and
ferocious-like savages. The Arabs knew as well as I did that my life
and property were in their power; but they were kind, and proud of the
confidence I had in them. They tapped me gently on the back, patted my
head, kissed my hand, and then with a low, laughing, sinister growl,
they asked me for buckshish, which I firmly refused; then they
laughed, and sang and chatted as before. In calmly looking around me,
one idea filled and fixed my mind, which I expressed at the time in
one word--magnificence!... I remained long at the top of the pyramid,
and naturally felt elevated by the sublimity of the scenery around,
and also by the thought, that I had conquered every difficulty, and
accomplished my every purpose. The breeze was still cool, although the
sun was now high in the sky. I laughed and talked with the Arabs; and
advanced with them holding my two hands, to the very edge, and looked
down the awful precipice. Here again, with a push, or a kick, or
probably by withdrawing their hands, my days would have been finished;
and I would have been buried in the Desert among the ancient kings, or
more likely worried up by hungry hyaenas. I looked around at my
leisure, and began carefully to read the names cut out on the stones,
anxious to catch one from my own country, or of my acquaintance, but
in this I did not succeed. Seeing me thus occupied, one of the Arabs
drew from his pocket a large murderous-looking _gully_, and when he
advanced towards me with it in his hand, had I believed the tenth part
of what I had heard or read, I might have been afraid of my life. But
with a laughing squeal, he pointed to a stone, as if to intimate that
I should cut out my name upon it. Then very modestly he held out his
hand for buckshish, and I thought him entitled to two or three
piasters.... In coming down, I felt timid and giddy for awhile, and
was afraid that I might meet the fate of the poor officer from India,
who, on a similar occasion, happened to miss his foot, and went
bouncing from one ledge of stone to another, towards the bottom, like
a ball, and that long after life was beaten out of him. Seeing this,
the Arabs renewed their demand for buckshish, and with more
perseverance than ever; but I was equally firm in my determination
that more money they should not have till I reached the bottom. At
last they took me by both hands as before, and conducted me carefully
from step to step. By and by I jumped down from one ledge to anoth