Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/104

 them to kneel down, and be lightened of their burdens. The rest of the ascent must be made on foot. Our way led up a chasm that cleft in twain two of the massive forms of Serbal. We started, not very vigorously, but slowly, to reserve our strength. We soon found that we had need of it, for we were in for a task requiring our utmost endurance. The ascent was often at an angle of forty-five degrees; indeed in many cases it was almost perpendicular. It was climbing over huge granite boulders weighing hundreds of tons, or turning around them. Sometimes we fell upon our hands and feet, and could only crawl where we could not walk upright. So we went, feeling our way around the points of rocks, and creeping along the edge of precipices, where a single false step would have given us a fearful, probably a fatal, plunge. Indeed I could not have got on at all but for the Arabs, who led the way, springing forward like catamounts, and clinging to the rocks with their bare feet, and reaching out their long, sinewy arms to grasp mine, which were extended upward, while another swarthy creature would come behind to give me a "boost." Once or twice I sank down quite exhausted, and the dragoman cast on me a look of pity as he said "I so sorry!" and even Dr. Post, who thought I had found the undertaking more than I bargained for, advised me to give it up. But it is not in my nature to give up a thing when once I have undertaken it. I asked only for an occasional breathing spell.

While lying stretched on the rocks, lest the scene should become too tragic, it was relieved by a touch of the comic, which is seldom absent in the society of my irrepressible countrymen. Accompanying us up the mountain was the other party of which I have spoken, in which were a couple of college students. Young America does not pay much respect to times and places. Just as my thoughts were