We selected the Hotel Abbatmen, and were soon off with them in a small boat. We passed the Customs without the slightest difficulty and were driven to our hotel. Here we had our lunch, and then, as we intended to go right on to Cairo by the early morning train, we improved what little time we had during the afternoon by visiting Pompey’s Pillar, the gardens of the Khedive, the Rosetta gate, the Bazaars, etc. Friday, October 21.—At 8 A.M. we took the cars for Cairo. Arriving at the station, we found a large omnibus waiting for us, and we were driven to Shepard’s Hotel, where we have been assigned very pleasant rooms. This is a very fine hotel for this part of the world. In front and around it is a garden filled with tropical trees and shrubs. Two fountains dash their cooling spray high into the air, and there is a small menagerie, from which the table is often supplied. Here, as on the Galata Bridge, in Constantinople, the past and the present, the east and the west, flow together. The latest fashions from Paris, and the garb of the time of Abraham, the luxuriance of Oriental wealth and splendor, and the miserable poverty and nakedness of the oppressed “fellahin,” all pass before one like the shifting figures of a kaleidoscope. It is a most interesting and absorbing scene, to be found nowhere else in the world. Saturday, October 22.—Called at the American Consulate the first thing this morning, but found it closed. We were bothered with a host of dragomans and donkey-boys, but they are finding out that people who speak Turkish and Greek and French as well as English, and a few words of other languages, are “one too many” for them! We took a little walk alone about the European portion of the city, to get the hang of the place. Some of the residences and public buildings are very fine. In some places you quite forget that you are not in Paris. To-day, our Consul-General, Hon. Simon Wolf, has been formally presented to the Khedive in great pomp. The Khedive always makes a great display on these occasions, and presents the new Consul with a fine Arabian horse. We called again at the Consulate, and were glad to receive our letters from home. We talked up our contemplated trip with some of the officials, and gained valuable information. Sunday, Oct. 23.—Judge Farman, from the United States, called early this morning. He is very kind, and is doing all in his power to pave the way for us to the favor of the officials here. As he was to leave on Monday for Alexandria, he asked us to go with him to the Consulate, where he told them what he wanted done for us. A number of Arabic interpreters have been recommended to us for our trip, but we take our time in the choice of a proper man. We find that it will be necessary to take an Arabic interpreter and a cook from here. [Illustration: CAIRO.]