Salem was a Syrian Christian, and he had lost all his earnings in an unprofitable exhibit at the World’s Fair in Chicago. His costumes were always elaborate, and he was very ornamental, with his silk sashes and fancy turbans. He superintended our meals, and always suggested the next day’s program during dinner; so with our coffee we would read aloud Charles Dudley Warner’s and Miss Edwards’s opinions of our next stopping-place. After our first dinner we tied to the bank, by a little village, Salem said, just big enough to have a name. It was-dark, and we could hear and see nothing; so we took his word for it. We were off early the next morning, and all that day the river’s banks were fringed with sugar-cane and sakiehs. The many boats we passed were loaded with natives, sometimes perched upon loads of grain, or mixed in with turkeys and cattle. [Illustration: Temple of Ti.] [Illustration: Tombs of the Kings, Thebes.] On December 14 we made our first landing, and had our first donkey ride, at Beni-Hassan, one hundred and seventy-one miles from Cairo. The Egyptian policemen who accompanied us to the tombs were out of keeping with the peaceful look of the place, and only succeeded in keeping at a distance the children, who were very pretty. From the cliffs back of the village we had our first view of the valley of the Nile, with its delicate green fields, beginning immediately at the foot of the sun-baked hills on which we stood. I rode back before the rest to make a sketch; but the arrival of the post-boat put an end to that, and its passengers soon had our donkeys, beggars, naked children, policemen, and all, and were taking them back to [Illustration: A Guardian of the Temple.] the tombs we had just left. The post-boat was to us what the foot-prints in the sand must have been to Robinson Crusoe. Our frame of mind underwent a change. We finally became reconciled to the fact that we were not doing anything uncommon, and from that moment our diaries suffered. Then the most contagious of all Nile ambitions seized us, and our one desire was to find a mummy. Most of the 15th was spent with Baedeker, preparing for Assiût, where we were to tie up for the night. After an early breakfast, we climbed the bank, and found that it was chiefly inhabited by beggars. We visited the tombs, and came back to the dahabiyeh by way of the bazaars, where the natives were dyeing the dark-blue cloth which they all dress in. That afternoon we came upon an army of pelicans on a mud flat in the middle of the river. At the sound of our whistle they got up, and we [Illustration: “Most of the day was spent with Baedeker.”] lost them far ahead in the twilight, and we thought of that tame pelican that waddles about in Shepheard’s stable-yard.