Modern Egypt and Its People.pdf - 1 views
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The subject to be treated in this paper is " Modern Egypt and its People." It i
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Compared to Eastern princes, he towers infinitely above them all except his grandfather
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The first question for consideration is: Who and what are the Modern Egyptians?
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I think modern Egyptian are people with genetic affinities primarily with population of north Africa and the middle East.
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Some of the latest and best authorities fix the foundation of Memphis by Menes at 4000 years B. C., and the building of the pyramids at 500 years later; the obelisk of Heliopolis and the tombs of Beni Hassan at 3000, all of which necessarily implies onie or two thousand years of previous consolidation to create an empire capable of such achievements.
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Finally the Turks, under Sultan Selim, conquered Egypt in 1517, and hold it to this day.
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wondrou
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Its soil was trod by Abraham and Jacob, Joseph and Moses, as well as by Herodotus, Pythagoras and Plato. After the glories of the Pharaohs and the conquests of Cambyses, came those of Alexander. Then followed the Ptolemies, Anthony and Cleopatra, Pompey and Caesar and Augustus.
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he Nile,
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In the Soudan, negro blood begins to predominate. To these elements must be added 90,000 Circassians, Jews, Syrian s and Armenians, 40,000 Turks and about 100,000 Europeans; and in the deserts, 300,000 Bedouins who are of a type entirely different from all the rest, being nearly all of pure Arab blood
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the Nile what was the Nile it was the major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. which flowed into the Mediterranean Sea.
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Mohammed Ali was born at Cavalla, in Macedonia, on the Gulf of Salonica, in 176
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t Memlooks would soon treat him as they had done all his predecessors, he resolved to suiypress them. Suimmoned to the citadel of Cairo on the 1st of March, 1811, for a state ceremony, they repaired there on horseback, about 800 strong. The ouiter gate, Bab-el-azab, was closed on them, and the first inner gate al
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, Mohammed Ali organized his army upon the European model, with the assistance of numerous French officers, and commenced all these reforms in civil as well as military matters which have placed Egypt so far ahead of other Mussulman countries. He died insane in 1849.
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Ibrahim-Pasha, his son, exercised a short time the functions of regent, but died before his father. He was a great soldier, and twice-in 1832 and 1839-he would have driven the Sultan out of Constantinople had he not been stopped in the height of victory by the European power
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Ibrahim-pasha son took over the reins but did not live longer, he passed away before his father he was known as a good soldier.
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r Mohammed Ali came Abbas-Pasha, a cruel tyrant, who died by violence in 1854; then Said-Pasha, and in 1863 Ismall-Pasha, the son of Ibrahim, who was forced to abdicate a year or two ago.
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Ismagl-Pasha, the deposed Khedive, was once the most belauded of men, as he became afterwards the best abused; yet he might say, in the words of the French poet: " Wais je n'ai m6ritO Ni cet excbs d'honneur ni cette indignit6."
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the most fearless man changed and become the most abused man this were his words in the French poem.
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" Modern Egypt and its People.
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Pompey's pillar, nearly 100 feet total height, the shaft being of a single piece of red Syenite granite, highly polished, 73 feet in length, was erected about the year 300 of our era, in honor of Diocletian, and had no more connection with Pompey the Great than Cleopatra's needles with Cleopat
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Egypt should perish of hunger. Ismail's greatest error was in not tendering a compromise of 50 per cent. of his debL, which would have been accepted gladly, and 3 or 4 per cent. interest, instead of 12 and 14 and 20, which he had been paying for years.
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His son, the present Khedive, has much less ability than his father, and is a mere figurehead, the consuls and commissioners having virtual control. The ex-Khedive and his sons are well educated for Orientals, and in their habits and mode of living, are quite European except as regards the hareem. They all speak French fluentl
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Alexandria, or Iskanderia, as the Arabs call it, is the great seaport of Egypt, founded and named by Alexander 332 B.
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The Arab quarters are inhabited by about 200,000 natives, and the European population amount to 60,000 more
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Out of a debt of one hundred millions of pounds Egypt never realized over forty-five millions, and the suffering inflicted upon his people by excessive taxation was partly due to his extravagance,
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They were originally at Heliopolis, but were brought to Alexandria under Tiberius. They bear the hieroglyphics of Thotmes III. (1500) and Rameses II. (Sesostris the Great), 1400 B.C.
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The distance is 130 miles; time, four hours and a half, over a perfectly level country, for Cairo, 12 miles above the apex of the Delta, is only 40 feet above the sea level.
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the traveler did not even realize that he had left Alexandria for Cairo because of the distance.
