[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D. W. ]

UARDA

Volume 5. 

By Georg Ebers

CHAPTER XX. 

As Nemu, on his way back from his visit to Ani, approached his mistress'shouse, he was detained by a boy, who desired him to follow him to thestranger's quarter. Seeing him hesitate, the messenger showed him thering of his mother Hekt, who had come into the town on business, andwanted to speak with him. 

Nemu was tired, for he was not accustomed to walking; his ass was dead, and Katuti could not afford to give him another. Half of Mena's beastshad been sold, and the remainder barely sufficed for the field-labor. 

At the corners of the busiest streets, and on the market-places, stoodboys with asses which they hired out for a small sum;

 [In the streets of modern Egyptian towns asses stand saddled for hire. On the monuments only foreigners are represented as riding on asses, but these beasts are mentioned in almost every list of the possessions of the nobles, even in very early times, and the number is often considerable. There is a picture extant of a rich old man who rides on a seat supported on the backs of two donkeys. Lepsius, Denkmaler, part ii. 126. ]

but Nemu had parted with his last money for a garment and a new wig, sothat he might appear worthily attired before the Regent. In former timeshis pocket had never been empty, for Mena had thrown him many a ring ofsilver, or even of gold, but his restless and ambitious spirit wasted noregrets on lost luxuries. He remembered those years of superfluity withcontempt, and as he puffed and panted on his way through the dust, hefelt himself swell with satisfaction. 

The Regent had admitted him to a private interview, and the little manhad soon succeeded in riveting his attention; Ani had laughed till thetears rolled down his cheeks at Nemu's description of Paaker's wildpassion, and he had proved himself in earnest over the dwarf's furthercommunications, and had met his demands half-way. Nemu felt like a duckhatched on dry land, and put for the first time into water; like a birdhatched in a cage, and that for the first time is allowed to spread itswings and fly. He would have swum or have flown willingly to death ifcircumstances had not set a limit to his zeal and energy. 

Bathed in sweat and coated with dust, he at last reached the gay tent inthe stranger's quarter, where the sorceress Hekt was accustomed to alightwhen she came over to Thebes. 

He was considering far-reaching projects, dreaming of possibilities, devising subtle plans--rejecting them as too subtle, and supplying theirplace with others more feasible and less dangerous; altogether the littlediplomatist had no mind for the motley tribes which here surrounded him. He had passed the temple in which the people of Kaft adored their goddessAstarte, and the sanctuary of Seth, where they sacrificed to Baal, without letting himself be disturbed by the dancing devotees or the noiseof cymbals and music which issued from their enclosures. The tents andslightly-built wooden houses of the dancing girls did not tempt him. Besides their inhabitants, who in the evening tricked themselves out intinsel finery to lure the youth of Thebes into extravagance and folly, and spent their days in sleeping till sun-down, only the gambling boothsdrove a brisk business; and the guard of police had much trouble torestrain the soldier, who had staked and lost all his prize money, or thesailor, who thought himself cheated, from such outbreaks of rage anddespair as must end in bloodshed. Drunken men lay in front of thetaverns, and others were doing their utmost, by repeatedly draining theirbeakers, to follow their example. 

Nothing was yet to be seen of the various musicians, jugglers, fire-eaters, serpent-charmers, and conjurers, who in the evening displayedtheir skill in this part of the town, which at all times had the aspectof a never ceasing fair. But these delights, which Nemu had passed athousand times, had never had any temptation for him. Women and gamblingwere not to his taste; that which could be had simply for the taking, without trouble or exertion, offered no charms to his fancy, he had nofear of the ridicule of the dancing-women, and their associates--indeed, he occasionally sought them, for he enjoyed a war of words, and he was ofopinion that no one in Thebes could beat him at having the last word. Other people, indeed, shared this opinion, and not long before Paaker'ssteward had said of Nemu:

"Our tongues are cudgels, but the little one's is a dagger. "

The destination of the dwarf was a very large and gaudy tent, not in anyway distinguished from a dozen others in its neighborhood. The openingwhich led into it was wide, but at present closed by a hanging of coarsestuff. 

Nemu squeezed himself in between the edge of the tent and the yieldingdoor, and found himself in an almost circular tent with many angles, andwith its cone-shaped roof supported on a pole by way of a pillar. 

Pieces of shabby carpet lay on the dusty soil that was the floor of thetent, and on these squatted some gaily-clad girls, whom an old woman wasbusily engaged in dressing. She painted the finger and toenails of thefair ones with orange-colored Hennah, blackened their brows and eye-lashes with Mestem--[Antimony. ]--to give brilliancy to their glance, painted their cheeks with white and red, and anointed their hair withscented oil. 

It was very hot in the tent, and not one of the girls spoke a word; theysat perfectly still before the old woman, and did not stir a finger, excepting now and then to take up one of the porous clay pitchers, whichstood on the ground, for a draught of water, or to put a pill of Kyphibetween their painted lips. 

Various musical instruments leaned against the walls of the tent, hand-drums, pipes and lutes and four tambourines lay on the ground; on thevellum of one slept a cat, whose graceful kittens played with the bellsin the hoop of another. 

An old negro-woman went in and out of the little back-door of the tent, pursued by flies and gnats, while she cleared away a variety of earthendishes with the remains of food--pomegranate-peelings, breadcrumbs, andgarlic-tops--which had been lying on one of the carpets for some hourssince the girls had finished their dinner. 

Old Hekt sat apart from the girls on a painted trunk, and she was saying, as she took a parcel from her wallet:

"Here, take this incense, and burn six seeds of it, and the vermin willall disappear--" she pointed to the flies that swarmed round the platterin her hand. "If you like I will drive away the mice too and draw thesnakes out of their holes better than the priests. "

 [Recipes for exterminating noxious creatures are found in the papyrus in my possession. ]

"Keep your magic to yourself, " said a girl in a husky voice. "Since youmuttered your words over me, and gave me that drink to make me growslight and lissom again, I have been shaken to pieces with a cough atnight, and turn faint when I am dancing. "

"But look how slender you have grown, " answered Hekt, "and your coughwill soon be well. "

"When I am dead, " whispered the girl to the old woman. "I know that mostof us end so. "

The witch shrugged her shoulders, and perceiving the dwarf she rose fromher seat. 

