THE OSTRICH CARRIAGE.
. . . “Where are you going, little maid?” “Oh, many, many miles from here,” said Tiny. “Get upon my back,” said and the Ostrich, kneeling down; and Tiny was soon upon his back, speeding away like the wind, until she reached the sea-shore.
Tiny and Her Vanity.
McLoughlin Bros.: New York. Ca 1892.
Elephant's Picture Book 
In the land of the pyramids..wow.
I know you find Tiny’s visit to Egypt and her ride on an ostrich there hard to believe, but it is a fairy tale (sort of a geographically challenged fairy tale).
Elephant
Many children today are geographically challenged so this is an ideal story for them; or is it?
Have you tried to buy a map lately? I love maps because you can ponder where you are relative to other things – not just consider the little piece of roadway your GPS shows. Also, just to complain a bit – it really bothers me that people don’t know their cardinal directions. Can you imagine trying to get around without even knowing where the sun rises and sets. Can you imagine waking up from a nap and not knowing what time of day it is because you don’t understand how the sun moves? Also, if lost in the forest, at least where I live, the moss grows on the North side of trees (but if you don’t know the cardinal directions this won’t help you at all)!
Now who is lost?
Elephant
No, I haven’t tried recently but I imagine it’s a lost cause. But, hey, did you see my recent post on my wonderful old atlas? Well, not that old, but its pedigree is old. Gosh, those imaginings are the stuff of nightmares. But, since little ones seem to get lost a lot in the woods of fairy tales, perhaps lack of knowledge of cardinal directions has always been a problem?
That is a very good observation – they do get lost and they don’t find their own way home – I am going to think about this today!
Elephant
…but is she really tiny or is it just a very big ostrich?
She is tiny in all the other illustrations, but since she is riding the ostrich in Egypt and it is a form of fast magic transportation anything is possible!
Elephant