rt in two hours, as the moon was very bright,
and that he would take them into Cairo by breakfast-time in the morning.
But it was suspected that this haste was in order that the passengers
waiting at Cairo to go by the India steamer should be conveyed across
the desert by himself, so they declined his offer, and enjoyed their
night's rest. On rising in the morning, they felt that they had reason
to congratulate themselves on their refusal of the night's journey; for
they found even the morning air bitter, and the atmosphere a wet fog.
The aspect of the country had now changed. Chains of hills disappeared,
and all was level sand. On the way they saw the mirage, sometimes
assuming the appearance of a distant harbour, at others, of an inland
lake reflecting the surrounding objects on its surface; and they met one
of the picturesque displays of Arabia, a wealthy Bey going on a
pilgrimage to Mecca. He had a train of twenty or thirty camels. Those
carrying himself and his harem had superb trappings. The women were
seated in large open boxes, hanging on each side as paniers. There were
red silk embroidered curtains hung round, like those on a bedstead, and
an awning over all. The bey was smoking his splendid pipe, and behind
came a crowd of slaves with provisions. The road on approaching Cairo
grew rougher than ever; it was often over ridges of rock just appearing
above the sand. The Pasha's "commissioners of paving" seem to have
slumbered on their posts as much as if they had been metropolitan. At
last a "silvery stream" was seen winding in the horizon--the "glorious
Nile!" The country now grew picturesque; a forest of domes and minarets
arose in the distance; and the Pyramids became visible. The road then
ran through a sort of suburb, where the Bedouins take up their quarters
on their visits to buy grain, they being not suffered within the walls.
It then passed between walled gardens filled with flowers, shrubs,
orange and olive trees; most of the walls were also surmounted with a
row of pillars, interlaced with vines--a species of ornament new to us,
but which, we should conceive, must add much to the beauty, external
and internal, of a garden. Cairo was entered at last; and its lofty
houses, and the general architecture of this noblest specimen of a
Mahometan capital, delighted the eyes which had so long seen nothing but
the sea, the rocky shore, and the desert. Cairo is, like all the rest of
the world, growing European, and