The girls too noticed the little man, and set up the indescribable cry, something like the cackle of hens, which is peculiar to Eastern womenwhen something tickles their fancy. Nemu was well known to them, for hismother always stayed in their tent whenever she came to Thebes, and thegayest of them cried out:

"You are grown, little man, since the last time you were here. "

"So are you, " said the dwarf sharply; "but only as far as big words areconcerned. "

"And you are as wicked as you are small, " retorted the girl. 

"Then my wickedness is small too, " said the dwarf laughing, "for I amlittle enough! Good morning, girls--may Besa help your beauty. Goodday, mother--you sent for me?"

The old woman nodded; the dwarf perched himself on the chest beside her, and they began to whisper together. 

How dusty and tired you are, " said Hekt. I do believe you have come onfoot in the burning sun. "

"My ass is dead, " replied Nemu, "and I have no money to hire a steed. "

"A foretaste of future splendor, " said the old woman with a sneer. "What have you succeeded in doing?"

"Paaker has saved us, " replied Nemu, "and I have just come from a longinterview with the Regent. "

"Well?"

"He will renew your letter of freedom, if you will put Paaker into hispower. "

"Good-good. I wish he would make up his mind to come and seek me--indisguise, of course--I would--"

"He is very timid, and it would not suggest to him anything sounpracticable. "

"Hm--" said Hekt, "perhaps you are right, for when we have to demand agood deal it is best only to ask for what is feasible. One rash requestoften altogether spoils the patron's inclination for granting favors. "

"What else has occurred?"

"The Regent's army has conquered the Ethiopians, and is coming home withrich spoils. "

"People may be bought with treasure, " muttered the old woman, "I good--good!"

"Paaker's sword is sharpened; I would give no more for my master's life, than I have in my pocket--and you know why I came on foot through thedust. "

"Well, you can ride home again, " replied his mother, giving the littleman a small silver ring. "Has the pioneer seen Nefert again?"

"Strange things have happened, " said the dwarf, and he told his motherwhat had taken place between Katuti and Nefert. Nemu was a goodlistener, and had not forgotten a word of what he had heard. 

The old woman listened to his story with the most eager attention. 

"Well, well, " she muttered, "here is another extraordinary thing. Whatis common to all men is generally disgustingly similar in the palace andin the hovel. Mothers are everywhere she-apes, who with pleasure letthemselves be tormented to death by their children, who repay them badlyenough, and the wives generally open their ears wide if any one can tellthem of some misbehavior of their husbands! But that is not the way withyour mistress. "

The old woman looked thoughtful, and then she continued:

"In point of fact this can be easily explained, and is not at all moreextraordinary than it is that those tired girls should sit yawning. Youtold me once that it was a pretty sight to see the mother and daughterside by side in their chariot when they go to a festival or thePanegyrai; Katuti, you said, took care that the colors of their dressesand the flowers in their hair should harmonize. For which of them is thedress first chosen on such occasions?"

"Always for the lady Katuti, who never wears any but certain colors, "replied Nemu quickly. 

"You see, " said the witch laughing, "Indeed it must be so. That motheralways thinks of herself first, and of the objects she wishes to gain;but they hang high, and she treads down everything that is in her way--even her own child--to reach them. She will contrive that Paaker shallbe the ruin of Mena, as sure as I have ears to hear with, for that womanis capable of playing any tricks with her daughter, and would marry herto that lame dog yonder if it would advance her ambitious schemes. "

"But Nefert!" said Nemu. "You should have seen her. The dove became alioness. "

"Because she loves Mena as much as her mother loves herself, " answeredHekt. "As the poets say, 'she is full of him. ' It is really true ofher, there is no room for any thing else. She cares for one only, andwoe to those who come between him and her!"

"I have seen other women in love, " said Nemu, "but--"

"But, " exclaimed the old witch with such a sharp laugh that the girls alllooked up, "they behaved differently to Nefert--I believe you, for thereis not one in a thousand that loves as she does. It is a sickness thatgives raging pain--like a poisoned arrow in an open wound, and devoursall that is near it like a fire-brand, and is harder to cure than thedisease which is killing that coughing wench. To be possessed by thatdemon of anguish is to suffer the torture of the damned--or else, " andher voice sank to softness, "to be more blest than the Gods, happy asthey are. I know--I know it all; for I was once one of the possessed, one of a thousand, and even now--"

"Well?" asked the dwarf. 

"Folly!" muttered the witch, stretching herself as if awaking fromsleep. "Madness! He--is long since dead, and if he were not it wouldbe all the same to me. All men are alike, and Mena will be like therest. "

"But Paaker surely is governed by the demon you describe?" asked thedwarf. 

"May be, " replied his mother; "but he is self-willed to madness. Hewould simply give his life for the thing because it is denied him. Ifyour mistress Nefert were his, perhaps he might be easier; but what isthe use of chattering? I must go over to the gold tent, where everyonegoes now who has any money in their purse, to speak to the mistress--"

"What do you want with her?" interrupted Nemu. "Little Uarda overthere, " said the old woman, "will soon be quite well again. You haveseen her lately; is she not grown beautiful, wonderfully beautiful? NowI shall see what the good woman will offer me if I take Uarda to her?the girl is as light-footed as a gazelle, and with good training wouldlearn to dance in a very few weeks. "

Nemu turned perfectly white. 

"That you shall not do, " said he positively. 

"And why not?" asked the old woman, "if it pays well. "

"Because I forbid it, " said the dwarf in a choked voice. 

"Bless me, " laughed the woman; "you want to play my lady Nefert, andexpect me to take the part of her mother Katuti. But, seriously, havingseen the child again, have you any fancy for her?"

"Yes, " replied Nemu. "If we gain our end, Katuti will make me free, andmake me rich. Then I will buy Pinem's grandchild, and take her for mywife. I will build a house near the hall of justice, and give thecomplainants and defendants private advice, like the hunch-back Sent, whonow drives through the streets in his own chariot. "

"Hm--" said his mother, "that might have done very well, but perhaps itis too late. When the child had fever she talked about the young priestwho was sent from the House of Seti by Ameni. He is a fine tall fellow, and took a great interest in her; he is a gardener's son, named Pentaur. "

"Pentaur?" said the dwarf. "Pentaur? He has the haughty air and theexpression of the old Mohar, and would be sure to rise; but they aregoing to break his proud neck for him. "

"So much the better, " said the old woman. "Uarda would be just the wifefor you, she is good and steady, and no one knows--"

"What?" said Nemu. 

