248 MEMOIR OF DR. HARVEY. 



them from serving as compulsory soldiers in the Pacha's armies ; 

 a specimen of the paternal government, but not worse in 

 principle than our pressgangs. I thought of the one-eyed 

 calenders in the " Arabian Nights." 



As the day went on all eyes were of course bent in the direc- 

 tion of the Pyramids, which we saw at some ten or twelve miles 

 distance, very faint in colour, but sharply defined against the 

 sky, and looking quite as gigantic at this distance as they after- 

 wards appeared when much nearer. 



Passing over the notice of Cairo, Dr. Harvey leaves that city 

 "about half-past eight in the evening, under a bright full moon," in 

 a van holding six passengers, with a convoy of four accompany- 

 ing ones. Huge prickly pear hedges, date trees, &c, lined the 

 road for the first stage, after which all cultivation ceased, and 

 they entered on the stony or sandy fiats of the desert. Here 

 they soon overtook the caravan of camels with the luggage, " a 

 long line of patient burden-bearers tied together, and following 

 with measured tread in single file." The night cool and pleasant. 

 They stopped for refreshment every four hours, when he found a 

 cup of hot tea a complete preventive of thirst. 



" There is little," he writes, " to be seen in the desert but the 

 ' riddlings of creation ' (quoting Burns), and a few stunted 

 shrubs, or a tree at long intervals, and all along the road-side 

 the skeletons of hundreds of camels that have died there. The 

 Arabs will not kill the dying camel, but when he falls down and 

 will not rise again, he is unladen, his burden distributed to the 

 others, and the poor brute left to die of hunger and thirst. 

 After day-break we passed one of these unfortunates, still alive, 

 but with a great hole in one side, from which on our approach 

 two ravens flew up, and there were several vultures perched at 

 a little distance waiting for their meal. They do not touch him 

 while life lasts, but quickly strip the carrion from the bones. 

 It was pitiable to see the poor animal slowly turning his head 

 and watching our movements at we passed by. I thought of 

 Mrs. Hemans's lines, ' They are gone, they are all passed by ;' 

 but perhaps the poor brute is ignorant of his fate, and yet 

 I hardly think it. The only other living things we passed 

 were three gazelles, that stood and stared at us from a short 

 distance, and then moved slowly away over the hot stones. 



