than the more recent modes of instruction, it cer- 
 tainly had the effect of making the facts of history, 
 geography, foreign travel, biography, &c., part of 
 the furniture of the mind ; something not merely to 
 be learned as a task, but lived on, pictured, thought 
 over. With Mary's lively imagination, quick ap- 
 prehension, and great receptive powers, this was 
 especially evident, and all she read and learned in 
 this way was brought to bear on the tales and 
 sports in which she was so fertile and ready. 
 
 But the chief outside interest of these children's 
 quiet life, and that which was to be amongst its 
 most abiding influences, was the relationship 
 established between them and their poorer neigh- 
 bours. The little family celebrations and festivals 
 
12 AfA/iV LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 were made by their mother's wise care a time 
 for remembering the poor and needy, and making 
 them sharers of their good things. The Christmas 
 seasons in the home were ever amongst the happiest 
 memories of Mary's early days. It was the custom 
 of Mrs. Whately at this time to distribute food and 
 clothing in a very large, yet wisely systematic way, 
 amongst such poor families in Dublin as the respec- 
 tive clergymen of each parish recommended for her 
 bounty. The large servants' hall, with its decora- 
 tions of holly and ivy, was on these occasions the 
 scene of most intense interest to the children ; and 
 the sight of the tables laden with loaves and joints 
 of meat was to them the pleasantest in the world. 
 They had been allowed for months previously to 
 save up their small allowances of pocket-money to 
 invest in a pile of these loaves. And these little 
 acts of self-denial, so wisely encouraged, had 
 doubtless their effect in preparing Mary Whately 
 for the life of unselfish devotion that was to follow. 
 Close to the grounds of Redesdale is situated 
 the village of Stillorgan, and here Mary and her 
 sisters, as they grew old enough, were often em- 
 ployed by their mother on errands of kindness to 
 their poor neighbours, for whom Mrs. Whately was 
 
PREPARATION FOR WORK 13 
 
 an unfailing friend and helper in all times of sick- 
 ness and trouble. Besides thus visiting in the 
 homes of the poor, Mary had also some early train- 
 ing in the art of teaching. Her father had built 
 a small schoolroom in his grounds, and paid a 
 mistress to teach the village children who lived at 
 some distance from the National School. He was 
 always pleased to see his children go down to hold 
 classes there, and encouraged them to write simple 
 tales for the reading books used at the National 
 Schools. For some years this little school pros- 
 pered, and then circumstances necessitated its dis- 
 continuance. But all these efforts, small and 
 humble enough in their way, prepared the girl's 
 mind for what was to be the work of her woman- 
 hood. 
 
 Mary Whately's first long sojourn in foreign 
 parts was in the winter of 1849-50, when she ac- 
 companied her brother, who was ordered to Nice 
 for his health. The climate disagreed very much 
 with both of them, however, and they afterwards 
 visited Florence and Pisa. While in Italy Mary 
 had good opportunities for improving herself in 
 her favourite pursuit of painting, and also acquired 
 great facility in speaking and writing Italian. On 
 
14 MARY LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 their return journey, they visited the Waldensian 
 valleys in Piedmont, and Mary used to look back 
 with great pleasure to her short sojourn there, and 
 especially to the acquaintance she formed there 
 with the excellent pasteur J. P. Meille of La Tour, 
 whose friendship with her family lasted till his 
 death, about a year before her own. 
 
 This visit to the Waldensian valleys was her 
 first introduction to evangelical work on the Con- 
 tinent, and opened to her wider channels of 
 interest. 
 
 It was about or shortly after this time that 
 Mary Whately and other members of her family 
 were first drawn into more directly spiritual work 
 in connection with the Irish Missions to the Roman 
 Catholics. The way for this important mission, then 
 in its early days, was much opened out during the 
 years of the terrible Irish famine.' In the work of 
 organising help for the thousands of sufferers, Mrs. 
 Whately, in common with other devoted women, 
 took an unweariedly active and leading part. 
 
 Mary always declared that at this period the 
 turning-point in her religious life came. Always 
 ardent in her religious feelings, and firm in her 
 
 • Between 1846 and 1851. 
 
PREPARATION FOR WORK 15 
 
 convictions, her views began now to assume the 
 definite form in which they continued till her life's 
 end. With this deepening of her spiritual state 
 came an increased desire for active work for God. 
 She therefore especially rejoiced, as did her sisters, 
 at the way being opened to them for more direct 
 efforts to reach the souls of others. They found 
 abundant employment for their energies in the 
 Ragged Schools and Homes connected with the 
 Irish Church Mission. 
 
 Besides this work, Mary and her sisters were 
 much engaged at one time among the numerous 
 poor Italians in Dublin, giving them books and 
 visiting them in their homes, as well as looking 
 after sick foreigners in the hospitals. All this was 
 useful training, for it taught her to accommodate her 
 mode of teaching to those of different races and 
 tongues, instead of following, as many do, a stereo- 
 typed plan of dealing with all exactly alike. 
 
 But the Irish Church Mission work was the 
 preparatory training to which she always especially 
 looked back with thankfulness. The admirable 
 manner of teaching and explaining Scripture em- 
 ployed in their schools she felt to have been the most 
 valuable education for her subsequent life-work. 
 
i6 MARY LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 WORK BEGUN 
 
 In the winter of 1856, Mary VVhately made her 
 first visit to the East, and, accompanied by a 
 friend, spent the winter at Cairo, which had been 
 recommended for her health. Her first experience 
 of Eastern Hfe can best be given in her own words. 
 Egypt was at that time much less known, and 
 much less Europeanised, than it is now, and the 
 first impressions of a traveller were naturally more 
 vivid and striking. The following sketch had been 
 intended by her as an introduction to a new 
 volume, and may therefore well find a place 
 here. 
 
 More than thirty years have passed since I first looked 
 on the shining shores of Egypt. A calm blue sea with 
 glittering light on its faint ripples, a distant view of white 
 minaret towers, and feathery palms just visible on the 
 flat line of coast, a crowd of shipping in the harbour 
 before us, with many coloured flags waving gently in the 
 
WORK BEGUN 17 
 
 faint morning breeze, and strange groups of men, black, 
 white, and brown, in little boats rowing hither and thither, 
 and chattering in unknown tongues, — over all, the in- 
 describable atmosphere of the sunny South, bright and 
 clear, throwing deep purple shadows in strong contrast 
 with the intense light. I see it all now in memory's eye 
 as plainly as if the scene were actually present ; and I 
 recollect the bewildered sensation of stepping on shore, 
 dizzy with a long rough sea passage in a wretched old 
 steamer (things were very different as to comfort and 
 rapidity of transport then, from now), and of forgetting 
 fatigue and everything else at the sight of a string of 
 camels. ' Look at them,' I said to my companion ; ' we 
 are really in Africa ! ' 
 
 Who that has studied Scripture does not feel a thrill 
 of delight as he looks for the first time on these creatures, 
 at once awkward and graceful — with their spongy feet 
 lifted and set down with solemn cautiousness, their long 
 necks turned occasionally from side to side, the large 
 beautiful dark eyes glancing round with an expression of 
 dignified contempt ? How many times we have read of 
 Abraham and his servant, and of Rebekah alighting from 
 her camel, and of Job with his three thousand camels. 
 
 Then we made our way towards the hotel, slowly 
 and on foot, for in those days there were scarcely any 
 carriages in Alexandria, and we preferred walking after 
 the cart on which the baggage had been placed, to riding 
 on donkeys, as the native saddles were strange. Very 
 different is everything now in the same city, which has 
 become more than half European. It is only the sun- 
 
i8 MARY LOUTS A WHATELY 
 
 shine that is quite unchanged. As we moved along the 
 unpaved street from the harbour to the hotel, the groups 
 were all so curious and interesting that I kept pausing 
 every moment to observe them. Here a Bedouin from the 
 desert in goat's-hair mantle or flowing white woollen robes, 
 and red and yellow striped kuffieh on his head, his red 
 leather girdle supporting a knife in a sheath, and an old- 
 fashioned gun on his shoulder, was standing with a 
 comrade at a little rude stall where huge water-melons 
 displayed their dark green rinds and bright crimson pulp, 
 as the thirsty wayfarers devoured the juicy slices, glancing 
 around meantime with what I afterwards learnt to know 
 as the genuine Bedouin look — which seems ' nought to 
 mark, yet all to spy.' 
 
 A little further on were a party of native women in 
 their dark-blue garments, limp and soft, falling in grace- 
 ful (if dirty) folds as they sat on the dusty ground or 
 stood leaning against a bit of ruined wall, some wearing 
 the face veil of black crape tied under the eyes, which I 
 then saw for the first time, others being of the poorest 
 class, with face uncovered. Little brown children half 
 naked and miserably neglected in appearance, clung to 
 their shoulders or squatted beside them in the dust. 
 Next a party of wealthy merchants would pass, with their 
 long robes of rich cloth and beautiful striped native silk 
 setting off their dusky complexion. Numbers of men 
 and boys of the humbler class were mixed with these, 
 hurrying to or from the harbour on some errand, their 
 arms and legs bare, and their only garments white or blue 
 cotton shirts, but all, rich or poor, had turbans. The red 
 
tVORR BEGUN 19 
 
 tarboush now common among many of the poor and 
 most of the higher class was then a mark of Turks or 
 Syrians and Europeans ; now worn by most gentlemen, 
 it was then confined to Levantines or visitors. Every 
 group was a picture then, and the prevalence of rich 
 colours in so clear an atmosphere was enough to delight 
 the eye of anyone who had a love of the picturesque. 
 But it was most strange and confusing to hear all around 
 a language so entirely different in sound from any of the 
 European tongues with which I was more or less familiar. 
 Altogether I felt like a person in a dream. 
 
 Two days afterwards we were on our way to Cairo. 
 The primitive Oriental life had already been changed by 
 the introduction of the first Egyptian railroad, which had 
 been completed about a year before. It was October, and 
 most of the Delta was under water, the inundation having 
 been very heavy that year, and that part of Egypt being 
 entirely flat, and with very few trees. Here all there was 
 to see were httle groups of mud huts with bundles of 
 reeds by way of roof, and a large sycamore fig-tree or a 
 few palms near them standing like islands on slightly 
 raised plots of ground with water all round, and buffaloes 
 standing half submerged, evidently enjoying their bath 
 extremely. Whenever we stopped at a station a troop of 
 excessively dirty children clamoured for backsheesh, and 
 frightful old women with faces like walnut shells, blear 
 eyes and dangling rags, offered baskets of sticky dates 
 covered with leaves, which feebly protected them from 
 the swarms of flies. 
 
 But amid all this squalor there was one thing which 
 
20 MARV LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 brought a very beautiful idea to my mind — young girls 
 who had, in spite of dirt and rags, much that was attrac- 
 tive in their graceful lithe figures and bright black eyes 
 and white teeth displayed in merry smiles, passed up and 
 down the platform at every station with the porous water 
 vessels of the country in their hands, offering drink to 
 the travellers with the cry (I learned the words after- 
 wards, but guessed their meaning from the action), 
 * Cold water, O ye thirsty ! ' in a sweet half-plaintive 
 tone. Every one was hot and thirsty, for early in October 
 in Egypt the weather is still like summer (a good deal 
 hotter than some English summers indeed), and many 
 hands were stretched out for the vessel of water, and 
 gladly were the coppers demanded paid ; but as we passed 
 on, and the little water-sellers were left far behind, my heart 
 ached for them and for all the rest in their land, because 
 they had never heard the blessed invitation, ' Ho, every 
 one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters' — and knew 
 nothing of the water of life which Jesus Christ our Lord 
 gives to them that ask — 'without money and without price.' 
 
 So ends, somewhat abruptly, the first record of 
 Mary Whately's entrance into the country which 
 was to become a few years later the scene of her 
 life work. 
 
 She kept copious journals of this her first stay 
 in the East, but by an unfortunate accident they 
 were lost, and no record remains but a {q:\\ 
 memoranda to be found in the published papers of 
 
WORK BEGUN 21 
 
 her recollections. She spent this winter of 1856 in 
 Cairo, and in the spring of 1857 joined a party of 
 friends going to the Holy Land, to which they 
 travelled by the ' short desert ' of El Arish. They 
 made the entire tour of the Holy Land, ending 
 with a visit to Damascus and the * Cedars.' A note 
 given to her sister as a Scripture illustration, gives 
 a lively description of her impressions of a beautiful 
 and picturesque scene in the Anti-Lebanon valleys. 
 
 I shall never forget (she writes) the day we en- 
 camped by the Pharphar. A long, hot ride, among moun- 
 tains, for the most part barren and monotonous, had at 
 last brought us to a slope of the brightest green that the 
 weary eye could possibly rest on. Here, between banks 
 literally enamelled with flowers, flowed the beautiful little 
 river whose waters, coming straight down from the snow- 
 capped summits of ancient Lebanon, are cold and de- 
 licious in the hottest day ; and clear as crystal they 
 sparkled in the sunbeams. 
 
 As we descended from our horses, and hastened to 
 'drink of the brook in the way,' I thought of the 
 ' streams from Lebanon ' of Scripture, and felt how suit- 
 able was the emblem to the Waters of Life ! All around 
 was bare, save where this life-giving, refreshing stream 
 made its way. There was fertility and beauty, and no 
 summer's heat could deprive the channel of its waters, 
 and leave a parched and stony bed behind ; here the 
 
22 A/AJ^V LOUISA IVHATELY 
 
 hart need never pant with vain longing in the empty 
 watercourse, for its source is in the eternal snows ! 
 
 The pretty little dwellings of the Druses arc adorned 
 with fruit-trees, apricots, figs, and almonds, in rich pro- 
 fusion, wherever the river flows ; pastures of luxuriant 
 herbage clothe its banks, and the toil-worn traveller re- 
 poses with delight beside its swift-running waters, of 
 which man and cattle may freely drink, without fear of 
 finding them One day exhausted, for they are 'streams 
 from Lebanon.' 
 
 Dr. Porter, in his Giant Cities of Bashan, gives 
 a graphic description of the party of travellers, of 
 which he formed one, meeting a detachment of wild 
 Arabs ' dashing down on us at full gallop. A word 
 was given, and in a moment we drew together, 
 formed a line in front of the ladies, and prepared 
 to give the Arabs a warm reception should they 
 venture an attack. . . . While the balance hung 
 between peace and war, the ladies, with a coolness 
 and a pluck that would have done honour to 
 veteran campaigners, were quietly passing remarks 
 on the proud bearing and strange costume of the 
 Bedawin, and one of them — a daughter of the most 
 distinguished prelate that ever adorned the Irish 
 Church — took out her book and pencil to sketch 
 the scene. I shall never forget the astonished look 
 
WORK BEGUN 23 
 
 of the Hawara chief as he exclaimed, on seeing this 
 act, " By the life of the Prophet, the Englishwoman 
 is writing us down ! " The courage of the ladies 
 produced apparently as powerful an effect as the 
 sight of our rifles and revolvers. Be thal^^ as it 
 may, the Hawara thought discretion the better part 
 of valour. Shouting a friendly " Peace be with 
 you ! " they wheeled round their horses and galloped 
 off.' 
 
 The travellers spent a month on the Mount of 
 Olives, and became thoroughly familiar with 
 Jerusalem and its environs. Her interest was so 
 much awakened in the work among the Jewesses 
 at Jerusalem, that after her return home at the end 
 of the summer in 1857, she had it much on her mind 
 to try and revisit it, and engage for a time at least 
 in helping the efforts made by some persons on the 
 spot, but circumstances intervened which caused this 
 scheme to fall to the ground. 
 
 In i860 the home circle was broken up by the 
 loss of her youngest sister and beloved mother 
 within a few weeks of each other. The long winter 
 of anxious nursing she had undergone, followed by 
 these deep sorrows, had undermined her health ; 
 there were fears of the lungs being affected, and a 
 
24 MARY LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 winter in a southern climate was advised. Her 
 thoughts then turned to the old Egyptian city 
 where she had gathered her first Eastern experi- 
 ences, and where she had become intimate with 
 Mrs. Liedcr, the wife of the then resident Church 
 Missionary. She went, accompanied by a near 
 relative, and after a few weeks under Mrs. Lieder's 
 roof, took a house for herself and her companion, 
 and made a temporary home in Cairo. It was 
 then that the commencement was made of an 
 educational effort among the Moslem women, an 
 attempt which we may almost say was the first — 
 certainly the first in Egypt — since the rise of 
 Mohammed, more than 1,200 years before. Of 
 this commencement we can give the history in her 
 own words. 
 
 At the period of my first visit to Egypt, I saw little 
 but the outside of things, but when circumstances brought 
 me there a second time it was laid on my heart to try 
 and do something for the girls and women of the land, 
 especially those of the Moslem poorer classes, far the 
 most numerous, of course. The only schools hitherto 
 opened for the children of the land had no scholars ex- 
 cept from the Copts or native Christians ; others were 
 considered quite out of reach, and many of my friends 
 endeavoured to dissuade me from an attempt which was 
 sure to end in failure, as they said. However, it seemed 
 
WORK BEGUN 25 
 
 best to make an effort, at all events. I was aware, indeed, 
 of the great bigotry of the people, and of their utter in- 
 difference to female education. Even a short residence 
 and very little acquaintance with the language were 
 sufficient to convince me of these facts, and to show that 
 the work must be slow, for it was all up hill. But it was 
 begun in prayer, and therefore difficulties and delays did 
 not greatly discourage me. 
 
 First a place of residence had to be found, not nearly 
 so easy a matter as in these days. There were com- 
 paratively very few new houses, and the old (unless the 
 very large and expensive ones) were apt to be extremely 
 dirty and the woodwork full of vermin. A new one 
 was recommended by a gentleman who assisted my cousin 
 and myself in our search. It was not quite finished, but 
 after visiting some of the old we thought it had the fewer 
 disadvantages on the whole. It stood at the corner of a 
 street not quite so narrow as many others — where the in- 
 habitants of the opposite dwellings could not shake hands 
 across, as would be possible in some cases. It looked 
 out on a lane on the other side, and this lane was occupied 
 by curiously tumbledown abodes, with a few mud huts 
 here and there between the more pretentious buildings, 
 partly stone and partly mud brick. This neighbourhood 
 was desirable, however, as enabling the poorer people to 
 be visited easily. A coffee-house of a humbler sort was 
 exactly under the window of the chief room in this house, 
 and several small shops on the opposite side of the street, 
 with some apartments above them occupied by wealthy 
 people apparently. 
 
26 MAJiV LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 The house was so new itself that the staircase was in- 
 complete as yet, and a series of scrambling feats, worthy 
 of goats upon a cliff, had to be i)crformed before we could 
 reach the top room, whence, to my surprise, not only fine 
 air but a fine view was obtained,— mosques and minaret 
 towers with pahns, — here and there white houses, glittering 
 in the sunshine, and a distant glimpse of the Mokattam 
 cliffs beyond the city were visible. But the walls were 
 not plastered nor the windows glazed, nor the doors put 
 up, and to crown all, the workmen were actually lying on 
 the floor in one of the rooms upon heaps of shavings, 
 fast asleep, though it was ten o'clock in the morning ! 
 It appeared afterwards that in order to prevent them from 
 leaving their work they had been locked into the house, 
 and thus afforded a fine example of the effects of forced 
 labour. 
 
 : As if was not to be painted till a year had elapsed, 
 the work really need not have taken more than a few 
 days. The owner promised on his ' head ' that in seven 
 days all should be perfectly ready, but when on the 
 eighth day his future tenants, who had paid in advance, 
 according to custom, presented themselves at the door, 
 humbly following on foot an ox-cart containing their 
 effects, he looked as much amazed as if they had done 
 something very unexpected indeed in believing his word ! 
 Yet it was the only chance for the tenants to get all 
 things finished, to be on the spot, inhabiting such rooms 
 as were habitable, otherwise the year might have rolled 
 on to its close, and the house remained just as it was. 
 'J'he outside was clean and white, but it certainly 
 
WORK BEGUN 27 
 
 required some courage to enter the scene of litter and 
 confusion within. We had to spring over pools of white- 
 wash, and clamber over loose stones, in order to reach 
 the stairs, where we were met by a troop of dirty half-clad 
 girls and boys with hods of mortar on their heads and 
 pails of water in their hands ! Threading our way 
 through this ragged regiment, we reached the first story, 
 and found at least doors and windows, but the former 
 having no locks or latches obstinately refused to remain 
 shut, till the maid who accompanied us, an energetic 
 little Irishwoman, gave it a slatn, and then it shut and 
 would not open, and we remained prisoners for some 
 time, till our new cook, a Syrian of stalwart proportions, 
 heard our cry of distress from below, and came and 
 forced the door open with his shoulders. 
 
 Our Coptic landlord sat at the head of the stairs, 
 watching the proceedings of his tenants, and dfcubtless 
 wondered why the ladies did not sit down and smoke a 
 pipe. Long pipes were then in use among native ladies 
 instead of the cigarettes now in fashion. He could not 
 repress a grin of amusement as he saw one handling a 
 broom, and the other helping the maid to unpack a box, 
 but the daylight was going fast, and there was no time to 
 lose, so we paid no regard to him. At sunset he saluted 
 us and went away, followed by his workmen, and our 
 cook set to work to prepare a frugal supper of rice and 
 milk in a kitchen which had only been finished an hour 
 ago. The tenants sitting down on the palm frames 
 covered with mattresses for beds and sofas which as yet 
 constituted the chief of their furniture, could at least say 
 
28 MARV LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 they were monarchs of all they surveyed. The very 
 simplest plenishing, and the cheapest, was all that was 
 provided, for we came to make an experiment, not as 
 permanent residents. 
 
 In those days, however, the most simple kind of 
 ' providings ' needed not only trouble but time and 
 patience. For the mattresses it was necessary to visit 
 the cotton bazaar, where heaps and piles of the raw 
 material appeared at the doors of the little shops, making 
 the street look somewhat as if an avalanche of snow had 
 been broken up recently in it. With the aid of a friend, 
 the cotton had then to be weighed and bargained for, 
 paid and sent home on a donkey, and the man who 
 makes beds sent for, and pretty closely watched, lest to 
 save trouble he stuffed in pods half plucked ! A con- 
 fidential clever servant could do all this, but new-comers 
 can scarcely have such an individual. It is hardly 
 necessary to observe that an English domestic would be 
 worse than none, as languages are wanted. In houses 
 built without closets some shelves are wanted, and a 
 carpenter is soon found, but he helplessly remarks, ' I 
 have no wood.' * Go to Boulac and buy some from the 
 wood stores,' suggests our cook. At last he recollects that 
 for so small a quantity Cairo may afford what is needed, 
 and he sets to work and knocks up a few shelves, and 
 then says, ' To-morrow I will come and do the rest.' 
 ' Why not now ? It is yet more than an hour to sunset ! ' 
 ' I am tired, I have worked all day ' (which of course was 
 not true). ' To-morrow ; to-morrow ! ' and shouldering his 
 tools, off he walks, and his employers being still very new 
 
WOI^Jir BEGUN 29 
 
 to Egypt, and only able to speak a few disjointed sen- 
 tences, have to submit. 
 
 We paid for our impatience in getting into a house 
 of which the plaster was not thoroughly dry, by attacks 
 of illness in turn, but fortunately dry sunny weather set 
 in ; and we recovered sooner than we deserved, perhaps, 
 for such imprudence. One inconvenience certainly 
 caused us to take cold whenever a cold wind prevailed, 
 which was, that the staircase from the first-floor rooms 
 to the second was open to the sky. The owner of the 
 house told us this was customary in many native houses. 
 It was so far true that those inhabited by the poorer 
 class — who yet are not the very lowest, who live in mud 
 huts — have generally these open staircases, but no house 
 of any pretension has them. The roofing over is often 
 left to the last, in order to let the rooms dry more 
 quickly ; he could not have let the house to any but an 
 ignorant foreigner credulous enough to believe him. 
 
 There is so little rain in Egypt that, compared to most 
 other countries, one may call it a land without rain, still 
 there are a few heavy showers, some years more, some 
 less, every winter ; and on these occasions we had to go 
 up and down stairs with umbrellas, and, when a stormy 
 wind blew, were perished with cold. But the cold and 
 rain so quickly pass in Egypt that the inconvenience 
 would have been only temporary, had they not been 
 succeeded by the hot spring sunshine, and then parasols 
 were wanted on the staircase ! How valuable is the 
 knowledge of the language of a country where one 
 sojourns ! Our servant had tried to make us understand 
 
30 MARY LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 that something was wrong, but could not make it clear ; 
 when once settled it was too late to bring in builders till 
 we should leave for the summer months. 
 