"Who her mother was--for she was not one of us. She came here fromforeign parts, and when she died she left a trinket with strange letterson it. We must show it to one of the prisoners of war, after you havegot her safe; perhaps they could make out the queer inscription. Shecomes of a good stock, that I am certain; for Uarda is the very livingimage of her mother, and as soon as she was born, she looked like thechild of a great man. You smile, you idiot! Why thousands of infantshave been in my hands, and if one was brought to me wrapped in rags Icould tell if its parents were noble or base-born. The shape of the footshows it--and other marks. Uarda may stay where she is, and I will helpyou. If anything new occurs let me know. "

CHAPTER XXI. 

When Nemu, riding on an ass this time, reached home, he found neither hismistress nor Nefert within. 

The former was gone, first to the temple, and then into the town; Nefert, obeying an irresistible impulse, had gone to her royal friend Bent-Anat. 

The king's palace was more like a little town than a house. The wing inwhich the Regent resided, and which we have already visited, lay awayfrom the river; while the part of the building which was used by theroyal family commanded the Nile. 

It offered a splendid, and at the same time a pleasing prospect to theships which sailed by at its foot, for it stood, not a huge and solitarymass in the midst of the surrounding gardens, but in picturesque groupsof various outline. On each side of a large structure, which containedthe state rooms and banqueting hall, three rows of pavilions of differentsizes extended in symmetrical order. They were connected with each otherby colonnades, or by little bridges, under which flowed canals, thatwatered the gardens and gave the palace-grounds the aspect of a townbuilt on islands. 

The principal part of the castle of the Pharaohs was constructed of lightNile-mud bricks and elegantly carved woodwork, but the extensive wallswhich surrounded it were ornamented and fortified with towers, in frontof which heavily armed soldiers stood on guard. 

The walls and pillars, the galleries and colonnades, even the roofs, blazed in many colored paints, and at every gate stood tall masts, fromwhich red and blue flags fluttered when the king was residing there. Nowthey stood up with only their brass spikes, which were intended tointercept and conduct the lightning. --[ According to an inscription firstinterpreted by Dumichen. ]

To the right of the principal building, and entirely surrounded withthick plantations of trees, stood the houses of the royal ladies, somemirrored in the lake which they surrounded at a greater or less distance. In this part of the grounds were the king's storehouses in endless rows, while behind the centre building, in which the Pharaoh resided, stood thebarracks for his body guard and the treasuries. The left wing wasoccupied by the officers of the household, the innumerable servants andthe horses and chariots of the sovereign. 

In spite of the absence of the king himself, brisk activity reigned inthe palace of Rameses, for a hundred gardeners watered the turf, theflower-borders, the shrubs and trees; companies of guards passed hitherand thither; horses were being trained and broken; and the princess'swing was as full as a beehive of servants and maids, officers andpriests. 

Nefert was well known in this part of the palace. The gate-keepers lether litter pass unchallenged, with low bows; once in the garden, a lordin waiting received her, and conducted her to the chamberlain, who, aftera short delay, introduced her into the sitting-room of the king'sfavorite daughter. 

Bent-Anat's apartment was on the first floor of the pavilion, next to theking's residence. Her dead mother had inhabited these pleasant rooms, and when the princess was grown up it made the king happy to feel thatshe was near him; so the beautiful house of the wife who had too earlydeparted, was given up to her, and at the same time, as she was hiseldest daughter, many privileges were conceded to her, which hithertonone but queens had enjoyed. 

The large room, in which Nefert found the princess, commanded the river. A doorway, closed with light curtains, opened on to a long balcony with afinely-worked balustrade of copper-gilt, to which clung a climbing rosewith pink flowers. 

When Nefert entered the room, Bent-Anat was just having the rustlingcurtain drawn aside by her waiting-women; for the sun was setting, and atthat hour she loved to sit on the balcony, as it grew cooler, and watchwith devout meditation the departure of Ra, who, as the grey-haired Turn, vanished behind the western horizon of the Necropolis in the evening tobestow the blessing of light on the under-world. 

Nefert's apartment was far more elegantly appointed than the princess's;her mother and Mena had surrounded her with a thousand pretty trifles. Her carpets were made of sky-blue and silver brocade from Damascus, theseats and couches were covered with stuff embroidered in feathers by theEthiopian women, which looked like the breasts of birds. The images ofthe Goddess Hathor, which stood on the house-altar, were of an imitationof emerald, which was called Mafkat, and the other little figures, whichwere placed near their patroness, were of lapis-lazuli, malachite, agateand bronze, overlaid with gold. On her toilet-table stood a collectionof salve-boxes, and cups of ebony and ivory finely carved, and everythingwas arranged with the utmost taste, and exactly suited Nefert herself. 

Bent-Anat's room also suited the owner. 

It was high and airy, and its furniture consisted in costly but simplenecessaries; the lower part of the wall was lined with cool tiles ofwhite and violet earthen ware, on each of which was pictured a star, andwhich, all together, formed a tasteful pattern. Above these the wallswere covered with a beautiful dark green material brought from Sais, andthe same stuff was used to cover the long divans by the wall. Chairs andstools, made of cane, stood round a very large table in the middle ofthis room, out of which several others opened; all handsome, comfortable, and harmonious in aspect, but all betraying that their mistress tooksmall pleasure in trifling decorations. But her chief delight was infinely-grown plants, of which rare and magnificent specimens, artistically arranged on stands, stood in the corners of many of therooms. In others there were tall obelisks of ebony, which bore saucersfor incense, which all the Egyptians loved, and which was prescribed bytheir physicians to purify and perfume their dwellings. Her simplebedroom would have suited a prince who loved floriculture, quite as wellas a princess. 

Before all things Bent-Anat loved air and light. The curtains of herwindows and doors were only closed when the position of the sunabsolutely required it; while in Nefert's rooms, from morning tillevening, a dim twilight was maintained. 

