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[page 70-71, Greek] “Among the other passengers, there are two Canadian Ameri-
can families, who are telling me many stories about a young woman named Vid-
der, who happened to accompany me in one of my trips, across the ocean, six and
a half years ago. As soon as she got engaged to a lawyer, or rather before that, her
marriage had already taken its course, given that her husband had daringly made
an arrangement which would not allow the bride to claim a divorce. I honestly
admit that at that time, I was in love with that woman. Still, I thank the Lord that
I did not marry her after all, as I would have been extremely unhappy with her.”
Schliemann arrives in Alexandria and starts learning Arabic. He travels on to Cai-
ro and, like many tourists, takes a trip on the Nile (Fig. 2). He visits the pyramids
and decides to spend the night there. That night was very cold:
[page 76, French
14
] “We continued to travel along the edge of the great desert in
which so many pyramids are built, as far as the pyramids of Gizeh where we spent
the night in an old tomb cut out of the rock at the foot of the pyramids. My three
fellow travellers slept in the first chamber of the tomb and I in the second. Thank
goodness I had a quilt, otherwise I would have frozen to death. I used a stone as
a pillow. Four Arabs stood watch over us. In the morning, one of the Englishmen
14
Translated by Ronald Bathgate, London.
Fig. 2 – Travelling on the Nile