 The next fragment of her recollections, describ- 
 ing the beginning of her school, is partly from a 
 recent MS., and partly taken from her first pub- 
 lished volume. Ragged Life hi Egypt. 
 
 The wish for some sort of education for girls, though a 
 very slight and imperfect one, had for several years been 
 spreading in Egypt. Among the wealthy a teacher who 
 can instruct the young ladies in the hareem in French 
 and perhaps a little ' piano,' as European music is 
 called, is frequent, though not universal ; and among the 
 middle classes in the great towns many parents are 
 willing, if any pains are taken about it, to allow their girls 
 to attend schools under European superintendence, and 
 even to pay a trifle towards their teaching. Though 
 thousands are plunged in utter ignorance in the towns — 
 and in all the villages— still the schoolmistress is abroad. 
 But when I came to Egypt in iS6o there was not a 
 Mahommedan girls' school in Cairo or any other 
 Egyptian town. Everyone of whom I enquired assured 
 me that the masses of the humbler class, being both 
 indifferent to education in itself, and disposed to look 
 with aversion on Christians, would never consent to let 
 me have their little daughters in a school, while the right 
 sort of girls were shut up, and therefore quite out of 
 reach. ' One can never say that anything is a failure 
 
WORK BEGUN 31 
 
 which has never been tried,' was my answer; they smiled 
 and shrugged their shoulders, and left me to my 
 obstinacy. 
 
 The only teacher to be found after many en- 
 quiries was a worthy Christian matron, who could read 
 in the only book she was accustomed to, which was the 
 New Testament, and the narrative parts of the Books of 
 Genesis and Exodus. She had a young daughter of 
 thirteen who had been to a school in Beyrout, and could 
 read as well as write fairly. But to secure the services 
 of the good woman and her girl we had to accommodate 
 the whole of her family, as there was no cheap lodging 
 near at hand, and though inconvenient we had space 
 enough, including the use of the schoolroom after school. 
 Behold the teacher, therefore, with her five children (her 
 husband was out on his business till evening) seated in 
 the new room, swept and prepared with clean mats and a 
 few books, but no scholars ! The servant had been sent 
 to speak to his acquaintances, but without result. 
 
 At last the matron and I sallied forth together. My 
 cousin was indisposed, and still confined to her room. We 
 went rather timidly up the narrow and dirty lane on one 
 side of our house ; the other looked on a busy thorough- 
 fare in which we should have been jostled, and, besides, it 
 was all shops, and we were seeking to speak with women 
 who very rarely were seen in shops. The occupants of the 
 tumbledown houses and mud huts in the lane were all 
 at their doors, staring at the strangers. They live chiefly 
 outside, indeed, the little dark dens being used merely 
 to sleep in. With the matron's help (she knew a little 
 
32 MARY LOUISA WHAT ELY 
 
 English) and my own broken Arabic I managed to make 
 one or two understand our errand, something in this way. 
 'Good morning; peace be to you.' 'Oh, peace to you, 
 lady.' ' I see you have a nice girl here ; will you let 
 her come to our school, and learn to read and also to 
 sew ? ' The woman, who is squatted on the threshold of 
 her hut muffled in filthy garments, for the day is rather 
 cold, shrugs her shoulders, and the matron interposes 
 and repeats what I had said with some additions and 
 many friendly smiles. ' We are Moslems and our girls 
 don't learn.' ' Oh, but it is so nice to read, sister, and 
 she shall .learn to sew too ; the lady has brought little 
 thimbles.' (Girl, in a loud 'aside' : ' I want a thimble ! ') 
 Matron pats her on the back. ' Yes, yes, my dear, 
 a new thimble and needles thou shalt have.' The 
 mother demurs. ' We don't like strangers here, and 
 girls need not learn except to make bread or so. 
 Why does this lady want our girls ? ' The matron says, 
 ' Because she loves God, and therefore loves your chil- 
 dren, and wants to teach them about God.' ' Alashalla ! 
 well, we will see to-morrow ; perhaps she can go.' 
 
 After visiting ten or twelve houses and huts, besides 
 speaking to some groups who stood about gossiping, some 
 with babies on their shoulders, others eating oranges or 
 sugar-cane, we at last returned with the promise of several 
 scholars, feeling triumphant and thankful. Of course 
 most were only inclined to come and see what this new 
 affair was, and even of these several were dissuaded by 
 their neighbours from having anything to do with ' those 
 Christians.' One woman appeared at nine o'clock next 
 
work: begun i^ 
 
 day wearing a quantity of silver and coral ornaments on 
 her rounded brown arms and throat, though her dress of 
 dark blue cotton seemed threadbare, and was far from 
 clean. She led a nice-looking child about nine years 
 old in the little white muslin veil and loose coloured frock 
 worn by tolerably decent poor girls. Of a volley of 
 words she poured out after the salutations, I could only 
 make out that the child was timid and afraid to stay, but 
 to-morrow she would send her. The first fish seemed 
 caught, and now was escaping the fisher's hand. The 
 matron and I both caressed and spoke kindly to the girl ; 
 she smiled and said really she would return, and she did, 
 but at the time I could not trust that she would do so, 
 and felt rather cast down. Half an hour passed, and 
 then two little black-eyed dirty-faced girls in ragged 
 frocks trotted in, followed by their mothers, and I thought 
 grandmothers also, for several women came in, some old, 
 some young, and there was a good deal of unveiling and 
 chattering. The Egyptian citizen's wife, indeed, all but 
 the very poorest in the towns, wears a black crape 
 face veil, fastened by a brass or gold tube rather like an 
 exaggerated thimble, which is sewn to a fillet passed 
 round the head at one end, fastened between the eyes 
 and to the face veil (called a burko) at the other. After 
 a little while we had more visitors, and at length the 
 women departed, and nine little girls from seven to ten 
 years old were left to begin school. No recruiting 
 sergeant ever was so pleased as I when I hastened up 
 stairs, to report to my invalid relative that we had actually 
 nine pupils. After the names had been asked, and the 
 
 C 
 
34 MARY LOUISA IVHATELV 
 
 little Fatmeh, Zeynab, Hosna, &c. were duly inscribed 
 on a paper, I asked each in turn, * ^Vho made you ? ' 
 Some replied ' Allah ! ' (God), but two or three said 
 ' Mohammed ! ' The first verse of the Bible, ' In the be- 
 ginning God created the heavens and the earth,' was then 
 repeated to them, and they were taught to say it, first 
 each one by herself, and then altogether. This was the 
 begmning of instruction for them, poor children. The 
 young teacher was too inexperienced to be able to 
 explain it, so I did what I could in that way ; and then 
 we both set to teaching the five first letters of their diffi- 
 cult alphabet, till they seemed to be getting tired ; they 
 were then allowed a rest, and afterwards a singing lesson 
 was commenced. The neighbours might have supposed 
 a set oicats to be the pupils, if they listened to the dis- 
 cordant sounds which the first attempt at a gamut 
 produced ; but, as the proverb says, ' Children and fools 
 should not see things half done.' Three months later a 
 stranger visiting the school was delighted at the sweet 
 singing of the hymns! The mewing and squeaking 
 were nearly forgotten by that time. 
 
 The children were delighted when the work hour 
 arrived, the real inducement to most of them and their 
 mothers having been the needlework. Perhaps the 
 teachers were not sorry when every little brown middle 
 finger was supplied with a new thimble, and they could 
 sit down for a few minutes. No one who has not tried it 
 can conceive the difficulty of teaching those who have 
 not only no 2vish to learn, but no idea of what learning 
 is, or what possible good is to be gained by all this 
 
IVORI^ BEGUN 35 
 
 trouble ; and, of course, the strain upon the mind is 
 greatly increased when one's knowledge of the language is 
 very limited indeed. The children all took willingly to 
 sewing ; indeed, they had many times in the course of 
 the forenoon thrown down the cards and cried out, 
 ' The work ! give us the work.' The English needles 
 and scissors gave much pleasure, and were eagerly 
 examined by some mothers and elder sisters who paid 
 visits to the schoolroom, in the course of the day, to see 
 what the foreigner was doing with their little ones ; for, 
 if ignorant, they are usually very fond parents. Some 
 brought bread, bunches of raw carrots, or some such 
 dainty, and, after giving it to the children, would squat 
 down on the mat to watch the proceedings. Of course, 
 it did rather interfere with business, but it will not do to 
 strain a new rope too tightly ; and, besides, Eastern 
 manners are unlike ours, and I thought it wisest never 
 to meddle with them, unless some real evil was in 
 question. 
 
 On the second day we had fourteen scholars. As 
 they entered, each kicked off her slippers, if she pos- 
 sessed any, at the door — I think more than half had 
 some kind of shoe — and then went up to kiss the hand 
 of the superintendent and lay it on her head, both which 
 processes became pleasanter when cleanly habits had 
 come a little into fashion. One h'ttle thing was led in 
 by an elder sister, a fine tall girl about fourteen or fif- 
 teen, wearing the common blue cotton garment, with its 
 limp drapery, and a pink net one within it, and what 
 resembled some one's old tablecloth upon her head. 
 
36 J/A7^V LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 This was Shoh ! a name almost impossible to render 
 correctly by writing, except, perhaps, by a note of admi- 
 ration, to imply the sudden stop of the sound ; it signifies 
 ' Ardently loved ! ' 
 
 ^^'e did not know at this time that Shoh was married, 
 and only supposed she thought herself too old to come 
 to school, though manifestly wishing to do so. She came 
 in and out, listening and smiling, and at last, about noon- 
 day, again returned, bringing an infant brother — in a 
 very dirty condition — riding on her shoulder, and a 
 quantity of oranges in the end of her veil. These last 
 she poured into my lap, being a present to show her good- 
 will, and at almost the same instant the baby was adroitly 
 lowered from the shoulder and propped upon the floor, 
 with a bit of sugar-cane stuffed into his little hand, while 
 Shoh planted herself triumphantly on the mat at my feet, 
 and seizing an alphabet-card, began repeating 'Alef — beh ' 
 in an undertone. The love of learning, or curiosity to 
 see and hear something new, had conquered matronly 
 dignity, and from that time she paid frequent visits to 
 the school. 
 
 So far, her own words give an account of Mary 
 Whatcly's humble beginning. At the end of the 
 spring of 1 86 1, family claims called her home ; 
 she placed the school under a teacher, provided by 
 the Society for Promoting Female Education in 
 the East — the Society which was the pioneer of 
 all subsequent efforts, and one which was, through 
 
WORK BEGUN 37 
 
 all her missionary career, her unfailing friend and 
 supporter. 
 
 The winter ending 1861, and part of the spring 
 of 1862, were spent at Pau with some friends : she 
 felt the need of rest after a very hard ' campaign ' 
 of work in Egypt, and with health only imperfectly 
 restored as yet. But she was not idle during this 
 stay. A work of love was given her to do that 
 winter : and she did it with very blessed results. 
 In the same house in which she was lodging, the 
 invalid son of an eminent Scotch minister in the 
 Isle of Skye was staying with his brother and two 
 sisters for his health. They soon became intimate, 
 and Mary's familiarity with French and with Con- 
 tinental ways generally, was a great help to the 
 young Highlanders, unaccustomed to foreign travel. 
 The sick youth was far gone in decline, and died 
 that winter ; and her conversation and intercourse 
 and kindly ministrations were a great comfort 
 both to him and his sisters. The hymns she sang 
 by his bedside cheered his last moments, and she 
 was able to supplement the attentions of the ex- 
 cellent resident Scotch chaplain in many ways, 
 and to be very useful and helpful to the mourning 
 family after all was over. 
 
38 MARY LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 In the spring of that year she made a little 
 excursion into the North of Spain, of which a 
 graphic account was given in her own words, which 
 afterwards appeared in the Pen and Pencil Sketches 
 of Spain} 
 
 ' The initials of her sister were appended to this by mistake. 
 
39 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE GIRLS' SCHOOL IN CAIRO. 
 
 I N the winter of 1 862 Mary Whately returned to Cairo 
 — this time only accompanied by her faithful Irish 
 maid. The school had been for a time suspended, 
 as health and other circumstances had obliged the 
 teacher to leave. She afterwards found another 
 field of labour in the East, in which she has been 
 ever since doing good and valuable service. As 
 soon as the original foundress was settled again in 
 her winter residence, she hastened to reopen the 
 school, and found her old pupils ready to return to 
 her. We again quote from Ragged Life in Egypt. 
 
 Though but a few months had elapsed during which 
 the little Ragged School in Bab-el-Bahar had been closed, 
 the desolate appearance of the room made it look as if 
 it had been deserted for a much longer period. It had 
 been no one's business to look after it particularly, and 
 the poor little schoolroom was bare and dirty when I 
 came to take possession again in the month of November, 
 
40 JLl/^V LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 1862. No texts or pictures, as of old, hung against the 
 walls ; nothing but dust and a few torn books remained. 
 However, it is better to look forward than to look back, 
 and having caught a little well-known child at the door, 
 and despatched her to look for the former scholars, and 
 tell them 'School was open,' I went upstairs to get 
 some books and pictures which were stored away there, 
 and then began to sweep the dusty room, while awaiting 
 the return of the maid, who was gone to fetch work 
 materials, and the arrival of the new matron, who, like 
 all Egyptians, was behind time. She was merely engaged 
 to help in keeping order, cleaning the schoolroom, &c., 
 and instructing the scholars in plain sewing, and was by 
 no means to be a schoolmistress, being quite uneducated. 
 No native teacher or assistant could be obtained, though 
 I was in treaty for one ; so that I was quite alone. The 
 prospect did not look very brilliant, but help comes 
 usually in one way or another in time of need. 
 
 The first helper was a poor washerwoman, who, 
 finding her former employer alone in the house, ex- 
 pressed much surprise and pleasure at the meeting, and 
 taking the broom almost by force from her hands, ex- 
 claimed, ' Sit down, lady, and I will sweep the room for 
 you.' She had scarcely finished when little voices were 
 heard on the stairs, and there was a rush of scholars, 
 chiefly old ones, but accompanied by a few others (their 
 younger sisters), all tumultuous in their greetings. Twenty 
 pairs of little henna-dyed hands were eagerly held out, 
 with deafening shouts of 'Welcome ! welcome ! teacher ! 
 Our teacher is come back ! God be praised ! ' After 
 
THE GIRLS' SCHOOL IN CAIRO 41 
 
 some time had been occupied in salutations, and enquiries, 
 and recognitions, the affectionate but somewhat unruly 
 little creatures were at length arranged in a row on a 
 mat, while I said a few words to them, explaining that 
 as yet there was no teacher except myself (for the only 
 matron I could procure did not know her letters), and 
 that I could only read Arabic very slowly and imperfectly, 
 but that I would do my best, and would study every 
 evening, so as to know more ; and on their part they 
 must be good and obedient, and learn very nicely, which, 
 of course, was promised readily enough — children are 
 always ready to promise. 
 
 After a short prayer and a portion of the Gospel 
 read and explained, they were set down to their alphabet 
 and spelling-cards ; for though some had been formerly 
 several months at school, they had forgotten in the interval, 
 or else had made little progress, so that none could read 
 except two, and they with great difficulty, and only 
 spelling each word as they went. While the children 
 were thus engaged, in burst our old acquaintance, Shoh, 
 with her baby in her arms, and her old mother be- 
 hind her, to witness the introduction. The little creature 
 had been washed and ' got up ' for the occasion, as this 
 was a formal introduction. The day before I had seen 
 her with it, while passing in the street, and had been 
 most affectionately greeted, but regret to say I could not 
 then pass judgment on the infant's charms, because they 
 were obscured by dirt ; now it really looked a very pretty 
 baby-girl, about five months old, and I could answer 
 satisfactorily to the young mother's questions of * Is she 
 
42 MARY LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 not sweet — sweet ? Is she not very nice ? ' I confess poor 
 Shoh reminded one strongly of a little English girl with 
 a new doll, though she must have been fifteen or sixteen 
 at least by this time. She kept repeating exactly as chil- 
 dren do over their new waxen treasure which grandmamma 
 or auntie has just brought from the toy-shop — ' Only see 
 its eyes ! — look ! there are its feet ! — and just touch its 
 hair, is not that like silk — so soft ? ' Then the old grand- 
 mother, who seemed on pleasanter terms than formerly 
 with her daughter, seized the baby, and hoisted it up on 
 high, as if in triumph, apostrophising it in a very droll 
 manner, and saying ' Now, Hosna ' (which was its name, 
 and signifies ' handsome,' or ' what is approved ' ), ' that 
 is thy lady, thy own lady ; thou must love her, Hosna, 
 very much ; look, sweet one ! ' and then turning to me, 
 she called for a confirmation of her assertions that Hosna 
 was ' lovely and precious.' I was pleased that so much 
 pride as well as affection should be poured out on a girl, 
 because the contrary is sometimes the case in the East, 
 though perhaps more in theory than practice, as I 
 constantly observe the men of the lower classes 
 caressing their little girls with the utmost tenderness. 
 Many other poor visitors came in the course of this and 
 the following day, all giving me the most cordial welcome, 
 and some whose names I could not recollect appearing 
 to remember mc quite well. 
 
 Keeping a Ragged School is not a sinecure in any 
 country, as everybody knows who has tried it ; and of 
 course it is more difficult where the language is imper- 
 fectly known, and where there is no aid, such as in a 
 
THE GIRLS' SCHOOL IN CAIRO 43 
 
 long-established school can always be obtained, from a 
 monitress or pupil-teacher of some sort. The first day 
 or two it seemed impossible to keep the little voices quiet 
 for a moment ; there were no habits of order or obedience, 
 and each wished to do what was good in her own eyes. 
 'Teacher, Zanuba is beating me.' 'Teacher, Sittaty 
 is pinching my arm.' ' Oh ! teacher, Fatmeh pushed 
 me down ; pray beat her.' ' I cannot get an alphabet, 
 they have taken mine away.' 'Hear my spelling, 
 teacher ; I can say it very nicely.' ' No, don't hear 
 her, teacher, hear me first.' ' Look at Adeela, teacher ; 
 she is striking my sister : I will not have my sister 
 struck.' ' She tore the book, and ought to be 
 beaten.' ' Oh, teacher, do something to my finger ; it 
 is so bad ! ' Then, when one after another all had been 
 attended to, a fit of joy succeeded the fit of quarrelling, 
 and two or three would fling down the cards and ex- 
 claim, ' I am so glad you are come again ! I love you so 
 much ! ' ' Then show your love by being good and quiet,' 
 was the reply. ' I must have order.' ' Yes, yes, order, 
 order ! ' echoes a lively officious little lass of ten or eleven, 
 snatching up a ruler and laying about her vigorously, 
 crying, ' Order, order, you children ! stand in order ! ' 
 When the stick is taken from her, and the little ones she 
 has tapped so violently as to make them cry are pacified, 
 another trouble begins ; the idle ones fancy they are 
 hungry, and out of some pocket in their ragged garments 
 come a green onion, apiece of sticky date-paste, a pickled 
 turnip, or a bit of sugar-cane, which have to be con- 
 fiscated till ' recess,' as are apples and lollipops in our 
 
44 MARY LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 English schools, and with some difficulty the disorderly 
 crew are induced to wait till the muezzin has announced 
 that it is the hour of noon from the neighbouring mosque. 
 
 In the afternoon, after about an hour's rest, the little 
 flock reassembled ; some who lived close by had gone 
 home to dinner, others brought bread with some little 
 relish, and others claimed the five-para pieces they had 
 given me to keep (about the value of a farthing), with 
 which they bought a morsel of native cheese or a few 
 dates from a shop near the school-house, and ate, seated 
 in a circle on the mat in the schoolroom. Some of the 
 poorest had at times only bread, but I think this was 
 exceptional, as vegetables and other native articles are so 
 very cheap that it is rare for any family not to be able 
 to afford a scrap of pickle or a handful of raw carrots, 
 radishes, &c. to accompany the bread. 
 
 In the course of about six weeks I was obliged to 
 change the matron for another, who, though equally 
 uneducated, was not so much addicted to forsaking her 
 daily duty in the work-room, and who did not waste so 
 much time over her long cherry-stick pipe. I cannot say 
 she never smoked when she should have been cutting 
 out needlework, &c., or never made a pretext of going to 
 church when a visit to her sister's, to gossip and eat nuts 
 and almonds, was the second and longest part of the 
 ceremony ; but still she did much better than her pre- 
 decessor in many respects. I arranged afterwards with 
 a native embroideress to come daily and instruct part ot 
 the scholars in this popular, because lucrative, employ- 
 ment. They made a pretty picture, in spite of the rags 
 
THE GIRLS' SCHOOL IN CAIRO 45 
 
 of so many, when seated in little groups over the em- 
 broidery frames ; the Coptic girl who taught them lean- 
 ing over each set in turn, her net veil twisted gracefully 
 across her shoulders, and a heap of bright-coloured skeins 
 of silk heaped beside her, and all the circle looking so 
 cheerful and contented ; nor was the sight less pleasing 
 from the contrast of what had been the daily life of 
 these poor children before they were gathered within the 
 walls of their school. 
 
46 MARY LOUISA WHATELV 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 THE r.ovs' SCHOOL at cairo 
 
 For further particulars of the girl's school, Mary 
 Whatcly's published works furnish interesting de- 
 tails. The process was one of no ordinary difficulty ; 
 for she had to do the work and prepare her tools at 
 the same time. The teachers had to be trained, and 
 the ' raw material ' for them, even, was of the most 
 imperfect kind. The Syrian matron with whom she 
 had begun the work was unaccustomed to the routine 
 of the schools ; and she, as befoi"e mentioned, had 
 returned to her own land. With some difficulty 
 a half-Italian, half-Oriental girl with some little 
 knowledge of teaching was procured, but she being 
 a Romanist, the religious instruction fell entirely 
 to Mary's charge ; and with her still imperfect 
 knowledge of Arabic this was a difficulty which 
 none can even conceive who have not tried to 
 teach in a language with which they are not 
 
THE BOYS' SCHOOL AT CAIRO 47 
 
 entirely familiar, even though it be a far easier one 
 than the Oriental tongue she had to master. She 
 had to study each day the lesson she was to give 
 on the morrow, and besides this, to work hard at 
 the rudiments of the language day by day. Every 
 spare minute was devoted to this employment ; 
 even while she took her solitary meals a grammar 
 or vocabulary lay on the table beside her, which she 
 studied by snatches. 
 
 Feeling the great need of some efficient help 
 in learning this — to a European — most difficult 
 language, she sought for a teacher, and was recom- 
 mended a Syrian missionary who had been 
 working up the Nile with the American Mission 
 with marked success, and was now teaching in one 
 of their schools. This led to her obtaining the 
 aid of a most valuable helper in her own special 
 work, in the missionary Mansoor Shakoor. He 
 was about this period engaged by the Moslem 
 Mission Society, a recently formed association for 
 working among Mohammedans in the East ; and 
 when, somewhat later, their funds failed, Mary 
 took him regularly into her employment ; but 
 previously to this he had worked gratuitously for 
 her in his leisure hours, and at his request she also 
 
48 il/^A'F LOUISA WHATELV 
 
 engaged the services of his brother, who had been 
 an active missionary in Latakia, she herself supply- 
 ing the salary of both. 
 
 This accession of help enabled her, when home 
 duties recalled her to Ireland in the spring of 
 1863, to leave the schools under the superin- 
 tendence of the two brothers. At their suggestion 
 a boys' school had now been added to the one for 
 girls. This would have been impossible, in the 
 East, for a lady working alone ; but with these 
 two active and efficient missionaries, both well 
 accustomed to teaching in their own language, and 
 with some knowledge of English (though, having 
 acquired it late in life, it was learned by both with 
 difficulty), the plan could be easily carried out. 
 In her own first published work she records the 
 exclamation of a little boy who watched his sister 
 and her companions preparing for a ' school treat,' 
 and actually declared he * wished he were a girl ! ' 
 
 There were many who, without going so far as 
 this, were very anxious for some better teaching 
 than was obtainable then in ordinary Moslem 
 or Copt schools. But her own pen will best 
 describe the first effort among the boys— the little 
 Sunday-school^ managed by herself, which was the 
 
THE BOYS' SCHOOL AT CAIRO 49 
 
 precursor of the one afterwards set on foot by the 
 efforts of the two brothers Shakoor. 
 
