The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-05-07
THE PYRAMIDS.
Trials and Tribula&ions Of . Trip from Cairs
70 the Ancient Monumsnts.

70 tho Ancient Moauments.
The visit to the Pyramids is not made
under the old disadvantages. Formerly
the visitor had to find his way to them
the best he could over the ordinary
roads of the delta and always by
donkey. Now he can drive into their
very shadow with fashionable car
rage, or if he prefers the donkey as q
thing Of tradition and quite en- ycgle,
he follows the same splendid road built
by Ismail. Having expressed q prefer
ence for the saddle, he has of course
previously made the acquaintance of q
donkey whose gait and general anna
bility do not entail suffering after the
exercise. 1t is not hard to find an ami
NAL of this description, for in spite Of
those malign tourists to whom q seat in
q saddle is as untenable as the horn of
the moon, they are in general patient
and long-suffering. Neither are the
donkey-boys more malicious, unless
scoded or otherwise maltreated. The
tourist will do well not to allow drag
oman or donkey-boy to be imposed upon
him by his hotel, but try the animals
and their drivers as he meets them
about the city till he finds what suits
him. Having fixed q day he orders his
donkey-boy to be in waiting at an hour
early enough, if the time is summer,
to enable him to accomplish the eight
miles and reach his destination before
the sun is far above the horizon. The
boy and donkey wait adjacent to the
hotel all night, and at an hour so pre-
mature that he is really quite sure that
it is the previous day he is aroused and
finds himself mounted and winding
his way through dim and devil
Gus streets toward the bridge Ell
khasr by which he is to cross
the Nile. He traverses the quarter
Ismailia, whose paved and shaded
stteets, flanked by handsome houses.
which the enterprise of the wasteful
Ismail rendered possible, are still in
gloom, illumined by few scattering
lamps. Tho signs of life are few.
Here and there is seen the furtive
shadow Of an Arab policeman. An
q
building that may be a soldiers bar
racks or camel slOuches along loaded
with bales of hay or huge panniers
containing vegetables or melons which
his master is bringing to the early
market. Having crossed the bridge
the broad tree-bOrdered avenue turns
to the left, diverging gradually from
the bank of the river. 1t is built high
above the level of the delta, and is
hard and dry, though slightly neglect
ed since the rebellion of Arab. BY
this time there are signs of daylight,
and as it reddens the dOmes and nina
rets of Cairo stretch their fantastic
outlines along the eastern sky. The
pyramids appear in advance looking
disappointingly small. Camels with
hay or bursting panniers, ridden by
strengthening BedOuins. pass in grim
silence. The donkey does his duty
heroically, urged by his driver, who as
luxury as we'll as convenience has
mounted himself on borrowed ami
NAL, whose hire will have to be added
to the days expenses.
Occasionally a Bedouin, one of those
who regularly bore travellers at the
pyramids, attaches himself to the
party, but not being able to maintain
the rate of speed. finally gives up and
is lost to sight. Now and then pre-
cocious youth, speaking little of all
modern tongues, appears from a
ncighboring village and attaches him.
self to the escort. BY the time the
sun is above the horizon, signs of
life are seen about the villages
and scattering huts. Men going to
the fields, women with jars of water on
their heads, brought from stagnant
ditch or pool. looking like Bible pic
lures, and so on till. in the full sum
shine of the early day, the task is
achieved, and the traveller finds himself
in the presence of the monuments of
which he has dreamed since childhood.
OF all the persons who had climbed the
pyramid the Bedouins seemed to re-
member only the Prince of Wales and
Mark Twain. 1t was Mark Twain's
fancy to climb the second pyramid,
which is difficult, since it retains q
portion of the old coating of concrete.
When the Nile is high it comes to the
paSe Oh the pyTanllus- anu the view Is VI
one vast sea- At other times there is
the green delta ON one side, with
Ghizah, Cairo, villages and groves,
and on the other the constantly en-
croaching desert. The eye rests on one
point Of modern interest, the village of
Embabeh, half concealed by palms,
near which Napoleon fought his battle
with the Mamelukes, a veritable garden
spot, but which, to read the histories,
one would suppose to have been in the
heart of the desert. Not much time
was left for contemplation, for the Be-
douins were anxious to exploit other
travellers who were seen arriving. So
a hasty descent, plunge into the heart
of the pyramid, from which made my
exit in a dangerous state of heat and
exhaustion, a hasty look at the exhumed
temple and the so-called benign though
really ugly face of the Sphinx, and 1
willingly turned my face back along
the acacia-shaded causeway toward
Cairo.-COr. San Fra,scic0 Chr0ni