. A trip to the Orient; the story of a Mediterranean cruise. Almost as suddenly as landing from anemerald sea on to a desert shore, we stepped from arich growth of verdure to a bare slope of yellow sand. CAIRO AND THE PYRAMIDS. 28s At the foot of the Pyramid of Cheops a gesticulating,vociferous throng of Bedouins crowded about us, shout-ing in Arabic mixed with a few intelHgible Enghsh and donkey bo^^s offered the services oftheir animals to makethe circuit; helpers,almost dragging usaway in their eager-ness, insisted that weshould climb to thesummit; and guideswith candles
. A trip to the Orient; the story of a Mediterranean cruise. Almost as suddenly as landing from anemerald sea on to a desert shore, we stepped from arich growth of verdure to a bare slope of yellow sand. CAIRO AND THE PYRAMIDS. 28s At the foot of the Pyramid of Cheops a gesticulating,vociferous throng of Bedouins crowded about us, shout-ing in Arabic mixed with a few intelHgible Enghsh and donkey bo^^s offered the services oftheir animals to makethe circuit; helpers,almost dragging usaway in their eager-ness, insisted that weshould climb to thesummit; and guideswith candles in theirhands importuned usto accompany theminto the gloomy in-terior. After a selec-tion of camels anddonkeys had beenmade by those whodesired to ride, theclamorous crowd ofnatives separated, andwe were allowed tostart accompanied bybut a few, who fol-lowed in case theyshould be might dropher shawl, or want her umbrella carried, or need an armto steady her in the saddle, explained the guide. For scores of centuries, remarked the professor,. ASTRIDE ITS MOTHER S SHOULDERS. 286 A TRIP TO THE ORIENT. as we stood before the Sphinx, the strong winds fromthe west have carried particles of sand from the desertand deposited them around the Pyramids. Now theoriginal base of Cheops lies twenty or thirty feet be-neath banks of sand and debris that have collectedaround it. In the same manner the encroachingparticles, drifting like the light dry snows of the prairies,have almost engulfed the Sphinx. Many times in thepast the sand has been shoveled away to prevent theSphinx from being hidden from sight, and if this excava-tion in which it now stands should be neglected for atime, the desert winds would fill the pit again andgradually cover the monument. The Granite Templeadjacent to the Sphinx was covered over so completelyin the progress of centuries that its location was for-gotten. It is but fifty years since the French archaeol-ogist Mariette discovered and excavated the i
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