eh Gardens by the Australian Red Cross Society and
Y.M.C.A. Here, comfortable seats, meals, and music could be obtained.
Other places were picture theatres, and the "Kursaal" and "Casino" where
variety entertainments were given nightly--mostly by French artists.
Some very good turns were to be seen at the Kursaal, the popular
favourite being a soprano, Mimi Pinson, who could bring the house down
by her rendering of "Two Eyes of Grey." At the Casino the audience sat
about at tables and consumed cool drinks whilst listening to or watching
the performers on the stage. The feminine element predominated here, and
there was an air of friendliness about their open glances and
conversation at first somewhat bewildering to the unsophisticated. The
officers, in their peregrinations, made free use of the large
hotels--such as "Shepheard's" or the "Continental," and the various
clubs such as the Italian and Ghezirah Sporting Clubs. Shepheard's Hotel
had been placed out of bounds to all but officers. Various reasons for
this step were suggested. What, however, is believed to have had a good
deal to do with it is the fact that during dinner on one occasion a
rather stout and pompous senior general, sitting at table with his wife
and daughters, was very affectionately greeted, embraced, and kissed by
an hilarious youth from the southern seas.

[Illustration: THE WALL OF THE CITADEL.
From which the Mameluke leaped. The twin minarets are those of
the Mehemet Ali Mosque.
_Photo. by Sergt. Arundel._]

[Illustration: THE GREAT PYRAMID.
_From the plan by C. Piazzi Smyth._]

At the commencement of all tours guides were offering freely, and were
often required. They were of two kinds. The genuine type was usually a
graduate of one of the educational institutions, and would arrange and
conduct, more or less satisfactorily, any expedition--were it to visit
the Cairo Museum, the Pyramids and other monuments, or to go duck
shooting near Alexandria or gazelle hunting in the Fayum. The other type
of guide hailed from somewhere at the back of the bazaars; he was loudly
importunate, proclaimed himself as named Macpherson, Abdullah, or
Johnson, and stated that he was "dinkum." The possibilities with him
seemed extensive. Anyone who employed this kind of person, and expected
to have a kind of Arabian Nights entertainment, returned richer by his
experience but, usually, unless he was very very careful, with the
sensations of having just emerged from