y adjoining could be seen men washing their feet and
doing oddities unmentionable preparatory to worship.

After wandering about the building for some time I was accosted by one
of the attendants, and was made to understand that one of my feet was
uncovered. I had lost one of my sandals. I was rather uneasy for a
while, not knowing what they might do with that unholy foot that had
desecrated the temple. The guide found it, however, and "Richard was
himself again." After leaving the "Mosque" the guide escorted us
shipward through the business portion of the city, neat and cleanly,
with hotels and stores creditable to a metropolis. But for beggars of
unrivaled persistency I commend you to Port Said, for with a
pitiableness, sincere or assumed, they dog your every footstep.

At the southern part of the city is a large cemetery, having stones with
many hieroglyphics and inscriptions denoting the former locality,
character and virtues of the dead. With the scholar are interred copies
of his literary productions; with the soldier, his sword; with the
statesman, a roll of his achievements for the good of the state, for
presentation to "Allah."

CHAPTER XXI.

The passage through the Suez Canal was somewhat monotonous, but a
continued reminder of bible history. On either side as far as the eye
could reach the desert spread out its sandy atoms glistening in the sun.

Out of the canal we are in the Gulf of Suez, and in a few hours in the
Red Sea, an interesting locality in ancient history. It is there we
learn that Pharaoh and his hosts met their Waterloo (with the accent on
the water) in the pursuit of the children of Israel. But here we find
conflicting opinions. Some say that Pharaoh, arriving at the bank and
seeing the impossibility of overtaking them, turned and retired; others,
that there were shoal places in those far-away days where any one could
cross; others, that they crossed on flats very like the ordinary modern
mortal. But I do not accept this attempt to question the orthodox
version, but will verify it as far as my observation will admit. The sea
was likely red in those days, and has very properly retained its name on
account of the locality being red-hot at times, or, perhaps, chameleon
like, changes its color. This morning, however, it is a deep blue. As to
Pharaoh and his hosts getting drowned, there cannot be doubt, if it was
in its present condition and they attempted to cross on foot.

But this w