The princess went affectionately towards the charioteer's wife, who bowedlow before her at the threshold; she took her chin with her right hand, kissed her delicate narrow forehead, and said:

"Sweet creature! At last you have come uninvited to see lonely me!It is the first time since our men went away to the war. If Rameses'daughter commands there is no escape; and you come; but of your own freewill--"

Nefert raised her large eyes, moist with tears, with an imploring look, and her glance was so pathetic that Bent-Anat interrupted herself, andtaking both her hands, exclaimed:

"Do you know who must have eyes exactly like yours? I mean the Goddessfrom whose tears, when they fall on the earth, flowers spring. "

Nefert's eyes fell and she blushed deeply. 

"I wish, " she murmured, "that my eyes might close for ever, for I am veryunhappy. " And two large tears rolled down her cheeks. 

"What has happened to you, my darling?" asked the princesssympathetically, and she drew her towards her, putting her arm roundher like a sick child. 

Nefert glanced anxiously at the chamberlain, and the ladies in waitingwho had entered the room with her, and Bent-Anat understood the look; sherequested her attendants to withdraw, and when she was alone with her sadlittle friend--"Speak now, " she said. "What saddens your heart? howcomes this melancholy expression on your dear baby face? Tell me, and Iwill comfort you, and you shall be my bright thoughtless plaything oncemore. "

"Thy plaything!" answered Nefert, and a flash of displeasure sparkled inher eyes. "Thou art right to call me so, for I deserve no better name. I have submitted all my life to be nothing but the plaything of others. "

"But, Nefert, I do not know you again, " cried Bent-Anat. "Is this mygentle amiable dreamer?"

"That is the word I wanted, " said Nefert in a low tone. "I slept, anddreamed, and dreamed on--till Mena awoke me; and when he left me I wentto sleep again, and for two whole years I have lain dreaming; but to-dayI have been torn from my dreams so suddenly and roughly, that I shallnever find any rest again. "

While she spoke, heavy tears fell slowly one after another over hercheeks. 

Bent-Anat felt what she saw and heard as deeply as if Nefert were her ownsuffering child. She lovingly drew the young wife down by her side onthe divan, and insisted on Nefert's letting her know all that troubledher spirit. 

Katuti's daughter had in the last few hours felt like one born blind, andwho suddenly receives his sight. He looks at the brightness of the sun, and the manifold forms of the creation around him, but the beams of theday-star blind its eyes, and the new forms, which he has sought to guessat in his mind, and which throng round him in their rude reality, shockhim and pain him. To-day, for the first time, she had asked herselfwherefore her mother, and not she herself, was called upon to control thehouse of which she nevertheless was called the mistress, and the answerhad rung in her ears: "Because Mena thinks you incapable of thought andaction. " He had often called her his little rose, and she felt now thatshe was neither more nor less than a flower that blossoms and fades, andonly charms the eye by its color and beauty. 

"My mother, " she said to Bent-Anat, "no doubt loves me, but she hasmanaged badly for Mena, very badly; and I, miserable idiot, slept anddreamed of Mena, and saw and heard nothing of what was happening to his--to our--inheritance. Now my mother is afraid of my husband, and thosewhom we fear, says my uncle, we cannot love, and we are always ready tobelieve evil of those we do not love. So she lends an ear to thosepeople who blame Mena, and say of him that he has driven me out of hisheart, and has taken a strange woman to his tent. But it is false anda lie; and I cannot and will not countenance my own mother even, if sheembitters and mars what is left to me--what supports me--the breath andblood of my life--my love, my fervent love for my husband. "

Bent-Anat had listened to her without interrupting her; she sat by herfor a time in silence. Then she said:

"Come out into the gallery; then I will tell you what I think, andperhaps Toth may pour some helpful counsel into my mind. I love you, and I know you well, and though I am not wise, I have my eyes open anda strong hand. Take it, come with me on to the balcony. "

A refreshing breeze met the two women as they stepped out into the air. It was evening, and a reviving coolness had succeeded the heat of theday. The buildings and houses already cast long shadows, and numberlessboats, with the visitors returning from the Necropolis, crowded thestream that rolled its swollen flood majestically northwards. 

Close below lay the verdant garden, which sent odors from the rose-bedsup to the princess's balcony. A famous artist had laid it out in thetime of Hatasu, and the picture which he had in his mind, when he sowedthe seeds and planted the young shoots, was now realized, many decadesafter his death. He had thought of planning a carpet, on which thepalace should seem to stand. Tiny streams, in bends and curves, formedthe outline of the design, and the shapes they enclosed were filled withplants of every size, form, and color; beautiful plats of fresh greenturf everywhere represented the groundwork of the pattern, and flower-beds and clumps of shrubs stood out from them in harmonious mixtures ofcolors, while the tall and rare trees, of which Hatasu's ships hadbrought several from Arabia, gave dignity and impressiveness to thewhole. 

Clear drops sparkled on leaf and flower and blade, for, only a short timebefore, the garden by Bent-Anat's house had been freshly watered. TheNile beyond surrounded an island, where flourished the well-kept sacredgrove of Anion. 

The Necropolis on the farther side of the river was also well seen fromBent-Anat's balcony. There stood in long perspective the rows ofsphinxes, which led from the landing-place of the festal barges to thegigantic buildings of Amenophis III. With its colossi--the hugest inThebes--to the House of Seti, and to the temple of Hatasu. There lay thelong workshops of the embalmers and closely-packed homes of theinhabitants of the City of the Dead. In the farthest west rose theLibyan mountains with their innumerable graves, and the valley of thekings' tombs took a wide curve behind, concealed by a spur of the hills. 

The two women looked in silence towards the west. The sun was near thehorizon--now it touched it, now it sank behind the hills; and as theheavens flushed with hues like living gold, blazing rubies, and liquidgarnet and amethyst, the evening chant rang out from all the temples, andthe friends sank on their knees, hid their faces in the bower-rosegarlands that clung to the trellis, and prayed with full hearts. 

When they rose night was spreading over the landscape, for the twilightis short in Thebes. Here and there a rosy cloud fluttered across thedarkening sky, and faded gradually as the evening star appeared. 

"I am content, " said Bent-Anat. "And you? have you recovered your peaceof mind?"

Nefert shook her head. The princess drew her on to a seat, and sank downbeside her. Then she began again "Your heart is sore, poor child; theyhave spoilt the past for you, and you dread the future. Let me be frankwith you, even if it gives you pain. You are sick, and I must cure you. Will you listen to me?"

