n his hurt face.

So much for the Government official!

Now we are off really! Back down the Nile and good-bye to this glorious
land. Rapidly we fly down-stream, past Abu Simbel, past the sweeps of
deep rich yellow sand seen nowhere south of Assouan in such glorious
colouring; sand that is swept smooth by the wind into great banks and
drifts with sharp edges like snow-drifts; past masses of plum-coloured
rock sticking up out of it; past defiles of stony mountains falling
sheer to the water; hiding here and there in their folds tiny villages
indistinguishable from the rocks without glasses. There is hardly a
_shaduf_ to be seen and very little cultivation, it is either desert or
stony hills on each side. Grand beyond thought is it when seen in the
flaming light of the afterglow!

[Illustration: THE PEOPLE GOING HOME IN THE EVENINGS--WATER-CARRIERS.]

At Assouan we have time for a glimpse at the great dam, extending for
over a mile in length and built of masonry eighty-two feet thick at the
bottom. This banks up the water, we have already seen, among the hills
into a prodigious lake when the great swirl of the river comes down at
flood-time, and thus much of it, which would have rushed away and been
lost, is stored and let out gradually through the sluice-gates as
required.

Then we change on to one of Cook's steamers, and for days we fly
down-stream to Cairo. We see the green fields of maize, and we watch the
people going home in the evenings with the tired oxen and the little
donkeys carrying their provender on their backs. And one day we arrive
at Cairo and take the train for Port Said.

Good-bye to Egypt! Mysterious, beautiful land! Never in all our
wanderings round the globe shall we come upon a country more
interesting.

[Illustration: JERUSALEM.]

CHAPTER X

A WALK ABOUT JERUSALEM

We have passed along the south coast of Europe and have been into a
corner of Africa, and now we are going to set foot on a new
continent--Asia. From Port Said, before we go on eastward, I want you to
see just a little of the Holy Land--the scene of the Bible. The Holy
Land stands by itself, apart, and though it is in Asia it doesn't seem
to belong to it. Someone once said that it is to the world what a church
is to a town--the centre of religion. Anyway, it is curious and
interesting to notice that it forms the middle point where three
continents meet, so that they all share it. I expect you know the
position quite