'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 Chefren 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 



