orientalcairocit00sladuoft

3^6 Oriental Cairo
tent, and had brought his master's two camping-out bedsteads
with him as a protest. He was given them both to sleep on.
We all wanted to try the vaunted softness of the desert sand,
and the hardy surveyor was not going to sleep on a bedstead
while there were ladies on the sand.
We proceeded at once to the Sphinx, where we found a
hundred or two of moonlighting tourists (we had of course
chosen a moonlight night), with the usual accompaniment of
donkeys, camels, and pyramid-touts. Quite a number of
families went back to America extremely dissatisfied. We
had spoilt their night for them. Why hadn't they thought
of taking their beds with them, and having this Sphinxnovelty
to talk about when they returned to Indiana and
Ohio?
We thought that baggage-camel might have saved us from
the attacks of dragomans, but there was one who would not
be shaken off. As we passed the Great Pyramid, he informed
us that it was a pyramid.
" Who built that pyramid ? " I asked.
" Cheops, sir."
" Who was Cheops ? "
" I don't know, sir. He built it as a tomb."
" Was he a German ? "
" An Englishman or a German, sir."
'• Was he a Christian ? "
" I think .so, sir ; but I'm not sure, becau.se it was five
thousand years ago."
The English of this obliging person was excellent, and
when we came to the Sphinx he said :
" And that is the Sphinx. The greatest evil Napoleon ever
did was letting his soldiers practise their Field-Artillery at
the Sphinx."
The Berberine in charge of the luggage-camel looked the
picture of disgust. I determined to take his photograph in
the morning, and hoped that he would not be reconciled to
his fate by that time ; his droop was inimitable. The person
most pleased was the policeman, who smelt bakshish in
pretending to take care of us.