DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11715#0062
THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS.
great feat is for an Arab to leap down the side of the First Pyramid, run across the in-
tervening space of desert sand, and up the Second Pyramid in nine minutes. The sheikh
was demanding a shilling apiece from the twenty-four Europeans who were on the
summit. I remonstrated, saying that a dollar for the whole was the regular tariff. The
sheikh drew me aside and whispered in my ear, " Mr. Doctor, you say nothing, and pay
nothing." When he came round to collect the money from the contributers, he passed
me by with a merry wink and shrug of his shoulders. A member of our party had a -
very powerful opera-glass, which he lent to one of the Arabs. Mohammed, looking
through it, was beyond measure astounded to see not only his village in the plain below,
but his two wives, Fatima and Zuleika, gaily disporting themselves in his absence, little
thinking that "he held them with his glittering eye." When he had given free vent to
his feelings, I said to him, "Mohammed, how do you keep two wives in order? We in
England find one quite as much as we can manage with advantage ; sometimes rather
more." He replied, " Oh, Mr. Doctor, dey berry good ; dey like two sisters ; I give
them much stick ;" and I have no doubt that they had a good deal of stick on his return
home.
All this may seem quite out of keeping with the feelings proper to a visit to the Pyra-
mids—as no doubt it is—but I have been so much annoyed by the unreality and senti-
mentalism of many books of travel, that I prefer to state facts exactly as they happened.
The gift of a shilling to the sheikh, on condition that he allowed no one to speak to me
for a quarter of an hour, at length secured a brief interval of quiet, in which I abandoned
myself to the undisturbed enjoyment of the scene and its associations. What a wonder-
ful history is unrolled before us as we look around! Across that waste of sand, which
stretches away to the north-east, came Abram and Sarai his wife, and his nephew Lot,
to sojourn in the land. The young Hebrew slave, who should rise to be second only to
Pharaoh, is brought by the same route, and is followed once and again by his brethern
seeking corn in Egypt. Where the palm-trees cluster so thickly round the ruined
mounds on the banks of the river, Moses and Aaron stood before the king, and de-
manded that he should let the people go. It was across the plain at our feet that the
armies of Shishak and Pharaoh Necho marched for the invasion of Palestine. Here,
too, came the fugitives, Jeroboam, Urijah, and others,1 seeking refuge amongst their an-
cestral enemies. Near that obelisk of red granite rising amid the glossy green of the
sugar-canes, Joseph married his wife : and when the Jewish monarchy had fallen, Onias,
the high-priest, erected a temple upon the plan of that at Jerusalem for his brethern who
had settled in Egypt. There, too, if we may trust tradition, the infant Saviour was
brought when escaping from the wrath of Herod the king. Turning from sacred to se-
cular history, memories of Persian, Macedonian, and Roman conquerors—Cambyses,
Alexander, and Caesar—start into life as we look down upon the plain. Again the scene
changes, as Amrou and Omar unfurl the banner of the False Prophet, and wrest the
richest province of the empire from the enfeebled hand of the Byzantine rulers. Again,
as we gaze, we seem to see at the head of his armies the magnificent Emir Yusef Salah-
e'deen march from Cairo to confront the Crusaders under Richard the Lion-hearted,
King of England, and, having given some of its most romantic chapters to modern his-
tory, to return, and dying, send his shroud round the city, whilst criers went before it,
exclaiming, " This is all that remains of the pomp of Saladin." Coming down to our
1 I K.ngs xi. 40 ; xW. 25, 26 ; Je-emiah xxvi. 21 ; xli. 17 ; xliii. 7.
5S
great feat is for an Arab to leap down the side of the First Pyramid, run across the in-
tervening space of desert sand, and up the Second Pyramid in nine minutes. The sheikh
was demanding a shilling apiece from the twenty-four Europeans who were on the
summit. I remonstrated, saying that a dollar for the whole was the regular tariff. The
sheikh drew me aside and whispered in my ear, " Mr. Doctor, you say nothing, and pay
nothing." When he came round to collect the money from the contributers, he passed
me by with a merry wink and shrug of his shoulders. A member of our party had a -
very powerful opera-glass, which he lent to one of the Arabs. Mohammed, looking
through it, was beyond measure astounded to see not only his village in the plain below,
but his two wives, Fatima and Zuleika, gaily disporting themselves in his absence, little
thinking that "he held them with his glittering eye." When he had given free vent to
his feelings, I said to him, "Mohammed, how do you keep two wives in order? We in
England find one quite as much as we can manage with advantage ; sometimes rather
more." He replied, " Oh, Mr. Doctor, dey berry good ; dey like two sisters ; I give
them much stick ;" and I have no doubt that they had a good deal of stick on his return
home.
All this may seem quite out of keeping with the feelings proper to a visit to the Pyra-
mids—as no doubt it is—but I have been so much annoyed by the unreality and senti-
mentalism of many books of travel, that I prefer to state facts exactly as they happened.
The gift of a shilling to the sheikh, on condition that he allowed no one to speak to me
for a quarter of an hour, at length secured a brief interval of quiet, in which I abandoned
myself to the undisturbed enjoyment of the scene and its associations. What a wonder-
ful history is unrolled before us as we look around! Across that waste of sand, which
stretches away to the north-east, came Abram and Sarai his wife, and his nephew Lot,
to sojourn in the land. The young Hebrew slave, who should rise to be second only to
Pharaoh, is brought by the same route, and is followed once and again by his brethern
seeking corn in Egypt. Where the palm-trees cluster so thickly round the ruined
mounds on the banks of the river, Moses and Aaron stood before the king, and de-
manded that he should let the people go. It was across the plain at our feet that the
armies of Shishak and Pharaoh Necho marched for the invasion of Palestine. Here,
too, came the fugitives, Jeroboam, Urijah, and others,1 seeking refuge amongst their an-
cestral enemies. Near that obelisk of red granite rising amid the glossy green of the
sugar-canes, Joseph married his wife : and when the Jewish monarchy had fallen, Onias,
the high-priest, erected a temple upon the plan of that at Jerusalem for his brethern who
had settled in Egypt. There, too, if we may trust tradition, the infant Saviour was
brought when escaping from the wrath of Herod the king. Turning from sacred to se-
cular history, memories of Persian, Macedonian, and Roman conquerors—Cambyses,
Alexander, and Caesar—start into life as we look down upon the plain. Again the scene
changes, as Amrou and Omar unfurl the banner of the False Prophet, and wrest the
richest province of the empire from the enfeebled hand of the Byzantine rulers. Again,
as we gaze, we seem to see at the head of his armies the magnificent Emir Yusef Salah-
e'deen march from Cairo to confront the Crusaders under Richard the Lion-hearted,
King of England, and, having given some of its most romantic chapters to modern his-
tory, to return, and dying, send his shroud round the city, whilst criers went before it,
exclaiming, " This is all that remains of the pomp of Saladin." Coming down to our
1 I K.ngs xi. 40 ; xW. 25, 26 ; Je-emiah xxvi. 21 ; xli. 17 ; xliii. 7.
5S