Page:"Round the world." - Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt (IA roundworldletter00fogg 0).pdf/290

236 in the morning sunand beyond all, the white shining sands of the desert.

The Arabs pointed out the autograph on stone of the Prince of Wales (very badly cut,) and offered us hammer and chisel, but we declined the cheap immortality of enrolling our names so high up on tablets of stone, along with those of Jones, Smith and Robinson which cover nearly every inch of the space. To descend was more difficult and dangerous than to climb up, for it requires steady nerves to look off from such a dizzy height, standing upon a shelf scarcely a foot in width. But our faithful Arabs never let go of our hands for a moment until we reached terra firma, where a liberal backsheesh made them dance round us like so many wild Indians. “Yankee Doodle, good, good,” was the style of their returning thanks. This title seems to denote high rank in Egypt, and is used as an especial compliment to all Americans.

Resting on the huge blocks of stone on the shady side we took our lunch and indulged in a fragrant chibouk, before entering the long, narrow, dark passages that lead to the heart of the great pyramid. After climbing several inclines and sliding down others, with barely room to stand upright, we stood in the king’s chamber, where our tapers made little impression on darkness so intense that it could almost be felt. This apartment is lined with polished granite, and is thirty-four feet long, eighteen broad, and about twenty in length. In the centre stands a red granite Sarcophagus, in which King Cheops was buried, ages before the time of Moses. The air here was so stifling that we did not tarry long, and were glad to escape into the open air once more. The second and third pyramids are somewhat less in size than that of Cheops and the six others comparatively small. In front of the great pyramid and facing the river is the Sphinx. This most fantastic animal has ever been looked upon as one of the greatest wonders of Egypt. A colossal female head rises above the sand, attached to the body of a lioness, about which excavations have been made so as to show its form hewn from the solid rock. The features have the thick lips and high cheek bones of the Nubian which was the type of beauty to the ancient Egyptians. The circumference of the head measures over one hundred feet. Time and ill-usage have made sad havoc with the monstrous face, but there is a placid beauty about its features, an abstracted expression, resembling the large Budhist [sic]