ossess by instinct, as did once the daughters of Hellas, a
sense of nobility in attitude and carriage. None of the women of Europe
could wear these coarse black stuffs with such a majestic harmony, and
none surely could so raise their bare arms to place on their heads the
heavy jars filled with Nile water, and then, departing, carry themselves
so proudly, so upright and resilient under their burden.

The muslin tunics which they wear are invariably black like the veils,
set off perhaps with some red embroidery or silver spangles. They are
unfastened across the chest, and, by a narrow opening which descends
to the girdle, disclose the amber-coloured flesh, the median swell of
bosoms of pale bronze, which, during their ephemeral youth at least, are
of a perfect contour. The faces, it is true, when they are not hidden
from you by a fold of the veil, are generally disappointing. The rude
labours, the early maternity and lactations, soon age and wither them.
But if by chance you see a young woman she is usually an apparition of
beauty, at once vigorous and slender.

As for the fellah babies, who abound in great numbers and follow, half
naked their mammas or their big sisters, they would for the most part be
adorable little creatures, were it not for the dirtiness which in this
country is a thing almost prescribed by tradition. Round their eyelids
and their moist lips are glued little clusters of Egyptian flies, which
are considered here to be beneficial to the children, and the latter
have no thought of driving them away, so resigned are they become, by
force of heredity, to whatever annoyance they thereby suffer. Another
example indeed of the passivity which their fathers show when brought
face to face with the invading foreigners!

Passivity and meek endurance seem to be the characteristics of this
inoffensive people, so graceful in their rags, so mysterious in their
age-old immobility, and so ready to accept with an equal indifference
whatever yoke may come. Poor, beautiful people, with muscles that never
grow tired! Whose men in olden times moved the great stones of the
temples, and knew no burden that was too heavy; whose women, with their
slender, pale-tawny arms and delicate small hands, surpass by far in
strength the burliest of our peasants! Poor beautiful race of bronze!
No doubt it was too precocious and put forth too soon its astonishing
flower--in times when the other peoples of the earth were till
vegetating