FELLAHS. 141

When I spoke of the manner in which the
Arabs married, I forgot to say that those who live
in the vicinity of the river, after having received
the nuptual benediction, conduct their brides to
the banks of the Nile, where, having washed their
faces, bride and bridegroom both take some water
in their mouths and spit it into each others faces;
a method of wishing each other as much good as
the waters of the Nile afford to the fields.

The Arabs who live in the large towns of Upper
Egypt are the descendants of that portion of the
Copts who had received by compulsion the Isla-
mism faith:—they form that class of Arabs who
are known by the contemptuous name of Fellahs,
and enjoy no sort of esteem from the inhabitants
of the small villages on the two sides of the Nile,
and who style themselves Arab-hor, which sig-
nifies blood-Arabs. The Fellahs hold them in
great awe, and when they address them give them
the complimentary appellation of la Bedevii,
which signifies "my superior in rank." The
origin of this humiliation is, that eighty years ago
they were barbarously ill-treated by the Arab-
hor, and they dread a renewal of such treatment.
Amongst the number of the Fellahs are those
who inhabit Cous and Luxor, descendants from