me to see the obelisk in the granite quarry, and I tried to teach them
to say: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." As I
was repeating the first word of the sentence and trying to induce one of
them to follow me, he said, "No blessed," and I failed to get either of
them to say these beautiful words. In Egypt and other countries there
are millions of persons just as ignorant of the gospel and just as much
in need of it as the curly-headed Bisharin lad who conducted me to the
granite quarry.

I took a pleasant boat ride across the river, past the beautiful grounds
of the Savoy Hotel, to the rock tombs of the great persons of ancient
Elephantine. I tarried a little too long at the tombs, or else did not
start soon enough, for darkness came upon us soon after leaving them.
For some distance the boatman walked on the shore and towed the boat
with a long rope, while I tried to keep it off of the rocks with the
rudder. There was not enough wind to make the sail useful, and as we
were passing around the end of Elephantine Island we drifted against
the rocks, but with no other loss than the loss of some time. It was my
desire to see the Nilometer on the island, and I did see it, but not
until after I had sent the boatman to buy a candle. This ancient
water-gauge was repaired in 1870, after a thousand years of neglect.
The following description by Strabo is taken from Baedeker's _Guide to
Egypt_: "The Nilometer is a well, built of regular hewn stones, on the
bank of the Nile, in which is recorded the rise of the stream--not only
the maximum, but also the minimum, and average rise, for the water in
the well rises and falls with the stream. On the side of the well are
marks measuring the height for the irrigation and other water levels.
These are published for general information. * * * This is of importance
to the peasants for the management of the water, the embankments, the
canals, etc., and to the officials on account of the taxes, for the
higher the rise of the water, the higher the taxes." It needs to be
said, however, that this "well" is not circular, but rectangular, and
has a flight of steps leading down to the water.

On the way back to Cairo I stopped at Luxor, on the site of the ancient
city of Thebes. The chief attraction here is the Temple of Luxor, six
hundred and twenty-one feet long and one hundred and eighty feet wide.
In recent times this temple was entirely buried, and a man told me he
owned