The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-12-15
Falling Down the Jagged Face of the
Great Pyramid.

Great Pyramid.
Unlike many Alpine adventures,
those made in ascending the great pyra-
mid of Cheops, at Gheezeh, are seldom
attended with loss of life. If my memory
is trustworthy, the only Englishman
who, within the last five years, came to
an untimely end in " doing" the great
pyramid was an Anglo Indian lieuten-
ant, who missed his footing, came
bounding down the many tiers of steps
which form the exterior of the massive
structure and was dashed to pieces be-
fore he reached the bottom. Some five
years before another adventurous En-
glishman lost his life through attempt
ing the ascent without the aid of guides.
Now we have third unfortunate added
to this brief list, and he also came to
his death precisely because he was too
full of adventure and imagined he
could ascend cold Cheops" without
extraneous aid. Briefly, the facts are
these: On Friday, October 10th, Lance
corporal Richie of the medical staff
corps, well-educated and promising
soldier of six years. standing, made,
with five comrades, journey to the
pyramids of Gheezeh, there to picnic
and make merry before his departure
for home. Gheezeh is exactly eight
miles from Cairo, and is reached by a
beautifully-kept and shaded road, which
runs straight there. 1t is sandy
plateau, wherein stands the three i'm
mortal pyramids-those of Cheops,
Cyphrenes and Mycerinus-and the
Sphinx staring stonily into the mind
forever. There " curios - are in charge
of sheikh, dubbed the DOCTOR" who
speaks English, French and Italian cor
rectly and fluently, and with him are
associated some half dozen Bedouin
guides, whose fathers have followed the
same vocation. These men have a
special permit from the khedive, and
are, among other things, supposed to
aid travellers in ascending the great
pyramid or exploring the interior. Ac-
cording to this privilege, they are not
to allow tourists to ascend the great
pyramid unless accompanied by two or
three guides. These latter are fierce
looking, why fellows, who know Cheops
by heart, and are as skilful in ascending
or descending it as a sailor in the rig
ging. | have often seen the " doctor :"
and his men run up one side of the
great pyramid and down the other in
three minutes for consideration. AS
this mass of masonry is more than four
hundred sixty feet in height, as the
length of each side is seven hundred
thirty-two feet and as the pile covers
an area of thirteen acres, the difficulty
of such feat can be easily imagined,
especially when one considers that
many of the lodges, or asizes, as the
French call them, are four and five feet
in height. Kangaroos could not bound
or leap better What these Arabs can
do after long practice Lance-corporal
Richie and his companions attempted
at first sight They had repulsed the
guides, and successfully gained the apex
of the pyramid-a feat of remarkable
difficulty, as the lodges are in most
cases over four feet high, and are
broken, slippery and uneven. Let me
explain the situation in a few words.
The exterior of the great pyramid, hav-
ing been robbed ages ago of its marble
facings, now presents an irregular series
of lodges or steps, which bear a strong
staircase. The first six or eight blocks
some four feet square-are broken
and precipitOus and exceedingly diff
zulu W illOuut, anu luc tOullSt Has W as
cend in zigzag fashion. Higher up the
difficulty increases, and it is only by
jumping quickly and eXcitedly that one
can make any progress at all. To stop
from fatigue is dangerous, for it is try
ing for some heads to rest on a narrow
ledge and see dazzling succession OF
thirty feet below, and a crowd of dim
inutive people looking up to see whether
one is coming bobbing down the vast
staircase. Our Englishmen, having
made the ascent in safety, had the wors
part of their journey before them-th,
coming down. The deceased, eXhila
rated with success, began to juml
from ledge to ledge, thing which tho
Arabs hardly ever think of doing
When just four hundred feet from the
base (the pyramid is four hundred sixt,
feet in height he made false step
and, bounding in TIE air, described 6
semi-circle, and then bumped against {
lower ledge, from which he bounced
against a third, always describing the
same horrible parabola, and finally
landed twelve yards from the base, {
shapeless, inanimate mass. His com
panions were so horror-stricken at tn,
sight of the terrible fall that it was
some seconds before they could brin!
themselves to look at the remains o
their unfortunate comrade. ! SPAR
your readers the sickening details.
is enough to say that scarcely a BON
in the body was left intact, while TIT
head was broken to pieces, and the lief
arm had been detached and had fol
lowed the gyrations of the trunk il
mid-air. An ambulance was brough
from Kasr el-Nil barracks, and the frag
ments of the corpse carefully place.
therein and conveyed to town.-Cdir
Correspondence London Globe.
A FEARFUL leap into the abyss o