The great pyramid passages and chambers

PLATE XXII.

crumble away very easily. We passed a brickfield quite close to the railway, and I noticed that the bricks were sun-dried. Here and there were men and boys irrigating the fields by raising water from the canals through tubes apparently about six or seven feet long, by about eighteen inches in diameter. I understand that inside these tubes there is a worm arrangement, the rotation of which causes the water to rise in the tube and flow into ditches at the sides of the fields. I also saw water-wheels used for the same purpose, but worked by oxen or camels.

219 It was not long before the scenery around caused me to realize that I was indeed in a foreign land. A blazing sun shone down from an almost cloudless sky. Palm trees, tall and short, stood in little clusters. Heavily-laden camels attended by dusky natives walked along in single file with great swinging steps, and with their heads poised on their long arched necks. Donkeys, with and without riders, were everywhere. The harvest is in full swing at present. In those fields in which the wheat had been reaped, a portion of ground with a hard surface had been prepared as a threshing-floor, and yokes of oxen were being driven round and round dragging a threshing machine, a sledge-like contrivance on which the driver was seated. From time to time the straw was drawn to the outside of the circle, and the grain was heaped up in the centre. Here and there I saw the harvesters throwing the grain into the air so that the wind might blow the chaff away. The whole scene reminded me vividly of what I have so often read in the Bible and in travellers’ books.

220 Inthe evening I called on Professor Alex. Ferguson, John's friend. He and his wife are very kind. He told me that on receipt of John’s letter he had arranged with M. Maspero, the Director-general of Antiquities in Egypt, to grant us a permit to work at the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, and that consequently I should have no difficulty in this respect. This morning Professor Ferguson accompanied me to the Museum, and introduced me to M. Maspero. I found him very pleasant, and he kindly answered some questions I put to him in connection with our work at the Pyramid, and gave me some useful advice as to how to proceed. He also gave orders that I should be given a letter in Arabic to hand to the “ Reis" (chief or overseer) of the excavation works in Egypt, informing him that I want workers to clear out the Descending Passage of- the Great Pyramid. Professor Ferguson thinks that I am sure to have difficulties sooner or later with the

100

An Eastern threshing-floor.