 The poor boy who had wished to be a girl, in order 
 to be admitted to the school festival, was, unluckily for 
 him, no longer within reach ; perhaps his father thought 
 change of air might benefit his mother's tongue — she had 
 been the scold par excellence of the quarter — certain it 
 is they were all gone, and I never saw the boy in the 
 lanes near Bab-el-Bahar. But there were plenty of others 
 whose names and faces were familiar to me, most of them 
 brothers to my girls, beside a more changing ragged crew, 
 the friends and acquaintance of my neighbours, who 
 came from time to time to fight with them for sugar- 
 canes, to assist in the composition of dust-heaps, which, 
 from the dryness of the climate, are more in fashion than 
 'mud pies,' though these are manufactured also quite 
 as successfully as in St. Giles's; and last, but not least, to 
 join in tormenting a certain huge brown ram, which 
 looked exactly like a door-mat with a head and legs to it, 
 and which was driven up and down the lane by a troop 
 of little boys, till I expected to see it knock them down 
 and kill them ; but the poor brute was very gentle, and 
 bore a great deal, and they did sometimes feed it with 
 some of their sugar-canes (the tops of which they could 
 not eat especially), so perhaps it had not so miserable a 
 life as one might have supposed. 
 
 Some of these boys I found went to the Mahom- 
 medan school, which they dislike cordially, being often 
 severely beaten, and not furnished with pictures or 
 
 D 
 
50 J/ARV LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 amusing books, or anything that could lighten the labour 
 of spelling and reading. The greater number, however, 
 did not go anywhere, and did not know their letters. I 
 spoke to some whom I met playing at the door one day, 
 and asked if they would like to come to my house and 
 see some pictures, and hear histories of Moses and David, 
 and learn something out of God's book ? Two or three 
 said they would ; others laughed ; and the smallest stared 
 wonderingly, without saying a word. There was one 
 little fellow, whose roguish face was quite familiar ; I 
 often saw him making mimic shops with bits of broken 
 crockery upon the door-step, in company with one or two 
 little girls, and as he moved his toys to let the owner of 
 the house go in or come out, he always used to laugh 
 merrily, and beg leave to kiss my hand, and ask if he 
 might not come to school. I occasionally dropped nuts 
 or dates out of the window to him and some young com- 
 panions in the evening, which made them exceedingly 
 happy, and perhaps was one reason for the friendly feel- 
 ing evinced by this boy, whose demonstrations were 
 quite diverting. He had a slight squint of one eye, but 
 it seemed only to enhance the humorous expression of 
 his face, as he would stand by the donkey, when I was 
 preparing to mount it for a ride, saying, ' Now, teacher, 
 when may I come to school ? ' 
 
 I told him one day that I was going to have Sunday- 
 school for the boys ; aH the week was for the girls, but 
 they should have school on o?ie day, if they would come. 
 I also told the girls who had brothers to let them know. 
 While trying to get pupils on one hand, it was necessary 
 
THE BOYS' SCHOOL AT CAIRO 51 
 
 to get teachers on the other, as a man would be neces- 
 sary, if any big boys came, to keep order, &c.; and be- 
 sides, the year was already far advanced ; April had be- 
 gun, and I had not quite two months more to stay, and 
 must leave successors. Some few friends, however, 
 promised to try and aid the work. 
 
 When Sunday arrived, finding no boys made their 
 appearance, I went down into the lane to look for them ; 
 but though it usually swarmed, on this morning, as if on 
 purpose to try our faith and patience, not a boy was in 
 sight, only a girl was visible ; she was playing in a little 
 heap of rubbish all by herself. ' Saida ! ' I cried. She 
 came immediately at my call, being one of the scholars. 
 I asked her if she would find her own brother if she had 
 one, and if not, call some of her schoolfellows, and 
 send them to find theirs. She looked rather bewildered, 
 not having apparently heard of the scheme, though it 
 had been mentioned more than once in school. How- 
 ever, she trotted off at last ; and, meantime, I turned 
 into the main street, which was very quiet at this hottest 
 time of day. I would gladly have fixed a later hour, for 
 I feared many boys would be sleeping about this time in 
 the hot months, but did not like to choose an hour 
 which would interfere with either English or American 
 service, on the teachers' account. 
 
 In the street were a group of boys assembled at a 
 doorway, quarrelling : they were mostly quite little boys, 
 from three or four up to ten years of age, by their 
 appearance. Two women sat by, without interfering in 
 the least. I went up and gently remonstrated with them 
 
52 MARY LOUISA WIIATELY 
 
 for disputing, and asked them, instead of beating one 
 another, to come with me and learn something good at 
 the school yonder. They were astonished, and stopped 
 quarrelling to hsten. One of the mothers said, ' You are 
 the teacher, are you not ? ' ' Yes, for the girls ; but I 
 wish to let the boys have a little teaching also, for I love 
 them as well as girls.' 
 
 I explained to them that an hour or two on this 
 ([:iy— first day, the Arabs call it, as Quakers in our 
 country do — was to be for the boys ; and that some kind 
 gentlemen had promised to teach them out of God's 
 book, if they would come to my house. The women 
 said it was very good, though without expressing any 
 lively desire that their sons should learn ; which I could 
 not expect — that they did not oppose it was all I could 
 hope, for, after all, it did require some confidence to 
 send their children to a stranger, of a different nation 
 and religion, on her bare word. But they told the boys 
 to go if they wished ; and one patted her little son on 
 the shoulder, and encouraged him to go, saying, 'She 
 will not beat you.' Two went away, looking rather sulky, 
 but the rest came with me ; and I brought them in 
 triumphantly. 
 
 At the door we met a girl dragging a young brother 
 in great pride, and she was followed by two or three 
 more with their brothers, coaxing and pulling them 
 along, and trying to reassure them by patting them, and 
 telling of the pleasures and advantages of school, while 
 the poor boys hung back, tried to free their arms, half 
 laughing, as if a little ashamed of their fears. It was a 
 
THE BOYS'- SCHOOL AT CAIRO 53 
 
 curious sight thus to see the despised part of the popu- 
 lation using the powers which a Httle smattering of know- 
 ledge had given them, trying to bring their brothers to 
 get a share, and in the most affectionate manner per- 
 suading them not to be afraid. 
 
 They were a ragged and dirty crew, as may be 
 imagined. I can scarcely say how many we had that 
 first day, as two or three went, and others came ; but 
 I think nine stayed. These were clad in blue or white 
 shirts, or rather garments which had formerly been so, but 
 were now nearly undistinguishable, and cotton caps on 
 their little .cropped heads. Certainly, dress had not 
 done much for them ; but they had bright, intelligent 
 eyes, which lit up as they glanced curiously at the 
 pictures on the wall. The younger ones all clamoured 
 to stay with the lady, and I divided them from the older 
 boys, giving these over to the young Copt who was my 
 assistant that day. 
 
 The little fellows sat in a row before me : all were 
 Moslems but one, named George (Jerjas ; or in Cairoene 
 Gergas). He was a friend of the others, however, and 
 placed little Mohammed, a fat, round-faced little Moslem 
 four years old, on his lap, that he might better see the 
 picture I was showing them of the finding of Moses. I 
 talked to them, and asked questions, and amused rather 
 than taught, this first day ; the great point being to 
 induce them to get the habit of coming here on Sundays. 
 We only kept them an hour, fearing to tire them. 
 
 The second Sunday we had thirteen scholars. Be- 
 fore my assistant arrived, seven boys had come ; and I 
 
54 MARY LO VISA WHA TEL Y 
 
 was so afraid of their running away, if left to wait out- 
 side, that I hurried down and admitted them, though it 
 was before the right time. People who have no clocks 
 cannot be very exact. Before long, the girls brought 
 another batch of scholars. And at the same time a 
 Syrian friend belonging to an English mercantile house 
 came to my aid, and, being accustomed to Sunday- 
 school work in Alexandria, proved a good teacher. He 
 took the older boys, and taught them a text of Scripture, 
 besides reading and explaining a short portion, and 
 showing them pictures. I did the same, only omitting 
 the reading to the little fellows, and instead of it, teach- 
 ing them a few letters of the alphabet. 
 
 By degrees, a more regular system may be intro- 
 duced, but till a set of children are got into the habit of 
 attending every week we cannot make it more than a 
 class ; a real school may follow this little beginning. 
 
 From this time we had a few lads every Sunday, 
 sometimes ten or twelve, sometimes only three or four 
 but no Sunday passed without at least a few coming. 
 As Sunday is, of course, in no way different from othpr 
 days to Moslem boys, they often forgot it at first, and 
 some came on Monday instead ; others got an idle fit, 
 and went off to play in some neighbouring lane, and let 
 the hour pass by. Still, a beginning was made ; the 
 small end of the wedge was inserted into the log. 
 
55 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 WORK IN CAIRO AND ON THE NILE 
 
 Mary Whately was quite aware, however, 
 that the day school for boys could not be set on 
 foot with a female superintendent alone ; and the 
 difficulty of obtaining qualified teachers was great. 
 The aid, therefore, as before observed, of Mansoor 
 and Joseph Shakoor was most important ; and 
 their general supervision of the whole work enabled 
 her to leave it for England, with the assurance 
 that it would not drop during her needful absence. 
 In the autumn of this year the death of her father 
 broke up finally her Irish home ; and she resolved 
 on settling permanently in Cairo, in order to 
 devote her life to her work there. 
 
 It was at her father's suggestion, and by his 
 advice, that her first book, Ragged Life in Egypt, 
 was published. A friend staying in the house 
 had been reading to him a series of letters Mary had 
 
56 MARY LO VISA WHA TEL V 
 
 written her, describing her first settlement for the 
 winter in Cairo, the commencement of her school, 
 her visits among the poor, &;c. He h'stencd with 
 much pleasure and attention, and on his daughter 
 entering the room a few minutes afterwards, he 
 said, ' Mary, you ought to publish these papers.' 
 Her first answer was, ' Oh, people are tired of 
 Egypt ! they have had so many books of travels 
 there, and so many details ! ' ' Yes,' he rejoined ; 
 ' but yours will be new ; you have reached a stratum 
 lower than any foreign visitor has yet done.' 
 
 This determined her to publish ; and the book 
 was finished and brought out immediately ; with 
 less delay, indeed, than such works generally entail, 
 for one of her characteristics was the marvellous 
 rapidity with which she composed. The same 
 friend, having to correct some of her manuscript 
 written down on the spot, and almost impromptu, 
 declared she had only to put stops, and that the 
 language and style were irreproachably correct. 
 This first book was brought out in 1861 ; in 1863, 
 the same friend read to the archbishop, during his 
 last illness, the manuscript of the second part, More 
 About Ragged Life in Egypt. In spite of much pain 
 and weakness, he listened with lively interest. 
 
M^ORK IN CAIRO AND ON THE NILE 57 
 
 On the morning on which the reading was 
 finished, he took his gold pen from his pocket, and 
 giving it to her, said, ' I shall never use this again, 
 Mary ; take it, and go on.' It may easily be 
 supposed how precious were these last words of 
 encouragement. 
 
 In the autumn of 1863, then^ she finally re- 
 moved to Cairo. She now found it needful to hire 
 a house for the two schools, separate from her own 
 dwelling-house, in which no sufficient space could 
 be found for the rapidly increasing numbers. 
 Hitherto, with the exception of the salary of a 
 female teacher, supplied by the Society for Pro- 
 moting Female Education in the East, the ex- 
 penses of the school had been entirely defrayed by 
 herself, first, from the allowance supplied by her 
 father, and, after his death, from her own resources 
 in the property left her ; but now the work had 
 grown beyond her powers to respond to its claims ; 
 and she was most thankful when one kind friend 
 promised to collect a yearly sum, and another to 
 pay the annual rent of the schoolhouse while he 
 lived. 
 
 This last help was only for two years ; but the 
 very year after the death of the generous donor 
 
58 MARY LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 had put a stop to his contribution (1869) brought 
 the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales, 
 which led to the Khedive, Ismail Pasha, at the 
 kind suggestion of H.R.H., making her a grant of 
 land just outside the old wall of Cairo, for building 
 a schoolhouse ; the only condition attached being 
 that the buildings should be spacious and hand- 
 some, as they were seen from the road. 
 
 This necessitated much and careful supervision : 
 and though the indefatigable labours of Mansoor 
 Shakoor, and his thorough knowledge of archi- 
 tecture, secured such attention, the expense was 
 considerable ; and when a fourth part had been 
 obtained through English contributions, the rest 
 had to be defrayed by herself, and this was done 
 by sinking a considerable part of her own capital ; 
 with which she also erected a private dwelling- 
 house, to enable her to reside always on the spot, 
 separated from the mission house only by a garden 
 and a playground for the boys. 
 
 The time was now come when she was com- 
 pelled to seek aid from friends in meeting the in- 
 creased outlay of the mission ; but she still supplied 
 all deficiencies, besides a number of items not 
 regularly included in the mission work, but closely 
 
WORJC IN CAIRO AND ON THE NILE 59 
 
 connected with it, from her by no means large 
 private resources, practising a rigid personal self- 
 denial, which has seldom been emulated even by 
 those most ready to preach the modern ascetic 
 creed that a missionary can only be truly faithful 
 if he lives like 3.fakeer or a begging friar. To this 
 doctrine she was firmly and persistently opposed 
 through life ; no one was more fully convinced 
 that ascetic practices are not scriptural, and that 
 a worker in the Lord's vineyard is bound in duty 
 not to neglect the body God has given him to be 
 a ' temple of the Holy Ghost,' and the instrument 
 of service for Him ; but to carry on her work 
 efficiently she never hesitated to refuse herself not 
 only luxuries, but what many, brought up as she 
 had been, would have considered essential com- 
 forts, and to live in the simplest and most frugal 
 style. 
 
 The same in other matters. Whatever innocent 
 pleasures offered themselves without interfering with 
 the paramount claims of her work, she accepted, 
 and entered into freely and in a spirit of hearty 
 child-like enjoyment of which few whose youth is 
 past were so capable. No one delighted more in an 
 excursion, a ride, a visit to a garden, or the like, 
 
6o J/A/^V LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 or entered with more animation into an entertain- 
 ing book, lively and playful conversation, and even 
 children's games and sports. She loved reading, 
 took peculiar pleasure in painting, for which she 
 had, as before observed, a marked taste, as her 
 many Nile sketches in water-colours and oils 
 testif}'. But often months passed without her 
 having leisure to take out her colours and 
 brushes ; and a new and interesting book was a 
 larer pleasure still. But all was waived or foregone, 
 as occasion called, in the same simple spirit of 
 ' doing the next thing,' to use her own favourite 
 expression, without questioning or doubting. 
 
 During this period of her mission life she was 
 not only an indefatigable visitor among the poor 
 in the streets and alleys of Cairo, but often in the 
 Bedouin huts outside the town. Her sister, who 
 was for many )'ears her most frequent winter 
 visitor, well remembers a day they spent together 
 in the desert, when, as they were sitting under 
 the shade of a small pilgrim tent, the curtain was 
 lifted up by a wild-looking picturesque Bedouin, 
 who said to her, ' Lady, I saw your horse at the 
 water, and my comrade and I are come to hear 
 some of your book.' She had her Arabic Gospel 
 
WORK IN CAIRO AND ON THE NILE 6 1 
 
 at hand, and read them the ninth chapter of St. 
 John, to which they Hstened attentivel}^ 
 
 Some friends who visited Cairo in this early 
 stage of her work, and joined her in a desert 
 excursion, remembered also the surprise and 
 alarm with which they saw a wild-looking Arab 
 dart out from a small encampment of Bedouins, 
 and seize the bridle of her favourite Arab pony 
 (on which she constantly rode everywhere during 
 his life), and how astonished they were to see her 
 very calmly follow him and dismount at the door 
 of his tent, where they afterwards found her sitting 
 in the midst of a group of Arab women, reading 
 and talking to them. 
 
 No resident doctor was at this time near the 
 scene of her work ; and she herself administered 
 constantly such remedies as she understood the 
 use of, to the sick poor around her. Many a 
 really serious case of eye disorder has been cured 
 by her ; many a wounded or otherwise injured 
 hand or foot healed by her skilful hand : and no 
 one who saw how unhesitatingly these acts of 
 simple surgery and medicine were performed, often 
 under circumstances peculiarly trying, and where 
 cleanliness had been utterly disregarded, would 
 
62 MARY LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 have guessed — had they not previously known — 
 how susceptible were her nerves, and how easily 
 she was naturally disgusted by the necessary 
 accompaniments of tasks which she fulfilled with- 
 out a question, when called on to do so by the 
 needs of those around her. 
 
 She loved to relate what affectionate gratitude 
 was called out by these acts. The Egyptians are 
 very sensible to kindness, and she never forgot 
 how a poor mason, whose hand, injured by the fall 
 of some part of a wall, she had daily dressed, 
 afterwards recognising her as he passed by her 
 garden railing, saluted her with the words, * May 
 Allah ever hold your hand, O lady ! ' 
 
 This kindness it was that won her a way among 
 the poor of the city. In lanes and streets where 
 she had been met by pelting with dust and cries of 
 * Cursed Nazarene ! ' she was now met by the 
 salutation, ' Blessed be thy hands and feet, O lady ! ' 
 or similar words of welcome ; ' Sitt Mariam ' 
 (literally. Lady Mary) became a household word in 
 many mouths. 
 
 Her health had been quite restored by her long 
 residence in the Southern climate, and, in spite of 
 occasional drawbacks, her strength and power of 
 
WORK IN CAIRO AND ON THE NILE 63 
 
 enduring fatigue was wonderful, especially at this 
 difficult period of her work. 
 
 Later she secured the services of a Bible-woman, 
 who helped her, and has continued the work ever 
 since, in visiting the women in their own homes ; 
 but at this earlier time all the visiting was done by 
 herself 
 
 In the summer of 1864 she had gone to the 
 Lebanon, which at that time she frequently visited 
 during the hot season at Cairo, and had brought 
 thence with her the betrothed bride and cousin of 
 her first missionary helper, Mansoor Shakoor, a 
 young girl of thirteen or fourteen, whom at his 
 request she undertook to educate, and whom she 
 took to her home and heart as an adopted daughter 
 and companion. She grew up to be an able and 
 efficient assistant in the work, both before and after 
 her marriage; and when, in 1872, her excellent 
 husband was taken to his heavenly rest from the 
 labours to which he had devoted himself with rare 
 powers and zeal, the young widow remained with 
 her friend as her fellow labourer and valued helper. 
 She and her two surviving children formed a family 
 circle for her, on which Mary's warm and ardent 
 affections were freely poured forth. She aided the 
 
64 MAA'V LOUISA IVHATELY 
 
 mother in the personal care of the children from 
 infancy, and was as another parent to them ; she 
 watched over them, helped to nurse them in sick- 
 ness, superintended their studies and amusements, 
 delighted in developing their intelligence, and gave 
 out for their instruction and amusement the ample 
 stores of ' things new and old ' furnished by a lively 
 and original mind and a retentive memory ; the 
 information, anecdotes, games, recollections of her 
 early days, all came into play for their benefit. 
 And so far we trust they arc showing this care to 
 have been well bestowed. 
 
 Meanwhile their mother became an active and 
 valuable coadjutor in her work, which grew daily 
 on their hands. 
 
 But this is anticipating. While the two brothers 
 Shakoor lived (the younger survived his brother 
 scarcely four years), they were able to do most 
 important service, not only in superintending the 
 schools and training the teachers, but in itinerating 
 in the surrounding country and on the Nile, and in 
 distributing copies of the Word of God to those 
 able and willing to receive them. In the beginning 
 of the work, they had read the Gospels constantly 
 in the coffee-houses ; but the Moslem priests put 
 
WORK IN CAIRO AND ON THE NILE 65 
 
 obstacles in the way, and this plan had to be 
 renounced. A book depot was for some years held, 
 which in some degree supplied the place of these 
 readings, but latterly the work was more carried on 
 in the country, and especially in the villages on the 
 Nile near Cairo. After their death she and Mrs. 
 Shakoor continued to make a missionary excursion 
 every winter or early spring. A short one it 
 necessarily was, for the only way in which it was 
 practicable was by hiring a boat, which would serve 
 as a night shelter, and supply the place of inns on 
 the way, no sort of resource of the kind being 
 available on the Nile between Cairo and Assiout ; 
 and boat hire and its accompaniments being very 
 expensive. A week or ten days was the utmost that 
 was possible with her restricted funds, and that time 
 often was shortened by contrary winds detaining 
 the travellers where no suitable visiting place was 
 within reach. But even with all these drawbacks 
 (which confined the itineration to a very limited 
 distance from Cairo), much was accomplished. In 
 places where at first the bigotry of the people made 
 them refuse even to sell flour, milk, or eggs to 
 Christians, in a few years she and her companions 
 found an eager welcome. 
 
 E 
 
66 MA/iV LOUISA IVHATELY 
 
 The first sight of the well-known modest small 
 dahabiyeJt with the English flag brought crowds of 
 men and boys down to the landing-place, with the 
 eager cries, ' Here are the people of the Book.' 
 ' Have you books for us ? ' * Come to our house and 
 read to us ' (this often from women who had been 
 visited before, and who, of course, were ignorant 
 of the art of reading ; on an average about one 
 man or boy in twenty, in a country village, can 
 read). 
 
 Then there were groups formed round the two 
 ladies respectively, who would sit on a mound or 
 a fallen palm tree, Bible in hand, and the white 
 umbrella raised to shelter them from the sun, while 
 women, and often men, were gathered round to 
 listen, and visits were paid to houses already 
 known ; and then from the boat books and text 
 papers were distributed to eager crowds of boys and 
 men, some even pressing into the water to get their 
 share, and generally a box full of Scriptures and 
 'portions' was distributed in two or three days, 
 though none were ever given till it had been fully 
 ascertained the receiver could read well enough to 
 make the book really useful. 
 
 The following ' scraps ' of recollections from 
 
WORK IN CAIRO AND ON THE NILE 67 
 
 her note-book will give some idea of the kind of 
 work which often fell to her share, though it is 
 rather anticipating, as this work among the sick 
 began after the arrival of a qualified doctor enabled 
 her to open a regular Medical Mission in 1879. 
 
 Oh, the sights we have of eyes this month ! (Septem- 
 ber) worse than usual, from the great inundation. One 
 painful scene this morning — a poor girl of twelve, and 
 her father hanging over her with tears streaming down 
 his face at her agony, when the doctor's gentle hand 
 touched the poor eye so tenderly ! But there is only a 
 faint chance of saving one eye, for they waited nine 
 days ! The extreme pain alone gives hope — if that ceases, 
 the eyesight is lost. The father had been listening to 
 the reading so attentively, poor fellow ! 
 
 My old friend Zohra (Flower) is come back, full of 
 interest in all she had learned. ' I know the prayer,' 
 she said, ' Oh yes ! I say, God be merciful to me a 
 sinner, for Jesus Christ's sake.' 
 
 {Jime 6th.) I proposed to read Matt, ii., 
 
 and you should have seen the poor things when we 
 read of the slaughter of the Innocents. When I read 
 of Joseph rising by night to take away the ' young Child 
 and His mother,' one woman said, ' Ah ! if it had been 
 one of us, he would have said, I will go in the morning, 
 and delayed ; but this man obeyed God quickly,^ (Not a 
 bad lesson to learn in a country where everything is put 
 off till 'to-morrow.') 
 
 £2 
 
68 MAA'V LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 The most intelligent was a middle-aged peasant, 
 a tall, strong-looking woman, with a child suffering from 
 the usual bad eyes. Another was remarkable as being 
 almost the ugliest I ever beheld, the child of a Turk and 
 negress, coming from the Soudan. The doctor was 
 much rejoiced at the successful cure ot a little Syrian 
 child, who had as nearly as possible lost his sight, but 
 has been saved by timely care and skill. The poor 
 father was quite radiant as he heard the words, ' He is 
 saved ! ' 
 
 Another poor patient, a young girl, she writes 
 of, whom she supported through a tr\-ing opera- 
 tion for the eyes, and afterwards supplied for some 
 little time with the specially nourishing food re- 
 quired for her cure. The old grandmother was 
 particularly impressed with her kindness and that 
 of Mrs. Shakoor. 'These ladies will surely go to 
 Ferdoos (Paradise),' she said in a tone which 
 implied, * though they are Christians.' 
 
