ISMAIL IN HIS GRANDEUR. n the officials who had charge of the visitors preferred that they should postpone their visit to the Pyramids. The reason is characteristic both of Egypt and of Ismail. To well-nigh all Egyptians it was, and is, unintelligible why Europeans should be in a hurry to visit the Pyramids, or, indeed, any of the marvels of the bygone days of Egypt. When it was known that France was going to be represented at the opening of the Canal by the Empress of the French, somebody told the Khedive that her Majesty would of course wish to see the Pyramids. " A carriage road must be made at once," was the only comment of the Khedive. Orders were issued forthwith to the Mudirs in the neighbourhood that ten thousand fellahs must be sent without a day's delay to work on the road, and that the task must be completed within six weeks at the latest In those days the Khedive had only to speak to be obeyed. Within the period named, an excellent carriage road of some seven miles in length, the longest in all the Delta, was constructed from the banks of the Nile to the foot of the pyramid of Cheops.

I was one of the few persons, not employed on the work, who witnessed the mode of its construction.

All along the line of road there were gangs of fellaheen, stripped bare to the loins, and engaged in carrying up sand in baskets to build the embankment on which the roadway was to be laid. The heat was exceptionally great, and the workmen were dead beat But at every moment the foreman of the gang stirred them up to fresh exertions by blows with the kurbash on