An unmarried person convicted of adultery is likewise obnoxious only to this punishment. The two laws mentioned in Leviticus xx. 13 and 15 have been introduced into the Muslim code; but in the present day they are never executed. Footnote 205: In the villages of Egypt, a woman found, or suspected, to have been guilty of this crime, if she be not a common prostitute, often experiences a different fate, which will be described in the account of the domestic life and customs of the lower orders. Footnote 206: The conduct of the lower orders in Cairo on this occasion speaks sadly against their character. A _song_ was composed on the victim of this terrible law, and became very popular in the metropolis. Footnote 207: Among many other erroneous statements respecting the Wahhábees, it has been asserted that they prohibit the drinking of coffee. ---------------------------- CHAPTER IV. GOVERNMENT. Egypt has, of late years, experienced great political changes, and nearly ceased to be a province of the Turkish Empire. Its present Básha (Mohammad ’Alee), having exterminated the Ghuzz, or Memlooks, who shared the government with his predecessors, has rendered himself almost an independent prince. He, however, professes allegiance to the Sultán, and remits the tribute, according to former custom, to Constantinople; he is, moreover, under an obligation to respect the fundamental laws of the Kur-án and the Traditions; but he exercises a dominion otherwise unlimited.[208] He may cause any one of his subjects to be put to death without the formality of a trial, or without assigning any cause: a simple horizontal motion of his hand is sufficient to imply the sentence of decapitation. But I must not be understood to insinuate that he is prone to shed blood without any reason: severity is a characteristic of this prince rather than wanton cruelty; and boundless ambition has prompted him to almost every action by which he has attracted either praise or censure.[209]