orbearing to launch our skiff
earlier than at the beginning of the present century.

The middle of June, eighteen hundred and sixteen: the river is just
beginning to rise, and the thirsty land spreads wide her lap to
receive him. Some miles to the north slumbers Cairo in white heat, its
outline jagged with minarets and bulbous domes. Southward, the shaded
Pyramids print their everlasting outlines against the tremulous
distance; old as they are, it seems as though a puff of the Khamsin
might dissolve them away. Near at hand is a noisy, naked crowd of men
and boys, plunging and swimming in the water, or sitting and standing
along the bank. They are watching and discussing the slow approach up
stream of a large boat with a broad lateen-sail, and a strange flag
fluttering from the mast-head. Rumor says that this boat contains a
company of strangers from beyond the sea; men who do not wear turbans,
whose dress is close-fitting, and covers them from head to
foot,--even the legs. They come to learn wisdom and civilization from
the Pyramids, and among the ruins of Memphis.

A hundred yards below this shouting, curious crowd, stands, waist-deep
in the Nile, a slender-limbed boy, about ten years old. He belongs to
a superior caste, and holds himself above the common rabble. Being
perfectly naked, a careless eye might, however, rank him with the
rest, were it not for the talisman which he wears suspended to a fine
gold chain round his neck; a curiously designed diamond ring, the
inheritance of a long line of priestly ancestors. The boy's face is
certainly full of intelligence, and the features are finely moulded
for so young a lad.

He also is watching the upward progress of the lateen-sail; has heard,
moreover, the report concerning those on board. He wonders where is
the country from which they come. Is it the land the storks fly to, of
which mother (before the plague carried both her and father to a
stranger land still) used to tell such wonderful stories? Does the
world really extend far beyond the valley? Is the world all valley and
river, with now and then some hills, like those away up beyond
Memphis? Are there other cities beside Cairo, and that one which he
has heard of but never seen,--Alexandria? Wonders why the strangers
dress in tight-fitting clothes, with leg-coverings, and without
turbans! Would like to find out about all these things,--about all
things knowable beside these, if any there be. Would like to go bac