leasant
incidents of my entire tour, to hear a company of sailors chime in one
evening and sing "Kiss Me Mother, Kiss Your Darling." I had heard little
English speaking for months, and now to hear that old familiar tune, five
thousand miles away from home, made me feel as if America could after all
not be so very far off! There were no storms, nor was their any cool
night air upon that "summer seat." I slept one night on deck, without even
an awning of canvass over me,--how pleasant it was at night to awake and
see the winter constellation of Orion as high up already in September, as
I was wont to see it in America in the month of January! We reached

Alexandria

on the fourth day after leaving the coasts of Italy. Perhaps I can not
give the reader a better idea of what a blank Egypt seems to one who has
luxuriated for months amid the scenes of Europe, than by leaving my
chapter on Egypt a blank one. A great deal too much has been written about
Egypt and the East, already. What profitable example can we take from
those semi-barbarians? A young man who was just returning from a tour
through Egypt and Greece, had told me already at Rome, that "going to see
the East is done mostly for the name of having done the thing." He had
been disappointed, and so was I. Why do tourists speak so much about the
pyramids, after returning from Egypt? Because there is little else to be
seen there or to talk about! And these are not half the wonders that many
imagine who falsely presume that the building of the entire structures
were undertaken at once. The broad foundation of 13 acres, which
constitutes the base of the greatest, was not undertaken at one time; but
only a small pyramid was at first reared, and around this, as a nucleus,
was built layer after layer, until the structure assumed the amazing
proportions which now characterize the astounding magnificence of the
great pyramids on the plains of Geezeh. Thus at whatever time the
sovereign might die, his pyramid would be almost complete, and would be
large or small, in proportion to the time spent upon it. Perhaps
succeeding generations built at some of the larger pyramids. They are
monuments erected to the memory of kings or ruling families, and contain
their tombs. Such, at least, is a plausible solution of the problem of
pyramid-building.

Cairo.

At Cairo I engaged a guide whom I paid three dollars for accompanying me
as many hours, and bargained with him that h