HAPPY AS SANDBOYS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2405, 10 March 1915, Page 6

HAPPY AS SANDBOYS

TROOPS IN EGYPT

CHRISTMAS DAY FESTIVITIES

Waiting from Zeitoun cainp, in Egypt, to a friend in Wellington, a. member of the ■ New Zealand Expeditionary Force refers to the passing of the Christmas season. "Christmas lias come,and gone," he Bays. "New Year likewise. Can you imagine spending it on the desert? And when all's said and done we had a good time. We had a holiday on Christmas Day, except the time spent in" attending to our horses. What more could we wish for? If we had a very large imagination (and some of us have) we-could imagine we were spending it at one of New Zealand's bays, surf bathing, . . . There are some beautiful spots dotted hero and there on the detert, and it takes a lot of the bareness from what would be otherwise an unbearaßle wilderness. Just about two miles from here, at a place oalled Matarich, stands' the obelisk that 4000 years ago marked the entrance to the Temple of Or, the place of worship of the ancient Egyptians.- Near it- is the Holy Tree, where the Virgin Mary rested with . Jesus Christ, in her flight from-Palestine to escape King Herod. A lovely Roman Catholio Church has been built hear by, and is surrounded by a lovely g&rden. Where Heliopolis no stands, at one time stood the Cfty of Pharaoh, and about four miles away is the place where Pharoah's daughter found Moses. About 14 miles south of the camp, standing in their solid grandness, are the Pyramids of Gezireh. The largest one, Cheops, stands 451 feet high, and covers five acres of ground. All round Cheops are the tombs of the Pharaohs, built of polished marble, and huge in their construction. There is a temple for each king's tomb/ and the work put into them is beautiful in the extreme. Beyond the tombs 'stands the Sphinx, in all its. sombreness, a huge 6tatue cut. out of solid rock —woman's head, man's face, lion's body.

"The Museum at Cairo is alone worth' the trip to Egypt,'.but the desert is a weary waste', and the native villages, dotted here and there, do not help to beautifuy it. Mud huts,- witih flat roofs, where all the village 1 dirt and rubbish: are deposited, are just the places to draw the flies, and, as I have already told you, it's a toss up as to whichis the thickest, flies or sard. A native funeral is a. queer procedure. The mourners walk in front, and the coffin goes in the rear The coffin, in tie case of poor folk, is used at every funeral—l mean that the same coffin is utilised, for they do not bury the dead in the coffin. In fact, the dead are not buried at all; they are put in mud and stone vaults, and in some cases are laid to rest in the huts, as there are,no lecognised burial grounds. Their villages are dirty, untidy, and foul smelliug, and disease is rampant.. The children are small and deformed,- and as dirty as the villages. .

"Reverting to the Christmas celebrations, the trooper says that Christmas Day,was held in the New' Zealand fash? ion. It went off without a_hitch,, except for the fact that on Christmas Eve someone came out and stole 601b. of pork sausages, their breakfast, some of their turkeys ■ (their dinner), and 1 the Christmas puddings, which they had or-' dered a week before, failed to turn up. However, they arrived the day before' New Year, so we had them then. . . All things considered, the boys are doing well here. We are kept busy, hut get plenty to eat and drink, and plenty of leave when not on duty. I think we are all hapj>y as sandboys, and in such an interesting country as this one can always occupy his mind. The worst of this land is that you.can't get' good old New Zealand meat. You go right through a menu, pay 6s. 3d., and get up hungry. You don't know what you are eating in the restaurants, and most of their stuff is cooked in salad oil.