178 Egypt
Arabi and the fellah Colonels were the gentlest Moslem
warriors that ever preached morality, and were swept
away by modern arms of precision. The new Nationalists
tinder Mustapha Kamil were the most virulent Press
propagandists that ever regurgitated half-digested
Chauvinism or vomited abuse of their betters.
The British occupation that had killed Arabist
nationalism, with which it might have co-operated, had
indirectly created a new nationalism with which co-opera-
tion was almost impossible. For the growth of popula-
tion and of prosperity during the British occupation had
called into existence a new middle class sufficiently
literate to read and write political propaganda and leisured
enough to give up their lives to politics of the Press and
of the platform. This new intelligentsia was, however,
uneducated in politics and inexperienced in affairs. Most
nationalist movements have begun by educating them-
selves to some extent through a revival of the native
language, literature, law, and legend. But Egypt had no
national genius to revive, no national glories to recall—
at least, none since the days of the Pharaohs, and faraon
is still in Egypt a term of abuse for tyranny.
Indeed, the British might have got some useful hints
from Egyptian folk-lore about the Pharaohs. For
example, the parable in which Pharaoh, choosing his
vizier, ordered candidates to carry rats in sacks round
the Great Pyramid. The rats gnawed their way out of all
the sacks except that of the successful candidate, who
had kept them well shaken up all the way. The thousands
of years during which Egypt under the Pharaohs
dominated the world had to be expiated by centuries of
subjection during which Egypt had lost all consciousness
of its own existence. So when the time came for its
renascence Egypt had no national legend, no national