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e "'New Hotel
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emple, and you would not be astonished if from it issue the Caliph Haroun-al-Rasbid with his faithful Mesrour, or the very same three Calenders whose adventures are recorded in the "Arabian Nights," and I could vow that I have seen the very oil jars in which Ali-Baba's forty thieves were scalded to death. There are the same bazars, with the same little shops, mere recesses in the wall, where the merchant, sitting cross-legged, can reach without rising every shelf in his shop. There he sits all day smoking his chibook and wa
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ge English horses and full of lovely, half-veiled, fair Circassian and Georgian women. Two mounted janizaries, with long pistols in their holsters and curved scimetars at their sides, gallop some twenty yards in front. Behind come four syces, in pairs, with cressets full of burDing light-wood, then two more syces with wands. At each side of the carriage rides a mounted eunuch, and a pair of them follow the carriage, and behind them, another couple of mounted janizaries. They pass you at full speed, the flashing of dark eyes mingling with that of diamon
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. Just between the New Hotel and Shepherd's Hotel, in the most frequented part of the European quarter, stands a building whose history brings all the darkness of the Middle Ages in juxtaposition with modern civilization. It is a palace of Arab architecture, surrounded by a palm grove and enclosed within a lofty stone wall. In that palace, less than twenty-five years ago, lived the widowed daughter of Mohammed Ali-the widow of the famous Defterda
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She was a beautiful and talented woman, but licentious and cruel
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Mohammed ali daughter which was a widow was beautiful but not only beautiful she was cruel at the same time.
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This princess whose power at couirt was very great, was one of the chief actors in the assassination of her nephew, Abbas-Pasha, in 185
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. It is a small city in itself, three or four times more extensive than the Tower of London. It contains a vast palace, once inhabited by Mohammed Ali, and his tomb in the mosk, which he built of Oriental alabaster and whose minarets are miracles of architectural bol
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All the punishments were ordered by me, generally upon the reports of the native officers; and the most frequent offences were disrespect to the latter. The company officers are so little above the level of their men that they inspire but little respect. As an instance: A captain of infantry of my detachment used to come up every evening to the kitchen-tent to play checkers with my black Ntubian cook until I had him put under fifteen days' arrest for it. The punishments for officers are arrest and loss of pay. In theory, no corporal punishment can be inflicted upon a soldier; but in practice it is necessarily otherwise. On the marches the punishments consisted of from two to five dozen stripes with a rope's end. The culprit is stretched on the ground at full lerigth, on his face, and held down by a soldier at his feet and another at his head, while two sergeants administer the stripes over his clothes. This punishment is just severe enough to be effective with a people who cannot be governed without the rod;
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! The unequalled moon of Egypt has just risen above the Mokattan range, and its silver light mingles with the fiery glow of departing day. As you now stand nothing lies before you but the tombs of the Caliphs and the Arab cemeteries scattered in dreary ravines of yellow sand
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It was comiposed mainly of Asiatics from the warlike tribes of Kurdistan, Circassia and Syria, and Arnauts from Albania. After the European powers checked the conquering career of Ibrahim-Pasha, the army was reduced to 40,000 men and rarely reached that number. Of late years it has varied from 30,000 to 15,000 men or less, according to the state of the treasury. Until the late reductions imposed by the Anglo-French commission, the Egyptian army consisted of 22 regiments of infantry of 3 battalions each; 4 battalions of rifles; 4 regiments of cavalry and 144 pieces of artillery. It is recruited by a totally arbitrary and irregular system of conscription. The inhabitants of Cairo and Alexandria are exempte
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ore. I once had an orderly, a Copt Christian named Girgis, or George, about fifty-five years old. TIe said he had beeni more than twenty-five years in service and, having no friends to apply for his release, he did not know that he would ever be discharged.
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Their white cotton uniforms (short tunics, baggy zouave trouisers, and gaiters over their substanitial army shoes) are well suited to the climate and make a very good appearance. They are exceedingly weell drilled upon the French system of tactics. The infantry are armed with the best American Remington rifles. The cavalry are extremely well mounted and equipped. The artillery are well organized and have several batteries of the best Krupp guns. The officers are thoroughly acquainted with the routine of service, but the best of them are utterly ignorant of the higher branches of military science. They, as well as their soldiers, understand perfectly all the details of military life.