"Speak on, " said Nefert. 

"Speech does not suit me so well as action, " replied the princess; "but Ibelieve I know what you need, and can help you. You love your husband;duty calls him from you, and you feel lonely and neglected; that is quitenatural. But those whom I love, my father and my brothers, are also goneto the war; my mother is long since dead; the noble woman, whom the kingleft to be my companion, was laid low a few weeks since by sickness. Look what a half-abandoned spot my house is! Which is the lonelier doyou think, you or I?"

"I, " said Nefert. "For no one is so lonely as a wife parted from thehusband her heart longs after. "

"But you trust Mena's love for you?" asked Bent-Anat. 

Nefert pressed her hand to her heart and nodded assent:

"And he will return, and with him your happiness. "

"I hope so, " said Nefert softly. 

"And he who hopes, " said Bent Anat, "possesses already the joys of thefuture. Tell me, would you have changed places with the Gods so long asMena was with you? No! Then you are most fortunate, for blissfulmemories--the joys of the past--are yours at any rate. What is thepresent? I speak of it, and it is no more. Now, I ask you, what joyscan I look forward to, and what certain happiness am I justified inhoping for?

"Thou dost not love any one, " replied Nefert. "Thou dost follow thy owncourse, calm and undeviating as the moon above us. The highest joys areunknown to thee, but for the same reason thou dost not know the bitterestpain. "

"What pain?" asked the princess. 

"The torment of a heart consumed by the fires of Sechet, " replied Nefert. 

The princess looked thoughtfully at the ground, then she turned her eyeseagerly on her friend. 

"You are mistaken, " she said; "I know what love and longing are. But youneed only wait till a feast day to wear the jewel that is your own, whilemy treasure is no more mine than a pearl that I see gleaming at thebottom of the sea. "

"Thou canst love!" exclaimed Nefert with joyful excitement. "Oh!I thank Hathor that at last she has touched thy heart. The daughter ofRameses need not even send for the diver to fetch the jewel out of thesea; at a sign from her the pearl will rise of itself, and lie on thesand at her slender feet. "

Bent-Anat smiled and kissed Nefert's brow. 

"How it excites you, " she said, "and stirs your heart and tongue! If twostrings are tuned in harmony, and one is struck, the other sounds, mymusic master tells me. I believe you would listen to me till morning ifI only talked to you about my love. But it was not for that that we cameout on the balcony. Now listen! I am as lonely as you, I love lesshappily than you, the House of Seti threatens me with evil times--and yetI can preserve my full confidence in life and my joy in existence. Howcan you explain this?"

"We are so very different, " said Nefert. 

"True, " replied Bent-Anat, "but we are both young, both women, and bothwish to do right. My mother died, and I have had no one to guide me, forI who for the most part need some one to lead me can already command, andbe obeyed. You had a mother to bring you up, who, when you were still achild, was proud of her pretty little daughter, and let her--as it becameher so well-dream and play, without warning her against the dangerouspropensity. Then Mena courted you. You love him truly, and in four longyears he has been with you but a month or two; your mother remained withyou, and you hardly observed that she was managing your own house foryou, and took all the trouble of the household. You had a great pastimeof your own--your thoughts of Mena, and scope for a thousand dreams inyour distant love. I know it, Nefert; all that you have seen and heardand felt in these twenty months has centred in him and him alone. Nor isit wrong in itself. The rose tree here, which clings to my balcony, delights us both; but if the gardener did not frequently prune it and tieit with palm-bast, in this soil, which forces everything to rapid growth, it would soon shoot up so high that it would cover door and window, and Ishould sit in darkness. Throw this handkerchief over your shoulders, forthe dew falls as it grows cooler, and listen to me a little longer!--Thebeautiful passion of love and fidelity has grown unchecked in your dreamynature to such a height, that it darkens your spirit and your judgment. Love, a true love, it seems to me, should be a noble fruit-tree, and nota rank weed. I do not blame you, for she who should have been thegardener did not heed--and would not heed--what was happening. Look, Nefert, so long as I wore the lock of youth, I too did what I fancied--I never found any pleasure in dreaming, but in wild games with mybrothers, in horses and in falconry; they often said I had the spirit ofa boy, and indeed I would willingly have been a boy. "

"Not I--never!" said Nefert. 

"You are just a rose--my dearest, " said Bent-Anat. "Well! when I wasfifteen I was so discontented, so insubordinate and full of all sorts ofwild behavior, so dissatisfied in spite of all the kindness and love thatsurrounded me--but I will tell you what happened. It is four years ago, shortly before your wedding with Mena; my father called me to playdraughts. 

 [At Medinet Habu a picture represents Rameses the Third, not Rameses the Second, playing at draughts with his daughter. ]

You know how certainly he could beat the most skilful antagonist; butthat day his thoughts were wandering, and I won the game twice following. Full of insolent delight, I jumped up and kissed his great handsomeforehead, and cried 'The sublime God, the hero, under whose feet thestrange nations writhe, to whom the priests and the people pray--isbeaten by a girl!' He smiled gently, and answered 'The Lords of Heavenare often outdone by the Ladies, and Necheb, the lady of victory, is awoman. Then he grew graver, and said: 'You call me a God, my child, butin this only do I feel truly godlike, that at every moment I strive tothe utmost to prove myself useful by my labors; here restraining, therepromoting, as is needful. Godlike I can never be but by doing orproducing something great! These words, Nefert, fell like seeds in mysoul. At last I knew what it was that was wanting to me; and when, a fewweeks later, my father and your husband took the field with a hundredthousand fighting men, I resolved to be worthy of my godlike father, andin my little circle to be of use too! You do not know all that is donein the houses behind there, under my direction. Three hundred girls spinpure flax, and weave it into bands of linen for the wounds of thesoldiers; numbers of children, and old women, gather plants on themountains, and others sort them according to the instructions of aphysician; in the kitchens no banquets are prepared, but fruits arepreserved in sugar for the loved ones, and the sick in the camp. Jointsof meat are salted, dried, and smoked for the army on its march throughthe desert. The butler no longer thinks of drinking-bouts, but brings mewine in great stone jars; we pour it into well-closed skins for thesoldiers, and the best sorts we put into strong flasks, carefully sealedwith pitch, that they may perform the journey uninjured, and warm andrejoice the hearts of our heroes. All that, and much more, I manage andarrange, and my days pass in hard work. The Gods send me no brightvisions in the night, for after utter fatigue--I sleep soundly. But Iknow that I am of use. I can hold my head proudly, because in somedegree I resemble my great father; and if the king thinks of me at all Iknow he can rejoice in the doings of his child. That is the end of it, Nefert--and I only say, Come and join me, work with me, prove yourself ofuse, and compel Mena to think of his wife, not with affection only, butwith pride. " Nefert let her head sink slowly on Bent-Anat's bosom, threwher arms round her neck, and wept like a child. At last she composedherself and said humbly:

