of an
opportune moment, caught a dense mass of faces before the natives became
aware of his presence.

On Friday afternoon we visited the Monastery El Akbar to see the
religious exercises of the Twirling Dervishes, which take place there
every Friday afternoon. The shrill music, the fanatic faces, the
obeisance to the leader, the whirling men, the naked feet, and the
never-touching skirts, just as we beheld them, are pictured vividly by
Canon Rawnsley, in his "Idylls and Lyrics of the Nile."

THE DANCING DERVISHES.

The shrillest pipe man ever played
Was making music overhead,
And in a circle, down below,
Sat men whose faces seemed to show
Another world was all their trade.

Then up they rose, and one by one,
Shook skirts down, following him who led
To where the elder brother sat--
All gaberdine and conic hat,
Then bowed, and off for Heaven they spun.

Their hands were crossed upon their breast,
Their eyes were closed as if for sleep,
The naked foot that beat the floor,
To keep them spinning more and more,
Was careless of all need for rest.

Soon every flowing skirt began
Its milk-white spinning plane to keep,
Each brother of the holy band
Spun in and out with lifted hand,
A Teetotem no longer man.

The gray old man, their leader, went
Throughout his spinning fellowship,
And reverently to the ear,
Of every dervish circling near,
He spake a soft encouragement.

The piper piped a shriller psalm,
The dancers thro' their mystery moved,
Untouched, untouching, and the twirl
That set our giddy heads awhirl,
Served but to give their faces calm.

We drove from Cairo to the Pyramids of Gizeh, a distance of ten miles,
over a substantial macadamized avenue. This broad highway, elevated
eight or ten feet above the adjoining lands in order to protect it from
the flood of water during the time of inundation, was bordered for seven
miles with large shade trees, and was in perfect condition. On one side
of the avenue an electric tramway extended from the bridge at Cairo to
the Mena House Hotel near the Pyramids.

"We might have reached our destination more quickly in the cars," said
our manager as an electric car sped by us, "but at such speed we should
have missed much that is strange and curious. We thought it preferable
to take the trip in open carriages."

The scenes along th