so hot that we were only too glad to
select the spot in which we could get the greatest amount of air. A
very soft and gentle breeze, wafted across the Desert from an unknown
distance, fanned me as I slept. The ascent was, I confess, a much more
formidable undertaking than I had anticipated; and our French friend
gave in after attempting a few steps. The last words which had passed
between him and me before we retired to rest, were interchanged as we
were standing in front of the Sphinx, and were characteristic: _Ah!
que c'est drole!_ was the reassuring exclamation which fell from his
lips while we were there transfixed and awestruck. As far as the
ascent of the Pyramid was concerned, I am not sure but that I was
sometimes tempted to follow his example, when I found how great was
the effort required to mount up, in the hot air, the huge blocks of
granite, and the unpleasantness of feeling every now and then with
what facility one might topple downwards. This sensation was most
disagreeably felt when, as generally happened at any very critical
place, my Arab friends, who were helping me up, began to talk of
'backshish,' and to insinuate that a small amount given at once, and
before the ascent was completed, would be particularly acceptable.
However, after a while the summit was reached. I am not sure that it
repaid the trouble; at any rate, I do not think I should ever wish to
make the ascent again. We had a horizon all around tinted very much
like Turner's early pictures, and becoming brighter and more
variegated as the dawn advanced, until it melted into day. Behind, and
on two sides of us, was the barren and treeless Desert, stretching out
as far as the eye could reach. Before us, the fertile valley of the
Nile; the river meandering through it, and, in the distance, Cairo,
with its mosques and minarets, the highest, the Citadel Mosque,
standing out boldly upon the horizon. It was a fine view, and had a
character of its own, but still it was not in kind very different from
other views which I have seen from elevated points in a flat country.
It does not stand forth among my recollections as a spectacle unique,
and never to be forgotten, as that of the night before does. Very soon
after the sun rose the heat became painful on our elevated seat, and
we hastened to descend-an operation somew