Yesterday morning we left here on a steamer, and went up the swift-running waters of the Nile, passing numerous palaces, tombs, and all kinds of Oriental buildings, dozens of water-wheels run by bullocks, and once a steam-pump and boiler, all raising water for irrigation.
We had a stalwart and fancy-dressed dragoman, but he was of little use. We took along a nice lunch and picnicked on the boat, reaching the dock in three hours, where we found about a hundred donkeys and their attendants yelling, screaming, and pushing. After much trouble we each mounted one of the ugly beasts, and started for the ancient city of Memphis, seven miles away. There was a boy with a stick to each donkey, and every time he struck, my beast would kick and nearly unseat me.
A young lady from Boston, Miss Potter, was put in my charge, and several times we had splendid trots and gallops on the sandy roads and plains.
We met strings of camels and donkeys on the way in front, and our cavalcade of excursionists, stretched along the sandy road, presented a remarkable appearance.
Half-way we stopped to rest at a place where an immense marble statue of a king was lying in the sand. It was thirty feet long, and five feet across the face.
The donkey ridden by Miss Potter proved so bad that she changed him for another here, and we galloped over the sandy plain unto Memphis, our destination. There were half a dozen big pyramids in sight, and the whole country was covered with ruins. We were on a high hill, and looked down upon the Delta of the Nile and its cultivated fields, a scene of rare beauty, on one side, and on the other, vast sandy plains and deserts.
We walked to the entrance of the "Tombs of the Sacred Bulls." The passage-ways and tombs are cut out of solid rock and are all under ground. These passage-ways are a mile or two long, and thirty feet in diameter. They strongly reminded me of the sewers in Paris.
From these passages, were dug out of solid rock twelve rooms, each containing the statue of a "Sacred Bull," each one carved out of the rock, highly polished and covered with writing executed in a beautiful manner.
Each of us carried a candle, and it was very hot, so much so that one of the young men came near fainting and had to hurry out. It was a curious and weird scene, fifty or more people, each with a candle, wandering about in the dark. After looking at the tombs, we all returned to the upper air, and went to the tomb of a great king near by, which was under ground, and contained several large rooms, all made of highly polished white marble, covered with writing and carvings; processions of men and animals, beautifully executed, and in the best state of preservation.