234
dangerous, if not impossible. At intervals ull duy the fierce sirroceo would break on us, and we caught two more before we could reach the station at Budershain. I have had a fiitle experience of typhoons at sea, and L would much rather face the cyclone of the Tacific with a good ship under me thin the siroceo of the Sabara desert when sand in- stead of water is the moving element, mounted on a miserable little half-starved donkey.
The great pyramids of Ghizah are situated at the edge of the desert on the opposite side of the river, and about six miles distant from Cairo. To see the sunrise from the summit of Cheops is well worth the effort vequired to cuaure an early start. There ix a fine, smooth carriage road all the way. Having crossed the Nile by the bridge of oats, we drive for three miles through a beautiful avenue of acazia trees, pust a large palace of the Viceroy, and fong barracks around whieh soldiers are lounging-—fat, sancy-looking fellows, who look better fed and clothed, and more happy than the mis- erable laborers from whom they are con- seripted, Jn former tines, to saye a son from being forced inte the Pasha’s army, it Wus not an unusual thing for « parent to put out the right eye of his child, or cut off the first joint of the forefinger of his right hand. But this mutilation was stopped when the Pasha formed a regiment of left- handed men, which proved quite as eflicient as the rest of the anny—which is notsaying much, ‘The last three wiles of the road is on a dyke or embankment which saves it from overflow by theriver. The date-palms which we sce seattered over the plain are now in bloasom, and produce the jinest dates in the world, We meet hun- dreds of donkers and camels plodding slowly along towards the city, bearing immense loads of yegetables and fresh cut grass. On either side of the road are fields of grain, maize, clover and lentils, growing most luxuriantly from 1 soil so rich that it actually looks greasy, It is entirely an ailuvial de- posit from the Nile, andon it the crops spring up very swiftly, having a peenliarly bright green appearance, and are very ten- der to the touch from their rapid growth. Two cron of grain, sometimes three, and of srass and vegetables usually four crops are taken from the same soil every year.
For a long time the pyramids were right before us, and so deceptive is their appearance under the cloudless sky, with no other object upon the vast plain with which to compare