 But work like this had done much to diminish 
 the general feeling of bitterness between Moslems 
 and European Christians, and to convince them that 
 some at least can be animated by real kindness 
 to them. ' Why do not some of your richer men 
 join together to do as we are doing, in supplying 
 medicine and attendance to the poor .' ' said the 
 
IVOI^K IN CAIRO AND ON THE NILE 69 
 
 doctor once to a respectable Moslem patient who 
 was under his care. ' To do this they imist be 
 Christians' was the reply. ' Nothing but Christian 
 love could make people do what you and the lady 
 are doing here.' 
 
 Another similar testimony (selected from many 
 more as an instance) occurred on the Nile. A 
 poor woman who had followed the boat from one 
 anchoring place to another to get medical help 
 for her sick son, at last succeeded in meeting the 
 doctor. It was late and already dark, and he said 
 he could not examine his case (which was a 
 chronic one) that night, but would early on the 
 morrow. 'Ah, but you will be gone then!' she 
 said ; ' the boatmen said so.' ' But I will speak 
 to the lady, and I know she will bid them wait 
 for you,' said the doctor. The woman evidently 
 thought it a mere ' put off,' and was turning away 
 sadly, when the Reis or captain, who was sitting 
 on deck wrapped in his goat's-hair mantle, called 
 out, ' Do not be afraid. These people are not like 
 us. Tlicy izeep tJieir promises. They fear God ; 
 you will see, they will not go without seeing your 
 son.' 
 
 The poor mother, encouraged, brought her 
 
70 MAJ^V LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 invalid next morning, saw the doctor, took the lad 
 herself to Cairo by the same boat, at the invitation 
 of the ' lad}',' and placed him under his care. 1 le 
 soon returned home in a fair way of complete 
 cure. The captain was then led to consult the 
 doctor for his own sight, which was so nearly gone 
 that he had to be led by a boy to the dispensary. 
 He remained for some weeks under treatment, 
 during which time he heard the Scriptures read 
 and explained daily. He recovered, and the first 
 use he made of his restored sight was to procure a 
 Bible, which he was seen continually reading. His 
 gratitude did not pass away, for long afterwards 
 he brought down from Nubia a present of dates 
 and pottery for the doctor and the lady, as a token 
 of his warm feeling for their kindness. 
 
 The following are fragments gleaned from her 
 own private notes. She wrote many papers on her 
 Nile excursions for periodicals, most of which are 
 unfortunately out of print, but these arc remaining 
 in manuscript : — 
 
 Visit to a new place. — The wind had proved contrary, 
 and was then followed by a dead cahn, so we had to remain 
 at a sandy slope reached by towing a few miles. There 
 were three villages in sight, but all a great way off, not a 
 single dwelling near the shore. We selected the nearest, 
 
fFCA'A' IN CAIRO AND ON THE NILE 71 
 
 which, however, was at least a mile and a half from the 
 coast ; it was also, the boatmen said, the largest. 
 
 The doctor and I therefore set out with a couple of 
 our sailors, and made our way with no small difficulty 
 over loose, sinking sand for nearly a mile ; then we had 
 a change to a ploughed field, in which the clods were 
 immensely large, and dry as bones, so that the fatigue 
 was almost more. After half a mile's tramp among these 
 furrows we at last reached the village, which stood high, 
 so that the inundation, so very great last year, had not 
 reached it. They told us another village had been much 
 closer to the shore, which had been entirely washed away 
 in the autumn ! No one knew us, of course, here ; the 
 solitary peasant we met as we came up stared, but passed 
 on in silence. Then a few old women appeared, who 
 smiled and said, ' Salamat ! ' Then, before a rather large 
 hut (almost worthy of being called a house), with stables 
 for cattle attached to it, I saw a ledge of dry mud, which 
 is made to sit on in many villages, so I sat down, and in 
 less time than it takes to write these words was surrounded 
 by a troop, almost all women, who seemed to have sprung 
 out of the ground, so rapidly did they gather in the lane 
 that a minute before had been quite empty ! Old women 
 with faces like walnut-shells, young women with sunburnt 
 cheeks and bright dark eyes and white teeth, and coral 
 necklaces or gold coins round their necks, all in the dark 
 blue robe and black muslin veil of the peasants, girls in 
 rags, little boys more ragged still, and some without even 
 rags, and excessively dirty — all clustered round. The 
 doctor had meantime betaken himself to a little distance, 
 
72 .UARV LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 where he sat down with a group of men, who had ahnost 
 as quickly come to join him. They were cleaner and 
 quieter than the women \ all were in white turbans and 
 abbas of undyed wool of various shades of brown. 
 
 After a brief glance at them, I drew out my book and 
 began, before reading, to try and make an opening by 
 speaking, first telling the women how we had been 
 delayed here by wind, &:c., and how we came every year 
 to bring books for people who could read and who 
 wanted the Word of God, and then speaking of the 
 shortness of life, and how much trouble we all had in it, 
 and how we ought to know something of the life of the 
 soul \ and of God, «S:c. They were evidently quite 
 ignorant, for some appeared doubtful if they had any 
 souls ; one poor creature put her hands together, and then 
 drew them apart with a curious gesture, saying, 'We 
 become dust again, and then it \?> finished V I tried to 
 show her that this was not so, and by many simple 
 illustrations to make her understand something of 
 spiritual things, and then read some parables of Scripture, 
 choosing the easiest and plainest, of course. 
 
 One who had more intelligence than the rest expressed 
 her satisfaction not only by her remarks, but by clapping 
 me soundly on the back, which operation she repeated 
 al^out every five minutes in the course of the hour which 
 I spent with them. Several men came and joined my 
 party of listeners after a time, and the crowd became very 
 thick. After an hour or more I thought it best to move, 
 for at a first visit it is scarcely possible to do more than 
 plough the soil as it were. As I rose, however, two or 
 
WORK IN CAIRO AND ON THE NILE 72, 
 
 three tried to detain me, saying, 'Do stay ; and if you are 
 hungry you shall eat here.' I thanked them, and excused 
 myself, as we had a long and tiring walk, and the wind 
 might be favourable later. We gave to some of the men 
 to whom we had been reading some 'portions,' but no 
 whole Bibles, thinking it better to give these on our next 
 visit, as the people were very bigoted. I gave nine copies 
 of the Old Testament stories to some lads who walked 
 with me to the boat. This place is called Beni Nadeer. 
 
 I could at first hardly recognise this village on 
 the Nile, so much was it altered by the inundation, 
 although we had visited it only a few years previously. 
 A man told me he had been nearly ruined by the water 
 last year, and that the palms washed away had been as 
 many as twelve hundred in number ! 
 
 After breakfast the doctor and I went out, and 
 found many people sunning themselves — as they do when 
 it is cold — near the mud walls ; the women on one side, 
 with a swarm of dirty children (the little ones mostly 
 nearly naked). The men were near a heap of unbaked 
 bricks, which some had been making and piling up to 
 dry in the sun. A very old man, with a long white 
 beard, was crouched upon a stone. We divided, the 
 doctor going to the men, and I to the women ; but the 
 old man apparently preferred the latter, for he got up 
 and hobbled to the mud wall I sat upon, and was a most 
 attentive listener. Several fine-looking women came 
 and sat beside me, and one of them declared she had 
 seen me before, and remembered our boat years ago. 
 ' I lived lower down the river then,' she said, ' but the 
 
74 MA RV LO VISA WHA TEL V 
 
 coast is now quite changed.' A great many of both sexes 
 came up by degrees ; indeed, the doctor afterwards 
 told me there were not less than two hundred, but this 
 probably included some children. The noise of these 
 last made it needful to raise the voice to a rather trying 
 pitch, but the people were wonderfully interested. I 
 began with the fall of man, and thence went on to read 
 of Christ ; first the healing of the 'sick of the palsy,' and 
 then explaining about forgiveness of sins. All appeared 
 to follow — (at least those not too far off). Some said, 
 ' How well she talks our language ! just like us, and we 
 understand every word ;' and one or two added emphati- 
 cally, ' And the words are good.' After reading and 
 talking a long time, the children became dreadfully 
 troublesome, as their numbers increased. One stood 
 close to me, clapping two stones in his dirty little paws, 
 just at my ears, with a vocal accompaniment to this 
 music ; others were fighting, and others trying to sit 
 on my dress ; so I said, ' Have none of you a place 
 where we could be quieter ? ' ' Yes, yes ! come to my 
 house,' said a pretty woman, with a pleasant smile, 
 showing her lovely teeth ; and she seized my arm and 
 fairly dragged me through the crowd, many following, as 
 she rapidly led me down a narrow lane, opened a door, 
 pushed me in, and, hurrying after me, locked the door 
 with the great wooden key. But I was obliged to ask 
 that the opposite door (for the hut had a second, opening 
 on a court) might remain open, as there was no window, 
 and I could not read in total darkness or without air, of 
 course. So she sat there to keep off the intruders, in the 
 
IVOR/'^ IN CAIRO AND ON THE NILE 75 
 
 shape of noisy boys and girls, who were rushing round. 
 The owner of the house then thought strong measures 
 justifiable, and seized a wisp of palm leaves, with which 
 she whipped them off; but a neighbour who was with us 
 suggested adjourning to her house, where we could have 
 light from above. Accordingly we went there, and found 
 two rooms, the outer one only partially roofed over with 
 reeds. Here they spread a mat on the floor, having 
 locked the door, and with the hostess and four others I 
 had a good quiet reading and talking. It was very plea- 
 sant ; I think the Spirit was with us. I read Matt, 
 xiii. — many remarks were made — and taught them the 
 publican's prayer. At last a message came from the 
 doctor saying he must go to the boat, as patients wanted 
 medicine, and he did not like to leave me alone so far 
 away. The owner of the hut stood for some minutes 
 before I left, holding my hand and looking wistfully at 
 me, as I prayed, in a few words, that the Lord would 
 bless the Word to her and me and the rest. 
 
 The next fragment wc shall cite is dated 
 August, 1887. 
 
 We stopped yesterday at an island on the river, chiefly 
 covered with melons, pumpkins, and tomatoes ; it was 
 about half a mile or more in length. When the sun got 
 low we all went to walk on the island, and while the rest 
 of our party explored it to the end, I spied a ' lodge in 
 the garden of cucumbers ' — a mere wigwam of reeds — 
 and a group of peasants sitting near it ; so I made friends 
 with them, and then produced a Gospel of John, and 
 
76 MA/^V LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 had quite a long reading and talk with them. One who 
 could read asked to see the book, and read aloud part of 
 what I had been reading, and I gave him the book at 
 parting. Soon after I returned the same way to meet 
 my com])anions, and the man and his friends (two 
 women among them) were still at their lodge. ' But we 
 want some one to explain the book ; we don't under- 
 stand it without,' said he. I told him that if he asked 
 God, He would give him understanding, and also that he 
 would find one part often explained another. 
 
n 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE MISSION 
 
 In 1879, a Medical Mission had been added to the 
 other branches of the work. The younger sister 
 of Mrs. Shakoor was married about this time to a 
 skilful and excellent Syrian doctor, thoroughly 
 trained in the admirable American Medical College 
 at Beyrout, and who had long been one of the 
 regular Government medical officers there. He 
 was desirous, for several reasons, of settling in 
 Egypt, and Mary was glad of the opportunity of 
 engaging his services as a medical missionary. 
 Almost before a suitable domicile was arranged, 
 his rooms were crowded with eager applicants for 
 relief, sick poor, for whom no public provision ex- 
 isted, and who were too indigent even to pay for 
 the cheapest remedies. These were now supplied 
 gratis, and an average of several thousand patients 
 have ever since been yearly attended to, and most 
 
78 MARV LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 of them cither cured or greatly relieved. Success- 
 ful operations have restored the sight of many, 
 while multitudes more have been saved from im- 
 pending blindness (so common in this country). 
 No branch of the work has done more material 
 good than this, and none paved the way more for 
 the reception of the Gospel. Every day, for five 
 days in the week, the dispensary has been kept 
 open during the early morning hours, and the 
 Scriptures read and explained to those awaiting 
 their turn. 
 
 No part of the work was more interesting and 
 delightful to Mary Whately than this. As long as 
 she was spared, till the short illness which termi- 
 nated her earthly career, she was always to be 
 found at this post every morning, sitting in the 
 midst of a group of women — often between two 
 groups of both sexes respectively — reading, relating, 
 and explaining Bible histories in her own simple 
 and graphic way in the colloquial Arabic the people 
 understood. 
 
 She had now made herself mistress of the 
 language for all such purposes, and could adapt 
 her teaching to the understanding and habits of 
 the people. Many a poor ignorant fellah woman 
 
GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE MISSION 79 
 
 learned first to pray from her patient teaching of 
 the pubHcan's short prayer, with the addition of 
 ' for Jesus Christ's sake.' The sister who was her 
 most frequent companion will not easily forget 
 coming into the waiting-room one morning, along 
 with a boy from the school, who brought a beauti- 
 fully written scroll in the large Arabic handwriting, 
 containing this prayer alone, to give a poor woman 
 who had begged for it for her son, who could read, 
 and might read the prayer to her daily till she 
 learned it off — ' for I want to kxcp those sweet 
 words in my heart ! ' 
 
 The * Arabi war ' made necessarily a break in 
 these labours of love. She remained at her post 
 longer than most would have ventured ; but at 
 last the consul's representations that he could not 
 be responsible for any of his compatriots who 
 risked staying, induced her, in June 1881, to take 
 her passage, along with a friend's infant child and 
 nurse, and a young European teacher of her own 
 in the first boat in which places could be found. 
 Her Syrian adopted family had previously gone to 
 the Lebanon. The passage was an ordeal truly. 
 The small Italian boat was crowded with many 
 more than accommodation could be found for : 
 
So MARY LOUISA WIIATELY 
 
 and even those who, like herself and her com- 
 panions, were fortunate enough to find cabin places, 
 had to undergo extreme inconvenience. It would 
 have been really unsafe to life and health had such 
 crowding been prolonged by a bad passage ; but 
 through God's mercy they had a very quick and 
 favourable one, and reached Naples at the usual 
 time, whence she proceeded by land to England. 
 
 Some months of painful suspense had to be 
 borne, and then came the joyful news of the vic- 
 tor)-, and the assurance that her schoolhouse and 
 mission buildings were safe. She returned as 
 quickly as was possible, and found that her only 
 serious loss had been that of the appliances of the 
 Pharmacy she had established at her own expense 
 to supply remedies more easily to the poor, and 
 w hich had been stripped by an unscrupulous Greek 
 chemist, who also carried off a large sum of money. 
 ]Uit thougli tliis loss was never entirely repaired, 
 she had a compensation in the great joy of finding 
 that some former Coptic pupils, married from the 
 .school, on finding a refuge under the roof of one 
 of the mothers, had remained faithful under a 
 terrible test. They had been warned by a friendly 
 Moslem that their only chance of being preserved 
 
GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE MISSION 8t 
 
 from a cruel death, when a general massacre of 
 Christians had been announced by Arabi and his 
 followers, was to profess themselves, for the time at 
 least, Moslems, and repeat a form which was 
 understood as a profession of that faith ; but these 
 young women all declared they were determined to 
 ' die in the faith of Jesus the Messiah.' And in 
 their simple account of how they waited hour after 
 hour, hand in hand, praying and weeping, and 
 expecting the arrival of the murderers every 
 instant, and how at last the messenger was heard 
 at the door, and, instead of the tidings of death, 
 brought the news that the victorious English were 
 in the city, and they were all safe — not a word was 
 said — as in earlier times would have been the case 
 — about the saints or the Virgin, but only of their 
 prayers and thanksgivings to their God and Saviour. 
 How heartily did their teacher and friend from 
 England rejoice at this fruit of their faithful 
 Scriptural training ! 
 
 By degrees order was restored, the scattered 
 pupils gathered together again, and the old life 
 resumed : and the following spring she and her 
 companions were able to make the usual excursion 
 on the Nile, the doctor bringing remedies for the 
 
 F 
 
82 MARY LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 sick, relieving some on the spot, appointing others 
 to make their way to Cairo (which is easily done 
 by chance boats in the neighbourhood, for the 
 peasants on the banks) to receive further care, and 
 taking an active part in reading and conversing 
 \\ith the men. 
 
 It was only once in about three or four years 
 that Mary's many avocations and limited means 
 permitted her to pay a visit to England. While 
 there, many will remember how indefatigably and 
 eloquently she pleaded for Egypt and Islam at 
 meetings and on every occasion which offered ; so 
 that these sojourns, delightful as was the intercourse 
 with friends and relatives at home, could hardly 
 be called holidays. At other times, with the ex- 
 ception of an occasional short stay by the sea, she 
 spent the entire summer in her own place, and 
 always declared that by early hours and care 
 to rest in the middle of the day, and avoid exposure 
 to sun, &c., she was able to find even the greatest 
 heats bearable. 
 
 Mary Whatcly was always an early riser ; 
 summer and winter she was up as soon as it was 
 light, and even in the 'cold season ' could generally 
 be found in her own special garden, hedged in with 
 
GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE MISSION 83 
 
 bamboos, and with orange trees and bananas 
 growing by the old wall of Saladin, as soon as the 
 first beams of the sun lighted it up — gathering 
 flowers and watercresses for the early breakfast- 
 table. Gardening was her delight, and this favourite 
 enclosed corner was always full of seedlings and 
 cuttings of plants procured whenever opportunity 
 permitted. The references to the favourite weeping- 
 willow, garlanded with creepers, and resounding 
 with cooing pigeons, are to be found in all her 
 letters. But life went on briskly with her, in the 
 morning hours especially. She was generally at 
 the dispensary soon after nine o'clock, reading 
 and talking to the patients awaiting their turn. 
 Then came the visits to the schools, over which she 
 kept up a constant supervision, with the help of 
 Mrs. Shakoor. The boys' and the original girls' 
 school were well provided with a numerous staff of 
 teachers, well qualified, and the greater number of 
 the younger ones trained in the schools. 
 
 But her special care during these latter years 
 was the branch always now termed the * Levantine.' 
 This had been originally established by her sister, 
 in connection with the mission, in aid of a then 
 numerous class of English and other official 
 
84 MAIiV LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 residents, who for various reasons were not able to 
 send their children to Europe or to engage resident 
 governesses. For these, especially for girls, the 
 resources were very inadequate, and to meet this, 
 the European Branch, as it was first termed, was 
 founded. The Arabi war brought a complete 
 change, however, in the arrangements of purely 
 European residents, and the few who kept their 
 daughters in Egypt were otherwise provided for ; 
 but the school proved eventually very useful to the 
 ' mixed multitude ' of residents — Italian, Greek, 
 Armenian, Syrian, Copt, &c. — who were willing to 
 pay a small monthly sum to have their girls 
 instructed in English, French, &c. Among these 
 were a good many Jewesses, some originally from 
 Spain, others from other countries, but most of 
 them Arabic-speaking. In connection with this 
 work Mary wrote the following paper in 1 887 : 
 
 Those who pray for God's ancient people, and feel 
 a lively interest in them, will, perhaps, not think it lost 
 time to read a few words about the remnant of Israel in 
 Egypt.' There are many here who have come from 
 
 ^ The Oriental Jews always speak of themselves as 'Israelites.' 
 Perhaps the unkind ways and intolerance which formerly prevailed 
 may have made them avoid the name 'Jew,' but it seems probable that 
 many of the other tribes are incorporated with Judah. Many trace 
 
GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE MISSION 85 
 
 Europe, either recently or within the last century, and 
 these have the dress and habits generally of European 
 Jews, though even among them the Arabic is very 
 frequently the tongue most familiar in the family ; but a 
 great number are really Oriental Jews, who, in most 
 respects, live like their Egyptian neighbours except in 
 such matters as are connected with their religion — not in 
 all, however, for their women do not hide the face, nor 
 live in the seclusion of the hareem. Latterly, 'Arabic 
 Jews ' are taking to European costume and furniture, and 
 also are beginning to wish for some education for their 
 daughters, though as yet the desire is but feeble with 
 most of them. 
 
 The wide difference between men and women in 
 education strikes one very forcibly in visiting a Jewish 
 family — the father can read in one, often in two or three 
 languages ; he is, perhaps, a merchant or in a bank, and 
 can speak intelligently on the politics of the day, &c. 
 Even if in a humbler station (as the pedlar who comes to 
 our school with thread and such items for needlework), 
 the man can generally read and keep accounts, but the 
 women appear utterly ignorant. There are exceptions. 
 Among the Europeanised families, of course, some have 
 governesses, or send their girls to schools, but the mass 
 of the women, rich and poor, cannot read, and very many 
 appear to know nothing, their own religion included. 
 Their festivals and ceremonies they know, indeed, but 
 that is all ; and consequently, if wealthy, they are 
 
 their descent to Levi ; and a gentleman has told me he was aequainted 
 with one who could trace his own to the tribe of Issachar. 
 
86 MAR Y LOUISA J VHA TEL V 
 
 frivolous, and care only for dress and jewels ; if poor, 
 absorbed in the petty cares of life. But the children 
 learn more quickly than Egyptians in general, and often 
 show great intelligence. 
 
 Being at such a distance from the Jew quarter, it is 
 seldom I can go there, and it is difficult to get pupils for 
 the school here on the same account ; but I visited a 
 widow whose daughter had lately come to our school in 
 the beginning of this winter. Though I drove to the 
 quarter, it was necessary to get down and walk through 
 a labyrinth of lanes too narrow for even a small one- 
 horse vehicle, before I and my teacher could reach the 
 abode we were going to see. The house was very old, 
 and had evidently been a very fine one long ago, as the 
 massive walls and solid stone archway showtd, but the 
 two rooms occupied by the widow were humble and 
 poor, though very clean. The divan, which was the only 
 furniture in her sitting-room, was neatly covered with 
 white calico. 
 
 Her careworn face was shaded with a blue muslin 
 kerchief, and her dress that of an Egyptian widow of the 
 middle class (a loose, plain, dark wrapper) ; but the child, 
 a bright pretty girl between ten and eleven, was in 
 European garb, as were her two grown-up sisters, one 
 married and one single, who presently came to welcome 
 us. They were both nice-looking, well-mannered young 
 women, but had never had the slightest education. All 
 seemed glad that the little one should, by the kindness of 
 an English friend, be admitted to the European branch of 
 our school. I told the mother we were anxious that all 
 
GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE MISSION 87 
 
 children should learn the Word of God, and that her 
 little daughter was just beginning to learn from that 
 Holy Book. Such was the ignorance of this girl, in 
 common with several others of her race (who are with us 
 since November), that she barely knew the name of God, 
 and had never heard of the resurrection from the dead ! 
 Yet quite recently we were obliged to let the whole class 
 take holiday because they had to keep a fast so strict 
 that one who did come and tried to say her lessons was 
 manifestly unfit to attend, from exhaustion. The teacher 
 asked one of these girls if she said any prayers. ' No,' 
 she replied, ' neither does my mother ; but my father 
 goes once a week to the synagogue, and there he prays 
 for his wife and children ; that is enough for all.' One could 
 hardly help thinking, that if so, he might have also fasted 
 for them also. When we think of Hannah and other pray- 
 ing matrons of old, this state of things makes us grieve. 
 Of course, we know there are too many nominal 
 Christians who do not teach their daughters to pray, but 
 at least they are not, even in their own idea, religious 
 persons. 
 
 We are careful never to interfere with any of the 
 festivals or fasts of the scholars' families in any way ; 
 the point is to induce them to read the Scripture, and 
 know what Moses and the Prophets have written ; and 
 then, by God's blessing, they may be able to comprehend 
 the glorious light which is more fully shown forth in the 
 New Testament. If taken away from our school, it 
 would be either to remain at home in blank ignorance, 
 or (if the parents could afford it) to be sent to some of 
 
88 ' Jl/J/^V LOUISA IVHATELY 
 
 the French schools latterly set up in Cairo, ^vhcre worldly 
 teaching is all that they would receive. 
 
