REMOVING STONE FROM THE QUARRIES.
"Of course we asked the Doctor to tell us how the pyramids were built, but he says it is a conundrum he cannot answer. Various engineers have made theories as to the mode of building the pyramids; but no sooner does one demonstrate how the work was done than somebody else shows how the theory is incorrect. Doctor Bronson says it is generally conceded that the Egyptians must have had a knowledge of some mechanical power of which we are ignorant. One of the most convenient theories is, that as fast as a course of stone was laid, the earth was heaped up so as to form an inclined plane or road, and that this road was repeatedly increased till the top was reached. Then, as the top was finished, and the granite casing placed in position, the earth was taken away, and the pyramid stood out in all its glory.
"But we've kept you waiting while we talked about the size of the pyramid. We've been resting from the fatigue of the ascent, so you must not be impatient.
"One of the Arabs proposed to run from where we were to the top of the Second Pyramid in ten minutes; it seemed impossible for him to do it, but on our offering him five francs he started. How he jumped down from block to block, ran across the open space, and then mounted to the top of the Second Pyramid! Of course he has been practising every day, at least during the season of visitors, and knows just what he can do. The Doctor says this is one of the regular performances of the Arabs at the pyramids; everybody who has written about the place in the last fifty years speaks of it, and the only reason why Herodotus does not mention it is that in his day it was impossible to ascend the pyramids, their granite casing being complete and uninjured, and there were no Arabs in existence. These Arabs are the most impudent fellows in the world, and Herodotus didn't lose anything by their absence. They have always had a bad reputation, and not unfrequently have been guilty of downright robbery; their demands for backsheesh are extremely insolent, and if they do not always threaten violence with words, they do so in their manner.
"The man who built the pyramid was not there to meet us; he has been dead some time, how long we don't know exactly, but it is a good while. According to history the Great Pyramid was built by Cheops, one of the kings of Memphis, who belonged to the fourth dynasty, and ruled fifty years; Mariette assigns him to 4235 b.c., and Wilkinson to 2450 b.c. Either date allows him plenty of time to be dead, and for the correctness of Napoleon's remark to his soldiers at the Battle of the Pyramids, 'forty centuries look down upon you!' Three hundred thousand men were employed twenty years in its construction, and some authorities say it was not completed till after Cheops's death. When he had passed through the hands of the embalmers his mummy was taken to the inside of the pyramid, to the chamber prepared for it, and there stowed away. Let's go and see where it was.
CUTTING AND SQUARING BLOCKS OF STONE.
"We descend the pyramid by the way we came, and in another quarter of an hour are on the ground again. Then we walk about half-way along the north face of the pyramid and some distance up the side to a hole about three and a half feet square, descending at an angle of twenty-six degrees. It is hot and wearisome to go inside the pyramid, and most persons say it is much worse than the ascent to the top. We go about sixty feet down an incline, then ascend at the same angle nearly three hundred feet, and finally come to an apartment called the King's Chamber; it measures thirty-four feet by seventeen, and is about nineteen feet high. The sides are of polished granite, and the only furniture is an empty coffin of stone, too large to be removed.
"There is another room smaller than this directly beneath, and called the Queen's Chamber, and there are some other small rooms of no consequence. The dust chokes us, the heat threatens to melt us, the Arabs keep up a frightful din—ten times as bad as they do outside—and altogether we are glad to get out again.