THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN the crow flies, about three miles from the pyramids ; it was about half a mile from the river, and was thus very convenient for watering the horses. In order to get the best results possible from our work, Captains Lewin and Drake decided to have their tents and mine pitched on the hill just below the pyramids, and to live there whilst the excavations were going on. This was an excellent arrangement, for it enabled us to begin work soon after sunrise, and to continue, with an interval for food and rest in the middle of the day, until sunset. So soon as the two batteries were encamped we rode out early one morning to the pyramids, and before the day was ended our tents were pitched on the hill, and the men who were with us had established themselves in their tents in the little valley between the two groups of pyramids to the south of us. With the loose stones on the hill-side a kitchen was built, and so soon as wood arrived the cook was able to get to work. His stoves were primitive and were made of stones, but in spite of the high winds which blew through the crevices in the walls and made it at times very difficult to keep the fire going, he managed very well. At the further end of the kitchen was a raised bench of stones, which, with a sheep-skin upon it, served him for a bed ; the soldier-servants lived in a little tent pitched close by.

All the arrangements necessary for supplying us with food and water were made by Captain Lewin. Early every morning mules arrived, each carrying two of the little regulation tanks filled with water, which was at once emptied into the large water jars that stood on wooden frames on the north sides of the tents, as much in the shade as possible. The mules returned to the camp near the river for the day, and came back in the evening with another load. Milk was supplied by the native women near the river, who sent it out to us eacWmorning. Chickens were verj* scarce, and eggs scarcer still, but so soon as the women in the villages began to realize that we paid for things on the spot, they looked after their chickens, and fed them sometimes, and by degrees a fair supply of eggs was produced. At first the women thought that they would be expected to provide the officers with eggs, poultry, and sheep for nothing, and every inquiry for eggs was met by the answer that the " chickens would not lay." One day 332 I