GUM(BO) ARABIC PUREE
_Siccative_

CROCODILE HARD-BOILED EGGS
Sauce _a la_ Queen Hat-shep-set

BREAST OF THE ONE-LEGGED PINK STORK
Stuffed with Baby Sausages

BROILED SCARABS ON BUTTERED TOAST
Sauce _de la Pyramide_

BRIE _de_ BAGDAD
Foil cases, Crimean vintage '34

BENI-HASSAN DATES

ALLIGATOR PEARS

CAFE _a la_ BWANA TUMBO
From the Wady Halfa bean

Wine
SAMIAN FIZZ

Music
By the "FLOWER BUDS OF CAIRO"

Decorations
By the BEGUM MACCUDDYLEEKI, period of Akbar the Great

The De Cossons lived in the suburbs, about two miles out on the road to
the Pyramids, in a detached place without a street or a number, and
quite hard to find when the sun had set. My hostess had prepared an
elaborate map in two colors, red and blue, showing where I was to go
and what I was to do and say after crossing the great steel bridge that
spans the Nile. Armed with this formidable document, I went to the
noble bandit who controls the carriage service in front of Shepheard's,
and in a confidential whisper explained the map and the circumstances
to him, at the same time slipping into his extended, yawning paw a wad
of _bakshish_. I stipulated that I must have a driver who understood
at least some English. He made a great show of grasping the
intricacies of the map and the instructions that went with it, and
presently, with a wild gleam in his eye, as if he had found a sure way
to his "graft," he announced that he was ready and willing to take all
responsibility. He had an official, high-backed chair on the sidewalk
and asked me to use it till he returned. Then darting into the
darkness, he quickly found a man (who looked like the First Murderer in
_Macbeth_) on whom he could depend to rob me and divide the spoils with
him. Dressed in his flowing oriental robes as Cairo's most abandoned
criminal, he shook me warmly by the hand and whispered, as I stepped
into the carriage:

"I have arranged everything."

I had a sufficient glimmering of what was going on to meekly pipe to
him:

"Yes, I haven't the slightest doubt of it."

We started out at a brisk pace which soon relaxed into a funereal jog,
and went on and on through narrow, squalid streets till we reached the
Nile. Although I had given myself an extra hour for emergencies, I
became impatient and asked him:

"But where is the big bridge with the bronze sphinxes on it that we are
to cross?" He sadly waile