boiled fowl, one bottle of beer, one bottle of wine, some cheese, a knife, fork, and glass; in the other end of the bag we stuffed hay for the donkey, and then slung the whole concern over its back: my plaid was thrown across the saddle, and my sun umbrella tied to the pommel. Then I mounted, and, with a good-bye to my friends, as if I never intended to come back, we commenced our journey. That was the night of nights. There never was one told of in "Arabian Nights" or "Fairy Tales" who was more absorbed in his expedition than I in this. Hassan was very serious about it, for he had all the bargaining to do. We had arranged that he was to determine all the matters in the journey: I was simply to ride, pay, and see. We trotted along narrow streets, where, by stretching out my arms, I could almost touch both sides at once, got jammed in one corner with a lot of Mahometans, and a camel, which had its hide cracked by the heat of the sun; got loose and jammed again, till, emerging from a large gateway, where cannon-balls and various kinds of spikes, trophies in war, were hung, we found "the coast clear," and broke out into a regular wild gallop. Here let me give a word of warning to all donkey-riders. Everybody knows that stirrups are for folks to put their feet in; but, fastening your feet that way involves serious consequences if the donkey comes down, which he is very apt to do. If your feet are free, and prime mover stumbles, you have simply to walk off. For this reason, I generally allowed my legs to swing so loosely that they appeared not to be mine at all. It began to be very dark before we reached the Nile at Boulac, for the sun was down, and the moon had not risen. I had chosen the middle of the month, so as to have the advantage of the full moon on the desert. On the edge of the Nile I saw through the gloom a number of boats moored side by side, and a crowd of boatmen and passengers about. We were soon surrounded, jostled, and bothered for " Backsheesh," but I slipped into a boat which boasted a mast-for we had agreed not to go in the regular ferry-boat with a lot of folk, but to have one to ourselves, just for Hassan, and me, and the donkey. He jabbered an infinite quantity of Arabic, but could not settle the fare, and at last moved me into another boat. We set sail, passed the island where the Nilometer is, and, over the swiftly rushing water, reached the other side. Before leaving Cairo, I judged it safest to empty my purse of a few sovereigns, and take only a handful of silver to cover the expenses of the road. Already I found the advantage of this arrangement, for, in the dark, as I sat on the edge of the first boat, that very purse was cleaned out, and a right merry chuckle I had that the robber got no There was just a franc in it (10d.). more. We wound our way through the mud village of Ghizeh, where the natives were closing their lock-up shops and going home. The road then lay along an embankment, where we joined a Copt and an Arab, and four donkeys, thus making a procession, which had a singular appearance, and in the stillness of the night a rather startling effect. The Nile had overflowed its banks, and covered the plain with bright sheets of water, sparkling in the moonlight, and reflecting the Pyramids, which stood grandly simple, big and brown, on a slight elevation a few miles away. Herodotus went over the same ground nearly 3,000 years ago, speculating who built them, what for, and when, but got no satisfactory answer. They were so old, even in his time, that traditions had become confused. Some said Adam was buried in the largest, and Seth and Enoch in the other two. Others said that Joseph built them for granaries, or for his tomb, or they were for the burial of that Pharaoh who was drowned in the Red Sea. Again, it was said that a “shepherd king," called Cheops, built the largest, his brother Cephrenes the second, and Cephrene's son the third. Another idea was, that they were intended for eternal measures of time, length and weight, because the sarcophagus inside Cheops holds just so many English bushels; and the long tunnel entrance, acting like a telescope, pointed, 4,000 years ago, to the then north star, while in the corridor some deep chiselled marks definitively fix lengths to measure things by. However, nobody knows anything with certainty about them, but they do look uncommonly like tombs, and nothing more. The spot they stood on was all sandy and deserted, and the ground before us was very similar to a Scotch moor cut up into all sorts of gullies by the rains. The night continued calm and clear, and we held on our way till midnight, when Hassan, being afraid of the tomb idea, turned aside and drove right into a sheep-fold, open to the sky. Here we unpacked, and while having supper, one Bedouin after another sidled