"Take me to school, and teach me to be useful. " "I knew, " said theprincess smiling, "that you only needed a guiding hand. Believe me, youwill soon learn to couple content and longing. But now hear this! Atpresent go home to your mother, for it is late; and meet her lovingly, for that is the will of the Gods. To-morrow morning I will go to seeyou, and beg Katuti to let you come to me as companion in the place of mylost friend. The day after to-morrow you will come to me in the palace. You can live in the rooms of my departed friend and begin, as she haddone, to help me in my work. May these hours be blest to you!"

CHAPTER XXII. 

At the time of this conversation the leech Nebsecht still lingered infront of the hovel of the paraschites, and waited with growing impatiencefor the old man's return. 

At first he trembled for him; then he entirely forgot the danger intowhich he had thrown him, and only hoped for the fulfilment of hisdesires, and for wonderful revelations through his investigations of thehuman heart. 

For some minutes he gave himself up to scientific considerations; but hebecame more and more agitated by anxiety for the paraschites, and by theexciting vicinity of Uarda. 

For hours he had been alone with her, for her father and grandmothercould no longer stop away from their occupations. The former must go toescort prisoners of war to Hermonthis, and the old woman, since hergranddaughter had been old enough to undertake the small duties of thehousehold, had been one of the wailing-women, who, with hair alldishevelled, accompanied the corpse on its way to the grave, weeping, and lamenting, and casting Nile-mud on their forehead and breast. Uardastill lay, when the sun was sinking, in front of the hut. 

She looked weary and pale. Her long hair had come undone, and once moregot entangled with the straw of her humble couch. If Nebsecht went nearher to feel her pulse or to speak to her she carefully turned her facefrom him. 

Nevertheless when the sun disappeared behind the rocks he bent over heronce more, and said:

"It is growing cool; shall I carry you indoors?"

"Let me alone, " she said crossly. "I am hot, keep farther away. I am nolonger ill, and could go indoors by myself if I wished; but grandmotherwill be here directly. "

Nebsecht rose, and sat down on a hen-coop that was some paces from Uarda, and asked stammering, "Shall I go farther off?"

"Do as you please, " she answered. "You are not kind, " he said sadly. 

"You sit looking at me, " said Uarda, "I cannot bear it; and I am uneasy--for grandfather was quite different this morning from his usual self, and talked strangely about dying, and about the great price that wasasked of him for curing me. Then he begged me never to forget him, andwas so excited and so strange. He is so long away; I wish he were here, with me. "

And with these words Uarda began to cry silently. A nameless anxiety forthe paraschites seized Nebsecht, and it struck him to the heart that hehad demanded a human life in return for the mere fulfilment of a duty. He knew the law well enough, and knew that the old man would be compelledwithout respite or delay to empty the cup of poison if he were foundguilty of the theft of a human heart. 

It was dark: Uarda ceased weeping and said to the surgeon:

"Can it be possible that he has gone into the city to borrow the greatsum of money that thou--or thy temple--demanded for thy medicine? Butthere is the princess's golden bracelet, and half of father's prize, andin the chest two years' wages that grandmother had earned by wailing lieuntouched. Is all that not enough?"

The girl's last question was full of resentment and reproach, andNebsecht, whose perfect sincerity was part of his very being, was silent, as he would not venture to say yes. He had asked more in return for hishelp than gold or silver. Now he remembered Pentaur's warning, and whenthe jackals began to bark he took up the fire-stick, [The hieroglyphic sign Sam seems to me to represent the wooden stick used to produce fire (as among some savage tribes) by rapid friction in a hollow piece of wood. ]

and lighted some fuel that was lying ready. Then he asked himself whatUarda's fate would be without her grandparents, and a strange plan whichhad floated vaguely before him for some hours, began now to take adistinct outline and intelligible form. He determined if the old man didnot return to ask the kolchytes or embalmers to admit him into theirguild--and for the sake of his adroitness they were not likely to refusehim--then he would make Uarda his wife, and live apart from the world, for her, for his studies, and for his new calling, in which he hoped tolearn a great deal. What did he care for comfort and proprieties, forrecognition from his fellow-men, and a superior position!

He could hope to advance more quickly along the new stony path than onthe old beaten track. The impulse to communicate his acquired knowledgeto others he did not feel. Knowledge in itself amply satisfied him, andbe thought no more of his ties to the House of Seti. For three wholedays he had not changed his garments, no razor had touched his chin orhis scalp, not a drop of water had wetted his hands or his feet. He felthalf bewildered and almost as if he had already become an embalmer, nayeven a paraschites, one of the most despised of human beings. This self-degradation had an infinite charm, for it brought him down to the levelof Uarda, and she, lying near him, sick and anxious, with her dishevelledhair, exactly suited the future which he painted to himself. 

"Do you hear nothing?" Uarda asked suddenly. He listened. In thevalley there was a barking of dogs, and soon the paraschites and his wifeappeared, and, at the door of their hut, took leave of old Hekt, who hadmet them on her return from Thebes. 

"You have been gone a long time, " cried Uarda, when her grandmother oncemore stood before her. "I have been so frightened. "

"The doctor was with you, " said the old woman going into the house toprepare their simple meal, while the paraschites knelt down by hisgranddaughter, and caressed her tenderly, but yet with respect, as if hewere her faithful servant rather than her blood-relation. 

Then he rose, and gave to Nebsecht, who was trembling with excitement, the bag of coarse linen which he was in the habit of carrying tied to himby a narrow belt. 