 When on the Nile last year, we met some Jewesses 
 from respectable and wealthy families, and had a good 
 deal of talk with them. They resided at Mansoar, but 
 were staying at the little bathing-place at the mouth of 
 the river, where we spent a fortnight during the great 
 heats of summer. The party consisted of mothers, 
 aunts, and daughters or nieces — all connected -(the 
 gentlemen of the families were not with them). All the 
 ladies were without any education : not one could read, 
 but some were intelligent, and all were friendly, and 
 seemed pleased to hear how deep an interest we felt in 
 God's ancient people. ' I think you Protestants do not 
 worship images or pray before pictures ? ' said one of 
 these ladies, who was questioning us about various 
 matters. 'No,' I replied, 'we hold that to be sinful.' I 
 quoted the commandment, 'Thou shalt not bow down,' 
 &c. 'You are then more like us,' she said in a i)uzzled 
 manner ; for the nominal Christians around her had 
 given the idea that worship of pictures, &c., was part of 
 Christianity. 'The great difference,' I said, 'is that 
 your people expect the Messiah, and we believe He has 
 already come. But we think He will return to this world 
 again.' This surprised her much, and then I spoke of the 
 Old Testament Scriptures, and regretted she could not 
 read. ' Our women do not learn,' she said ; ' lately 
 some are beginning to send their girls to school.' We 
 told them about our school, and they said they were 
 sorry for living so far off. ' If ever we go to Cairo to 
 
GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE MISSION 89 
 
 visit some relatives there,' said they, 'we will not fail to 
 come and see you.' They appeared to be, if not so 
 ignorant as the girl who had never heard of a resur- 
 rection, yet sadly destitute of knowledge : the names of 
 Abraham and Isaac and David they did know, but not 
 their histories, or the simplest facts about them. 
 
 The people seem to concentrate their attention (that 
 part which is not given to worldly affairs) upon insignifi- 
 cant matters and minute regulations, about which they 
 are very conscientious. This party went without meat 
 entirely unless it could be arranged that the Jewish 
 butcher killed the sheep, while to us these things 
 evidently belong to a state of things that is passed away. 
 When the whole temple service and sacrifice and the 
 rest of the Mosaic law were swept away by the flood of 
 events, as foretold by the prophets of Jehovah, such 
 details appear to the earnest student of Scripture utterly 
 useless, if not absurd. Still, the intention is sincere, 
 though the mind and actions are warped and twisted. 
 And if they only would search the law and the prophets, 
 with the historical books also, praying simply and un- 
 conventionally for light from the Almighty, surely many 
 eyes would be opened and many hearts made to rejoice! 
 Our friends will see that we have no easy task, that much 
 patience and ^^labour are needed in training the dear 
 children who come, because the parents wish for secular 
 and, at the same time, good moral teaching — not from 
 special desire for the Scripture. But they are aware the 
 scholars are of various races and denominations, and 
 that all read from God's Word. Our business is therefore 
 
go MAJiV LOUISA IVHATELY 
 
 to teach them to read and understand tliat Word, and 
 then leave results with God, knowing that His Word is 
 'sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to 
 the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and is a discerner 
 of the thoughts and intents of the heart' (Heb. iv. 12). 
 
 The following incident shows how the work goes 
 forward. A new scholar came to our Levantine class, 
 where French and English are taught to children of 
 mixed races dwelling here. She was a little Jewess 
 named Esther. She was poor, and is a free scholar 
 therefore ; her tongue Arabic, though in dress like a 
 European child. She looked bright, and I asked if she 
 could read at all. ' No! ' I then asked a few questions, 
 which showed that she was entirely ignorant. She just 
 knew the name of God, and seemed to have heard of 
 Abraham, though knowing nothing about him. I opened 
 the book of Scripture stories I was reading to the class 
 at the blank leaf in the beginning, and pointed to the 
 empty, white surface. ' Now, Esther,' I said, ' that is 
 what you are; you are a blank leaf!' The bright dark 
 eyes twinkled, but she said not a word. ' We must try 
 to write good things on this blank page, and the best of 
 all is the knowledge of God. Who was the wise man 
 (do any of you older scholars know ?) who said, "The fear 
 of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom"?' 'Yes, it 
 was Solomon,' said a little girl named Fortunee, also a 
 Jewess, who has been, though very irregularly, some time 
 with us. I then explained a little, and then made the 
 new-comer join the others in repeating the first text in 
 God's Word ( ' In the beginning, ' &c. ) in English, 
 
GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE MISSION 91 
 
 French, and Arabic many times over, and we then went 
 on to the lesson, also in three languages. The reasons 
 for teaching them together, which is harder than learning 
 each separately, are two-fold. First, to try and keep a 
 mixed class together, some knowing French best, some 
 English, some only Arabic, or a very little of the others; 
 secondly, because it enables me to give more of Scrip- 
 ture, and get it better explained by using it as a reading- 
 book. Of course, we use a book of simple Scriptural 
 stories from the Old Testament to begin with, then the 
 Gospels. 
 
 The one bit of leisure in Mary Whately's 
 busy day was generally a quiet interval (when no 
 special interruption occurred from casual visits) in 
 the afternoon, when, if possible, she would join the 
 sister who was her most usual winter companion 
 in a joint reading over the ' afternoon tea.' 
 
 I often wished (she writes to one of her most valued 
 and intimate friends) you could have been a third with 
 us some of those bright (winter and early spring) after- 
 noons in our special private parlour upstairs, with the 
 orange trees, then in their fullest bloom, just under the 
 windows, so fragrant and sweet ! My sister with book 
 or MS. and open Bible on the little table — a cup of tea 
 and a Persian cat beside her, and my little white Maltese 
 dog coiled up on the sofa, while I in the arm-chair 
 opposite, generally a piece of ' white seam ' in hand, and 
 the little tea equipage near, finish the cosy party. 
 
92 jVARV LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 These happy readings can never be effaced from 
 the loving remembrance of the survivor ! How 
 often the discourse would turn to her favourite sub- 
 ject, the longing she felt for the return of the Saviour, 
 to ' make the crooked things straight,' to use her 
 own characteristic expression. ' I long so,' she writes 
 in this same letter, ' for the end of warfare — the 
 Prince of Peace. Like old Doolittle, who wrote ever 
 so long ago, I say, "Why tarry the wheels of His 
 chariot? Didst Thou say, dear Lord, a little while 
 and He that comes shall not tarry ? To my waiting 
 heart it seemcth a long ^\•hilc ! " The good old 
 man knows perhaps more about it all than we, for 
 his spirit has been in glorious rest many a year ! ' 
 
 And again, in a latter letter to the same friend, 
 her most intimate correspondent outside the circle 
 of her near relatives, ' On Sunday, while they were 
 singing " Jerusalem the Golden," I was thinking 
 that one day there will be, perhaps, some who are 
 actually singing or worshipping when the trump 
 sounds ! How delightful. He whom wc look for 
 appearing and calling for His own ! How .' Wc 
 cannot tell that ; but the eye shall sec and the 
 heart rejoice ! ' 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 SUMMER LIFE IN CAIRO 
 
 The following extract from a letter written to 
 the same friend in June (date uncertain) seems to 
 have been about this time : 
 
 Here we are in sultry summer — not that it is, so far, 
 as oppressive as many I recollect. It is not over 85° 
 to-day (in a carefully shaded room with a north aspect), 
 but then it is now past 6 p.m., and the great heat of the 
 day over. ... I am always very early ; the delicious fresh- 
 ness which (unless on ' hot wind ' days) always prevails 
 of a morning, is too precious to be lost where heat comes 
 on so soon. Then I feel the garden with its wooing 
 bamboos and the turtles cooing on the willows, and the 
 blue begonias opening their splendid blossoms to the 
 first rays of the sun, are very enjoyable. By-and-by 
 some of the pupils of our European Branch begin to 
 arrive ; several Syrian, and more Jewish girls, whose 
 fathers go from this suburb of Fagallah to the city very 
 early, and leave them at the gate on their way, and they 
 run to greet me in broken English, or French, or Arabic, 
 as maybe. One dear httle round-faced Jewess with 
 
94 .l/ARV LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 bronze hair (so common with them here) looks up and 
 exclaims, Bon soir, Afadatne ! Of course I correct her, 
 laughing, but Simha, as she is called, always forgets. If 
 I have leisure, I often talk about the flowers and plants, 
 or the dew, or some natural object, with them, and 
 though the variety of tongues is a hindrance, I manage 
 at least to interest them. One day I called their atten- 
 tion to the rose-leaves clipped by the leaf-cutting bee, 
 and asked if any one knew who had done it. One little 
 creature said, ' I think Hossein (our old gardener) cuts 
 them with scissors ! ' The old man was excessively 
 diverted when I told him of this idea. At home. Eastern 
 and Levantine girls rarely hear anything but gossip or 
 household business details, or most of all, talk about 
 dress ! so I try to open the mind a little, as well as to 
 teach them to look to the great Source of all good. 
 
 Now and then on Saturdays or holidays I take an 
 early donkey ride or drive at 6 a.m. Then after break- 
 fast and family reading I go to my poor at the dispensary, 
 for a time varying from three quarters of an hour to an 
 hour and a half, according to numbers. Then I go to 
 my class at the Levantine school, for their Scripture 
 lesson. At the Arab girls' school they have now a very 
 fairly efficient teacher, and having only one tongue to 
 teach in makes it easier. The variety of tongues and 
 religions in this one . . . makes me feel I am more 
 needed there just now : though of course F. and I are 
 in and out of the others as time and occasion allow. . . . 
 I have had a little talk this morning with a nice delicate- 
 looking young Jewish widow, with a child about seven 
 
SUMMER LIFE IN CAIRO 95 
 
 years old, who looked as if underfed and reared in narrow 
 streets. After a month of daily attendance here I told 
 the mother she would see a change ! 
 
 At the dispensary to-day, I find thirty-five awaiting 
 their turn with the doctor, and had a most interesting 
 time with them. Most were strangers, and the majority 
 manifestly very poor, and very dirty. One stout elderly 
 woman with a fair face (for an Egyptian), and very clean 
 and decently clad, had an air of bigotry, somehow, in 
 her face, yet she softened after a little and listened well. 
 There w^as a Syrian Maronite, bringing a very pretty, 
 nicely clad young woman, a Moslem. These were very 
 attentive, but the most so of any was a poor thing with a 
 horribly dirty baby in her arms, who was one of a group 
 on the floor, which many prefer to the benches or chairs. 
 Such ignorance ! but being used to teach children makes 
 one able to give simple illustrations and explain clearly. 
 I could have stayed longer, but felt an hour was as much 
 as they could stand. I feel another month of work in 
 the very greatest heats would be trying, and perhaps 
 unfit me for the extra business 1 must have soon. . . so I 
 must take a short holiday by the sea. 
 
 These * holidays ' — short and few indeed they 
 were — were generally spent at Ras-el-Bir, a little 
 sandy peninsula close by Damietta, stretching out 
 between the mouth of the Nile by that city and 
 the sea. This ' meeting of the waters ' keeps up 
 a refreshing bree?:e even in the hottest days of 
 
96 MARY LOUISA WHATELV 
 
 summer ; and though the sand is, of course, only 
 available before the inundation, it is firm enough 
 during the summer heats for erecting tents or 
 temporary liuts where the sea-bathers can lodge, 
 unless they prefer, as many do, living on board a 
 Nile boat hired for the purpose. This was generally 
 done by Mary and her companions : the tepid 
 waters made more frequent baths practicable than 
 in colder regions : and she always returned re- 
 freshed and strengthened by these excursions. 
 
 The next letter we quote refers to spring 
 time : 
 
 April 2g. — It is the end of the Easter festival, and 
 the last crackers and pistols — let us hope ! — have been 
 fired by the Greeks, who show this silly way of cele- 
 brating the glorious rising of the Prince of Peace ! It is 
 not a brilliant sunset — the sky is pale grey, with shades 
 of soft pink, and the palms and bamboos in our garden 
 are waving in the tepid air. We have had some i)lcasant 
 days, and Easter Day was quite perfect, and the church 
 
 very full Egypt is losing its visitors now 
 
 rapidly. I have had a few very nice calls, and help in 
 time of need, but a great many either care nothing for 
 the poor people, or if they condescend to visit the 
 schools, think a little praise is all we can look for. . . . 
 The schools have been kept very full, and the Medical 
 Mission is doing its (^uict work steadily. I find in- 
 
SUMMER LIFE IN CAIRO gp 
 
 creasing readiness to listen to God's Word now anions 
 the invalids and the mothers who come with sick 
 children. I have often negresses from the Soudan, 
 wives or widows of soldiers as ignorant as can be, but 
 usually good-humoured and open to kindness and 
 interest shown in them. 
 
 There are still immense difficulties here. Some (of 
 them) it is hard to explain to friends who have never 
 hved in this country or among the lower classes. The 
 word for ' Christian ' in common use, as you well know, 
 is ' Nassara ' or ' Nazarene ' ; now this name means, to all 
 Egyptian Moslems, a worshipper of pictures, crosses, and 
 images, and implies also a person permitted to drink, 
 &c. There are English who are also ' Nassara ' ; they 
 say these are chiefly distinguished by their devotion 
 to active sports, while frantic gaiety (if I may use the 
 word) is in Cairo a natural part, not exactly of the 
 religion, but of the existence of the foreign 'Nassara,' 
 English, French, and all. Take these views or notions, 
 vague perhaps, but pretty strongly coloured by facts, and 
 put yourself in the position of an utterly ignorant Moslem 
 woman ; would you feel induced to turn Christian ? 
 Well, — I read and talk to some of these, say, for some 
 days — or (off and on) for weeks at the dispensary — and, 
 thank God, find increasing interest in His Word, nay, 
 delight in it, and here and there an apparently hearty 
 conviction of sin and readiness to learn the publican's 
 prayer, to hear of Eessa (Jesus) — the Saviour who died 
 for sinners — and sometimes a declaration that they wish 
 to repent and leave the way of sin and turn to God. 
 
 G 
 
98 MARY LOUISA IVHATELY 
 
 But if I were to say, ' Now then, become a Christian 
 openly ! ' the poor creature would not understand the 
 expression, nor could I make her sec the full truth. 
 She only sees men ' as trees walking.' ^^'e have to 
 wait, and urge them to believe in Christ, to hear His 
 words, and give constantly little short earnest exhorta- 
 tions and short, apt illustrations, which they seem to take 
 in wonderfully : but the next part of the work, the 
 getting over this thorn hedge, I must leave to the 
 Almighty. 
 
 The American Mission works among Copts chiefly, 
 and there, ignorant and superstitious as they are, there is 
 no such hedge ; a ruined wall only to overcome, and 
 neither death nor danger to fear ; some contempt, some 
 abuse, no doubt, some trouble in getting brides for their 
 sons, if they are steadfast to the Protestant faith ; but 
 that is all. No fear of poisoning, or prison, or banish- 
 ment ; and, as I say, no thorn hedge of misconceptions 
 on one side and old national feeling on the other. In 
 fact, we seem to be in the state in which for Moslems 
 the seed sowing must yet go on, till something in God's 
 own time throws a door open. The schools do much 
 by preparing minds to receive the truth, and giving 
 knowledge of it. I do not much encourage the sort of 
 questioning which tries to pull up, as it Avere, the plant, to 
 see if it is growing. I prefer to give the knowledge of 
 salvation more generally, as, for example, ' Can any one 
 be saved by his own deeds ? ' 'If any one refuses 
 Christ, can he go to heaven after death ? ' ' What should 
 children do, being weak and sinful?' and so forth. 
 
SUMMER LIFE IN CAIRO gg 
 
 Most of the girls are under twelve, and if a little 
 precocious in outside things, they are in mind far 
 behind girls who have been taught by mothers who had 
 any piety or knowledge, however small, or who had been 
 in an infant school, &C. 
 
 The following sketch from the pen of a near 
 and dear relative, who visited her in 1885-6, gives 
 a vivid picture of her life at this time : 
 
 It was a bright evening in the end of October, 
 about three years ago, when two wearied travellers arrived 
 at the Mission House in Cairo. For many years one 
 of our most fond wishes had been to see the work of one 
 whom we had seen and loved all our lives ; and at last 
 here we were. The setting sun was crimsoning all the 
 surroundings, tingeing the yellow sands of the not very 
 distant desert with pink, gilding the distant domes and 
 towers and the flat roofs of the brilliantly white houses. 
 On the steps of the house Miss M. L. Whately was 
 waiting to receive us, her face beaming with smiles of 
 welcome. We were brought up the wide stone staircase 
 that led to our spacious rooms, whose balconies over- 
 looked the garden, and there refreshed with the ever 
 welcome cup of tea, which never comes amiss to English 
 travellers, in whatever clime they find themselves, and is 
 especially welcome after the dust and heat of the day. 
 The large dwelling-house of Miss Whately was only 
 divided from her school buildings and medical mission 
 by a garden — which at the time of which we speak was 
 
 G2 
 
iOo i\lARy LOUISA U'lIATELV 
 
 glowing with flowers ; the beautiful * consul's daughter",' 
 whose red blossoms mingled gloriously with the deep 
 violet creeper that covered the summer house and walls 
 of the house — a small grove of plantain trees near giving 
 the background of green that so refreshes the eye. 
 
 With the earliest dawn Miss Whately was about 
 her daily vocations ; she loved to see the sun rise from 
 the balcony in her room, and often said it was the only 
 quiet time she could secure in the day for her private 
 reading. After early breakfast her work of greatest 
 interest began, namely, reading the Bible and talking to 
 the poor women who came to be doctored by her 
 admirable medical missionary, Dr. Azoury. It was a 
 sight not to be forgotten ; and one feels it a privilege to 
 have been present on some of these occasions. There 
 she sat on a low chair, surrounded by women and 
 children. Some of these young mothers were scarcely 
 more than children themselves — looking as if they should 
 be playing with dolls, instead of having to mind the big 
 brown black-eyed babies that lay in their laps. It was 
 intensely interesting to note the expression of the different 
 faces. Some countenances, looking worn and sad with 
 hard life and ill-treatment, would light up as they drank 
 in the message given them by their 'Sitt Mariam,' as 
 they always called her ; and her bright smiles and 
 earnest words made them grasp the reality of the good 
 message of salvation. 
 
 She taught the despised wife, down-trodden by the 
 wretched social laws of her country, that, hard as her lot 
 was, there was One who could sympathise with her. As 
 
SUMMER LIFE IN CAIRO loi 
 
 she spoke of His love, who had wept over the sorrows of 
 His people while on earth, many a dull eye would swim 
 with tears, and the look of hard despair change to a 
 softer expression. It needed the real missionary spirit 
 with which this worker was endued, to sit thus in the 
 midst of disease and filth, no look of repugnance cross- 
 ing her face. She followed in her Master's footsteps in 
 seeking the good of the soul as well as the body. 
 
 In any difhcult case 'Sitt Mariam' would take her 
 place in the surgery, ready with a kind word and practical 
 assistance. The writer well remembers on one occasion, 
 when an operation had to be performed on the eyes of 
 a dirty old Egyptian woman. Miss Whately stood by the 
 patient as she lay on the surgical table, holding her hand, 
 and patting her shoulder, while she spoke encouraging 
 and cheering words to her : such as, ' Don't fear, my 
 sister. Trust in God ; it will soon be over.' This was 
 only one of the many cases of the sort in which she 
 ministered by her presence to the patient. Can it be 
 wondered at that she was loved, and that on the day of 
 her death the cries and laments of those to whom she had 
 been as ' a mother in Israel ' were piteous to hear ? 
 
 This medical mission, in which she took such interest, 
 and for the maintenance of which she had made such 
 efforts, was undoubtedly one of the most important de- 
 partments of her work. The medical missionary, Dr. 
 Azoury, a most earnest Christian man as well as an 
 efficient doctor, had always ' a word in season ' for his 
 poor patients. Many came from villages great distances off 
 tosee him. From among the many interesting cases con- 
 
I02 MAIiY LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 nected with this department of the ^York, one incident 
 may be given. 
 
 A young woman came one day to Miss Whately 
 weeping bitterly ; she was one of the wives of a sheikh of 
 a village some miles away, and her eyes were diseased, in 
 fact, she was almost blind. Her husband told her that 
 she was no longer of use to him, and he should divorce 
 her. She was in a pitiable state of distress, and while 
 waiting for admittance to the doctor (for there were always 
 crowds of men and women waiting, the men in a separate 
 room, where a Scripture-reader read and talked to them), 
 the * Sitt ' told her of One who could cure the soul as 
 well as the body, and went about doing good while on 
 earth. The doctor, by God's help, was able to cure the 
 poor young wife completely. She returned to her village 
 in deepest thankfulness, and was taken back into favour 
 by her lord and master. 
 
 Some time afterwards she returned again, this time 
 bringing a tall turbaned man with her, who proved to be 
 her husband ; he was the sufferer this time, and the good 
 and forgiving wife had persuaded him to come and see 
 the doctor to whom she owed so much. After some 
 time the man was cured, and during his bodily treat- 
 ment we may be sure that his soul was not forgotten. 
 He showed his gratitude for what had been done for 
 him by sending many from his village to the Medical 
 Mission ; so that the seed was sown broadcast. Whether 
 he was properly grateful to the wife who had 'heaped 
 coals of fire on his head' is not known; but if the 
 Gospel message had indeed penetrated his heart, we 
 
SUMMER LIFE IN CAIRO 103 
 
 must believe that it would have changed him in this re- 
 spect also. The female school was especially interesting 
 to us, knowing as we did the extreme dilificulty of getting 
 at the Eastern girls. The boys' school is full of interest 
 as well, and the education they there receive has been of 
 benefit to them in many ways, as has been fully proved 
 by the excellent appointments obtained by those who 
 have passed through these schools. 
 
 Education cannot be carried on so satisfactorily among 
 the girls, who are taken away to be married often before 
 they are in their teens. Two-thirds of the girls are 
 Moslems, and it is well known how difificult it is to do 
 anything among the Mohammedans, with the views they 
 have about women, and looking on the education of girls 
 as utterly useless and even injurious. 
 
 One was forcibly reminded of a flower garden, as we 
 entered the girls' school and saw the brightly attired 
 children, with their gay cotton dresses, their faces mostly 
 very dark, with large handsome eyes, and delicately- 
 formed limbs. It was pretty to see them stand up, to 
 repeat the verses they had learnt in the Bible, and sing 
 their Arabic hymns in the language, which, though 
 incomprehensible to us, sounded very rich and soft. 
 Though the time these girls remain in the schools is often 
 very brief, the seed sown has brought forth fruit in several 
 cases, as may be seen in some of Miss Whately's accounts 
 of her work. 
 
 Perhaps of all this mission work the most interesting 
 feature was supplied by her missionary efforts in the Nile 
 villages. It seems but yesterday that we had the pleasure 
 
104 MARY LOUISA IVHATELY 
 
 and privilege of accompanying her on one of these trips. 
 It was early spring at that time, and everything exquisitely 
 green — the feathery palms, the verdure of emerald hue, 
 and the mud huts, making a picturesque contrast to the 
 general surroundings. 
 
 Memory carries one back to those bright days, and 
 •\vc see her as she then was in her full vigour, seated on 
 the ground, surrounded by a motley group of women and 
 children, whose attention she had succeeded in riveting. 
 She would at first be constantly interrupted by questions 
 irrelevant to the subjects in hand, such as the price of 
 her dress, the ages and conditions of those who accom- 
 panied her, &c. ; but she had the happy faculty of never 
 being put out by such childish questions, and would 
 persevere till she had subdued them into listening. She 
 had the gift in work of this kind of knowing how to 
 adapt her explanations to her hearers, giving bright, 
 lively illustrations and anecdotes, speaking to these grown 
 men and women as she would to children. On these 
 occasions she was often accompanied by Dr. Azoury and 
 her invaluable helper, Mrs. Shakoor. In the last mission 
 trip of this sort she was alone with her sister ; much 
 blessed work was done, and then she came back to die. 
 In the midst of her active work for her Master, she was 
 suddenly called to come ' up higher.' Instead of those 
 blue Nile waters she so dearly loved, she is now beside 
 the crystal waters of the River of Life ; instead of the 
 waving palms and glittering domes of her adopted city 
 that she delighted to watch from her window, she now 
 views the glories of the Celestial City. 
 
