ow-boat and took it to other locations one after another; but the
engine panted and throbbed in vain. In the meantime the captain had gone
to a village on the shore, had hired sixty natives, and brought them
out in boats. The Arabs, dropping off their long blue gowns, and arrayed
only in loin cloths, jumped into the water, which was not over three
feet in depth. Then, placing their shoulders against the steamer, the
gang of naked Arabs, chanting in unison a prayer to Allah for help and
protection, pushed, or pretended to push, in order to assist the puffing
engine in its task. With intermissions for rest, the pushing, the
throbbing, and the chanting of the Arabic song, "Allah il Allah, Allah
il Allah," continued during the remainder of the day.

[Illustration: THE PROSTRATE BROKEN STATUE OF RAMSES II IS ENORMOUS.]

There was so much of interest happening around them that the passengers
could scarcely take time to eat their meals, and their disappointment in
not reaching Cairo was almost forgotten.

"This has been to me one of the most interesting days of the trip. I
will mark it with a red letter," said one of our party in the evening.
"I do not regret the delay. I would not have missed those amusing and
novel sights for anything."

When efforts were resumed at dawn on Saturday, the Amasis floated free,
and before noon we arrived at Cairo. Our joyous trip on the Nile, with
its pleasant associations of fellow voyagers, dragomen, donkey boys,
temples, tombs, and gallops over the sand, was at an end.

CHAPTER XVI.

NAPLES AND POMPEII.

By noon on Sunday, March twenty-second, the various parties had
reassembled as one large family on board the Moltke in the harbor of
Alexandria, and shortly afterward they saw the land of the palms
disappear from sight below the horizon. Friends and acquaintances who
had chosen different excursions on land and had been separated for some
time had many experiences to relate to one another. Some, who had taken
the Damascus trip, gave a description of the magnificent ruins of the
famous temple of Baalbek and of the enormous size of the granite blocks
which lay scattered over the ground at that place, and displayed
bargains in hammered brass and silken rugs which they had secured in the
bazaars of the oldest city in the world. Others, who had taken a sail on
blue Galilee and a journey on horseback through the interior of
Palestine, told of the unexpected luxuries of camp life, of