from the straw hut of the farmer, which is little more than a windbreak. They have never learned to cleanse their bodies and have never used a bed, table, or chair. Such girls pass through the initiation of the bath and the fine-tooth comb, but it is often months before they learn the advantage of soap and water, bed linen, or knife and fork.

One great difficulty in the satisfactory education of these girls is due to their early marriages. How much would our American schools be able to accomplish in the elevation of women if the girls were taken to the school at the age of ten or eleven and then recalled from their studies at twelve or fourteen to become wives and mothers? In Egypt sixteen is considered an advanced age for marriage, and a girl who passes it without having been led to the altar is almost a hopeless "old maid."

There is not space to mention the many other phases and centers of

mission work in Egypt. At Tanta is an excellent hospital for women, a church and schools for boys and girls. In Luxor the girls' school will soon have the use of a well-planned stone building, to erect which sandstone has been brought from Assouan, tiles from France, steel from Belgium, iron from Germany, coal from England, and wood from America. The medical work in this district of ancient Thebes is in charge of Dr. A. W. Pollock, who is sadly in need of a hospital where patients may be kept clean and where nurses can see that their charges do not drink a whole week's prescription at a gulp. or disregard all laws of decency and

common sense.

Cairo, the central station of the American Mission, has many branches of work in school and church, book depot and evangelistic agencies. The theological school, with over twenty students, supplies native Christian churches with pastors. Each Sunday some of the

young men go out into the neighboring cities and villages preaching the Word. The Nile mission boat Ibis has also been a useful agency in evangelistic work.

The American Mission (United Presbyterian) has been at work for over fifty years in the Nile Valley, and is represented by a noble body of men and women who are bearing the burden and heat of the day.

Travelers who visit Cairo and journey comfortably up the Nile at the choicest season of the year, can have no idea of the "fiery trial" through which the missionaries pass during the summer months when they work with the thermometer at 120 degrees in the shade. Fortunately, through the generosity of Miss Van Sommer and other friends, a rest-home has been provided at Ramleh, near Alexandria, but this is enjoyed only during the most unbearable weeks of midsummer.

Nearly 200 different cities and vil lages in the Nile Valley are occupied by the American Mission which, besides about 100 foreign workers, employs 600 native helpers in teaching, preaching and healing.

The principal other societies at work are the Church Missionary Society, with a hospital and school in Cairo, and working chiefly among Moslems; the North Africa Mission, located in Alexandria and laboring for Moslems and Jews; and the Egyptian General Mission, with stations for the most part in the villages of the Delta. All are blessed with consecrated laborers, and are able to show blessed results. The Plymouth Brethren and Seventh Day Adventists have missionaries in Egypt, but until recently have confined their

Christian literature as a means of spreading the Gospel has long been felt, and was emphasized at the recent conference in Cairo. Heretofore the Beirut press has supplied most of the books and tracts used in Egypt and North Africa, but owing, however, to its limited capacity and to the rigid and foolish Turkish censorship, a press in Egypt could supply the need much more satisfactorily. To meet this need the Nile Mission Press has been established near Cairo, and has been most useful in printing mission papers and occasional literature. The London committee appeal urgently for the

He was

a very promising young man.

Khartum is situated on the southern bank of the Blue Nile, some distance south of where it unites with the White Nile. Ordinarily the White Nile is about three miles away, but during the flood season, when the stream overflows its banks and is not less than three and a half miles in width, it comes to the very edge of Khartum. Uniting with the Blue Nile, which is in flood during the same season of the year, the two form a mighty stream, which carries down to lower Egypt the fertilizing sediment of the Nile Valley. Just opposite Khartum, on the Blue Nile, is the town of North Khartum. formerly known as Halpaya, which rivals in size the older town. This is the present terminus of the railway which runs to the south, and headquarters of the shipping of the rivers. Across the Nile, below the junction of the two rivers, is the town of Omdurman, a city of fifty thousand inhabitants, who are scattered along the river for nearly seven miles. Within a radius of about four miles is a population of at least seventy thousand.