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In one word, they possess all thebest qualities of soldiers except one-the fighting quality. This probably is due in part to the oppression of centuries, the Egyptian people having beenl ruled bv a foreign conqueror for 2,400 y
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The subordinate officers are hardly a shade better than the men, and the high Pashas think only of their ease and personal safety. At the battle of Guy Khoor, in Abyssinia, the Pashas and Colonels, with Prince Hassan at their head, led the flight before the fight had fairly begun, and when my gallant frienid General Dye, severely wounded, tried to stern the tide of the retreating troops, the soldiers said to hi
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Egyptian army from a defeat as complete as that of Isandula, for the Abyssinians fight as desperately as the Zulus. It is true that two or three Arab officers of high rank fought bravely and were killed on the field, buit they were the exception. Ratib-Pasha, who commanded the army, saw his extreme right flank-one battalion and a battery, which he had imprudently left isolated about twelve hundred yards off-surrounded by a multitude of Abyssinians, who rushed for that ga
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Simply because a despotic prince, however intelligent, is always deceived by falsehood and intrigue, and the Khedive has never yet known the truth about the Abyssiiiian war. The best regiments in the Egyptian service are those formed of negroes from Central Africa. These' are savages captured by slave traders and forcibly taken from them by the Government in order to destroy the slave trade. When retaken from the traders, it is impossible to send them back to their own country, for one-half of them have already died on the way and the rest would perish going back. So the Government makes soldiers of them and gives them the women as wives. Now, let m
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from the slave traders, being marched to the barracks by an Egyptian sergeant to be enrolled-great tall fellows, emaciated by fatigue and starvation, all literally as naked as Adam before he dreamt of a fig leaf, and not wearing even a smile, and nio wonder. They were in single file, each one fastened to the next by a piece of wood about five feet long, going from the back of the neck of the front man to the throat of the next behind him. Thus they had travelled hundreds and hundreds of miles, never released for a moment except when one would drop dead by the way and would be left as food for hyenas. As soon as they are enrolled they are clothed in a good white uniform, fed on good rations of bread and meat, they who had never eaten anything but grain in its raw state, like camels. They are taught Arabic and the rudiments of t
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We were treated with more respect than the native officers, in spite of our being Christians and foreigners.
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There are also large barracks, military schools, all the bureaus of the War Department, arsenals, vast magazines, workshops and a cannon foundry. Also the famous well of Joseph, 270 feet deep, so called, not from the Joseph of Scripture, but from Saladin, whose name was Yusu
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The line-officers, nearly all natives, did not show any dislike to the Christian staff-officers, even if they felt it. When the financial difficulties culminated in 1878, the English and French comptrollers, who had virtually assumed the government, ordered a great reduction of the army and the discharge of all the foreign officers, which resulted in the practical abolition of the staff. There were now left in the army only two elements-the native or fellah, and the Turco-Circassian. The Turks have hitherto occupied nearly all the high positions, civil and military, for they still retain their prestige as the conquerors of Egypt.
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The ex-Khedive, IsmaYl-Pasha, was a regular purchaser of twenty or thirty of them every year. It is the highest ambition of a Circassian girl to be sold to the Sultan or some of his chief officers. If she succeeds in becoming a favorite, her brothers hasten to sbare her fortunes by obtaining civil or military appointments. This accounts for there being so many Circassians in high places in Turkey and Egypt. Ratib-Pasha, the Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian army under Ismail-Pasha, was a Cireassiani. (See Appendix A.) Until the close of the Abyssinian war, the Egyptian army seemed to be absolutely submissive to its Prince.
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. Ismail was deposed, and Tewfik, vastly inferior in force of character, reigns in in his place. Soon-eafter his accession, a Circassian was promoted General over the heads of three native Colonels. The latter sent a protest to the Khedive, who ordered them to the citadel under arrest, but their regiments rose in arms and released them. The Khedive sent two picked regiments of his guards to overawe the mutineers, but they joined the latter and the Khedive had to yield to all their demands, to revoke the objectionable promotion and to appoint a new Minister of War. A few months later another military demonstration forced the governmenit to increase the pay of the army. And now a new rallying cry has been raised, "Egypt for the Egyptians !" Otut -with Turks and Cireassiatns! Out with foreign Comptrollers who grind out the fellaheen for the benefit of foreign bondholders! Arabi-Bey, who is the leader of the movement, is only a Colonel, but all the native regiments are under his influence, while the Turkish and Circassian pashas, unable to command the obedience of the troops, look helplessly on.* In the meantime, the Assembly of Notables, from whom no opposition was dreamed of (otherwise it never would have been called),
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" Holy War,"
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"Egyptian crisis," and such is the attitude of that army which in former days would have submitted to decimation without a murmur at the command of MIohammed Ali, Ibrahim-Pasha or even Ismail. It must be remembered that the soldiers are in fact the best and truest representatives of the people, from which they are drawn by conscription, and they are the most intelligent portion of the fellaheen masses, for they have acquired in the army new ideas which would nev-er have occurred to them if they had remained in their villages. It is evident that they are waking up to a sense of their power. Yet it seems most probable that bv some compromise with France, Egypt will finally become a British dependency, thus perpetuating indefinitely the subjection of the Egyptian people to a foreign conqueror.
