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[Page 43]
in a hollow. Our tents have not yet gone up. It was not very cold however sleeping in the open. I have not yet quite got over the effects of the poisoning on the ship. I learned incidentally to-day that when the Emden was destroyed we were 100 miles away. The pyramid from the positions I have so far viewed it does not at all convey give that impression of grandeur & isolation with which we are wont to associate it. There is a French eating house close by. A roof is erected longitudinally over half the dining room which and the other half is shaded by trees. It is very pleasant to sit and eat here. In fact, I am now making these notes in this identical room. The waiters are Frenchmen and Arabs. I happen to be on guard this morning near to the restaurant. But to continue, there are about 30 tables set out covered with a red cloths, in which a white design is worked. This morning I observed a troop of little girls very dirty, with baskets on
their heads. They were engaged in the pleasant occupation of picking up manure from the streets & putting it in the aforesaid baskets. They run about in the most unconcerned manner. The feat of balancing the basket apparently giving them no trouble whatever. There are some Arabs who carry a collapsible stand and a huge tray about with eatables on. When moving from one place to another then tray is carried under the arm, and the tray with the stock-in-trade on the head. Some of the Arabs squint a lot and are subject to considerable attention from the flies. Some of the Arab horses about here are very fine animals. The lorries they use here are drawn by 1 horse or mule always light build. The lorries are about 2 feet wide and take a load of anything up to about 10 bags of wheat or chaff. A great number of people have been out here to-day from