CHAPTER XXVII.

CAIRO AND THE PYRAMIDS.

CAIRO, February 17, 1890.

On the 13th at 1 P.M. we took the train at Ismaïlia, had a first-class carriage and agreeable company. For half the distance we passed through a sandy desert, but when we came to the station Tel-el-Kebir, near which Wolseley routed the Egyptian army, the country improved, great fields of sugar-cane, lentils, grain, and grass were to be seen; men were ploughing, and others gathering the crops, assisted by camels, bullocks, and donkeys. In one instance, a camel was harnessed to a bullock drawing a plough. The people were everywhere industrious, and the fields looked in splendid condition. Very often we saw large flocks of sheep and goats, and soon we came in sight of a long arched bridge spanning the Nile. After crossing this we entered a fine depot at Cairo, where there was the usual clamor of hackmen, but our conductor rescued us from these land sharks, and we were soon at the Royal Hotel and I found my room, which had been engaged, and directly a package of letters and papers were handed to me, which were very welcome.

It is as cool here as March in New York, and I have on my regular winter clothing. The Red Sea voyage and the weather here have toned me up, and I feel in first-rate health. This is one of three fine hotels in Cairo, and is first class in every respect--French cooking, splendid bread and butter, and excellent beef and mutton, which have, no doubt, helped to put me in good condition, after the horrors of our campaign of the India cookery.

Mr. Norris sent a telegram to Baltimore last evening at 5.30, and had an answer at 11.30 P.M., so that we are all now in touch of home.

We have been this afternoon through the bazaars to the great Citadel and the grand Mosque, where I unfortunately stumbled over a prostrate man praying, with his face towards Mecca, and there was a little row, but I apologized and passed on.

Yesterday we started out at nine and did not get back to the hotel until four. We went first to the famous museum three miles distant, over the river, and saw an immense collection of antiquities, illustrating Egyptian history for six thousand years, including the mummies of the great kings, Rameses I., II., and III., and their wives and some of their children. Their remains are not pretty to look at, and it seemed to me to be sacrilegious to expose them for show in a museum at one franc admission. The museum building is very beautiful, having been erected by the Khedive for a palace, the same Khedive who was deposed by the English, and is now in exile in Italy.

One room had marble pillars three feet in diameter and thirty feet high, and the whole building is fitted up in the highest style of modern French art.

We entered carriages and drove over a fine shaded road to the great Pyramids, where we arrived at noon. I at once announced my intention of going to the top of the big Pyramid, as did also Mr. Kolish of Vienna and Miss Roe of Cincinnati, the others of the party declining.

The old Arab sheik, who has charge here, appointed three stalwart Egyptians to assist me, and two others followed with jugs of water; with one man holding each hand, and another to push, we commenced the ascent. The stones were from two to two and a half feet high, making the tallest kind of stairs, but the men were careful and good at pulling and pushing, and I made rapid progress.

They stopped twice to rest, and then I found what violent exertions I had been making, for I was completely blown, and my mouth and throat as dry as if I had not had a drink for a month.

We rested at each stopping-place a few minutes, and rinsing my mouth with water refreshed me; then we rushed on, reaching the top in seventeen minutes. Such had been the violence of the exertion that I could hardly speak for fifteen minutes afterwards. Mr. Kolish being a stout young fellow got along first-rate, and Miss Roe being strong, cool, and fearless came up serenely. From the top the view towards the Nile was of unsurpassed beauty; long stretches of country covered with green as far as the eye could reach. Farther back was a boundless plain, but all sand and desolation. I intended to recite here Napoleon the First's address, "Soldiers of the grand army, forty centuries are looking down upon you," but I was so much engaged getting my breath that I forgot all about it.

After stopping on top for half an hour, we commenced going down, one man holding each of my hands and another holding a rope which was around under my arms. We got along very nicely with only one stop, indeed I think I could have come down perfectly well without help from any one.

There are 250 steps on the big Pyramid, and it is 480 feet high. At one o'clock we had a capital lunch, and then started for the Statue of Memnon only a third of a mile from the Pyramids. Some camels were kneeling ready to take us, and I mounted one. The beast squealed and got up first on his front legs and then on his hind ones, pitching me back and forth, but I hung on and got along very nicely.

The immense statue, partly covered with sand, did not impress me much, but a tomb which I entered near by was a wonder. I measured one of the big stones in the wall and found it was five feet square and seventeen feet long.

We mounted on camels again and Miss Roe and I had a race across the yielding sand, the Cincinnati young lady coming out ahead.

The beggars crowded around and annoyed the ladies so much that I spoke to the old sheik, and he went at them with a whip and scattered them very quickly.

We returned to Cairo the same way we went, observing on the road large numbers of camels, bullocks, and donkeys, and once I counted seven camels loaded with fresh hay. Thus ended one of the wonder days of my life.

Yesterday morning we left here on a steamer, and went up the swift-running waters of the Nile, passing numerous palaces, tombs, and all kinds of Oriental buildings, dozens of water-wheels run by bullocks, and once a steam-pump and boiler, all raising water for irrigation.

We had a stalwart and fancy-dressed dragoman, but he was of little use. We took along a nice lunch and picnicked on the boat, reaching the dock in three hours, where we found about a hundred donkeys and their attendants yelling, screaming, and pushing. After much trouble we each mounted one of the ugly beasts, and started for the ancient city of Memphis, seven miles away. There was a boy with a stick to each donkey, and every time he struck, my beast would kick and nearly unseat me.

A young lady from Boston, Miss Potter, was put in my charge, and several times we had splendid trots and gallops on the sandy roads and plains.

We met strings of camels and donkeys on the way in front, and our cavalcade of excursionists, stretched along the sandy road, presented a remarkable appearance.

Half-way we stopped to rest at a place where an immense marble statue of a king was lying in the sand. It was thirty feet long, and five feet across the face.

The donkey ridden by Miss Potter proved so bad that she changed him for another here, and we galloped over the sandy plain unto Memphis, our destination. There were half a dozen big pyramids in sight, and the whole country was covered with ruins. We were on a high hill, and looked down upon the Delta of the Nile and its cultivated fields, a scene of rare beauty, on one side, and on the other, vast sandy plains and deserts.

We walked to the entrance of the "Tombs of the Sacred Bulls." The passage-ways and tombs are cut out of solid rock and are all under ground. These passage-ways are a mile or two long, and thirty feet in diameter. They strongly reminded me of the sewers in Paris.

From these passages, were dug out of solid rock twelve rooms, each containing the statue of a "Sacred Bull," each one carved out of the rock, highly polished and covered with writing executed in a beautiful manner.

Each of us carried a candle, and it was very hot, so much so that one of the young men came near fainting and had to hurry out. It was a curious and weird scene, fifty or more people, each with a candle, wandering about in the dark. After looking at the tombs, we all returned to the upper air, and went to the tomb of a great king near by, which was under ground, and contained several large rooms, all made of highly polished white marble, covered with writing and carvings; processions of men and animals, beautifully executed, and in the best state of preservation.

Mounted on the donkeys once more, men and boys surrounded us, offering all kinds of things for sale. One young fellow showed me the skeleton of a lady's hand, and offered to sell it for a shilling, but I declined. It was a rough ride back to the river, the donkeys being very uncomfortable creatures to ride. Once the one ridden by Miss Potter greeted some of his friends in a field, and brayed with tremendous energy.

We were very much fatigued and glad to get to the boat.

The return voyage was very pleasant, and we reached Cairo at 5.30 P.M.