CAIKO. 11 



margin, while the lazy Kite flaps slowly along over the cul- 

 tivated land, where large flocks of the Buff'-backed Heron 

 feed fearlessly, close to the dwellings of the natives, who 

 never molest them. These birds are often pointed out as the 

 Sacred Ibis ; but, alas ! that bird is no longer to be met with, 

 or at all events is extremely rare, in the country where once 

 it Avas worshipped. 



We now cross the Mahmoodeeh Canal, which was begun 

 by Mohammed Ali in 1819, and finished within the year, 

 but was done, like most Egyptian undertakings, hurriedly, 

 and badly, with an utter disregard of life. It is said that 

 250,000 men were employed upon the work, out of which 

 20,000 died within the year. As we approach Cairo we see 

 the stately Pyramids, those gigantic monuments of Egypt, 

 rising in solemn grandeur over the intervening landscape, 

 and the range of the Mokattam Mountains, which overhang 

 Cairo, that most truly characteristic of oriental cities. On 

 our arrival we put up at the New Hotel, the finest European 

 building in the town. 



The amusements in the evening at Cairo were formerly 

 limited to the cafes, where singing and roulette went on ; but 

 the Khedive has recently built an opera-house, a theatre, a 

 circus, and a hippodrome, at which the French acting and 

 dancing form the most popular attractions. The following 

 day we devote to seeing the town, bazars, the New Mosque, 

 Old Cairo, and the NUometer on the Island of Roda, near 

 which Moses is supposed to have been discovered among the 

 bubushes. It certainly requu-es two or three days simply 

 to see the town and visit the most interesting mosques, 

 without gouig in for any of the detail ; then the Fossil 

 Forest and the Tombs of the Caliphs take a day, while 



