ko_ puffed and spluttered her way up the river, kicking
up the white water behind her, and making more noise and fuss over her
five knots an hour than an Atlantic liner on a record voyage. On deck,
under the thick awning, sat her little family of passengers, and every
few hours she eased down and sidled up to the bank to allow them to
visit one more of that innumerable succession of temples. The remains,
however, grow more modern as one ascends from Cairo, and travellers who
have sated themselves at Gizeh and Sakara with the contemplation of the
very oldest buildings which the hands of man have constructed, become
impatient of temples which are hardly older than the Christian era.
Ruins which would be gazed upon with wonder and veneration in any other
country are hardly noticed in Egypt. The tourists viewed with languid
interest the half-Greek art of the Nubian bas-reliefs; they climbed the
hill of _Korosko_ to see the sun rise over the savage Eastern desert;
they were moved to wonder by the great shrine of Abou-Simbel, where
some old race has hollowed out a mountain as if it were a cheese;
and, finally, upon the evening of the fourth day of their travels they
arrived at Wady Haifa, the frontier garrison town, some few hours after
they were due, on account of a small mishap in the engine-room. The
next morning was to be devoted to an expedition to the famous rock of
Abousir, from which a great view may be obtained of the second cataract.
At eight-thirty, as the passengers sat on deck after dinner, Mansoor,
the dragoman, half Copt half Syrian, came forward, according to the
nightly custom, to announce the programme for the morrow.

"Ladies and gentlemen," said he, plunging boldly into the rapid but
broken stream of his English, "to-morrow you will remember not to forget
to rise when the gong strikes you for to compress the journey before
twelve o'clock. Having arrived at the place where the donkeys expect us,
we shall ride five miles over the desert, passing a very fine temple of
Ammon-ra which dates itself from the eighteenth dynasty upon the way,
and so reach the celebrated pulpit rock of Abou-sir. The pulpit rock is
supposed to have been called so because it is a rock like a pulpit.
When you have reached it you will know that you are on the very edge of
civilisation, and that very little more will take you into the country
of the Dervishes, which will be obvious to you at the top. Having passed
the summit, you will per