Near the birthplace of Prince Albert is a very large manufactory of military toys, such as drums, trumpets, helmets, &c.; and in parts of Holland—
"——The children take pleasure in making
What the children of England take pleasure in breaking."
THE PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT.
The Pyramids of Egypt, especially the two largest of the Pyramids of Jizeh, are the most stupendous masses of building, in stone, that human labour has ever been known to accomplish. The Egyptian Pyramids, of which, large and small, and in different states of preservation, the number is very considerable, are all situated on the west side of the Nile, and they extend, in an irregular line, and in groups, at some distance from each other, from the neighbourhood of Jizeh, in 30° N. lat. as far south as 29° N. lat., a length of between 60 and 70 miles. All the Pyramids have square bases, and their sides face the cardinal points.
The Pyramids of Jizeh are nearly opposite to Cairo. They stand on a plateau or terrace of limestone, which is a projection from the Libyan mountain-chain. The surface of the terrace is barren and irregular, and is covered with sand and small fragments of rock; its height, measured from the base of the Great Pyramids, is 164 feet above the Nile in its low state, taken at an average of the years 1798 to 1801. The north-east angle of the Great Pyramid is 1700 yards from the canal which runs between the terrace and the Nile, and about five miles from the Nile itself.
Herodotus was informed by the priests of Memphis that the Great Pyramid was built by Cheops, King of Egypt, about 900 B. C., or about 450 years before Herodotus visited Egypt. He says that 100,000 men were employed twenty years in building it, and that the body of Cheops was placed in a room beneath the bottom of the Pyramid, surrounded by a vault to which the waters of the Nile were conveyed through a subterranean tunnel. A chamber under the centre of the Pyramid has indeed been discovered, but it does not appear to be the tomb of Cheops. It is about 56 feet above the low-water level of the Nile. The second Pyramid was built, Herodotus says, by Cephren, or Cephrenes, the brother and successor of Cheops; and the third by Mycerinus, the son of Cheops.
TEST OF COURAGE IN A CHILD.