SUMMER LIFE IN CAIRO 105 
 
 The following incidents took place about this 
 time : — 
 
 ' Bring out the aged, thcit they may hear the Word of 
 God before they die ! ' These words were uttered by 
 some poor Egyptian peasants, who, with a group of dark- 
 veiled women and ragged children, were crowding round 
 a lady seated on a native mat on the ground near a large 
 village a few hundred yards from the Nile. It was 
 during the last week of the old year ; a Bible was in the 
 lady's hand, and she was reading from it, pausing to 
 explain every now and then in a simple and intelligible 
 manner, the hearers being mostly extremely ignorant, and 
 all Mahommedans, 
 
 Mrs. Shakoor and myself were on our usual missionary 
 trip, but untoward weather and a wretched boat had 
 hindered our progress, and our time was very short ; still 
 we had the happiness of finding that the good seed 
 brought in two brief previous visits to this village 
 (containing upwards of 1,000 inhabitants) had not all 
 fallen by the wayside. On the morning alluded to I had 
 gone in search of a family who had interested me greatly 
 the year before, and found my friend the tailor at work 
 under the palm-trees, and quite ready to listen and ask 
 questions, and I spent some time talking and reading 
 with him and his neighbours, whose attention was very 
 encouraging, and several came to the boat afterwards to 
 beg for ' the book.' But the most interesting incident in 
 our two days' work was the one relating to the aged 
 people. The peasants had been hstening and asking 
 
io5 J/AA'V LOUISA WHATELV 
 
 questions for some time, as Mrs. Shakoor read to them and 
 spoke of the sinfulness of man's heart and our need of a 
 Saviour, &c. Presently two or three of them rose and said 
 one to another, ' Let us bring out the aged, that they may 
 hear the \Vord of God before they die ! ' Then they pushed 
 through the crowd, and in a short time two very old men 
 appeared, assisted by their sons or neighbours, and one 
 of the feeblest of all was carried and placed where he 
 could hear. The village urchins, always very trouble- 
 some, even climbed the weak shoulders of the poor old 
 man, in their childish curiosity to gaze at the stranger ; 
 but he seemed to heed nothing except the reading, and 
 leaned forward with a hand behind each ear, not to lose 
 a word. Nor were the other old people less earnest to 
 listen to the story of God's love for sinners through Him 
 who is ever ' mighty to save.' Truly we may say Jesus 
 of Nazareth was passing by on that day. 
 
 There were several in that village who seem to have 
 caught hold of the hem of His garment. They are still 
 weak and ignorant, and shut in by bigotry and the danger 
 of death from publicly avowing how far they are changed, 
 but there is reason to think that some will be among the 
 ransomed by-and-by, when the Lord comes to take home 
 His own ! 
 
 A few months later she writes : 
 
 We are just returned from the Nile, and I must tell 
 you we had such a glorious work that we may indeed 
 rejoice. We had no trumpets or dancing girls, but we 
 can say, hallelujah, in our hearts most heartily : such 
 
SUMMER LIFE IN CAIRO 107 
 
 eagerness for the Word was indeed refreshing. We now 
 begin to see the fruit of years of patient visiting the 
 villages, and having put up, for Christ's sake, gladly with 
 many rebuffs, many hindrances, many difficulties ; now 
 in one village after another it was a cry for Bibles — who- 
 ever could read was eager to come and ask. The medical 
 work has been splendid ; such troops of patients, and so 
 much spiritual work too. 
 
 I must tell you about my dear tailor. Fareedy and 
 I were together in the village of Sheikh Osman, and were 
 eagerly welcomed : a carpet spread for us to sit on ; and 
 hardly were we seated outside the huts, before men, 
 women, and children assembled. Just as I put the Bible in 
 Fareedy's hand — I asked her to read about the Prodigal 
 Son — a man came pushing through the dirty little boys 
 round me and sat down next me, holding out his hand 
 with a cordial smile. I recognised the rather careworn 
 face, and greeted him warmly. Then the reading began, 
 and he listened, as did most, very attentively ; and when 
 I began to explain it, he said, ' Ah, yes ; I know that 
 story ; the lady read it for me.' He then gave the ex- 
 planation himself. Afterwards he said in a whisper to 
 me, ' I want you to give me a whole Bible now, and a 
 large-print one, because my eyes are tired with much 
 sewing. I want a good print.' Need I say how willingly 
 his request was granted ? This man was very bigoted two 
 years ago, when I first saw him, and, though interested, 
 seemed a vast distance from where he is now. He seems 
 to think it quite a matter beyond dispute that the Bible 
 is the Word of God, and to be read by all. ' Won't you 
 
io8 J\/AJiV LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 come to our house ? ' he said ; ' my wife saw you from 
 the roof, and she is expecting you.' A\'hen our meeting 
 broke up, I accompanied him, and sat in his courtyard 
 for nearly an hour with his wife's sister and several near 
 relatives, reading and talking. The doctor and Mrs. 
 Shakoor were not less busy with other groups. ^V'e had 
 to send for books for this place, having at our visits to 
 several other villages finished the liberal supply we 
 brought. Never has our success been so wonderful as 
 this year : it is indeed an answer to prayer. We visited 
 several distant villages, most of them large and populous ; 
 but this was not all ; from several other villages people 
 came across the country as soon as they heard of our 
 coming. 
 
io9 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 FIVE SMOOTH STONES OF THE BROOK 
 
 The next extracts we give are from Nile visits 
 in 1887 and 1888, first written by Miss Whately 
 for TJie Sunday at Hovie. 
 
 Though September had begun, it was still very hot 
 when we sailed up the river from Damietta, after spending 
 a short time on the sea -coast beyond that city. In winter, 
 on the Upper Nile, one can be out of doors, and walking 
 or sitting about, all day ; but at this season the powerful 
 sun makes one giddy if exposed to it in the baking-hot 
 villages, which are generally without shade, and in the 
 midst of rice and maize fields, nearly or quite under 
 water. 
 
 I rose with the first rays of the sun one morning, at 
 a place where the dead calm had obliged us to anchor 
 all night, and hastened to cross the plank to the shore, 
 hoping to find some opportunity of either reading or dis- 
 tributing the Word of God. It is necessary to be discreet 
 / in dealing with Mohammedans, for if the spirit of bitter- 
 j ness is once aroused, the door is shut, for the time at 
 
1 10 MAR V LO VISA WHA TEL V 
 
 least, against good influences ; so I watched for some 
 opening. This village, though not far from the coast, 
 did not seem suitable for my purpose, as most of the 
 people were evidently absent at work, and the women 
 drawing water at the river ; besides, poor Egyptians do 
 not like strangers going to their huts in general, unless 
 there is some cause they can understand. Outside the 
 village, heaps of dust and rubbish under a sun already 
 hot did not seem the place to sit and read. All around 
 was water, except just the footpath. 
 
 Here, then, I took my stand — as it was too dirty to 
 sit down — and a small mulberry tree afforded a slight 
 shade. Several women passed, and replied with tolerable 
 civility and good humour to my salutation ; but all were 
 either really too busy to stop, or pretended to be so, that 
 they might not have to refuse to listen to a Christian. 
 The ' smooth stone ' must not be drawn from the scrip 
 till the right time comes, and sometimes one must wait 
 long, and return disappointed. It was so this morning. 
 
 A group of men, evidently not very busy, came up 
 on seeing the book in my hand ; and one or two of the 
 women then paused, as if to see what they thought of 
 it. When I asked leave to read a part of God's Word, 
 they looked coldly at it, and, though not refusing point- 
 blank, interrupted me, when I began, by irrelevant 
 questions. 
 
 I inquired if any could read. One lad was then 
 pointed out as a good scholar ; but when I showed him 
 the Testament, and asked if he would read a little of 
 God's AVord, he said, ' I don't know how to read.' I saw 
 
FIVE SMOOTH STONES OF THE BROOK in 
 
 by the expression of his face, as well as from what his 
 neighbours had just said, that this was not true, and 
 remarked that I supposed he did not like to read my 
 book. 
 
 'It is parani (forbidden); he does not want to read 
 that book because it is param ! ' said a man, clad, like 
 the other peasants, in a brown mantle and white shirt, 
 but unlike them in having a beard of reddish hue. He 
 was standing opposite to me, spinning wool on a little 
 stick, using his fingers as a distaff ; and he laid a strong 
 emphasis on the last syllable of the word which means 
 ' forbidden.' I told them that was a mistake, as their 
 Koran did not forbid the reading of the Gospel. They 
 seemed surprised to find I knew anything of their book, 
 and paused for a moment in their chattering to one 
 another, while I read a verse or two. Then the man 
 spinning interrupted me by asking questions. ' You are 
 a Syrian, I think, are you not ? ' ' No ; I learned Arabic 
 first from a Syrian teacher, but I am English.' 
 
 ' Oh ! do you know we wanted to kill your people ? 
 Ay, truly, we wished to do this to all of you,' drawing his 
 finger across his throat in a very unpleasantly significant 
 manner. I told him I knew that, but I hoped they felt 
 differently now, and said a few words about our being all 
 children of Adam, and how we ought not to hate one 
 another. 
 
 'Your book is Christian — we don't like Christian 
 books,' said another. The word used for Christian is 
 Nassara, by which Moslems in the East understand mem- 
 bers of the corrupted Eastern Church, who reverence 
 
112 MA/^y LOUISA U'HATELV 
 
 images or pictures — I therefore never make use of it. I 
 told them God did not judge men by names, but by 
 actions and belief ; if they loved God and obeyed His 
 Word, that was the important thing. Two or three 
 assented, and one seemed inclined to listen, but the 
 man with the red beard laughed at him, and they then 
 rather reluctantly walked away. From the expression of 
 the greater part I could see they were all extremely 
 bigoted ; as my time was limited, I could only hope 
 some word might recur to some one of them hereafter, 
 and returned with a rather sad sense of failure to the boat. 
 Next day we stopped at a very pretty spot near 
 which a Government steam engine was stationed for 
 drawing up water. The nearest village was half a mile 
 or so distant. The fields, rich in maize and cotton, 
 were divided by raised pathways, shaded by rows of 
 sycamore and mulberry trees, while every here and there 
 clumps of beautiful weejiing willow and a few palms had 
 been planted. The palms, except close to Damietta, 
 which has magnificent palm-groves, are not nearly so 
 numerous as in the south. 
 
 There was no rice ; this crop, though beautiful from 
 its delicate and brilliant green, needs to be nearly always 
 under water, and it is not considered healthy to be in its 
 neighbourhood, so I was glad to see none ; in fact, we 
 were nearly out of the rice districts now. I saw several 
 peasants as we walked out to explore, but as it was near 
 sunset, all were hastening home. One man was riding a 
 donkey, a small sack of forage before him, and his poor 
 wife walking after, and very fast she had to walk to keep 
 
FIVE SMOOTH STONES OF THE BROOK 113 
 
 up with the donkey's brisk trot. I thought it character- 
 istic of woman's lot here, for the man was neither aged 
 nor sickly. 
 
 Next morning I came out quite early, and found a 
 young man engaged in arranging the slight bridge over 
 the little irrigation channel, composed of bundles of 
 reeds with clods of earth lightly heaped over ; it was not 
 a very safe bridge, and I was very glad to accept the 
 hand he held out to me to help me to cross. Then I got 
 into conversation with him and another peasant about 
 the land and the crops, and then asked if they could 
 read. ' No,' they said, they could not. ' But here is one 
 who can,' observed one of them, pointing to a very 
 intelligent-looking man who came up the path as he 
 spoke. 
 
 I found this man was a servant to the manager (a 
 native Egyptian). He was going to a neighbouring 
 town, where was a post, about some newspapers ; he 
 showed me the address, one written in Arabic, and said 
 he was always sent for such things, as he could read. He 
 was very willing to listen as I read some portions of the 
 Gospel, and several other peasants joined the little circle. 
 We were all standing ; they seemed to be in a hurry at 
 first, and one said to another, ' I must go on very soon, 
 I have to fetch the ass ; ' but yet most stayed on for a 
 little longer, and then a little more still, as they got more 
 and more interested. ' I should like to read that ; I am 
 sure it is a good book,' said the man of the papers. 
 ' And I also,' said another, who, on being put to the 
 proof, could only read very imperfectly; but he had a 
 
 H 
 
114 MARV LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 son who read well, he said. The first said, on my offer- 
 ing to give him a Gospel, that he would come in the 
 afternoon ; but I could not be sure of remaining so long, 
 as we were dependent on wind, and were already behind 
 time ; so I said, if he would wait, I would send the 
 servant from the boat with it. Making haste over the 
 raised causeway and a ploughed field to our temporary 
 home, I seized a small parcel of Gospels. But the servant 
 having gone to buy milk, I had to speed back again 
 to my friends under the mulberry tree by the maize fields. 
 They were waiting just where I had left them, and there 
 they stood for another quarter of an hour, listening to 
 some more 'good words,' as they said. An old man 
 riding a donkey who had joined us, and twice turned his 
 steed's head to go on his way, was still there, his un- 
 usually bright, keen eyes full of interested wonder. ' I 
 must go,' he said at last, and with a cordial salutation 
 went on. 
 
 When I turned from bidding farewell I saw the two 
 who could read disputing and nearly coming to blows, 
 for the newspaperman wanted both a Gospel of John and 
 one of Luke — not that he knew the names, but he had 
 heard a story in one and the opening part of the other, 
 and wished for both. I would have given him a New 
 Testament entire, but he liked the larger print of the 
 separate Gospels, and their being vowelled seemed to 
 give them value in his eyes. I pacified them easily, as I 
 had several copies with me. They were very ignorant, 
 even their own garbled religion they evidently only knew 
 in a disjointed way. But 'the entrance of the AVord, 
 
FIVE SMOOTH STONES OF THE BROOK 115 
 
 giveth light,' and having given another copy to one of 
 the group, now rapidly dispersing, I returned to the boat. 
 One of my companions I found giving a Gospel to a 
 bright-looking boy, son to the engine manager, vi'ho 
 having heard we had books came to beg for one, and 
 went off much pleased. 
 
 It seems truly a very little thing to have thus sent out 
 only five portions of God's Word into this district, so 
 dark as respects the light of the soul; but the Almighty 
 is pleased to bless small things in a wondrous way 
 sometimes. These five smooth stones from the brook 
 (or one of them) may, by His grace, be blessed to the 
 breaking down of Satan's stronghold in some poor sin- 
 ner's soul. 
 
 These were not the only stones slung out into the 
 kingdom of darkness, though they were the first. Two 
 days afterwards we anchored on the shore about a mile 
 from a large and populous village. Being already be- 
 lated by contrary winds, we were overdue in Cairo, and 
 urgently needed, so there was not time to go to this 
 village. An entire day would be too little even to break 
 up ground in a large plaoe. When time is restricted, a 
 quiet country spot is better, where a few may be found 
 willing to hear. As usual, I was up betimes in the morn- 
 ing, and while the boatmen waited for the breeze — which 
 rarely at this season springs up early — I went on shore 
 for a walk, and to see if any work could be done. The 
 coast is at the inundation time provided with numbers 
 of watchmen, each village furnishing its contingent. 
 They erect small reed sheds or wigwams of the very 
 
ii6 MARY LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 slightest kind, at intervals of perhaps fifty yards or so; 
 these ar.- thicker in parts where the coast is most exposed, 
 and stand more thinly where it is safer. Night and day 
 the men must be on the spot for a certain time, to give 
 warning if the water should break down the banks and 
 threaten the safety of the villages and crops. One of 
 these sheds was not far from the boat. I climbed the 
 high bank, and was walking slowly along, when I saw 
 a group of six peasants, including a little boy, who were 
 seated on the ground, most of them spinning, near the 
 shed. Probably all being safe, and it being broad day- 
 light, the watchers for some little distance had met to 
 eat their morning meal and have a chat. One of the 
 men saluted me very civilly, and to my surprise said, 
 'Come and sit a little with us,' and he spread his cloak 
 at once upon the dirty ground. I hesitated a moment, 
 but the others echoed his words so cordially that I agreed 
 and sat down, drawing out my Arabic Testament at the 
 same time. I told them it was God's Word, and after a 
 little talk proposed reading, and met with not the least 
 opposition. It seemed as if God had made the way 
 ready here. 
 
 I read several portions, all being interested, one 
 man, a middle-aged peasant, with a very intelligent face, 
 more so than the rest. He really seemed to take in the 
 words and be eager to understand their full meaning. I 
 explained simply, whenever it seemed needful, and after 
 an hour's reading left them, not that they were tired, but 
 that I could read no more in the hot sun. The New 
 Testament, after I had been asked for it many times, 
 
FIVE SMOOTH STONES OF THE BROOK WJ 
 
 was at last given to one of the party ; and another man 
 a httle later got a separate Gospel for his son, whom he 
 assured me could read. Knowing they would probably 
 find bigoted neighbours who might cast doubt into their 
 minds about ' Christian books,' I begged them to recol- 
 lect what I had read about knowing a tree by its fruit. 
 * If any one tells you this is not a good book, read it first 
 before listening to it, and you will find it is good, and 
 the best of all books.' The man clasped the volume 
 tightly, and smiled as he declared he would value it. 
 The others said the same. I promised to recollect the 
 name of this village, and to come again, God willing, 
 and to get our doctor to come also. Many came for 
 eye-water, when they heard of our being here and having 
 a few medicines on board ; but without a medical man 
 we could not venture to treat any but very simple cases. 
 Thus the stones were slung and sent forth in the name 
 of the Lord of hosts. 
 
Ii8 MA/?V LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE WOMEN OF EGYPT 
 
 * Those who have read about Egypt in the books 
 of casual travellers or romancers — nay, those who 
 have visited and even passed several weeks in the 
 country — have very little idea of the life of the 
 women. An exception should perhaps be made in 
 the case of the poorer peasant women, who almost 
 live out of doors, and are visible to every passer-by, 
 either fetching water or keeping cattle, and passing 
 their frequent hours of leisure in squatting in the 
 dust before their huts, enjoying gossip and sun- 
 shine in winter, and gossip and shade in summer. 
 They arc the happiest portion of the female popu- 
 lation. They are sadly degraded, ignorant, dirty, 
 often very little above animals ; but they are com- 
 paratively free. Those of a higher class are slaves, 
 and so are most of the middle class, wives of 
 artisans, tradesmen, clerks, &c. I do not mean 
 
THE WOMEN OF EGYPT 119 
 
 there are no exceptions, but exceptions prove the 
 rule, and the rule is that women, not forced by the 
 poverty of their husbands to work for daily bread 
 by helping to cultivate the land if in the country, 
 and performing errands in the towns, arc kept in 
 prison — yes, prison is not too strong a word. The 
 grand harems of the wealthy, of whom a large pro- 
 portion (though by no means all) are of Turkish 
 extraction, and frequently Turks pur et simple, 
 speaking the language and keeping up the habits 
 of Turkey, are chiefly occupied by fair Circassians 
 and Georgians, to the number sometimes of many 
 hundreds. But there are many Egyptians who, 
 though not wealthy enough to possess actual 
 palaces, are yet able to keep very handsome 
 prisons, where their wives, daughters, and mothers 
 are confined to the gilded apartments, and shut up 
 from outer life — from God's fresh air and joyous 
 sunshine — as if they had been guilty of some 
 terrible crime. 
 
 ' We are told sometimes that the women think 
 this immuring is a great honour and compliment, 
 and implies that they are above the common 
 women, who may go about, and so forth ; and to a 
 certain degree it is true, but that they like it and 
 
120 MAJiV LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 arc happy is not true. Food and a gilt cage are 
 not enough to satisfy the heart of even a very 
 ignorant woman ; but long habit makes them 
 stupidly or patiently — as may be their disposition 
 — resigned to the inevitable. There is in Egypt 
 a certain wealthy man who had purchased and 
 married a pretty Circassian, who lives in a very 
 fine apartment, with no company but some utterly 
 ignorant slaves, chiefly negresses. Being from a 
 far land (her very parentage unknown), she has, of 
 course, no relatives to come and see her ; for some- 
 times a father or brother is allowed to see a prisoner, 
 and female relatives from time to time may break 
 the dreary monotony of her life. She, however, 
 had none, and mere friends were not permitted. 
 She had no children, and therefore had nothing to 
 do but dress, dye her hair different colours, put on 
 jewels, eat, and smoke. A Christian lady was 
 once, as a great favour, permitted to visit her, and 
 asked how she endured the summer heat, for the 
 visitor was told that the windows were never 
 allowed to be opened. She laughed, and replied, 
 " When it is very hot I just wrap a towel over my 
 hand and thrust it against one of the windows to 
 break a pane. It is supposed to be accident, and 
 
THE WOMEN OF EGYPT i2i 
 
 by the time it is found, and a glazier procured, 
 several days elapse : and then I break another ; so 
 I and the slaves manage to get a little air to 
 breathe in this way." Her visitor hardly knew 
 whether to smile or sigh at such a revelation. 
 
 * A far sadder story, one which might have been 
 not only sad, but tragic, but for a merciful provi- 
 dence, was that of a lady, also Circassian, who was 
 sitting at her window overlooking the garden of 
 the house (in which she was never allowed to v/alk), 
 where her little boy — I believe an only one — was 
 playing. There was a fountain with rather a deep 
 basin, as is common in Eastern gardens, and it 
 chanced to be full. The child, leaning over, sud- 
 denly fell in, and was in imminent danger of 
 drowning. The poor mother was locked in, and 
 could not go down to him. All she could do was 
 to scream, which of course she did, and fortunately 
 the door-keeper was not too soundly asleep to hear, 
 and came just in time to draw out the little child 
 before life had fled. Had he been absent on an 
 errand, or for any reason delayed, the poor woman's 
 only comfort and joy would have been surely sacri- 
 ficed to this cruel custom. " What do you do to 
 pass the time ? " was asked once of a rich merchant's 
 
122 AfARV LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 wife. " Well, I walk into the next room and sit on 
 the divan, and then come back and sit here," she 
 replied, with a shrug of the shoulders. The poor 
 are certainly in many ways better off than this 
 lady ; but there is a very large class who are 
 respectable enough to be shut up, and are yet poor, 
 unable to keep black guardians and iron gates, and 
 numbers of negresses to perform the work of the 
 house. Most of these inhabit narrow, ill-smelling 
 streets in the city. The women's apartments con- 
 sist of one or two close, small rooms, and perhaps 
 a damp court, and in this abode, cold and draughty 
 in winter and suffocating in summer, they stay, day 
 in and day out, as the saying goes, often sharing 
 the home with another wife, if the master cannot 
 afford two houses. 
 
 ' The very poor seldom have two wives at once, 
 though they can divorce on the slightest pretext ; 
 but in the middle class two is the usual number. 
 It is a dreary lot for a young girl married to a man 
 just well enough off not to be obliged to let his wife 
 go to the river or the mill, and who, therefore, is 
 virtually put in prison as soon as the wedding 
 festivities are over, and never allowed to go out, 
 unless on the occasion of a native religious festival 
 
THE WOMEN OF EGYPT 123 
 
 or a family wedding. Many do not allow even 
 this treat, but shut up the wife entirely, not per- 
 mitting her to cross the threshold on any occasion 
 and sometimes even pasting paper over the glass 
 windows, that she should not look out on the 
 narrow lane, which is her only prospect. I have 
 seen this myself, and was assured that it was not 
 considered cruel or extraordinary. The life is, 
 perhaps, a little more active than that of the ladies, 
 as the wife cannot sit all day on a gorgeous divan 
 and watch the slaves sweep and prepare coffee and 
 food ; she must herself cook, wash, and knead 
 dough for bread, and help the negress slave. A 
 water-carrier usually brings the supply for the huge 
 porous water- vessels which are found in every house. 
 When he knocks, the old help from below calls out 
 " Es sakka ! " (the waterman), and her mistress 
 instantly rushes to the other room, or hides behind 
 the door till he has finished his business and 
 departed. If there is a second wife, which is very 
 usual, there may be the variety of a little quarrel- 
 ling now and then ; and there are the children, 
 always more numerous with the natives than 
 among the delicate Circassians ; but even native 
 children in the towns whose mothers are locked up 
 
124 AfAJ^y LOUISA IVHATELY 
 
 are rarely so cheerful or healthy as those of the 
 humble mothers who, though dwelling in very un- 
 pleasant abodes, live out of doors ; they are apt to 
 be very sickly and fretful. 
 
