COPTS, the Christian descendants of the ancient Egyptians. Various derivations have been given of the name, which, however, is most probably from the same root as Egypt. The C. are in number about 150,000, only about a fourteenth of the population of the country. There are about 10,000 of them in Cairo. The are not of great stature, have black eyes and rather curly hair, and in a number of points resemble time ancient Egyptians, from whom also they have inherited the custom of circumcision. They dress like the Moslems, but are generally distinguished by a black turban. Their character is in general gloomy, deceitful, and avaricious. They are very expert in calculations, and are therefore much employed as accountants and book-keepers, by which they have acquired a great influence in the country, filling very important posts In religion they are generally monophysites (q.v.) of the Jacobite sect; smaller sections of them, however, are united to the Greek and Homan ,Catholic churches. They ascribe their conversion from heathenism to St. Mark, whoth they regard as the first patriarch of Alexandria. Their highest dignitary is the patriarch of Alexandria, whose residence, however, is in Cairo. Their other orders of clergy are bishops, archpriests, priests, deacons, and monks. The patriarch is named by his predecessor from among the monks of the convent of St. Anthony, or chosen from among them by lot. He is not permitted to marry. He nominates the metropolitan of Abyssinia. See AnrssmA. There are twelve bishops. The C. are very strict in their religious observances, and
hate other Christian sects even more than they hate the Moslems. They baptize by immersion; practice unction, exorcism, and auricular confession; and celebrate the Lord's supper with leavened bread which has been dipped in wine. They keep Friday with great strictness as a fast-day. They have many schools, but only for boys, who learn the Psalms, gospels, and apostolic epistles in Arabic, and the thee gospels and epistles in Coptic. The Coptic, however, is not grammatically taught, and is not now a spoken language, having been everywhere supplanted by the Arabic. It has not been spoken in lower Egypt since the 10th c., but lingered for some centuries longer in upper Egypt. It is, however, still used by the C. in their religious services, but the lessons, after being read In Coptic, are explained in Arabic. The Coptic literature consists in great part of lives of saints and homilies, with a few Gnostic works. The alphabet was borrowed from the Greeks at the time of the introduction of Christianity, with the addition of a few letters. There are two principal dialects of time language—the Sahidic or upper Egyptian, and the Memphitic or lower Egyptian, which is sometimes exclu sively called Coptic. A third dialect, the Bashmuric, of which only a few remains exist, was spoken in the delta, and is interesting from its points of resemblance to the lan guage of the hieroglyphics.