THE CHRISTIAN COPTS sans. The British governing class considered that the Copt and the Mussulman, being alike natives, were gen¬ erally not capable of holding any responsible position. And now it is said also that it would be bad policy to put the Christian Egyptian over the Moslem.

The Copts are the sharpest business men of Egypt. It is a common saying here that no Jew can compete with them and they have driven the Jews out of the upper part of the Nile valley. In Asyut there are a number of rich Copts who have become Protestant Christians, and some of these men are very charitable. One, for instance, built a Protestant native church, after a visit to England, where he was much impressed by Westminster Abbey. Upon his return he said he was going to build a church for Asyut on the plan of Westminster. The missionaries ad¬ vised him to make his building rectangular instead. But no! it must be Westminster Abbey or nothing; and the re¬ sult is a great T-shaped structure of wood with a long hall in the centre and wings at the end. The church cost about twenty thousand dollars and will seat one thousand five hundred people. I attended it last Sunday and found the main hall filled with dark-faced men in gowns and fezzes. The wings were shut off by curtains, but I was seated in front and so near one side that I could look through the cracks. Each wing was filled with women clad in black balloon-like garments and veiled so as to conceal all but their eyes. Yet a few women wore Euro¬ pean clothes and French hats, showing how the new civilization is coming in.

Another rich Copt established two large primary schools at Asyut, one for boys and the other for girls. In the boys’ school there are five hundred and fifty pupils, 113