All persons give way for the coming donkey as if he were a steam engine. [Illustration: DONKEY BOYS OF CAIRO, EGYPT.] Christmas Eve was our first experience. We had gotten here the night before. I had heard of the donkey boys, but had forgotten all about them. Well, as soon as we stepped on the streets, “they came, they saw, they conquered!” They capture Johnson first. In five minutes, they had him on a zebra-looking ass, and were rushing him down Palm Avenue at a two-forty pace. I was bringing up the rear, but the zebra was all the time gaining on me. I would, probably, soon have been left far behind, if things had moved on smoothly. But Johnson’s “flying Dutchman” fell—he spilt his rider on one side of the street, and he took the other. When I rode up, the boy was trying to bring the donkey to by twisting his tail. Johnson was on his knees—not at prayer—and his hat was gone. In five minutes more, we were on our way again. We reached the American Consul’s office in due time, and without any broken bones. On our way back, “Yankee Doodle” stumbled, and I fell straddle of his neck; but on he rushed, faster than before. In vain I struggled to get back to the saddle. All other efforts having failed, I, in order to regain my position, placed my feet on the embankments rising up on either side of the rock-hewn path. With my feet upon these embankments, I lifted myself up for a moment, expecting at the right time to sit down in the saddle. But the donkey was too quick for me; when I sat down on him he was not there. A moment later found my head in the ditch, and my heels in the air. We called at the drug store, and got some salve—Johnson is better now. [Illustration: THE PYRAMID AND SPHYNX.] Well, as I was going on to say, we get an early start to the Pyramids. We meet hundreds of camels coming off of the great desert, and donkeys without number going into market, laden with hay and clover, fish, fuel and vegetables. Where we cross the Nile, both banks are lined with tall, majestic palm trees, the finest I have ever seen. The rising sun throws the palm shadows on the river’s broad bosom. The shadows sink into the blue depths below; we see two palm groves standing end to end—one above, and one below the water.