These three places are connected by train-lines and ferries, and the complete circuit can now be made with comparative ease in a reasonably short time. The population is of mixed character, but by far the larger numbers are descendants of the numerous tribes living along the river to the south.

There is in Khartum a large foreign population, among whom Greeks preponderate. The next largest class are British, nearly all of whom are in some way connected

with the government, for Khartum is the capital of the Sudan, and here reside the Governor-General and all his chief officers. Here are located the central post-office and telegraph buildings, also the principal banks, and the department of public works, a large civil hospital, and a wellequipped dispensary. The larger stores are also found at this place, and if the purchaser have money enough, he can procure almost anything here. When the distance from Europe is considered, and the difficult route over which all freight must come, the prices of most things are not exorbitant.

Khartum may justly boast of a zoological garden, located in a magnificent palm-grove, which contains specimens of most of the animals. and birds of the Sudan. The large hotel, under European management, does a flourishing business during the season of travel, which begins about the first of December and ends with the first of March. The number of travelers to the Sudan is constantly increasing, a thing not to be wondered at when we consider all that is to be seen. The long river trip is one of the finest on the globe, and during the season the tourist has before him, with Khartum as a center, not less than two thousand miles of navigable river. Luxurious tourist boats ply on these rivers, and the traveler may be taken up the Blue Nile into Abyssinian mountains, or he may go a thousand miles up the White Nile into the confines of Uganda; or, when five hundred miles up the White Nile, he may turn to the east and steam up the Sobat

River a distance of three hundred miles into the Galla country. If fortune smile on him, he may have a glimpse at Abyssinian elephants, and is sure of seeing a number of crocodiles, some of which are huge beasts, eighteen feet in length. One can not fail to be charmed by the beauty of the country through which he passes. To the west one may journey from the White Nile and ascend the Gazelle River for four hundred miles to the borders of the cannibal country, not far from the head-waters of the great Kongo River.

Into the three towns of Khartum, North Khartum, and Omdurman, are gathered representatives of all the tribes living along the banks of all these streams, many of whom were brought hither by the Mahdi and Khalifa during those thirteen awful years of fire and sword, which began with the death of the gallant Gordon and ended with the terrible battle of Omdurman.

None of the poor blacks in this district were Mohammedans when taken from their native villages, but were compelled to accept Mohammed or die. Thousands of them know practically nothing of the principles of Islam, and repeat the creed and prayer mechanically, understanding nothing of what they say. Some of the Abyssinians retain. the name Christian, but that is about the only claim or semblance they have to Christianity. Many of them have become Moslems and are classed as such, so that no direct Christian work is allowed to be done among them.

Since the reopening of the Sudan a large number of Kopts have come from Egypt to act as government

clerks, translators, telegraph operators, etc. It is well known that all of these are compelled to work on Sabbath, except as every government employee has two hours in which he is allowed to attend the religious services of his own selection. The Mohammedan day is observed in the Sudan, as in Egypt, and all offices are closed on Friday, so that it is also a holiday for Christians. The Moslem keeps sacred a special hour about noon of that day, before and after which he may follow his usual vocation.

Khartum has a fine mosque which occupies the best site in all the city. The building of this mosque was largely due to government initiative and was erected by its direction and supervision, tho the funds came from Mohammedan sources. It is the only building erected by the present British government for exclusive religious purposes in the entire coun

try.

Mission work is carried on largely through schools which have been established in four or five different places. They are conducted by Christian teachers drawn from the Presbyterian college at Assiut, and are evangelical in character, tho attended by all classes-Kopts, Syrians, Jews, Greeks, Mohammedans, and Christians. Direct methods in the work are allowed among the non-Moslem heathen tribes to the south of Khartum, and the American United Presbyterians have a mission on the Sobat River.

Government schools are conducted in a number of centers in the Sudan. and they are ably managed by English-speaking superintendents, and are equipped for good work. This is