"We carried our lunch with us from the hotel, and ate it after visiting the Great Pyramid, and before going to examine the Sphinx. The Arabs crowded around, and almost threatened to eat our lunch for us, and ourselves into the bargain; we tried in vain to drive them away, and finally drew a circle in the sand enclosing our carriage, and about ten feet from it, and stationed a couple of Arabs inside with sticks to keep out the rest. The sticks were strong, and so were the men who wielded them. The Doctor told our guards they would get no backsheesh if they failed to keep the rest out of the ring, and with this promise before them they succeeded. It is interesting to see how ready these men are to pound their most intimate friends for the sake of a little money. The more we see of the nature of these natives the more we despise it: perhaps they are not altogether to blame, and are only practising the lesson of rascality they have learned through centuries of oppression.
"We returned to Cairo by the carriage-road, and were followed a long way by the Arabs shouting for backsheesh. A couple of days later we made an evening excursion there in order to see the Sphinx and pyramids by moonlight, and were well repaid for the journey. Many travellers go out there very early in the morning, so as to see them by sunrise; but we were too much fatigued with our work every day to leave our beds two or three hours before daybreak.
"The day after our trip to Gizeh we went to Sakkara and Memphis. There is very little to be seen of Memphis, as the stone was mostly taken away for building Cairo, and the site of the city is frequently overflowed in the inundations of the Nile. The chief object of interest is a statue of Rameses the Great, originally forty-two feet high, but now lying on the ground, and about half covered with water. Unfortunately its face is downward, so that we could not see its features; but it is said to be a fine work of art, and it is a great pity that it cannot be removed and placed on its feet again.
PLOUGHING AND SOWING.
"At Sakkara there are several pyramids. One of them is of sun-dried bricks instead of stone; it is built in a series of five steps, or degrees, and for this reason is known as the 'Step-pyramid.' Some authorities say it was built in the first dynasty, and is consequently the oldest pyramid in the world; others think it belongs to the fifth dynasty, and therefore is later than the structures at Gizeh. Tradition says it was built by the labor of the children of Israel when they were captives in Egypt, and it was here they complained that they were compelled to make 'bricks without straw.' The history of the pyramid is very obscure, and one theory may be just as good as another. The structure is less than two hundred feet high, and, as the ascent is dangerous, and the view from the top of no consequence after that from Gizeh, we did not climb it.
TAKING IT EASY.