CHAPTER XIV THE CHRISTIAN COPTS MANY of the students of the Asyut Training College are Copts. They belong to that class of natives who are said to be the only direct descendants of the ancient Egyp¬ tians. The Copts are more intelligent than the Moham¬ medans. They take naturally to education, and about four Copts go to school to every one Moslem. They are also shrewd clerks and, many of them being educated men, they have a large number of the minor government ap¬ pointments. The British, however, tried to be partial to the Mohammedans because they form the great majority of the population, and to give them offices in preference to the Copts. During Lord Cromer's administration, a committee of Copts objected to his crowding out these native Christians and giving their places to the followers of the Prophet. Applicants for any government posts or for training schools have to give their names, and the Copts can thus be easily distinguished from the Moham¬ medans. The Christian boys get their names from the characters of the Bible, while the names of the Moham¬ medan boys come from the Koran. When the examina¬ tion papers were turned in, the judges were said to have been instructed to mark down all those bearing such names as Moses and Jacob, Peter and Paul, and to recommend for appointment the Mohammeds, the Alis, and the Has-