of Texas and California together, place a map of modern Egypt
upon it and you will have enough left to make West Virginia. Ancient
Egypt was only about one-fourth as large as modern Egypt. The greater
portion of the land always has been and is today a desert. The thirteen
million people practically live on the narrow valley of the Nile in a
strip of territory from five to fifteen miles wide except down near the
sea.

Not far from Cairo is a place called Fayoum. The name means "A Thousand
Days." A missionary told me how it got this name. When Joseph was an old
man some of the younger officers wanted him deposed and they said that
he was no longer fit to be at the head of affairs. They said that near
the city was a great swamp and if he were capable he would have drained
this land. They, of course, did not think this was possible, hence the
suggestion.

Putting their heads together they went to the old councillor and
persuaded him to put the impossible task up to Joseph believing that his
failure would be so ignominious that he would be deposed. At once
Joseph called Egypt's greatest civil engineers, outlined his plan, took
hundreds of laborers, went to work and in sixty days the swamp was
completely drained. When the old adviser was taken out to see how well
the work was done, he was so amazed that he exclaimed: "That would have
been a mighty work for a thousand days," and it is called Fayoum to this
day. Today the gardens and orchards of Fayoum are among the finest and
most productive in all Egypt.

No one can go over this land without walking in the footsteps of Moses,
for Egypt was his playground. Of course I was shown the exact (?) spot
where the little ark was found among the bullrushes in the River Nile.
When Pharoah's daughter saw the little child she was touched and thus
the destiny of a nation hung on the cry of a little child. Miriam, the
sister of Moses appeared just in the nick of time and when the princess
told her to call one of the Hebrew women her feet hardly touched the
ground in her effort to get her mother to the spot. When the little
hands were held out toward the joyous mother she was told to take the
child and nurse him and thus she was paid wages for bringing up her own
child upon whom the sentence of death had been pronounced.

Not far from the spot mentioned above is the famous Nilometer that Moses
looked upon many a time. As I went down the steps to get a nearer view
of this measuring appar