240 EXTRACTS FROM 
dogs showed what uncleanly visitors there howl the night 
dirges of the departed Moslems. 
We soon got to the great quarries, with their huge walls of 
rock and large blocks of stone scattered about in wild con- 
fusion. The donkeys were ‘now left behind, and we climbed 
slowly halfway up the mountain-side by a narrow path among 
the stones and cliffs, where at some places it would have been 
awkward to have been seized with giddiness, while the 
scrambling about the slippery yellow-grey and dark-brown 
rocks of this true desert mountain demanded a certain display 
of dexterity. 
In a narrow ravine enclosed by precipices, and not far 
from the fortress-like crest of the mountain, we found an 
Arab sitting beside a dead donkey. 
Here Baron Saurma had caused the entrance to a cave in 
one of the cliffs to be built up with stones and loop-holed, thus 
forming a masked mountain-battery at the very best shot- 
range from'the bait at the bottom of the ravine. 
Into this small and very uncomfortable hiding-place my 
uncle, Saurma’s clever Nubian servant Osman, my jager, and . 
I clambered on our hands and knees along a narrow ledge, 
while the Baron and the Arabs immediately returned to the 
quarry to see what would happen. 
The sky had unfortunately become overcast and fine rain 
was falling—a very rare occurrence in Cairo, where it is said 
to rain only seven times a year; so we had just pitched upon 
one of these seven days for a kind of sport which requires a 
perfectly clear sky. 
For a long time nothing came. The incessant practising of 
the buglers and trumpeters resounded from the Citadel, and the 
heavy air, in a space so confined as to impede all free move- 
ment, made us drowsy. 
The countless fossils in the limestone were the only objects 
which afforded any interest, until at last a pair of Ravens 
