aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

288 AEOUND THE WOELD.
din rabble, was a crack-brained enthusiast ; and self, a crazy
Spiritualist just loose from some American madhouse.
Laughing at all such pious rage, we remembered, that, when
Bunyan's lions became too old and toothless to bite, they
gratified their vicious dispositions by growling. Sectarians,
harmless nowadays, can only growl.
But the p}T:amids ! Cheops, built strictly upon geometrical
and astronomical principles, faces due north, south, east,
and west. And, according to the measurement of Col. Ho"v%-
ard Vyse, the base of this pyramid is 764 feet, and the vertical
height 480 feet, with a basical area of thirteen acres, one
rood, and twenty-two poles. The quantity of masonry is
89,028,000 cubic feet, with a weight of 6,848,000 tons ; the
space occupied by chambers and interior passages being
somethuig over 56,000 cubic feet of the immense mass.
Greek authors state that 500,000 laborers, comprising government
captives and bondsmen, were employed during a
period of twenty-five years in putting up and completing
the structure. To fully realize the magnitude of this desert
Titan, one should walk around it, and then, looking up to
its dizzy height of five hundred feet, reflect that the granite
blocks which furnish the outside of the third, and a portion
of the inside of the first pyramid, came, if not manufactured
on the spot, all the way from the first cataract ; and that outwardly
these monumental giants were originally covered
with sihcious hmestone, or marble, highly polished. These
facts considered, and the magnificence, the pristine splendor,
begin to become manifest.
UP,. UP TO THE APEX.
Our dragoman engaging three Bedouin Arab assistants for
each, we were ready for the ascent. Full of pluck, we start
up the stony steep, scaling block after block.
A stout Arab
clasps each of our hands firmly. Getting weary, the third
" boosts," — if there's a more classic word to convey the
idea, use it. Though fun at first, fatigue and exhaustion