The Muslim Egyptians are descended from various Arab tribes and families which have settled in Egypt at different periods; mostly soon after the conquest of this country by ’Amr, its first Arab governor; but by intermarriages with the Copts and others who have become proselytes to the faith of El-Islám, as well as by the change from a life of wandering to that of citizens or of agriculturists, their personal characteristics have, by degrees, become so much altered, that there is a strongly marked difference between them and the natives of Arabia. Yet they are to be regarded as not less genuine Arabs than the townspeople of Arabia itself, among whom has long and very generally prevailed a custom of keeping Abyssinian female slaves, either instead of marrying their own countrywomen, or (as is commonly the case with the opulent) in addition to their Arab wives; so that they bear almost as strong a resemblance to the Abyssinians as to the Bedawees, or Arabs of the Desert. The term “Arab,”[39] it should here be remarked, is now used wherever the Arabic language is spoken, only to designate the Bedawees collectively. In speaking of a tribe, or of a small number of those people, the word “’Orbán” is also used; and a single individual is called “Bedawee.”[40] In the metropolis and other towns of Egypt, the distinction of tribes is almost wholly lost; but it is preserved among the peasants, who have retained many Bedawee customs, of which I shall have to speak. The native Muslim inhabitants of Cairo commonly call themselves “El-Masreeyeen,” “Owlád-Masr” (or “Ahl-Masr”), and “Owlád-el-Beled,” which signify people of Masr, children of Masr, and children of the town; the singular forms of these appellations are “Masree,” “Ibn-Masr,” and “Ibn-el-Beled.”[41] Of these three terms, the last is most common in the town itself. The country people are called “El-Felláheen” (or the Agriculturists), in the singular “Felláh.”[42] The Turks often apply this term to the Egyptians in general in an abusive sense, as meaning “the boors,” or “the clowns;” and improperly stigmatize them with the appellation of “Ahl-Far’oon,”[43] or “the people of Pharaoh.”