Letters from Frederick Warren Muir, 1914-1915 - Part 5

BRITISH SOLDIERS' CAFÉ.
CAIRO, EGYPT.
course there is no truth in this
rumour. It is useless to place any
faith in these wild yarns unless they
are given out officially. we hear
many rumours here of where we
are going to & what we are going
to do but all of them are without
foundation
I gave your message to Capt
Robins & he sends his best wishes
in return. I have not seen Tom Daley
yet but will tell him about Joe if
I see him. Have you heard from
Macgregor & P about the transfer yet?
If any letters come for me you might
re-address them to my present address.
Uncle Charlie tells me that Harold
has joined the 2^nd Force. I may see
 

him if they arrive here before we move
off again
with best wishes to all,
Yours affectionately
Fred
 

SOLDIERS' CLUB

CAIRO 

2^nd Feby 1914
Dear Mum.
I have just received
your last letter also one of your

letters & a card from amy Lindsay

which had been to England. I

think this is the last of our letters

which have gone home. 

We have had a very quiet

week this week. We had a holiday on

wednesday but were unable to go to
Cairo as all leave was stopped

on account of the celebration of

the '' muled-en-nebi'' - the Feast of

the Prophets Birthday. This is a very 

important Mohammedan festival &

as the natives go almost mad on

these occasions it is as well not to

have many soldiers about town.

There was a marriage in camp

here a couple of Sundays back.

Quite a romantic affair. The parties

were married by the Chaplain of the

3^rd. Brigade. The girl came out 

from Australia especially to marry

the bridegroom who is a South

Australian.
We are beginning to get a
touch of the warm weather now & find
it rather hot marching across the
sands. we have spent most of the
week shooting at the rifle range.
Our range is situated in a big
valley between two high ranges of
sandhills known as the "Valley of
Despair". There is a native cemetery at
the foot of the valley & another towards the
north while on the hills to the west
is a ruined city with the old
fortifications still overlooking the valley.
I do not know which of these is
responsible for the mournful name of
the range.
Do  you remember me speaking
of Dr Stuart Kay of Mackay, Queensland
a friend of the Palmers. He went
with the Queensland contingent to
Thursday Island but came across
here on the hospital Ship "Kyarra"
I had a letter from him to-day
telling me he was at Alexandria
& promising to look me up if he
came to Cairo. I am looking
forward to seeing him as he is
 

a very decent sort.
We have heard a rumour that
the second contingent has arrived
& is camped at Heliopolis but do
not know yet whether it is true.
I think this is all for the present,
Yours affectionately
Fred.
 

Eden Palace Hotel
CAIRO 'EGYPT'
Cairo 10 February 1914.
Dear Mum
I am afraid my last letter missed
the mail as we were out in the desert for a
couple of days bivouac and I did not get a chance
to post it. We had a strenuous time for 36 hours
or so but had a holiday afterwards to recompense
us. We are still working hard but the work
is more interesting & we expect to have a much
easier time shortly. we have however a four
days bivouac in front of us from Friday to monday
which we do not look forward to with any
great degree of joy.
The second contingent has arrived here
now & are encamped at Heliopolis on the other
side of Cairo. I will look up Les Newman &
Harold Elshaw as soon as I get a chance.
I took a run out to the camp on Sunday
but found that only a few of them had as yet
disembarked. Heliopolis - the ancient city of the sun
 

is where most of the European h inhabitants of Cairo
live & is beautifully built and laid out. All
the houses are well built and there are no
slums to spoil it. The Palace Hotel which has
just been taken over as a military hospital is
said to be one of the largest hotels in the world & is
an exceptionally fine building.
We have an epidemic of measles in
this camp at present & many of our chaps are in
the Hospital with them. I have not been fortunate
enough to catch them up to the present much to my
disgust as the Hospital presents a Haven of
Rest after the strenuous life in the camp.
must conclude now as there is not much
news at present.
Best wishes to all,

Yours affectionately,
Fred
 

Eden Palace Hotel
CAIRO 'EGYPT'
Cairo 19 February 1914.
Dear Mum,
we have just returned from a five days bivouac
on the desert and are now enjoying a few days well
earned rest. we marched out on Thursday last about
4000 of us altogether and proceeded along one of the fearful
natives roads to a spot called Beni el Yusef. about 10
miles from the camp. we arrived there at about 11.30
& proceeded to make ourselves comfortable. Our camping
ground was on a grassy flat near one of the irrigation
canals & about 2 miles from the Sakkarah Pyramids
we rested here till 5 o'clock when we moved out &
took up a position among the sandhills & proceeded
to entrench ourselves. we were rather unfortunate in
our position as after taking off a couple of feet of
sand we struck a hard layer of shaly mud which
made very tiresome digging especially after dark. we dug
till 12 o'clock when we were releived & tried to snatch
a couple of hours sleep, which however was a darn
effort as we had no blankets & the piercing cold prevented
 

us from going to sleep. At 4 o'clock we were roused out
again to finish the trenches & were glad of the chance to
warm ourselves a bit. At 6.30 the enemy having failed to
materialise we knocked off for breakfast till 9 o'clock
when we manned the trenches & awaited the attack
which was to be made by the 4^th Battalion. The
enemy having at last been repulsed we returned to
the camp at 2 o'clock in the afternoon for rest &
refreshment. We were surprised to find that the food
here was no better than we had in our main
camp but unfortunately were not able to get a wash
as the water around here contain certain germs which
are injurious causing a disease peculiar to these parts
at night we had two blankets & these with our
overcoats formed quite a comfortable bed and the next
day being Sunday we were able to be in till
nearly breakfast time. After breakfast we had a
church service by Colonel-Chaplain Green - the
methodist Chaplain and later seized the opportunity
to visit the Pyramids of Abusir which were about
2 miles away. we visited four of these Pyramids
which are much smaller than the Pyramids of Giza
near our camp & in a very ruined state but
are most interesting as they date back to the remotest
antiquity. There are huge temples constructed here
but their walls are now crumbling to dust & their
courtyards & corridors empty & silent but their broken
granite colums & flagged floors still attest their
departed grandeur. The first one we visited
was built of white & red sandstone & had in the
 

Eden Palace Hotel
CAIRO 'EGYPT'
Cairo 
centre a huge altar composed of five huge blocks of
alabaster on x which the bulls were formerly sacrificed
& on one side was a row of 10 big basins hewn
out of the same material into which the blood of the
sacrificial bulls were drained. The second temple is
of in a better condition & must at one time been of
great beauty. It is composed of white sandstone, flagged
with black basalt & with rows of huge round
columns of black & red granite beautifully worked
& covered with inscriptions. A couple of the lower
temples were situated in a hollow & presented a
scene of utter desolation with their ruined walls &
columns rising from the waters.
we left our bivouac at nine o'clock on
Sunday night & marched towards the native village
of Abbassia which we reached at four o'clock on
monday night morning after having marched all
night. The march was rather funny as we were all
tired & sleepy & as soon as we halted for a