OSTRICHES. 



99 



tions, all unintelligible to us, as to our route, etc. Then, 

 just as we had mounted, he turned to us and said, " I 

 have told them to show you something more on the 

 way back, something very interesting." *' What is it ? " 

 we were about to ask ; but before we could get the 

 words out, the ubiquitous little man had bustled off 

 to other business ; and we ourselves were Hying at a 

 headlong pace down the narrow Arab street, closely 

 pursued by our impetuous donkey-boys ; who, anxious 

 to make an imposing start, urged on our animals, not 

 only with savage yells and blows, but also with 

 frequent and cruel digs from the sharp points of our 

 camera's tripod stand. 



Even after we had left the town far behind us, and 

 our tyrants, for lack of an admiring crowd before 

 whom to exhibit us, allowed us to settle down into a 

 peaceful trot, it was quite useless to look to them for 

 any information concerning this promised interesting 

 sight ; for our few words of Algerian Arabic did not 

 avail in Egypt ; and as for the European vocabulary of 

 the donkey-boys, it was, as usual, strictly limited to 

 an accurate knovvledo-e of all the bad words in Eno^lish, 

 French and German. N.B, — A donkey-boy is never 

 promoted to the dignity of being called a donkey-man, 

 but, however old and grey he may have grown in the 

 service, always retains the juvenile appellation. 



On arriving at Heliopolis, our ungratitied curiosity 

 was soon forgjotten in the interest of seeinof that vener- 

 able obelisk which once, in all probability, looked down 

 on the wedding procession of Joseph and the daughter 



