15 JANUARY 1898, Page 24

Cairo of To - day. By E. A. Reynolds-Ball, B.A. "Black's Guide-

Books." (A. and C. Black.)—Tourists who want a short and cheap guide-book to Egypt cannot do better than buy this one The information is extraordinarily complete and interesting con- sidering the short space in which it is set forth. Perhaps one of the most useful chapters in the book is the introductory informs- mation as to how to get to Cairo. Every possible way of going— this year, of course, for the whole thing may have changed by next October—is described, and its comparative merits and price are enumerated. It is a pity that in so good and well-written a little book so much use is made of the word "trip." For instance, after first giving instructions as to the "trip" to the Pyramids of Ghizeh, the author further talks of the "trip" to the interior of the Great Pyramid. This is surely the most inappropriate word that could be found for the painful stooping descent through the forced doorway, the climb over the fallen block of masonry, the long ascent of the straight inclined plane up which the Royal mummy

must have been so painfully dragged, and the final gaining of the lofty chamber where for so many thousand years the Ka of the great King kept its lonely watch and ward.