"The heart is in that, " he whispered to the leech; "take it out, and giveme back the bag, for my knife is in it, and I want it. "

Nebsecht took the heart out of the covering with trembling hands and laidit carefully down. Then he felt in the breast of his dress, and going upto the paraschites he whispered:

"Here, take the writing, hang it round your neck, and when you die I willhave the book of scripture wrapped up in your mummy cloths like a greatman. But that is not enough. The property that I inherited is in thehands of my brother, who is a good man of business, and I have nottouched the interest for ten years. I will send it to you, and you andyour wife shall enjoy an old age free from care. "

"The paraschites had taken the little bag with the strip of papyrus, andheard the leech to the end. Then he turned from him saying: "Keep thymoney; we are quits. That is if the child gets well, " he added humbly. 

"She is already half cured, " stammered Nebsecht. "But why will you--whywon't you accept--"

"Because till to day I have never begged nor borrowed, " said theparaschites, "and I will not begin in my old age. Life for life. Butwhat I have done this day not Rameses with all his treasure could repay. "

Nebsecht looked down, and knew not how to answer the old man. 

His wife now came out; she set a bowl of lentils that she had hastilywarmed before the two men, with radishes and onions, [Radishes, onions, and garlic were the hors-d'oeuvre of an Egyptian dinner. 1600 talents worth were consumed, according to Herodotus. During the building of the pyramid of Cheops--L360, 000 (in 1881. )]

then she helped Uarda, who did not need to be carried, into the house, and invited Nebsecht to share their meal. He accepted her invitation, for he had eaten nothing since the previous evening. 

When the old woman had once more disappeared indoors, he asked theparaschites:

"Whose heart is it that you have brought me, and how did it come intoyour hands?"

"Tell me first, " said the other, "why thou hast laid such a heavy sinupon my soul?"

"Because I want to investigate the structure of the human heart, " saidNebsecht, "so that, when I meet with diseased hearts, I may be able tocure them. "

The paraschites looked for a long time at the ground in silence; then hesaid:

"Art thou speaking the truth?"

"Yes, " replied the leech with convincing emphasis. "I am glad, " said theold man, "for thou givest help to the poor. "

"As willingly as to the rich!" exclaimed Nebsecht. "But tell me nowwhere you got the heart. "

"I went into the house of the embalmer, " said the old man, after he hadselected a few large flints, to which, with crafty blows, he gave theshape of knives, "and there I found three bodies in which I had to makethe eight prescribed incisions with my flint-knife. When the dead liethere undressed on the wooden bench they all look alike, and the beggerlies as still as the favorite son of a king. But I knew very well wholay before me. The strong old body in the middle of the table was thecorpse of the Superior of the temple of Hatasu, and beyond, close by eachother, were laid a stone-mason of the Necropolis, and a poor girl fromthe strangers' quarter, who had died of consumption--two miserable wastedfigures. I had known the Prophet well, for I had met him a hundred timesin his gilt litter, and we always called him Rui, the rich. I did myduty by all three, I was driven away with the usual stoning, and then Iarranged the inward parts of the bodies with my mates. Those of theProphet are to be preserved later in an alabaster canopus, [This vase was called canopus at a later date. There were four of them for each mummy. ]

those of the mason and the girl were put back in their bodies. 

"Then I went up to the three bodies, and I asked myself, to which Ishould do such a wrong as to rob him of his heart. I turned to the twopoor ones, and I hastily went up to the sinning girl. Then I heard thevoice of the demon that cried out in my heart 'The girl was poor anddespised like you while she walked on Seb, [Seb is the earth; Plutarch calls Seb Chronos. He is often spoken of as the "father of the gods" on the monuments. He is the god of time, and as the Egyptians regarded matter as eternal, it is not by accident that the sign which represented the earth was also used for eternity. ]

perhaps she may find compensation and peace in the other world if you donot mutilate her; and when I turned to the mason's lean corpse, andlooked at his hands, which were harder and rougher than my own, the demonwhispered the same. Then I stood before the strong, stout corpse of theprophet Rui, who died of apoplexy, and I remembered the honor and theriches that he had enjoyed on earth, and that he at least for a time hadknown happiness and ease. And as soon as I was alone, I slipped my handinto the bag, and changed the sheep's heart for his. 

"Perhaps I am doubly guilty for playing such an accursed trick with theheart of a high-priest; but Rui's body will be hung round with a hundredamulets, Scarabaei

 [Imitations of the sacred beetle Scarabaeus made of various materials were frequently put into the mummies in the place of the heart. Large specimens have often the 26th, 30th, and 64th chapters of the Book of the Dead engraved on them, as they treat of the heart. 

will be placed over his heart, and holy oil and sacred sentences willpreserve him from all the fiends on his road to Amenti, --[Underworld]--while no one will devote helping talismans to the poor. And then! thouhast sworn, in that world, in the hall of judgment, to take my guilt onthyself. "

Nebsecht gave the old man his hand. 

"That I will, " said he, "and I should have chosen as you did. Now takethis draught, divide it in four parts, and give it to Uarda for fourevenings following. Begin this evening, and by the day after to-morrowI think she will be quite well. I will come again and look after her. Now go to rest, and let me stay a while out here; before the star of Isisis extinguished I will be gone, for they have long been expecting me atthe temple. "

When the paraschites came out of his but the next morning, Nebsecht hadvanished; but a blood-stained cloth that lay by the remains of the fireshowed the old man that the impatient investigator had examined the heartof the high-priest during the night, and perhaps cut it up. 

Terror fell upon him, and in agony of mind he threw himself on his kneesas the golden bark of the Sun-God appeared on the horizon, and he prayedfervently, first for Uarda, and then for the salvation of his imperilledsoul. 

He rose encouraged, convinced himself that his granddaughter wasprogressing towards recovery, bid farewell to his wife, took his flintknife and his bronze hook, [The brains of corpses were drawn out of the nose with a hook. Herodotus II. 87. ]

and went to the house of the embalmer to follow his dismal calling. 

The group of buildings in which the greater number of the corpses fromThebes went through the processes of mummifying, lay on the bare desert-land at some distance from his hovel, southwards from the House of Setiat the foot of the mountain. They occupied by themselves a fairly largespace, enclosed by a rough wall of dried mud-bricks. 

