Egyptian, indeed, lives in a world much influenced by magic and thickly
populated by spirits, demons, and djins. Educated men holding Government
appointments, and dressing in the smartest European manner, will
describe their miraculous adventures and their meetings with djins. An
Egyptian gentleman holding an important administrative post, told me the
other day how his cousin was wont to change himself into a cat at night
time, and to prowl about the town. When a boy, his father noticed this
peculiarity, and on one occasion chased and beat the cat, with the
result that the boy's body next morning was found to be covered with
stripes and bruises. The uncle of my informant once read such strong
language (magically) in a certain book that it began to tremble
violently, and finally made a dash for it out of the window. This same
personage was once sitting beneath a palm-tree with a certain magician
(who, I fear, was also a conjurer), when, happening to remark on the
clusters of dates twenty feet or so above his head, his friend stretched
his arms upwards and his hands were immediately filled with the fruit.
At another time this magician left his overcoat by mistake in a railway
carriage, and only remembered it when the train was a mere speck upon
the horizon; but, on the utterance of certain words, the coat
immediately flew through the air back to him.

I mention these particular instances because they were told to me by
educated persons; but amongst the peasants even more incredible stories
are gravely accepted. The Omdeh, or headman, of the village of Chaghb,
not far from Luxor, submitted an official complaint to the police a
short time ago against an _afrit_ or devil which was doing much mischief
to him and his neighbours, snatching up oil-lamps and pouring the oil
over the terrified villagers, throwing stones at passers-by, and so
forth. Spirits of the dead in like manner haunt the living, and often do
them mischief. At Luxor, lately, the ghost of a well-known robber