7 o TRAVELS TO THE EAST. 
at the foot of it whatever I could find worth notice. 
We afterwards went to the fraaller Pyramids, round 
which I rid, and beheld attentively their appear- 
ance. I was determined to know whether {tones 
alone mutt fatisfy my curiofity, and if a burning 
fand had excluded every thing that had life from 
this place. If I had not fearched attentively, I 
fliould certainly have been of the opinion, and con- 
firmed what 1 was told in Cairo, that no living crea- 
ture, much lefs a plant, was to be found near the 
Pyramids. The earth is of fuch a nature here, that 
it would appear to many a miracle, if any animal or 
plant could here find nourilhment and fullenance. I 
found however both; namely, one fingle plant, 
which was Gum Succoury(Chondrillajuncea). Of ani- 
mals, I found the little Lizard, which I had every 
where feen running on the walls in the Levant, run- 
ning here in numbers on the fand. Rut what moft 
pleafed me was a Lion Ant (Hemerobius Fonnicaleo) 
which infers have their own republic. Thefe run 
by hundreds in the fand, in the fame manner as 
Fifmires. Each held (tone, fand, or rotten bits of 
wood between their curious jaws or maxillae, and 
flattened with them to the dwellings they had made 
in the fand. I faw numbers of this infe&’s nefts. 
They were thrown up in tufts in the fand, about 
the bignefs of the two fills, and a little deprefifed at 
the top. In the middle of this deprettion was a little 
hole, about the bignefs of a lma.lL pipe ftem, through 
which they went in and out. I attacked them 
within their intrenchments, in hopes of feeing the 
inward conftruclion of their nefts, but I was de- 
ceived, and only deraolifhed their outworks ; from 
which went a pri vate palfage, fo artfully cor, ducted, 
that it was in vain to endeavour to come to their 1 in- 
nermoft dwelling. All the architefture, magnifi- 
cence. 
