looking at the Pyramids
and the Sphinx, and that was that no object of any kind, natural or
artificial, has ever been seen by so many great men in all ages as has
this group at Gizeh. For six thousand years the great of all nations
have made an effort to look upon these mammoth monuments: Alexander saw
them, so did Napoleon and Admiral Nelson; also the heroes of Salamis
and Marathon; all the Roman emperors who could spare the time; lines of
European kings and emperors; poets, sculptors and dramatists of ancient
and modern days; statesmen, painters and writers--all made pilgrimages
to them; while these very same stones were seen by Cleopatra, Mark
Antony, Joseph, Jacob and Abraham, as well as by thousands who preceded
them in history. They are awe-inspiring, and the spectator, do what he
may, cannot release himself from this feeling.

[Illustration: VIRGIN'S FOUNTAIN, HOLY LAND]

A short ride on a camel round the group winds up the visit, and the
view from the "high ground" of its back across the great desert
convinces the rider that he is really in the East. Since it rarely
storms in lower Egypt and rains are unknown here, this would seem to be
the ideal spot for our new wind wagons. They would carry you above the
flies, the reflected heat and the dust. Then, too, what a nice, soft
place the sand would make for a final landing place!

Cairo lately had a real estate boom which ended in a financial crash.
One man made about three million dollars in it, and when he lost this
fortune committed suicide. They employed American methods, holding
auction sales of lots in tents, with brass bands, refreshments, etc.
The East is hardly ready for that sort of thing just yet.

_The Mummy and the Scarab_

The word "mummy" is derived from the Arabic word mumiya, meaning
bitumen, or wax, which was the principal ingredient used in preserving
the human body by the Egyptians. To this were added spices, aromatic
gums, salt and soda. The rich paid about the equivalent of $1200 per
body to have the embalming done; the middle classes for a cheaper
process paid about $100, while it cost the poor but a small sum to
simply salt their dead. I saw the naked body of Rameses II. in the
Cairo Museum; it had been preserved with bitumen, and was black and
hard, but perfect, and will last forever. Many bodies more cheaply
embalmed fall to pieces when the cloth is unrolled from them. The
people of Thebes understood the business best, and