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terrace. Several other early birds had emerged, ready for touring. Though I am ordinarily unmoved by the uninformed opinions of others, I was not keen to admit an acquaintance with the dusty child in the dirty white robe; but, seeing that Ramses was about to be knocked unconscious by the infuriated young person he had just addressed as a misbegotten offspring of an Englishman and a camel, I thought I had better intervene.
    "Ramses!" I shouted.
    Everyone within earshot stopped and stared. I suppose it must have been startling to hear an aristocratic English person shout the name of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh at dawn on the terrace of Shepheard's Hotel.
    Ramses, who had ducked behind a morose little donkey,started to his feet. His assailant halted, fist raised; and the cat Bastet, appearing out of nowhere, landed on the latter's back. The cat Bastet is a large cat, weighing approximately twelve pounds. The unlucky donkey boy fell flat upon the ground with a sound like that of a cannonball hitting a wall, this effect being further strengthened by the cloud of dust that billowed up. Emerging from the cloud, Bastet sneezed and fell in behind Ramses, who advanced toward me. I seized him by the collar. In silence we retreated into the hotel.
    We found Emerson placidly drinking tea. "Good morning, my dears," he said, with a smile. "What have you been doing so bright and early?"
    Bastet sat down and began to wash herself. This struck me as an excellent idea. I thrust Ramses into his father's arms. "Wash him," I said briefly.
    As they went out I heard Ramses explain, "I was improving my command of de colloquial form of de language, Papa," to which Emerson replied, "Splendid, my boy, splendid."
    After breakfast we set out on our errands, Emerson to call on M. de Morgan, in order to obtain his firman for excavating at Dahshoor, I to do some necessary shopping. Normally I would have accompanied Emerson, but that would have meant taking Ramses along, and after hearing the latest additions to his Arabic vocabulary I felt it would be unwise to expose de Morgan to my linguistically unpredictable child—not to mention the cat, for Ramses refused to stir a step without her. I gave in to this request, since one of my errands was to buy a proper collar for Bastet.
    The Muski, which is the main thoroughfare of old Cairo, had quite lost its former quaint oriental character; modern shops and buildings lined its broad expanse. We left our hired carriageat the entrance to the bazaars, for the narrow alleyways do not permit vehicular traffic. At my suggestion Ramses took the cat up lest she be stepped on. She assumed her favorite position, her head on one of Ramses' shoulders and her hindquarters on the other, with her tail hanging down in front.
    We went first to the bazaar of the leathermakers, where we purchased not one but two collars for Bastet. One was plain and well constructed (my selection); the other was bright-red, adorned with fake scarabs and imitation turquoise. I was surprised to see Ramses exhibit such tawdry taste, but decided the issue was not worth arguing about. Ramses immediately decorated Bastet with the bejeweled collar and attached the matching crimson lead. They made a singular pair, Ramses in the tweed jacket and trousers his father had ordered to be made in imitation of his own working costume and the great feline, looking exactly like the hunting cats depicted in Egyptian tomb paintings. I was only relieved that Ramses had not suggested putting a gold earring in her ear, as had been done by the ancient pet owners.
    I proceeded methodically with my shopping—medications, tools, ropes and other professional needs. The morning was well advanced by the time I finished, for even the simplest transaction cannot be completed without bargaining, coffee-drinking and an exchange of florid compliments. There was one other inquiry I wanted to pursue before returning to the hotel; turning to ask if Ramses was hungry, I saw the question