MERAWI IN 1897 natives thought that the pyramids were full of gold, and when as the weeks went on treasure was not forthcoming, they were much disappointed. They were willing enough to work during the day, but so soon as the sun began to cast shadows on the plain they were eager to get back to their villages. They began to work about seven in the morning, and went on till about 5 p.m., with a break of three hours in the middle of the day during the hot weather ; in the cold weather they started an hour later, and the break in the middle of the day was reduced to two hours. Sometimes it was necessary when moving large stones to go on working till sunset, but the dread of walking two miles or so to their homes in the short Sudani twilight made them work in a half-hearted manner, and the money which they were paid for overtime was practically wasted. One evening the men were kept at work half an hour or so after sunset, by a promise of bakshish, but the wives of several of them came in a body and carried off their lords to the village ; they strongly disapproved of their husbands being overworked, and said so in characteristic Sudani fashion. Several men left the diggings, some saying that they heard the Satans talking at the bottom of the shaft, and that the diggings were " Satanic work," and others saying that it 'as wicked to dig up the works of idolaters, which, on account of the iniquity of their makers, God had buried so deeply in the ground.

For the needs of the men who were working at the pyramids and were in number from twenty-live to forty, two donkeys were kept occupied all day in fetching water in skins from the river, about three miles distant. As the skins arrived they were hung up on pegs driven between the stone courses of a pyramid, on the shady side, and it was not long before the animals of the desert found that water was to be had nearer than the river. The wolves and the jackals came each evening when there was no moon to lick the outsides of the skins, and to get as much drink as they could, and the imaginations of some men turned these thirsty animals into devils, and made them more than ever afraid to stay on the hill after sunset. One morning we found a thick-bodied snake of a grayish blue colour, about eight feet long, lying on the damp sand under the water-skins, and the men killed it at once, because, they said, it contained a devil, and we were bound to 229