 ' Visitors in Cairo and Alexandria are apt to dis- 
 believe what they ha\e been told about the seclu- 
 sion of the v.'omcn, because, besides the peasants 
 (distinguished by their blue and white mantles and 
 dark robes of indigo or black), they see in the 
 streets many wrapped in the black silk habara, as 
 it is called, some with thick veils tied under the 
 eyes, others with the face only sheltered by the 
 habara, but not hidden. The fact is, very few of 
 these are Mahometan women. Some are Copts 
 who have adopted the modern custom, and allow a 
 considerable degree of freedom to the women of 
 their families, and many more are Greeks, Syrians, 
 or Jewesses long resident in Egypt, and wearing 
 the native dress. There are, indeed, Mahometans 
 who permit an occasional visit to their wives, but 
 it is very rare. A portly middle-aged woman used 
 at one time to come and visit a Christian lady she 
 was acquainted with, and enjoy the pleasant garden 
 and the little walk as a relief to her monotonous 
 life, but she could only come when the good man 
 
THE WOMEN OF EGYPT 125 
 
 was gone on pilgrimage to Mecca, or on a journey 
 of business, which now and then took him from 
 home. She thought she might have the privilege, 
 which some in her position enjoyed, of now and 
 then going to festivals with a party of female rela- 
 tives and neighbours, as well as paying a visit 
 perhaps three or four times in a year. " But I 
 might as well be buried in the ground as live as I 
 do ! " she one day exclaimed. " However," she 
 added, " many are the same." 
 
 ' As might be expected, if we judge from experi- 
 ence, the persecuted are not always merciful, and 
 there are no warmer advocates of slavery than the 
 women of the better class. The Circassians, slaves 
 or slaves' daughters themselves, allow it to be a 
 hard and cruel thing to steal a child from her 
 mother, or to pounce on a group of little girls 
 gathering strawberries on the hills of the Caucasus, 
 but (like our colonial planters of old) they con- 
 sider black races were meant for slavery. Some 
 fair gentlewomen, whose pretty brown eyes fill with 
 tears as they relate how they or their friends were 
 stolen and sold, have nothing but a shrug of the 
 shoulders when speaking of black women, and they 
 generally end with the assurance that the system 
 
126 MARY LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 is absolutely necessary. It is, in fact, mixed up 
 
 with their whole domestic arrangements and laws, 
 
 and is part of the harem system, which must fall to 
 
 the ground if slavery were abolished. When shall 
 
 that time come ? When will the caged birds fly ? 
 
 When will the door open and let the P2gyptian 
 
 woman come and go as one created to be neither 
 
 a toy nor a drudge, but an helpmeet for man ? ' ' 
 
 In connection with this question we further quote 
 
 Mary Whately's views as given in another paper : — 
 
 It has been said that negro slavery in the East is a 
 very mild and patriarchal institution, and some speak of 
 it as scarcely an evil at all in fact. Now it cannot be 
 denied that it is not like the gang slavery of the West 
 Indian and American planters, and that in many Eastern 
 families the domestic slaves are treated with tolerable 
 kindness. But if any one will reflect on the subject he 
 will see that unlimited power is a thing never safe to be 
 given to any man, and, I regret to say, still less to any 
 woman. One might suppose that in Egypt, for example, 
 where the greatest ladies in the grandest harems are 
 either themselves purchased slaves or the daughters of 
 slaves, great tenderness would be shown to the poor 
 negresses dragged from their country in order to serve 
 the white-skinned occupants of the palaces ; but it is 
 very often quite the contrary. Some of these are pitiless 
 to their inferiors, and neither they nor the master, who 
 ' The above sketch originally appeared in the Manchester Guardian, 
 
THE WOMEN OF EGYPT 127 
 
 rules over white and black alike, seem to consider in 
 general that they have any claim to more kindness than 
 would be given to a beast of burden, if as much. Not, 
 indeed, all, but then the exceptions prove the rule. And 
 even a kindly-tempered mistress will lose her headif exxited 
 by some act of disobedience or neglect when out of health 
 or out of humour, and, having complete power and no 
 possible appeal from that power, she becomes for the 
 time more like a tigress than a woman. 
 
 A lady in one of the highest harems of Cairo had a 
 black girl among her many slaves who one day forgot to 
 put butter in the rice. * The Turks are very particular 
 about their cookery,' the poor creature said when telling 
 the tale, as if this were some excuse for what followed. 
 The lady was in a fury, and ordered two of her black 
 agas (as they call the men slaves belonging to harems) 
 to tie the offender to a post and lash her bare back and 
 shoulders till they were scarred and bleeding. One of 
 the older daughters ventured to expostulate, not on the 
 plea of humanity, though let us hope she felt it ; but 
 with her mother she knew it was no use to appeal to any 
 but a sense of personal loss. ' She is your property, my 
 mother, and you ought not to injure her therefore,' said 
 she. ' What matter ? ' replied the barbarous mistress ; 
 ' if she dies, another is soon obtained ; she is like the 
 cattle.' The poor black girl, however, showed her 
 superiority to cattle in that she could recollect and think. 
 She had heard that some slaves latterly had escaped, 
 and that if they pleaded ill-usage the law did not now 
 force them back. She managed to escape, and is living 
 
128 MA/^V LOUISA WHAT ELY 
 
 now a happy free servant with a Christian Syrian family. 
 But she says slaves are often put to death privately if 
 they offend, and no one outside knows. Their place is 
 supplied, for the trade goes on, and will go on, in spite of 
 all that British philanthropy can do, so long as the demand 
 makes it lucrative to certain people to send a supply. 
 
 Many kind-hearted and naturally amiable Mahome- 
 tans, in discussing the subject of slavery with me, allow 
 that such things are wrong, but wrong merely as undue 
 harshness, not as a terrible result of a bad system, for 
 they feel, if not able to give reasons for it, that the 
 harem system in itself makes slavery a necessity — they 
 are, as it were, interwoven together. This would not 
 perhaps be the case if Moslems had mostly only one 
 wife, as Canon Taylor asserts is the case. Every person 
 really and intimately acquainted with Moslem households, 
 in Egypt at all events, knows that it is an exceptional 
 and not a common case, however. A man whose 
 daughter-in-law I know, and who died a few years ago, 
 had fifty. Of course, all but four were slaves (some white 
 and some black), but they were like wives except in 
 having no legal position ; and when I observed that this 
 was a bad custom, my informant shrugged her shoulders 
 and said, ' What would you have ? It's our custom here ; 
 even the poor have two very frequently — and as to the 
 rich ! ' She laughed and nodded, and then added more 
 gravely, ' Our religion allows this, you know ; but yours 
 is better in that respect, truly.' 
 
 Even Christian families generally had one or two 
 slaves, and the wealthier a great number, when I first 
 
THE WOMEN OF EGYPT i^g 
 
 came to Egypt, and many still have them ; but gradually 
 the custom of taking free negresses for wages is gaining 
 ground among them ; and as they have no harems, the 
 system of keeping slaves will probably die out among them, 
 and give place to hired service before very long. But the 
 harem life keeps up the demand, and the accounts of the 
 cruelties which are practised to bring these poor creatures 
 from their country to Constantinople, Jeddah, and other 
 ports, as well as to some overland stations, are terrible. 
 My own cook, who was taken in a battle or raid against 
 her village in the Soudan when about ten or eleven years 
 old, well remembers going with a troop of captives to- 
 wards the frontier, and seeing helpless infants snatched 
 from their mothers and flung into the thicket to be de- 
 voured by wild beasts, besides many other horrors, in the 
 way of beating, (S:c. If the negroes were to be brought 
 to the pleasantest and most comfortable homes conceiv- 
 able, I should consider the means employed for bringing 
 them a sufficient plea against slavery ; but, as the instance 
 just given shows, the harems are by no means always 
 liappy homes, even for the most ignorant and unintellec- 
 tual of human beings. 
 
 I will give one more anecdote, told me by a Circassian 
 lady much above the average in mind, and of a naturally 
 kindly nature, as her sweet countenance showed. A slave 
 from a certain black tribe known to be of strong and 
 violent disposition was brought to a harem — one of the 
 highest among these establishments. She proved restive, 
 sulky, and quarrelsome. After a short time she struck a 
 fellow slave, and the two had a violent quarrel. She was 
 
 X 
 
130 AfA/^y LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 very strong, and beat the other severely. Besides this she 
 refused to work. There is in the largest harems an aga 
 called the constable, who was tc) punish the refractory and 
 keep discipline when the governess or female directress — 
 usually a Circassian — foils to subdue them by gentler 
 means. This man— a black, of course, himself — beat 
 the obstinate captive girl with a whip of hippopotamus 
 hide. I should consider this sharp enough for most 
 skins, but she remained inflexible. He then tried a 
 scourge of palm twigs, then a thick stick, — all in vain. 
 Then some one recommended a species of rope, for which 
 he had to send to Cairo — none was to be had in Alexandria, 
 it seemed, — and this conquered the wretched creature l)y 
 the agony it inflicted. It is a rope of hemp dipped in 
 tir or pitch and dried, as I was afterwards informed. 
 The lady assured me the girl had been quiet and obedient 
 ever since. ' Yes, it was certainly hard, poor thing ; but 
 what were they to do ? She would not obey, and she 
 has, I believe, never required it since.' She had herself 
 been the governess of the slaves before her marriage, and 
 told all this from personal knowledge. 
 
 Some English friends ask if slavery is not now nearly 
 abolished in Egypt. To which we can only reply that 
 though some may escape now from harems where they 
 arc ill treated, a law having been passed to allow this, 
 yet not only are many hindered in all probability from 
 escaping— which is easily done in buildings habitually 
 guarded and locked— but when tlrey do escape their place 
 is easily supplied. All we can say is," sorne are rescued, 
 and for every one such English hearts ought to rejoice, 
 
THE WOMEN OE EGYPT 131 
 
 As to the white slaves from Circassia and Georgia, they 
 are so numerous as to form the majority of the persons 
 known as harem ladies. Some of these apparently fill the 
 situation of lady's maid, and lead an idle life, only em- 
 ployed in arranging divans, handing coffee and sherbet, 
 or cutting out and sewing articles of dress sometimes. A 
 great number are, however, bought as slave wives ; in 
 fact, the high price given proves that this is in general 
 the object with which they are brought over. Some are 
 stolen in early childhood ; others, belonging, I am told, to 
 poor parents only, are sold either by their parents or by 
 the masters to whom these parents act as servants. A 
 Circassian lady, herself stolen when just old enough to 
 recollect her home, and who had learned a good deal 
 about her country from other Circassians taken at a later 
 age, assured me that the head men in the villages (whose 
 title she told me in the language of that country, but it 
 escaped my memory) were in the habit of employing 
 very poor persons as servants, on the understanding that 
 the children were to be sold to the slave-brokers. They 
 were, she said, told that they would be grand ladies and 
 splendidly dressed, and live in palaces, (S:c., and looked 
 on it as a suitable arrangement. The better sort never 
 sold their children, but they were frequently stolen. 
 
 It is needless to observe that a number of women 
 assembled together with no tie of blood and with little or 
 nothing to do (for there are always many black women 
 for menial offices) are sure to quarrel ; and as they can- 
 not have the direction of a home — except the one who ii 
 head wife or mother, as the case may be— one can 
 
 I 2 
 
132 MAJ^y LOUISA n'HATELY 
 
 scarcely conceive an establishment more fitted to call 
 forth the worst part of woman's nature. That most of 
 the poor caged birds are selfish, cold-hearted, and 
 frivolous is a matter of course, and there are plenty of 
 sad tales that show that worse evils than these find a 
 place in many a marble palace. There are good and 
 sweet women, no doubt, but they are exceptions— and 
 what wonder ? If they learn anything— and a few harems 
 now have a Frenchwoman to give lessons in languages 
 and a little music— it is only superficial. The greater 
 part of the inmates, however, cannot read, and know 
 nothing but a few Moslem legends and the stories which 
 a professional female jester retails to amuse them. Some 
 idea of the numbers of these fair foreigners may be 
 formed from the fact that the late viceroy had over five 
 hundred in his possession. 
 
 Such was the testimony of one who had exceptional 
 o^iportunity of knowing how intimately slavery is bound 
 up with the domestic life of Moslems. Those who have 
 heard this system glossed over, would do well to lay it to 
 heart. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 LAST DAYS 
 
 In 1888, Mary Whatcly made what was to be her 
 last visit to England, though her friends little 
 thought the end was so near. Never had she 
 seemed, on the whole, in fuller vigour — now and 
 then a little ' overdone ' by press of work and 
 anxiety, but elastic in spirits, and energetic as 
 ever, — and her conversation, always brilliant and 
 full of liveliness, originality, playfulness, power of 
 graphic description and happy, illustration, was 
 never more characteristically so than in this last 
 happy intercourse w^ith friends and relatives. With 
 a sister and niece she spent some time in Switzer- 
 land that summer ; it was looked back to by all as 
 a time of specially delightful memories. Her en- 
 joyment of the glorious Alpine scenery was keen 
 and intense : she took long walks, sketched, and 
 entered into all she saw with lively interest. 
 
I ^4 J/J RY LO VISA J VhA TEL V 
 
 She returned in the earl)- autumn to Cairo with 
 Mrs. Shakoor and her famil\% and set herself 
 vigorousl}' to work again. Her other sister — her 
 usual winter companion — joined her, and the old 
 occupations were resumed. In February, the 
 doctor, whose health had suffered from long and 
 close work, went with his sister-in-law, Mrs. 
 Shakoor, and others of the famil}', up the river for 
 needful change and rest. She did not like to ven- 
 ture on waiting for their return for the usual Nile 
 trip, as the river had been unusually low, and she 
 feared being hindered either by this or contrary 
 winds, which often set in in the later spring : so, as 
 usual, she engaged a boat and embarked with her 
 sister and one or two other companions, but this 
 time single-handed as regarded the work to be 
 done. None but an experienced worker and a 
 ready Arabic scholar could really help, even in 
 book distributing, as so many ask for books who 
 cannot read, and then they are often wasted. 
 
 A Nile boat of her own might at this time have 
 saved her from what followed. She had caught a 
 cold in the keen winds which had prevailed, but 
 thought the Nile air would restore her. The wind 
 continued, however, very strong and cold (for 
 
LAST DA YS 135 
 
 Egypt), and exposure to a draught on board the 
 vessel increased it. She was urged to put off her 
 excursion ; but the boat, as usual, had been paid 
 for in advance, and she was afraid of ' losing her 
 chance for the year.' With all the drawbacks, a 
 thorough rest might have set her right ; but every 
 day they stopped at a new place, and e\-ery day 
 there were calls she could not bear to forego. 
 
 Her * Last Nile Notes ' show what that final 
 work w^as. They were jotted down evening by 
 evening, and given to her sister to keep for her. 
 Her companions were anxious at this continued 
 fatigue, but neither they nor she suspected what 
 mischief was going on ; her excitement kept her 
 up. It is now inexpressibly pathetic to read the 
 last record of the work in which she laid down 
 literally her life, as it proved : — 
 
 Wednesday, February 20th. — To-day we were at 
 Masghouna, a village visited before, and during several 
 years with but little success, the people being so bigoted. 
 However, about four years ago a change had taken place, 
 and we were eagerly welcomed, and gave several books, 
 besides having much reading and talking in several 
 houses. Last year we were not able to stop here, being 
 obliged to go on Avhile the \vind was favourable. I was 
 soon recognised, and invited very cordially to a sheikh's 
 
136 J/AT^V LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 house. Then in a small but tolerably clean room a 
 group of about twenty soon assembled, while a carpet 
 was laid on the mud floor by the women, very courte- 
 ously, and I had a good deal of talk and reading. 
 There is apt to be some difficulty when men and women 
 are together (as they were here, though on different sides 
 of the room), because the women are so much more 
 ignorant, and the men accustomed to despise them, and 
 wish to ask questions they cannot understand. ' Now, 
 you must explain,' said the chief woman present, the 
 sheikh's head wife probably ; ' if you do not, we cannot 
 understand.' ' ^^'omen here know nothing at all,' observed 
 the sheikh, as a parenthesis. I read, and explained, and 
 turned from one group to another as well as I could. 
 Several asked for Sitt Fareeda, and said she had read to 
 them two years ago. ' She reads Arabic better than you,' 
 said one of the women. ' Of course,' said I, ' it is her 
 own tongue, and I am a foreigner ; still, you can under- 
 stand me very well, I know.' One of the men begged to 
 have my book (a Gospel of St. John) to read some. A 
 woman, who I think was his mother, wished to show how 
 well he could read, and begged me to hand him the book. 
 I did so, but he read much less fluently than I did, and 
 had to spell most of the words, so that no one could 
 understand him. He gave back the book, saying he 
 had only read the Koran, by which he meant a small 
 part of it, no doubt ; and very likely even thot little was 
 more learned by heart than read. So I continued read- 
 ing, choosing what I thought the women could follow 
 ^^'hcn I went back several followed me to the l)oat, and 
 
LAST DA YS 137 
 
 asked for books. I gave a number to such as could read, 
 and as I was alone in the work this time, I asked the 
 sheikh to tell me which men could read, that I might 
 only give to such. I also gave him a book of stories for 
 his boy, who is learning to read, and a few text cards. I 
 was asked to go to other houses, but having a cold 
 and cough, could not read or talk more than I had done 
 this day. 
 
 The next village, a large place, Kaffr Rafai, was not 
 very far, and we sailed to it luckily before a change of 
 weather set in. Showers and wind. However, we had 
 not anchored very long before the arrival of the ' people 
 with the book ' was known, and a deputation of four 
 men, two sheikhs, fine-looking middle-aged men, and 
 two others, one of whom was a blind fakeer, or reciter of 
 the Koran, came to salute me, and ask after the doctor 
 and Sitt Fareeda. We received them on deck, gave them 
 coffee, and a bottle of eye-water to one who wished for 
 it, having weak eyes; and I promised to visit their village 
 next day. 
 
 Kaffr Rafai, February 2\st. — As soon as the early 
 morning cold had abated, I set out for the village, which 
 stands a little back from the shore. My sister stayed 
 among the palms meantime. Our arrival was known, so 
 there was no delay. Many came to salute me saying, 
 ' I am Fatmeh, whom you knew so long ago.' ' I am the 
 son of Kadega, the first you saw here, and I want a 
 book,' and so on. I went to the house of one of the 
 people we had made some acquaintance with, and the 
 boatman sat on the threshold, to keep out the mob of 
 
I3S MARY LOUISA WHAT ELY 
 
 curious children, whose eagerness to get in would have 
 made one think they expected a Punch, or some amusing 
 personage of that kind. Their noise and ceaseless chatter 
 made it impossil)le for one to read while they were there. 
 'ITie boatman held a stick across the door — we had to 
 have it open, there being no windows. A woman leaped 
 over the stick, saying, 'Let me in.' 'And me,' added 
 another, doing the same. ' Only keep out the children.' 
 We had four or five of these young torments, who I sup- 
 pose belonged to the household, and they sat close to 
 me and interrupted as often as they could ; however, 
 fifty would have been much worse than five. Several 
 men and women now asked me to read, and several of 
 the former asked questions. I read about John the 
 Baptist, and then from Luke iv. the Messiah's announce- 
 ment of Himself. 
 
 One of them asked why we did not love Mohammed, 
 who was the ' last and greatest of the prophets.' 
 
 I replied that by denouncing idolatry he was right, 
 but that, being only a man, we could not put him in the 
 place of the Spirit of God ; besides that, he took the 
 sword, which ought to have nothing to do with religion. 
 Then I read the mission of Jesus, and talked a little 
 about it. Afterwards I read John i. (some verses only), 
 and we talked of light, and what was meant by it 
 here. One observed, thieves and others sought darkness 
 to do their bad deeds, and seemed to understand this 
 passage. I read also John iii., about new birth, and 
 many remarks were elicited from the men. AVomen 
 will very rarely speak if men are present, but one old 
 
LAST DAYS 139 
 
 woman who had come in the middle, and squatted 
 exactly opposite, and who, without attending enough to 
 understand a word, had a vague idea that I was at least 
 a believer in God, exclaimed, clapping her hands, ' Why 
 will you not turn Moslem ? you ought really ' {tis/am, 
 literally), 'to save thyself.' ' My dear woman,' I said, ' I 
 need a Saviour to save me from sin, and a Saviour must 
 be God as well as man. Mohammed was only a man.' 
 ' We know Esa was quite pure and holy,' observed one of 
 the men, ' but Mohammed came later, and God spoke to 
 him, and gave him power.' 'Of that I have no proof,' 
 said I, 'but we have many proofs of Christ, by which He 
 should be known. Isaiah the prophet wrote of Him, 
 and also Moses, and many others.' I then quoted some 
 of the miracles of healing, and others. Of course I was 
 very careful not to use expressions that would excite 
 their bigotry, while keeping to truth. 
 
 When I could hardly speak any more (having still a 
 good deal of oppression on the chest), I got up, though 
 with regret, for there were a great many listeners. A 
 blind man we had seen, I think, several times seemed 
 much interested, and was among those who came to the 
 boat to beg for a book. Of course he could not read 
 himself, but said his son was in the habit of reading to 
 him. This man said less than many others, but what he 
 did say struck me as showing that he had read more or 
 less of Scripture, and valued it, so I gave him a Gospel, 
 and a good many others were eagerly accepted by those 
 who read before me, mostly young men and lads. To 
 the young ones I gave the Old Testament stories chiefly. 
 
I40 MAA'V LOUISA WHAT ELY 
 
 I also gave away some small bottles of weak nitrate of 
 silver to some who earnestly begged for eye-water, and 
 were disappointed that the doctor was not with us. 
 Many salutations were sent to him and Sitt Fareeda. It 
 took a long time ascertaining who could read and who 
 could not (the average number in most of these villages 
 is, I am told, about one in twenty who can read, but in 
 some I have met with only a very few, and in others 
 rather more). When all this business was over, and the 
 eye-water disposed of, we dined, and then went down 
 about an hour's sail, and stopped at Tabbeen, opposite 
 Shoback, or rather opposite the wide stretch of sand 
 which, since last inundation, has entirely altered the 
 aspect of that village, and made it (juite inland instead of 
 on the coast. 
 
 'J'abbeen is on the eastern side, where it is more 
 barren than the other, and instead of palm groves and a 
 wide extent of barseen fields, tSrc, there are only patches 
 cultivated amid the sand, and scattered palms among 
 the houses or huts, but they are sometimes very 
 picturesque ; and Tabbeen looks well, especially at sun- 
 set, with its tall palms here and there, as if growing out 
 of the houses. 
 
 I went early in the afternoon, and the very first person 
 who met me was the man who had brought a bowl of 
 milk last year, when he came to ask for the Bible ! He 
 saluted me cordially (his name was a very long one, and 
 I forget it). I talked with him as we walked towards 
 the village, and learned that his brother the cadi had 
 taken possession of his 15ible. 'lie is my elder brother,' 
 
LAST DAYS 141 
 
 he said in a deprecating way. ' I hope he did not take 
 it to destroy it,' I said. ' Oh, no, he hkes to read it very 
 much ; but I wish for another. Have not you one for 
 me Hke that ? ' I told him I had a book he should have 
 which would be better, as the print Avas very large and 
 vowelled ; it was the New Testament and Psalms. 
 
 I then went to the \illage, it is not a very large one, 
 a few hundred people I should think. The house I 
 wanted was where I had been last year. I said to some 
 children the woman's name was Nafesa (though not 
 rare, it is f:ir less common than Fatmeh, so I succeeded 
 in finding the right place). They were very friendly, and 
 asked me to sit down on a mat. They were in a sort of 
 court, open to the sky, but enclosed by walls of a very 
 primitive kind, of dry mud. I did not attempt read- 
 ing, but talked and told some Scripture stories, and 
 quoted several passages, as I know by heart a good many 
 short portions. Neither the man nor his wife, nor the 
 others present (also women) could read, and seemed 
 very ignorant, but were willing and pleased to hear, and 
 attended well to what I told them. The woman, hand- 
 some and intelligent- looking, was very courteous and 
 hospitable. She entreated me to stay a little longer when 
 I wanted to take leave, and disappeared for a moment 
 into her den, coming out with a little stool, on which was 
 a pile of thin maize loaves (like great sheets of paper), 
 and a red earthen dish with some fresh native cheese, 
 of which she begged me to partake very earnestly. Not 
 to vex her I took a mouthful, and thanked her heartily. 
 The bread was flavoured with a bitter seed they like. 
 
