VOYAGE OUT. 13 we had lunch—a meal for which we paid greatly and got very little. Zagazig is the most important junction in Egypt. It is at this place that all the principal railways of the country meet. The town itself is inhabited by a considerable number of Europeans, and there are several manufactories. Others were in the process of construction; but the late war stopped them all, and the English occupa tion, instead of increasing business, seems to diminish it still more—at least, so the inhabitants declare. Near here there is a very ancient city, the traces of whose existence are lost in the dim mists of past ages, but it is so ruined, and tradition is so still about it, that only the most learned antiquaries find interest in it. The station was crowded with all sorts of people—Jews, Greeks, English, French, Italians; Mussulmans of all kinds, Turks, Egyptians, and Arabs, the two latter distinguished by their dirty appearance ; women with their faces covered up; chil dren howling, their eyes filled with flies;—indeed, specimens of all tribes and races, clean and unclean, which it would take me longer than the time the train stops at the station to notice specially. The constant passing of passengers and tourists makes the boys and hangers-on at this station a set of most impudent beggars; they are always on the look-out for backshish, and keep putting their heads in at the carriage window, shouting for something. After leaving Zagazig and approaching Galloub, the first sight of the citadel of Cairo is got, and soon after the Pyramids come into view; trees also get
