A TRIP TO EGYPT. 
83 
“ Virgin’s Tree,” a sycamore, under which, it is said, the Holy 
Family rested. This is really a magnificent tree, and is evidently 
very old. It is railed round to preserve it from the hacking 
and carving of visitors. 
The Ostrich Farm 
well repaid us for an inspection. We found that 700 ostriches were 
kept there, the full-grown males had black feathers and white tails, 
while those of the females were brown. We saw birds from one 
day up to ten years old, when they stand about 8ft. high ; we 
noticed them feeding upon white clover. They begin to lay in the 
fourth year, and often lay forty-three eggs in a year. The eggs are 
hatched in the incubating department by hot water in thirty days. 
Heliopolis. 
Here stood the great “ Temple of the Sunhere the beautiful and 
the wise studied love and logic 4,000 years ago. Here Joseph was 
married to the fair Asenath, and here Plato and Herodotus pursued 
philosophy and history. It had an existence under the ancient 
power, and flourished long after as a great sacerdotal city, to whose 
colleges Greek philosophers came to learn wisdom from Egyptian 
priests. The story of its decadence is unknown. Strabo came 
here, and found only ruins and desert. To-day all that remains of 
Heliopolis is the enclosure of the temple and the wonderful obelisk. 
This is one of the most ancient and celebrated of the obelisks of 
Egypt, and is 68ft. in height, being carved out of one piece of red 
granite, and I noticed that in some places the carving and the 
polish were as perfect as when it was first erected. 
The Young Khedive 
usually drove past Sheplieard’s Hotel on his way to the Government 
offices, about 8 30 a.m., returning about 4 30 p.m. He drove in 
an open carriage, occupying the back seat alone, with two of his 
Ministers of State on the front seat, guarded by an escort of 
mounted soldiers, preceded by two Arab runners wearing turbans 
on their heads, and white dresses fitting the body tightly and 
thickly kilted down to the knees, each carrying a long, white rod, 
which they used in clearing the way for their young sovereign, who 
was then not quite eighteen years old. 
(To be continued.) 
April, 1893. 
