~~ x — 
Septmebr 4 - 
We both had a good sleep last night for the first time in 
many nights, the temperature being a little bit more like what a 
human being can stand. , * 
.Another catastrophe below however: there y7 ere &mr pythons 
in that Karachi box, and one of them, last night, killed one of our 
Banksian cockatoos - a $6 snake, and a $100 bird (native prices) . 
Davis says, ''If Jennier doesn't keep his snakes in better boxes I 
don't know what I'm ging to do." And somebody relayed the fcory to 
the Captain, and he is furious, too. It's too bad the python didn't 
get one of the troublesome Chinese instead of our rarest bird. 
Bill spent the day in bed, still running a slight tempera- 
ture, and feeling very weak. I have some sort of rheumatism, that 
sets up an aching in all my joints, and gives me a slight temperature 
September 5 - 
We awoke on the edge of the fuez C^nal. Suez 
quite a town, with small-size skyscrapers, and parks, 
of DeLesseps just where the canal begins. 
Bill began the day by setting his heart on a shore excursion 
the excuse being that I had never seen the pyramids. I protested 
that he was not well enough, and the Captain backed me up, but Bill 
was determined, and about eight-thirty we left the ship, taking a 
big Buick car and a. guide named i^bdul Abdallah. We stopped in a 
cafe in Suez for a cup of thick Egyptian coffee, and then headed out 
of town and into the desert. 
The Sahara is one place that lives up to ex] ectations. Sand 
and sand dunes stretch to the horizon, broken only by the black ribbon 
of asphrlt road, and the occasional scrubby bushes that furnish 
most unappetising camel fodder. We saw a camel patrol, which Abdallah 
says is one of many that h^ve made the desert safe traveling now, 
and cuite different from the days when Bill was here before, and 
Arabs took pot shots at one simply for the fun of it, I also some 
something that I have nevrr quite believed in - a mirage. Through 
the sand dimes, and bordered by the brownish green scrub, were 
several miles of beautiful blue lakes, that wound in and out in 
lagoon-like patterns, cool and deceptive. 
Towards noon we reached Cairo, and went at once to the 
Museum. Our time was so short that we trisAxtsxx^K did not attempt 
to see more than the galleries devoted to Tutankhamen. Even here 
there was so much material that one could have spent a week. Models 
of shijxs, all sorts of household furnishings, alabaster lamps, 
jewels - gold, turquoise, enamel - pottery, the gold-encrusted mauso- 
leum, the coffins themselves - it was an overwhelming exhibition. 
From the Museum we went out to the Zoo, which is a very 
fine one. Bill had received this morning a letter from the American 
Consul, who enclosed a list of animals that the Zoo was willing to 
let us have. Armed with t is list, we went into the Director's 
office, but found that he was away, and his assistant knew notning 
itself is 
and a statue 
