30 THE SOUDAN. co-religionists who objected, “ in case of repairs, is it not true, O true believers, that a donkey enters this holy place carrying stones on his back ; and is it not also true that one who does not believe in the true religion is an ass and the son of an ass ? There fore, 0 brothers, let this man go in as a donkey.” From the height here there is a splendid view of Cairo and the surrounding country. It is bounded behind by the Mokattem heights, which rise about two hundred feet above Cairo; to the left stretches away the little railway of Helouan, where are the sulphur baths; then from there, looking onwards and to the right, comes the Nile, with its multitude of boats, whose sails prettily reflect the rays of the setting sun. Far away are the Pyramids of Sakkara; nearer to us loom the great Pyramids, holding stead fastly to their right of being the principal objects of any landscape which contains them. Then come the palaces of Grazeerah ; and next in order Cairo itself, with its teeming population; while, stretching out to the southward as far as eye can reach, again shimmers the Nile, flowing calmly through an ever- widening tract of magnificent cultivation. It is a curious circumstance with reference to old Cairo that, during the last cholera epidemic, there were very few deaths indeed in it, although it is in the most unsanitary state possible. Boulak, the quarter on the Nile, was the one that suffered most, as many as four hundred dying daily during the height of the disease. Attempts were therefore made to burn down infected closely inhabited parts ; this was also
