At length, we drove
over an unfortunate donkey, which was pulled down by a piece of iron
sticking from the carriage, and thus becoming entangled in the load he
bore. I fear that the animal was injured, for the poor boy who drove
him cried bitterly, and though we (that is, the ladies of the party)
would gladly have remunerated him for the damage he might have
sustained, neither time nor opportunity was permitted for this act of
justice. On we drove, every moment expecting to be flung out against
the walls, as the carriage turned round the corners of streets placed
at right angles to each other. At length, we succeeded in our wish to
have the grooms at the horses' heads, and without further accident,
though rendered as nervous as possible, passed through the gate of
the city. We drove forward now without any obstacle through the
Necropolis, or City of Tombs, before-mentioned, and I regretted
much that we had not left Cairo at an earlier hour, which would have
permitted us to examine the interiors.
The desert comes up to the very walls of Cairo, and these tombs rise
from a plain of bare sand. I observed some gardens and cultivated
places stretching out into the wilderness, no intermediate state
occurring between the garden and the arid waste in which vegetation
suddenly ceased.
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