The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1871-06-03
The Pyramid Of CheOps.
BY DIR. HURST.

all the other epithets that the Mussulman
applies to the great city of his proud caliphs
The cars in which we rode were not COM
Portable, really worn out, and made to dc
over-service ever since they were brought
from England to transport Napier's Eng.
fish troops for the conquest of the Abys.
sinian Theodore. At the stations, water
was offered us, now from the donkey skins,
and now from the great earthen jars-poised
on these erect women's heads-which are
for all the world the exact shape of those
l had seen in the Egyptian museums, and
which am now finding every day in bright
| colors on the ruins of the old temples OF
the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies. Who
| can doubt, as one looks at them, that the
style has little altered since the days OF
Joseph or Moses? The potter's business
is quite an important one, for, in country
where all the water is drawn from one
river for almost every purpose, and there
are but few wells, comparatively speaking,
and they really fed by the ever beneficent
Nile, there must be vast number of
vessels for the transportation. Potteries
abound on every hand in Cairo and Alex,
andria. Every house of the lower classes
has its jars somewhere visible; while the
courts of the larger ones have great ones,
used as receptacles or tanks. In the hotel
where stayed in Cairo, the Hotel du Nil,
there were a number of them in the court,
Which is fragrant, even in mid February,
with flowers of various kinds. On the
third floor, to which l was banishcd, there
were two immense jars containing Nile
water, and from them water was drawn
every day for the use of the guests. No
wonder that there are so many illusions in
the Old Testament to pottery, as illustra-
ton, when one sees SO many earthen jars
in use and for sale, and stumbles on a pot
terry every now and then IN his pcrambula-
tionS.
My first view of the two great pyramids
was from the cars, when we were some
thirty miles distant from them, on the way
from Alexandria to Cairo. Them after
reaching Cairo, l never lost an opportunity
to catch a glimpse of them. There are
three pyramids near the city, and any child
could recognize them from the familiar
pictures in the georgrapcies and histories
The first and largest is that of Cheops, and
in the distance this seems to be just little
blunted at the top and this blunt is a space
of thirty-two feet square! The pyramid
is some eight miles from Cairo, and the
present fine road, which is raised high
enough to bid defiance to the annual inun-
dation of the Nile, was built for the honor
and convenience of the ex-Empress Eugene,
when visiting the East to witness the open
ing of the Suez Canal The pyramid of
Cheops covers eleven acres of ground, and
as | stood at the base of it, looking up at
the great blocks that are piled up like a
mountain, as if built by some extinct Cyclic
pean race, it seemed sort of dream, a
pure fancy, so utterly unlike is it to any
thing else one finds in his travelling expert
ence. But after a great turbaned Arab
seized me by either arm, and another strong
armed one pushed me, soon found was
undertaking anything but 4 dreamy task.
The sun was intensely hot, and it seemed a
midsummer day. But did just as little
work as possible. Those three fellows were
to be paid for their job, and their job was
to be muscle for me. Many of the stones
were so thick that was lifted from one to
another where there was no worn niche
where could place my toe.
Finally, reached the top, from which
one looks down upon Cairo, the winding
Nile, the desert stretching on either side of
the valley, the Mokattam Mountains OBJ
structing the view toward the great Sahara,
and the site of Heliopolis, with its single
obelsk, to tell the story that it was once
the centre of the worlds wisdom and power.
One cannot help thinking more of the past
than the present as he looks down from old
Cheops, for every stone over which he has
been climbing is a relic of remote antiquity,
and is associated with both sacred and pro-
fame history. Abraham, Moses, and the
Israelites were intimately identified with
Egypt, and of Greater it is written =
"Out of Egypt have l called my Son.
The monuments of the past that the trav-
eler finds to-day along the Nile, covered
with hieroglyphics, reveal here and there a
chapter in the history of the despised peo-
pie, and the presence of the cross on tablets
that long antedate Calvary has been sup
posed, and not without ground, to indicate
a belief on the part of the ancient Egyp-
tians in both the fact and the manner of
the subsequent Great Precipitation. The
morning that l sat on the top of Cheops
and watched each object that stood out
like sculpture in this marvellously transpa-
rent and dry atmosphere, it seemed as
though the scene itself and it's associations
were all that one ought to think of.
could not read the elaborate descriptions OF
it that brought all the way from home,
and to the very top. What does one care
at such a moment to know how many cubic
feet are in the pyramid, or how many men
built it, and how long it took them?
The Arabs give you no rest from the
time your carriage or donkey is in sight
until it is out of sight again. They sur
round you, keeping pace with your horses,
and cry Backsheesh, backsheesh," at
every breath A score crowd around you,
begging for the privilege Of pulling and
pushing you up. Then, when you are a