made their nests in many of the figures. Bees very like our honey bees swarm over the monuments of Egypt. I saw one colony living on the side of the Sphinx, and the whole of one surface of this obelisk is covered with their cells. [Illustration: Seen from a distance, the Pyramids are like gray cones rising above the horizon and are frequently disappointing in their first impression. It is only on closer view that their enormous size and the miracle of their ever being built are realized.] [Illustration: Gangs of brown-skinned _fellaheen_ dig day after day, uncovering the tombs and the history of centuries ago. Contractors say that the Egyptian peasant prefers a basket to a wheelbarrow for dirt carrying, solely because his grandfather used a basket.] CHAPTER XI THE PYRAMIDS REVISITED This is the third time that I have made lengthy visits to the Pyramids of Egypt. On my first trip I rode to them on a donkey. The next time I came out from Cairo in a comfortable carriage, and to-day I passed over the same route on an electric trolley, paying seven and a half cents for the trip. The street cars to the Pyramids start at the end of the bridge, opposite Cairo, and pass along the side of the wide avenue shaded by acacia trees. The cars are open so that one can look out over the Nile valley as he goes. We whizzed by caravans of donkeys, loaded with all sorts of farm products, and by camels, ridden by gowned men, bobbing up and down in the saddles as they went. There were men, women, and children on foot, and veiled women on donkeys. The cars were filled with Egyptians. Two dark-faced men in black gowns and white turbans sat on the seat beside me. In front was a yellow-skinned Arab dandy in a red fez and long gown, while just behind me sat a woman with a black veil fastened to her head-dress by a brass spool. As we neared the Pyramids we stopped at a café where American drinks were sold, and a little farther on was a great modern hotel with telephones and electric lights. When I previously visited Egypt, the sands about the Pyramids were almost as smooth as those of the seashore. I galloped on my donkey over them and had no idea that I was tramping down innumerable graves.