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The most prominent were Generals Mott, Sibley, Loring, Stone, who held the rank of Pashas (Generals); Reynolds, Dye, Field, Long, Prout, Lockett, Ward, Purdy andl Mason, who ranked as Beys or Colonels
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te. Several of my esteemed comrades in those expeditions-Campbell, Losche, Lamnson-left their bones in the deserts of the Soudan, and others returnied with impaired constitutions.
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The experienced old Germaln surgeon (Dr.Pfund) attached to the expedition assured me that my only hope of life was to get on a boat and float down to Cairo, and that I would certainly die if I went into the deserts. But I knew that if I tuirned back and left the expedition in charge of the native officers, they would never budge one mile from the. Nile, and the expedition, which was very costly anid important, would be a complete failure, reflecting much discredit upon the American staff. I considered it one of those cases in which a soldier must prefer his duty to his life, and I started from the Nile for the capital of Kordofan in such a helpless condition that I had, to be lifted by the soldiers on and off my dromedary.
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l Obeyad, the capital of Kordofan, after unspeakable sufferings. There I was joined by that talented and accomplished officer, Col. H. G. Prout, to whom I turned over the comnmand. The surgeon anw everybody else gave me up to die, and I thought my days had reached their term. But I began to mend slowly, and after six months I started back for Cairo.
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El Obeyad from Suakim on the Red Sea, where I took a steamer for Suez and thence by rail to Cairo. All the Americans except Gen. Stone are now out of the Egyptian army, but I can assert with
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They stop every two or three hundred yards while the discordant music strikes up and a hired male dancer goes through some absurd contortions
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e ancient Hebrews, and the manners and ideas as well as the morals of the Mussulmans, with regard to women, are very much such as pictured in Scripture of Abraham, Jacob and Judah, David and Solomon and a host of other patriarchs. Th
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f Dr. Parsons, the American missionary, and they will never be hanged unless the United States send a squadron to require it. Our Secretary of State in his last report states that the demands of his department on this subject have been evaded.
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f Mussulmans have but one or two wives-at one time; but divorce is accomplished with a speed and facility which leave far behind the most expeditious and liberal courts of Chicago or any other place. The wife cannot divorce her husband, nor force him to divorce her, but he has only to say "Entee talleekah "-Thou divorcedand the matrimonial bond is dissolved. He is bound only to give her the unpaid tlhird of her dower, and an alimony proportional to
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On my second -expedition to Kordofan, one of the soldiers of my escort, rejoicing in the name of Abou-la-nane, came to me on the eve of our departure from Cairo, and stated that he had married a wife from a village far up the Nile. Would I permit him to take his wife on the boat and leave her at her village with her relatives; otherwise she would starve from misery in Cairo. This was probably a subterfuge, but I consented. Arriving at the village after several days, Abou-la-nane came and said that all his wife's relations were dead, and if she was left there she would starve more certainly than in Cairo. " Would his Excellency the Bey (that was myself) permit him to take her along?" I told him that if he did she would certainly surely die in the desert from the hardships we would
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One night at Dongola, on the Upper Nile, after retreat, the whole camp was startled by the wails and moanings of Hafizah, the soldier's wife. He had become jealous of the attentions of the sergeant of artiller
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The sentence was irrevocable. Fortunately theire were no witnesses, and he stoutly denied having used the triple formula, only the simple one. So they went before the cadi and got married again, and everything was altogether lovely. I may as well state here that my kitid treatment of Abou-la-nane and his wife was "bread cast on the waters." When in the heart of Kordofan, soldiers and servants were dying or prostrated by fevers, and I was at the point of death, this little weak, puny woman was never sick a day, and did all the coQking and washing at headquarters wheni no one else could be found to do it. When I was transported back to Cairo, Abou-la-nane was detailed as one of my escort, and he returned safely to Cairo with his wife. Another anecdote to illustrate inatrimonial customs: The house in which I dwelt the last four mnonths of my residence in Egypt was in Alexandria, just behind the English chuirc
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"CHIEF OF THE EuNucHs."-A correspondent of the Allqemeine Zeitung, writing from Pera (1881), describes at length a remarkable ceremony, which seems to be curiouslv out of place in Europethe installation of the new Chief of the Eunuchs over the harem of the Sultan. It was a genuine piece of old Turkish conservatism. The name of the new " Kislar Agassi," or Head Eunueb
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" His Excellency Belhram Aga, Chief of the Eunuchs," rode past on a magnificent charger, the orders of the Osmanie and Medschidje glittering on his breast, followed by Ahmed Bey and a number of the adjutants of the Sultan. When he arrived at the gate of the palace, lambs were slaughtered before him as a token of welcome.
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he Sultan sent across to his new official two symbols of office, a written document and a magnificent silver pastoral staff worked in relief, which is never handled by any but the Agas of the imperial hare
