An Unprotected Female at the Pyramids | Page 9

they had reached the very foot of the Pyramids and proceeded
to dismount from their donkeys. Their intention was first to ascend to
the top, then to come down to their banquet, and after that to penetrate
into the interior. And all this would seem to be easy of performance.
The Pyramid is undoubtedly high, but it is so constructed as to admit of
climbing without difficulty. A lady mounting it would undoubtedly
need some assistance, but any man possessed of moderate activity
would require no aid at all.
But our friends were at once imbued with the tremendous nature of the
task before them. A sheikh of the Arabs came forth, who
communicated with them through Abdallah. The work could be done,
no doubt, he said; but a great many men would be wanted to assist.
Each lady must have four Arabs, and each gentlemen three; and then,
seeing that the work would be peculiarly severe on this special day,
each of these numerous Arabs must be remunerated by some very large
number of piastres.
Mr. Damer, who was by no means a close man in his money dealings,
opened his eyes with surprise, and mildly expostulated; M.
Delabordeau, who was rather a close man in his reckonings,
immediately buttoned up his breeches pocket and declared that he
should decline to mount the Pyramid at all at that price; and then Mr.
Ingram descended to the combat.
The protestations of the men were fearful. They declared, with loud
voices, eager actions, and manifold English oaths, that an attempt was
being made to rob them. They had a right to demand the sums which
they were charging, and it was a shame that English gentlemen should
come and take the bread out of their mouths. And so they screeched,
gesticulated, and swore, and frightened poor Mrs. Damer almost into
fits.
But at last it was settled and away they started, the sheikh declaring that
the bargain had been made at so low a rate as to leave him not one

piastre for himself. Each man had an Arab on each side of him, and
Miss Dawkins and Miss Damer had each, in addition, one behind. Mrs.
Damer was so frightened as altogether to have lost all ambition to
ascend. She sat below on a fragment of stone, with the three dragomans
standing around her as guards; but even with the three dragomans the
attacks on her were so frequent, and as she declared afterwards she was
so bewildered, that she never had time to remember that she had come
there from England to see the Pyramids, and that she was now
immediately under them.
The boys, utterly ignoring their guides, scrambled up quicker than the
Arabs could follow them. Mr. Damer started off at a pace which soon
brought him to the end of his tether, and from that point was dragged
up by the sheer strength of his assistants; thereby accomplishing the
wishes of the men, who induce their victims to start as rapidly as
possible, in order that they may soon find themselves helpless from
want of wind. Mr. Ingram endeavoured to attach himself to Fanny, and
she would have been nothing loth to have him at her right hand instead
of the hideous brown, shrieking, one-eyed Arab who took hold of her.
But it was soon found that any such arrangement was impossible. Each
guide felt that if he lost his own peculiar hold he would lose his prey,
and held on, therefore, with invincible tenacity. Miss Dawkins looked,
too, as though she had thought to be attended to by some Christian
cavalier, but no Christian cavalier was forthcoming. M. Delabordeau
was the wisest, for he took the matter quietly, did as he was bid, and
allowed the guides nearly to carry him to the top of the edifice.
"Ha! so this is the top of the Pyramid, is it?" said Mr. Damer, bringing
out his words one by one, being terribly out of breath. "Very wonderful,
very wonderful, indeed!"
"It is wonderful," said Miss Dawkins, whose breath had not failed her
in the least, "very wonderful, indeed! Only think, Mr. Damer, you
might travel on for days and days, till days became months, through
those interminable sands, and yet you would never come to the end of
them. Is it not quite stupendous?"
"Ah, yes, quite,--puff, puff"--said Mr. Damer striving to regain his

breath.
Mr. Damer was now at her disposal; weak and worn with toil and travel,
out of breath, and with half his manhood gone; if ever she might prevail
over him so as to procure from his mouth an assent to that Nile
proposition, it would be now. And after all, that Nile proposition was
the best one now before her. She did not quite