Our journey around the world; an illustrated record of a year's travel of forty thousand . ushingly informs us that there arethree Mark Twains among the guides, but that he is AbdulMark Twain. We cannot shake his faith in his own iden-tity, and then he solemnly informs us that he is the MarkTwain, who, when the humorist visited the pyramid, randown Cheops and upthe side of Cephronand back again, allwithin ten offers to do thesame feat for us forthe sum of fourfrancs, but we refusehis blandishments. When we reachedthe bottom, we set-tled the bill for theascent, not with ourim
Our journey around the world; an illustrated record of a year's travel of forty thousand . ushingly informs us that there arethree Mark Twains among the guides, but that he is AbdulMark Twain. We cannot shake his faith in his own iden-tity, and then he solemnly informs us that he is the MarkTwain, who, when the humorist visited the pyramid, randown Cheops and upthe side of Cephronand back again, allwithin ten offers to do thesame feat for us forthe sum of fourfrancs, but we refusehis blandishments. When we reachedthe bottom, we set-tled the bill for theascent, not with ourimportunate guide,but with the grey-bearded Sheik whoawaited us, payingthe regular fee and areasonable baksheesh to each of our guides. Of course this isnot dqne without protestations and the howlings of impotentwrath that they cannot extract from us ten times what istheir due. But we are oblivious to their threats, as-sume utter ignorance of their language, which is not difficultto do, escape from their clutches, and make our way to theSphmx. Of course we must go thither in as romantic a way as. THE FLIGHT DOWN THE PYRAMID. 432 RIDING A CAMEL. possible, and so we mount one of the ragged camels whichare waiting to convey travelers to the silent stone woman,and in this manner make the short journey. In order to allow tourists to mount, the camel unlimbershimself, doubles in his fore legs and shuts them up like ajackknife, does the same thing with his hind legs, and isthen sufficiently low, so that with some difficulty we canreach the saddle. When we are safely seated astride hishump, he begins to undouble himself, first unjointing hishind legs, then getting upon his knees, and finally upon hisgreat, splay-footed, spongy feet. Preserving our equilibriumas well as possible, and holding on with both hands, so as notto be thrown over his head, we await his next is even more trying than the first, for as he stretcheshis front legs, we rock back and forth, as though we wer
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade189, booksubjectvoyagesaroundtheworld