142 JM/n' I.OriSA U'lfATFJ.y 
 
 The boatman who was there received the dish and its 
 contents, and seemed to relish it very much. A 
 beautiful white i)igeon hopped up and init its pink beak 
 into the heap of bread, and shared the meal, with the 
 prettiest air of confidence. ' She is not afraid of any 
 one,' said the woman, smiling at her pet. When I came 
 out, the master of the house accompanied mc, and 
 pointed cut those among the group of young fellows, 
 who were awaiting us, who could read. 'I'hese were not 
 very numerous, about twenty I think : many more came 
 to the boat with us, however. I gave our friend his large 
 book, which he hugged in his arms with delight, after 
 first reading the first Psalm out of it aloud. I never 
 saw any one more pleased, the vowelling, no doubt, 
 made the reading easier to him, and much increased its 
 value. The others had Oospels and Old Testament 
 stories, and it was cheering to see the eagerness with 
 which they commenced reading. 
 
 We next rowed in the little boat to a village nearly 
 opposite Toura. I afterwards found it consisted of two 
 parts, or indeed separate villages, one entirely Bedouin ; 
 their funny little round mud huts, flanked by brown 
 tents, were very numerous— about two hundred, I should 
 think. All the occupants except children were gone to 
 a funeral. We saw the lines of dark figure.s, like so 
 many ants, walking over the pale yellow sand, which 
 stretched far into the river. The other division of the 
 village had the usual huts of square form, and larger, 
 with here and there a house dignified with a window 
 or two. 'I'he narrow lanes between these huts were 
 
LAST DAYS ^A2, 
 
 Crowded with children, and women coming and going, 
 and a few men (most of these were in the fields at work). 
 I sat down under a palm tree, and took out a small 
 sketch-book, as nothing makes a better start than this. 
 They do not feel as if there were anything aggressive 
 when they see a lady 'writing palm trees,' as they say. 
 A crowd of children blocked the view, of course, and 
 women with babies, and a few men quickly joined. I 
 soon entered into conversation, and as it was quite a new 
 place, talked a little before attempting to read ; spoke cf 
 the Old and New Testaments, of (iod speaking out of a 
 cloud to Moses, and to us by written words. ' Do you 
 know anything of Mohammed ? ' asked a man who stood 
 over the squatting group of women, just before mc. 
 ' Yes,' I replied ; ' he was a clever man.' This answer 
 evidently surprised, and rather pleased him. Turning to 
 another man who had a very mocking expression, he 
 said, ' She says Mohammed was a clever man.' ' Eut,' 
 I continued, ' he cannot take away our sins.' As the 
 man, perhaps, had never thought particularly about 
 having his sins taken away, possibly did not think he 
 had any, he made no answer. I then asked if he knew 
 the story of Zachariah (it is a favourite with Moslems, 
 and, though given in a very brief, dry form, is not so 
 garbled as many extracts of Holy ^^'rit in their book). 
 He liked the name, and was willing I should read the 
 history, which I did, with no interruption, except from 
 troublesome little boys. Then skipping the intermediate 
 chapter, I read of John the Baptist in the wilderness. 
 ' He told about Esa's coming,' observed a man who had 
 
144 MARY LOUISA WlIATELY 
 
 joined ihc group, which was increasing as fast as a snow- 
 ball. 1 replied by showing the analogy of 'making the 
 way straight,' i.K:c., and convincing men of their need of 
 a Saviour. Of course they are not inclined to think they 
 need any Saviour, the moral standard being so low. I 
 repeated the abbreviated statement of a Christian's duty, 
 as given in the Cospel. Several voices applauded it 
 highly. I asked if they obeyed this. 'Certainly,' replied 
 a woman near me ; 'we all love Clod.' I explained that 
 saying • .\llah," t\;c., was not loving Mini, and then 
 alluded to a few very decided sins, asking after each, 
 ' Do no people here do this?' ' Many, many,' they said. 
 I ended with lying. 'Every one does !' exclaimed two or 
 three. ' Then, my dear friends, I will show you by a little 
 parable how it is. If you and I, and this woman, point- 
 ing to two seated (juite close to me, were all in Toura 
 prison just oppf)site, you for a debt of i,ooo guineas, and 
 I for 500, and she for 300, could we help one another 
 out?' 'No, certainly, we have nothing I' 'And if a 
 very kind and very rich friend took the paper against u.s, 
 and put his name instead of ours, would the jailor let us 
 out?' 'Oh, yes, we should be free.' I made the appli- 
 cation, which seemed to interest them, and I hope some 
 took it in a little. 
 
 This is all pioneer work, as we have never been here 
 before. 
 
 After much talk, one of the men said, ' If you have 
 there a book, a really nice one, I should much like one.' 
 I said, ' I have here some CiOS[)el'^, with the life of our 
 Saviour Jesus, and some stories from the Old Testa 
 
LAST D/LYS 145 
 
 ment. He began looking at the latter with interest, and 
 took one ; but before I left every copy of all my books 
 had gone, and the last few almost fought for. I am not 
 deceived, as many new-comers in the mission field would 
 naturally be, and suppose all who accepted a copy of the 
 Gospel were deeply interested in Christianity, or almost 
 converted. On the contrary, it is with a first visit only 
 the first letter of the alphabet, but it may lead to all the 
 rest, in some, at least, of the receivers. 
 
 One of the boys, who had a large tin slate with some 
 rather elaborate Arabic writing on it, showing him to be 
 a scholar of some proficiency, declined a book I offered 
 him, saying, * I can read only the Koran.' ' If you 
 can read well, you can read any book,' I answered, but 
 did not urge him, and gave to two or three lads who were 
 very earnest in begging books. Then he came, and 
 begged hard for one, and got it, for he was the best 
 scholar apparently. Many boys asked for books, not 
 from caring for the subject, but because they have none, 
 and want to improve. In village Kiittabs (or native 
 Moslem schools) no books are used, save one in the 
 master's hands, and if he is blind, as often is the case, 
 then he dictates from memory. A book is therefore of 
 value as such to a scholar, but God often makes a blessed 
 use of this poverty of literature. 
 
 I had to move to a second resting-place after awhile, 
 as the children pressed so close, and their garments were 
 so indescribably filthy that I wanted a httle air to refresh 
 me. They soon followed, but the boatmen begged them 
 to sit far enough to let some air come, and with great 
 
146 MAJ^V LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 trouble kept a breathing space. Then I read another 
 portion, and told some Scripture stories. One of the 
 men again tried to get me into controversy, asking if 
 I believed Mohammed to be an apostle of God. I 
 avoided answering by reading verses of Christ's miracles 
 of healing, and pointing out how these proved His 
 Divine mission. The audience being chiefly women, 
 controversial talk would have done harm, by driving 
 them all away. They knew too little to care. One 
 thing struck me, as showing how different some are from 
 others in superstitions. 
 
 In speaking of God as the one God, I said that many 
 acted as our poor servant did about his eyes. How, 
 thinking to help the doctor's care, he had, after getting a 
 bottle of eye-water from him, gone to a silly old woman, 
 who told him sairan would greatly benefit his eyes. They 
 all laughed heartily at this — the preparation of tar used 
 for galled camels' backs being, of course, familiar. Then 
 the application was made of their going to sheikhs, saints, 
 and wearing charms. I said I saw, last week, a baby 
 with no less than seven little leather bags tied round its 
 body, and that I had told the mother, ' Trust in God, 
 and keep him clean,' as better than charms. 'Ah ! those 
 are all good for nothing,' exclaimed the man who had 
 first spoken. He could not read, but his son could read, 
 though badly, and I gave him the Old Testament stories. 
 I wished I could have gone to the Bedouin women, but 
 they were only beginning to come back from the funeral, 
 and seemed much excited. It was a woman who had 
 died, apparently a person of some importance among 
 
LAST DA YS 147 
 
 them, a chiefs mother, probably. Her daughter led the 
 mourning women's troop across the sandy slope, and her 
 wails were pitiful. How can any one bear it, to lose a 
 mother, and have no good hope for the future ? 
 
 Among my listeners were a few Bedouin children, 
 notably a very pretty girl of ten or twelve, with a sweet, 
 intelligent face. 
 
 This village, whose name one of the men who could 
 write wrote down for me, is extremely picturesque, the 
 houses and huts built in among palms, some of great size 
 and beauty. I made a hasty sketch of one or two before 
 my arrival had yet attracted the little ones, who soon 
 blocked out all view but themselves. It is some com- 
 fort to think that a few seeds of corn are sprinkled for 
 the first time on this little neglected spot. 
 
 When the last village was visited she returned 
 home 'to rest,' as she said. In a day or two she 
 consented to call in medical aid : but at first it was 
 hoped that it was only a sharp bronchial attack, 
 which would soon yield to prompt treatment. A 
 relapse, however, at the end of the week, developed 
 what had been threatened before — congestion of 
 the lungs. On Friday, March 8th, there was 
 terrible anxiety all the day for those watching her. 
 She was generally dozing or half unconscious, 
 though always answering clearly and sensibly 
 when addressed ; but speech was forbidden as 
 
I4S Jl/A/iV LOUISA IVHATELY 
 
 much as possible. Towards evening the worst 
 symptoms appeared yielding, and both the doctors 
 reported her going on well when they left for the 
 night. That night was quiet, but she awoke in 
 pain in the morning. It was thought to be local 
 and accidental, and yielded to hot applications, on 
 which she said to Mrs. Shakoor, who was now her 
 chief nurse, ' I am quite comfortable now, and shall 
 sleep.' They little thought these were her last 
 words. A sudden paleness and coldness made 
 her friend fear what had not occurred to any 
 before — that the heart was affected ; she called back 
 the doctor, who confirmed her fears. In a few 
 minutes she saw a change was coming. She bent 
 over her and said, ' You are going to Jesus, dear 
 mamma, going to glory.' One bright look of con- 
 sciousness was given in return, and all was over, 
 and the happy spirit fled to be with Him whom 
 she had loved and served so many years. 
 
 How she was mourned needs not to be said. 
 The wailing of the poor women and young teachers 
 and girls was heart-rending to hear : hurried as 
 the funeral necessarily was, it was attended by 
 many who had honoured and valued her and her 
 work, and the wreaths of the lovely flowers she had 
 
LAST DA YS 149 
 
 delighted in in life, and which covered the coffin, 
 showed how many had her in loving remembrance. 
 
 The work has been one emphatically of seed- 
 sowing. It was impossible to give, as with work 
 among the heathen can often be done in a much 
 shorter time, histories of open conversions to 
 Christianity. The few who have dared to come 
 forward have been obliged to keep carefully hidden : 
 no particulars can be named even without danger. 
 
 But the testimony of one who has lived the 
 greater part of his life in the East, and knows the 
 whole state of the case as {q\^ can, will here be 
 valuable, as to the real depth as well as extent of 
 the work. 
 
 He writes : ' In my experience amongst Easterns 
 of all classes and religions, and various agencies in 
 the East, Miss M. L. Whately's mission stands 
 first. It has reached the very heart of Islam, and 
 has been the first to plant the Gospel of our Divine 
 Master in the very midst of the Mohammedan 
 families in Egypt. Such a thing was never heard 
 of before, nor has been done by any one since the 
 rise and progress of the Mohammedan religion. 
 
 God has manifestly watered and blessed 
 
 the seed which she scattered in faith in Egypt, and 
 
150 MARY LOUISA IVHATELY 
 
 even before she was called to the higher service the 
 
 fruit of her labour of love began to appear 
 
 It is a positive fact that the Scriptures are now read 
 in Mecca and Medina ; the authorities cannot pre- 
 vent it, and this is well known now in the East. 
 An eminent professor in England, who wrote in 
 Arabic on the Arabs and their literature, assured 
 me that the Scriptures were being read along with 
 his book by the Ulemas of Mecca and Medina.' 
 
 (In one case, at least, Mary Whately had the 
 positive assurance during her life that a Bible given 
 by her had reached Jeddo, the port of Mecca, and 
 was traced to her and her helpers on the Nile as 
 having given it.) 
 
 We cannot better conclude than by quoting the 
 words of Dean Butcher, the English chaplain, and 
 always the steadfast friend of her and her work, in 
 the funeral sermon preached the week after her 
 death. 
 
 Let us rely on the promises : 'A little one shall be- 
 come a thousand, and a small one a strong nation. I 
 the Lord will hasten it in his time.' The progress is 
 slow : ' First the blade, then the ear, after that the full 
 corn in the ear.' Once, preaching here for Miss Whately'5 
 schools, I compared the small beginning to the work at 
 that oratory near Philippi, where Paul talked to Lydia, 
 
LAST DAYS 151 
 
 and a few women who resorted thither, and reminded 
 you that that was the introduction of Christianity into 
 Europe. So humble, so quiet was the work of the 
 pioneer of the Enghsh Mission in Egypt. She is 
 gone — but we are very certain that the work so nobly 
 begun will be carried on. 'God buries the workman, 
 but carries on the work.' That inspiring sentence, 
 written on the monument of John Wesley, in West- 
 minster Abbey, should be the inscription on Mary 
 Whately's tomb. The work will be carried on, so give 
 it your help. There are workers already in the field, 
 able and earnest, so give them your help, as a pledge 
 that, as far as in you lies, you are resolved the mission 
 to Egypt's women and Egypt's sons shall not languish. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 THE GREAT COLLEGE OF CAIRO 
 
 The following sketch originally appeared in the 
 Manchester Guardian : 
 
 No institution or public building of any kind in Egypt 
 is so interesting or so remarkable from several points of 
 view as the famous Mahometan College of El Azhar, 
 the centre of learning, not for Egypt alone, but for all 
 countries where the doctrines of the Arabian Prophet 
 hold sway, excepting only Persia. Of the six minaret 
 towers belonging to this great mosque (it is a mosque 
 and college in one), whence five times a day the muezzins 
 ascend the winding steps and, mounted on a little terrace, 
 proclaim in not unmusical tones the hour of prayer, two 
 are of considerable height and extremely beautiful. But, 
 unless any one could gain permission to mount a neigh- 
 bouring roof, and thence take a sketch or photograph, 
 they cannot be delineated, as they are only to be seen 
 when within the precincts or from a height in some street 
 near ; and to gain such leave would be very difficult, as 
 
154 MARY LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 the dwellers in that quarter are all Moslems, and most of 
 them in some way connected with the building or its 
 inhabitants. A fine old archway admits the visitor — who 
 is carefully shod with thin yellow slippers, tied round his 
 ankles with strings, before he may touch the sacred 
 stones — into a large courtyard or open space, capable of 
 containing at least two thousand persons at once if 
 necessary, perhaps twice that number standing up. But 
 the Moolid el Nebce, one of the chief festivals, is only 
 just over a few days ago, and nearly half the scholars 
 have not returned from the holiday always allowed on 
 that occasion. The guide told us that the entire number 
 of students was 12,000 ; it is probable that he included 
 all the muezzins, servants, and teachers, as well as actual 
 pupils — all who 7-eside on the premises, in fact, possil)ly 
 even some living close by and attending daily. Still, 
 even if we deduct some few hundreds for these, the 
 number is far beyond the estimate which is frequently 
 given of 8,000. At this time there are 6,000 pupils, 
 besides the teachers, (S:c. ; the rest, as stated, being at 
 home for holiday. All who come from a distance remain 
 permanently. There are pupils from South Syria, Arabia, 
 the Soudan, Darfoor, Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and a 
 few from India and Kurdestan ; but by far the majority 
 are natives of this country. 
 
 In the court first entered we saw about six or seven 
 hundred men, chiefly young, but a few old and middle- 
 aged among them, sitting in little groups scattered all 
 over the pavement, which had a curious, smooth, dark 
 appearance. It is never washed, but never soiled by 
 
APPENDIX 155 
 
 mud, and only swept from dust. No one crosses it but 
 barefoot, or with stockings at most on his feet, except 
 the European visitor, slippered with special slippers 
 never used outside. Many of these groups were studying 
 from portions of the Koran or written sheets of their own 
 copying of select sentences. A good many were break- 
 fasting upon native bread, with a few beans or raw onions 
 or dry curd as a relish. A large number of the students 
 who are very poor live on the foundation — that is, they 
 get daily rations of bread — others buy from the market, 
 while a great many (who are poor but not free pupils) 
 bring their own from their distant villages in large stores. 
 These some of them were drying in the sun as we passed 
 — hard little loaves of maize flour, rather like ship 
 biscuits, and needing the fine Egyptian teeth. Most of 
 the teachers and older men sat on little sheepskins with 
 the wool on, the rest on mats. A door on one side, 
 standing open, showed heaps of bedding, which is laid 
 down at night in the courts or rooms, as convenient. 
 We then proceeded to another part of the court, where 
 some of the younger students — about 300 at a rough 
 estimate — were reciting the elementary lessons to twenty 
 or thirty teachers, and writing on tin slates. When they 
 were reciting all rocked to and fro, but remained sitting. 
 Then we entered the chief hall or mosque proper, which, 
 like all mosques, was built with rows of slender pillars 
 and a niche beautifully inlaid with mother-of-pearl and 
 coloured stones. This last is in the direction of Mecca, 
 and prayers are said specially before it ; but as the ivhole 
 college — courts, rooms, &c. — is considered holy, a prayer- 
 
156 AfARY LOUISA WHATELV 
 
 carpet may be dispensed with, apparently, ^o. saw three 
 or four praying, merely kneehng and prostrating them- 
 selves on the bare stones. It looked strange to see 
 many groups among the hundreds in that immense hall 
 eating and chatting, though in lowered tones, to each 
 other, while a large cat trotted quietly across the place, to 
 obtain her share of what was going. She was not pro- 
 vided with slippers, nor hissed out, as a dog would have 
 been ; their Prophet liked cats, so they are allowed con- 
 siderable liberties. It struck one as curious to see so 
 much reverence mixed with so much familiarity. The 
 groups in this hall were in their house of worship, and 
 close to the splendid pulpit whence the mollahs address 
 them on Fridays. One man was close to the sacred 
 niche going through his prayers, within a couple of yards 
 of him were two students eagerly devouring bunches of 
 green leeks, and a pedlar, all hung with red cotton hand- 
 kerchiefs and other small articles, strolled across the hall 
 at the same time towards an inner room, where the pro- 
 vision presses of ancient form and many boxes, provided 
 with old wooden keys, were arranged, ^^'e stopped at 
 two or three groups in each part of the hall, to see what 
 they were learning. One book — no other had any place ; 
 the Koran was the study, not a study — but many selected 
 portions, bound or tied up in leather cases, were in use, 
 and explanations, taken down from the lips of the teacher, 
 were jotted in a slanting form on the side of the manu- 
 script pages by a great many. In one circle the teacher 
 was explaining and reading the law of Mahometan in- 
 heritance and will-making, &c. ; for their laws are all 
 
APPENDIX 157 
 
 taken from the Koran. In another a venerable bh'nd 
 man was lecturing a more advanced set on rhetoric. 
 There are teachers of all grades, from those who receive 
 a salary, which apparently allows them to live well, and 
 certainly to dress well, for their long fine cloth outer 
 coats, of the most beautiful colour and texture, and silken 
 vests showed the pay to be fairly good. Others only 
 receive a certain number of loaves a day ; five is the 
 smallest allowance (their loaves being small, that number 
 would be sufficient for the keep of a man living principally 
 on bread) ; others, again, get ten. One old sheikh was 
 coming in as we were leaving ; he was a perfect picture, 
 in a robe of a peculiar tint of blue, over which his white 
 beard fell ; his other raiment was chiefly white, and spot- 
 lessly clean. Being quite blind, he made his way with a 
 stick, and every one saluted him respectfully as he passed. 
 Another of the teachers had a green turban, showing him 
 to be a descendant of the Prophet. He was instructing 
 an advanced class, who listened with great attention to 
 his harangue. IMany of the groups, however, were 
 evidently learning mechanically, and repeating words in 
 a sing-song monotone, while taking observation of every 
 one who came or went all the time. The restriction of 
 the learning to one book must make the study somewhat 
 monotonous, especially as there is little of general infor- 
 mation in it. The language is said by Arab scholars to 
 be beautiful ; in fact, the Arab language is said to have 
 been preserved in its purity by means of this book being 
 w-ritten in the dialect of the tribe which spoke the best 
 Arabic of that day. This kept the other inferior dialects 
 
158 MARY LOUISA WHATELY 
 
 from driving out the better, and even where they are 
 spoken the Koran is always understood by those men 
 who have any education, whether Christians or Mahome- 
 tans. Still, no beauty of language can atone for the con- 
 fused and intricate meaning of many parts, and the 
 poverty of the narrative portions, which are taken from 
 Scripture (mostly the Old Testament), but which are so 
 scanty and abbreviated as often to lose the whole point 
 of the story. 
 
 We must allow, and many intelligent Mahometans of 
 our day do allow also, that men's minds are improved 
 and developed by reading several books ; perhaps we 
 overdo the number in Europe, in this century at any rate. 
 But the students who are kept exclusively to the Koran, 
 often staying all their lives in the college, first learning it 
 and then teaching it, are known to become dull and 
 narrow in mind, if not downright silly, for want of some 
 change in the mental diet. Many who never attain 
 learning enough to get beyond the place of mere rudi- 
 mentary teachers, or even so-called scholars, live and die 
 in the college. These are poor men who had entered to 
 avoid military conscription, and not from either literary 
 or religious interest. 
 
 Taken as a whole, the college is to a thoughtful 
 mind the most remarkable sight in Egypt, because it is 
 just a piece of Egypt in the days of the Caliphs, kept 
 up exactly as it was then, except that there is more of 
 Egyptian blood in the brown-faced youths who glance up 
 at us as we pass with bright black eyes and half-curious, 
 half-indifferent expression. The dress is the same ; they 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 159 
 
 sit on the stone-paved ground on their sheepskins and 
 reed mats, as their ancestors did, eating their small 
 loaves and green onions and lentils, and poring over the 
 pages of their Koran, in its red-leather case, just as they 
 might have done had one year instead of hundreds passed 
 over Egypt since those beautiful towers were first built. 
 And probably if w^e talked with them we should find but 
 little change, except it were that the less warlike nature of 
 the Egyptian had modified the Arab of the desert. The 
 short time spent here seemed to me like a dream of the 
 past ages, and I could hardly realise that the noisy streets 
 through which I drove in a modern vehicle, the shops 
 teeming with Manchester manufactures and various 
 ' Frank ' luxuries, the people in every garb conceivable, 
 from the Paris bonnet down to the negress's white or red 
 sheet, the cafes with flags of all nations, and the Babel of 
 tongues, could belong to the same city whose ancient 
 college I had just quitted, and that I had not rather slejDt 
 and dreamed of the days when Cairo was El Kahira. 
 
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 AN ILLUSTRATED FAMILY MAGAZINE FOR 
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 This Volpme for Januaht to October, 1889. 
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[13 
 
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M] 
 
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 [15 
 
 THE 
 
 / 
 
 r antr Artisan Annual. 
 
 VOLUME FOR 1889. 
 
 It eonulns 144 pages 
 interesting readingand illu 
 tratious. A most suital, 
 book to present to the Wo 
 men's Institute, Club, or 
 Reading Room, and for the 
 Home Reading of Work- 
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 .Size of page 13J by 1 
 
 Telling pictu resand prac- 
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 increase the circulation of a 
 most valuable perioilical." — 
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 Leader. 
 
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 Nca'». 
 
 i^ij^ 9irart I^aga^iiti 
 
 Annual ^r 1889. 
 
 340 pagesBsj by ; 
 
 Contains Cottage 
 Politics by M. E. 
 Ropes, and contri- 
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 Nugent .J.\rKso?j, 
 
 SaMFEL GOODAI.L, 
 C'NAKLES COUR- 
 
 TENAi, John Tel- 
 
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 W. b. Lewis, P. B. 
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 ILLUSTRATED READINGS FOR 
 THE PEOPLE. 
 
 208 pages. lOJ by 7J. 
 This niustrated 
 Mftga/iine is bound 
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 with Pictured and 
 short anecdotal pa 
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 and profusely 
 Illustrated. 2s. 6d 
 cloth boards. 
 
 " Lively, enter 
 taining readings. 
 The illustrations 
 are also very 
 attractive." — The 
 Vhridlian, 
 
 l?HE KsLiaious Tract Sociktt, LiO>fD0K. 
 

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