A JOURNEY IN THE EAST, 303 
to ascend the great pyramid of Cheops. Some Arabs at once 
began to rummage about the venerable piles, but only two 
jackals were routed out, one of which the Grand Duke shot, 
while I fired at the other, but too far away, and the wounded 
beast dragged itself off into the desert. There was nothing 
on the third pyramid, so after a short hunt we were at liberty 
to begin the ascent of this artificial mountain. 
My companions accomplished the somewhat fatiguing but 
not at all dangerous climb in twenty minutes, but I wanted 
to give some lively exercise to the Arabs who swarm round 
tourists and hoist them up step by step, so I sprang from 
stone to stone and reached the top in nine minutes. From 
the little platform at the summit there is a splendid view of 
the Nile, the extensive cultivated country of Lower Egypt, 
the tawny deserts on both sides, and the noble town of Cairo 
with its sea of houses and its high minarets. 
The sun was just setting, and seen through the golden haze 
of the heated atmosphere and the whirling sand of the desert 
looked like a ball of fire as it slowly vanished into the Libyan 
waste, while dark shadows lay upon the eastern mountains, 
and the old citadel and the cliffs of the Mokattam hills were 
bathed in a rosy light like our Alpine glow. 
Some of the pyramid guides, who were particularly swift of 
foot, ran for a good backsheesh down the Cheops pyramid 
and up to the top of the Chéfren in eight minutes, the upper 
part of the latter being very dangerous to climb on account 
of its smooth surface. 
After this entertaining exhibition we, too, clambered down 
from our elevated position, and while making the descent a 
young guide, with a fine thoroughly Arab face, told me in 
broken French that he was not an Egyptian or one of the 
miserable fellaheen, but had the honour of being a scion of a 
noble family in Algiers, and was also a far-travelled man, who 
knew both Tunis and Morocco, where true Arabs lived, and 
