6 The Countries, their Peoples and their Religions.

inglorious part played by ‘ Rahab that sitteth still’ is abundantly illustrated by the Hebrew prophets. (6) Finally she fell, first to Assyria (VII century B.c.), then Babylon (VI), and later to Alexander and (7) the Greeks (IV). From that time Hzekiel’s prediction has been fulfilled and Egypt has been a servile nation, without a native dynasty of its own! For the Greeks were succeeded by (8) the Romans (I* B.c.), then by (9) the Arabs in the Moslem conquest (VII a.p.); then by (10) a succession of Syrian or Tartar or Circassian rulers (during the middle ages); then by (11) the Turks; and finally (12) by the present dynasty, which is Albanian. On the top of all comes (13) the British occupation (from 1883), working in conjunction with, the ruling dynasty.

The Peoples.

No one knows from what family the ancient Egyptians are descended. Many hold that they came into the country from the Hast long before Menes (see above), and conquered an aboriginal race. Perhaps they were Mongolian in type; they were Hamitic certamly, not Semitic. Up to the time of Christ their race kept its purity in a wonderful way, for Egypt was the great closed land, the China of the ancient world; even the Greco-Roman conquest made little or no difference to the race.

It was different, of course, with the Moslem conquest. No doubt a plentiful strain of Arab blood was mixed with the Coptic, or ancient Hgyptian. In the villages faces are met with which exactly resemble those on the monuments. The Turkish, Circassian, etc., element is mostly a class one, touching only the higher classes of the nation.

The Religions.

Egypt has a population of 11,287,359, and of these 10,269,445 are Mohammedans. The fact is the more sad seeing that the country was once one of the glories of Christendom. Of the Christians about 600,000 are Copts; there are also rather more than 50,000 members of the Greek Church, and about the same number of Roman Catholics. There are some 25,000 Jews. Among the 2,000,000 inhabitants of the Soudan there are a considerable number of pagan tribes.

The Oriental Churches.

Some of the Hellenist Jews who were at Jerusalem on the