in, till a row of them-fierce-looking fellows, with big beards and turbans-sat round, smoking their pipes, and laughing at my absurd trousers, waistcoat, collar, and umbrella: useless complexity my dress must have seemed to them, no doubt. Besides those who were with us in the fold, others came and lay along the top of the wall, and some slept outside; so that we had plenty of company that night. After rudely sketching the scene, I borrowed a "Burnous" from one of them, to lie on. Hassan spread over me the plaid, and then slipped into a bag himself, and so we passed the middle hours of the night. For awhile we watched the stars rise over one wall and set over the other, but soon both of us were unconscious of the place and its surroundings. A little after four a.m. we were up again, paid the Arabs for the use of their palace and burnous, and went on our way, slightly heavy with dew. As we neared the great piles, half a dozen Arabs came from a village hid in a grove of palm trees, and volunteered their help for the ascent. Though weary with the night's travel, I set about the mounting; one man pulled at each hand, and two pushed behind, while one carried up a bottle of water. Thus pulled, and pushed, and climbing on my own account, we reached the summit a few minutes before the sun rose. Fancy the labour. There were over 200 steps, varying in height from 2 ft. 6 in. to 4 ft. 6 in., and the total height was 150 yards. Some of the stones were 30 ft. long and 15 ft. broad. I could not wonder that 100,000 men had been ten years in cutting and transporting the stone, and twenty years more in piling them; for, when half way up, it seemed as if I could never reach the top, and never come down-there was such a mountain above and such a mass below. Herodotus says that £200,000 were paid for the green-stuff— the garlic, radishes, and onions-which the workmen ate. This will help us to form some rude idea of the magnitude of the whole. Most things, however, are only great by comparison. If the Pyramidswhich are the largest stone buildings in the world-were on Ben Lomond side, instead of on the desert, perhaps we should not have heard quite so much about them. On the top, which is composed of twelve flat stones, we stayed till the sun rose. Down below I could see the for-ever-talked-of Sphinx, and the granite road up which they hauled the stones. On one side, at the foot of the Pyramid, was a place like an English burying-ground, full of giants' graves; and on another side there were a number of square holes, called mummy pits; they were in some cases 40 yards deep and 6 yards square at the top. All round us was the cemetery and boundary for an immense city— Memphis, which used to cover the plain for miles and miles. That city was once fifteen miles round. There were temples, gateways, and statues of immense proportions, and millions of coffee-coloured folks smoked their pipes outside their doors at evening. There were gilded halls, where colossal Pharaohs, sculptured in stone, stood as pillars to support the roofs, and many grand temples, where white-robed priests offered incense at the shrines of Isis and Osiris, practising a religion the mysteries of which strangely move us to-day as we think of them. It made me a little sad to see that all were gone. There comes no echo from the plain, no sound of life; priests and people, altars, statues, and temples, all had disappeared; not so much as a stick or a stone remains, save only the big grave-yard, with the Pyramids for monuments. Surely, the traces of men's weakness and grief are the most durable we know: men do but raise a dust that will soon be "lightly laid again." "Earth's empires rise and fall, O Time! like breakers on thy shore; "O Thou! before whose sleepless eyes the past and future stand So I thought-pondering these things on my high perch; but the GLEEFUL CHILDREN. THESE children are having a merry time of it under the greenwood tree. They enjoy their game of bo-peep greatly. That is right. Children-good ones, I mean-ought to be happy. Why should they be otherwise? Children remind me of the flowers; for, like those pretty things, they are beautiful, fragile, and free from care. I love to look in the clear eye, and upon the smooth, plump, rosy cheeks of a child, just as I do upon a rose, a lily, or a fuchsia. I love to see its careless joy, because, like the flower, it knows no care. It lives, and grows, and laughs, and sings, fearless of want or hurt. It trusts pa and ma and God for all that it needs. Oh, happy, happy child! Children ought to be happy. Why? Because they are 80 dearly loved. Pa and ma love them, uncle and aunt love them; better than all, Jesus loves them. From his throne in heaven he ¦ looks down with smiling face, and says, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Thus love |