The bodies were brought in through the great gate towards the Nile, anddelivered to the kolchytes, --[The whole guild of embalmers]--while thepriests, paraschites, and tariclleutes, --[Salter of the bodies]--bearers and assistants, who here did their daily work, as well asinnumerable water-carriers who came up from the Nile, loaded with skins, found their way into the establishment by a side gate. 

At the farthest northern building of wood, with a separate gate, in whichthe orders of the bereaved were taken, and often indeed those of menstill in active life, who thought to provide betimes for their suitableinterment. 

The crowd in this house was considerable. About fifty men and women weremoving in it at the present moment, all of different ranks, and not onlyfrom Thebes but from many smaller towns of Upper Egypt, to make purchasesor to give commissions to the functionaries who were busy here. 

This bazaar of the dead was well supplied, for coffins of every formstood up against the walls, from the simplest chest to the richly giltand painted coffer, in form resembling a mummy. On wooden shelves layendless rolls of coarse and fine linen, in which the limbs of the mummieswere enveloped, and which were manufactured by the people of theembalming establishment under the protection of the tutelar goddesses ofweavers, Neith, Isis and Nephthys, though some were ordered from adistance, particularly from Sais. 

There was free choice for the visitors of this pattern-room in the matterof mummy-cases and cloths, as well as of necklets, scarabaei, statuettes, Uza-eyes, girdles, head-rests, triangles, split-rings, staves, and othersymbolic objects, which were attached to the dead as sacred amulets, orbound up in the wrappings. 

There were innumerable stamps of baked clay, which were buried in theearth to show any one who might dispute the limits, how far each graveextended, images of the gods, which were laid in the sand to purify andsanctify it--for by nature it belonged to Seth-Typhon--as well as thefigures called Schebti, which were either enclosed several together inlittle boxes, or laid separately in the grave; it was supposed that theywould help the dead to till the fields of the blessed with the pick-axe, plough, and seed-bag which they carried on their shoulders. 

The widow and the steward of the wealthy Superior of the temple ofHatasu, and with them a priest of high rank, were in eager discussionwith the officials of the embalming-House, and were selecting the mostcostly of the patterns of mummy-cases which were offered to theirinspection, the finest linen, and amulets of malachite, and lapis-lazuli, of blood-stone, carnelian and green felspar, as well as the most elegantalabaster canopi for the deceased; his body was to be enclosed first in asort of case of papier-mache, and then in a wooden and a stone coffin. They wrote his name on a wax tablet which was ready for the purpose, withthose of his parents, his wife and children, and all his titles; theyordered what verses should be written on his coffin, what on the papyrus-rolls to be enclosed in it, and what should be set out above his name. With regard to the inscription on the walls of the tomb, the pedestal ofthe statue to be placed there and the face of the stele--[Stone tabletwith round pediment. ]--to be erected in it, yet further particulars wouldbe given; a priest of the temple of Seti was charged to write them, andto draw up a catalogue of the rich offerings of the survivors. The lastcould be done later, when, after the division of the property, the amountof the fortune he had left could be ascertained. The mere mummifying ofthe body with the finest oils and essences, cloths, amulets, and cases, would cost a talent of silver, without the stone sarcophagus. 

The widow wore a long mourning robe, her forehead was lightly daubed withNile-mud, and in the midst of her chaffering with the functionaries ofthe embalming-house, whose prices she complained of as enormous andrapacious, from time to time she broke out into a loud wail of grief--as the occasion demanded. 

More modest citizens finished their commissions sooner, though it was notunusual for the income of a whole year to be sacrificed for the embalmingof the head of a household--the father or the mother of a family. Themummifying of the poor was cheap, and that of the poorest had to beprovided by the kolchytes as a tribute to the king, to whom also theywere obliged to pay a tax in linen from their looms. 

This place of business was carefully separated from the rest of theestablishment, which none but those who were engaged in the processescarried on there were on any account permitted to enter. The kolchytesformed a closely-limited guild at the head of which stood a certainnumber of priests, and from among them the masters of the many thousandmembers were chosen. This guild was highly respected, even thetaricheutes, who were entrusted with the actual work of embalming, couldventure to mix with the other citizens, although in Thebes itself peoplealways avoided them with a certain horror; only the paraschites, whoseduty it was to open the body, bore the whole curse of uncleanness. Certainly the place where these people fulfilled their office was dismalenough. 

The stone chamber in which the bodies were opened, and the halls in whichthey were prepared with salt, had adjoining them a variety oflaboratories and depositaries for drugs and preparations of everydescription. 

In a court-yard, protected from the rays of the sun only by an awning, was a large walled bason, containing a solution of natron, in which thebodies were salted, and they were then dried in a stone vault, artificially supplied with hot air. 

The little wooden houses of the weavers, as well as the work-shops ofthe case-joiners and decorators, stood in numbers round the pattern-room;but the farthest off, and much the largest of the buildings of theestablishment, was a very long low structure, solidly built of stoneand well roofed in, where the prepared bodies were enveloped in theircerements, tricked out in amulets, and made ready for their journey tothe next world. What took place in this building--into which the laitywere admitted, but never for more than a few minutes--was to the lastdegree mysterious, for here the gods themselves appeared to be engagedwith the mortal bodies. 

Out of the windows which opened on the street, recitations, hymns, andlamentations sounded night and day. The priests who fulfilled theiroffice here wore masks like the divinities of the under-world. Many werethe representatives of Anubis, with the jackal-head, assisted by boyswith masks of the so-called child-Horus. At the head of each mummy stoodor squatted a wailing-woman with the emblems of Nephthys, and one at itsfeet with those of Isis. 

Every separate limb of the deceased was dedicated to a particulardivinity by the aid of holy oils, charms, and sentences; a speciallyprepared cloth was wrapped round each muscle, every drug and everybandage owed its origin to some divinity, and the confusion of sounds, of disguised figures, and of various perfumes, had a stupefying effecton those who visited this chamber. It need not be said that the wholeembalming establishment and its neighborhood was enveloped in a cloud ofpowerful resinous fumes, of sweet attar, of lasting musk, and pungentspices. 

When the wind blew from the west it was wafted across the Nile to Thebes, and this was regarded as an evil omen, for from the south-west comes thewind that enfeebles the energy of men--the fatal simoon. 

In the court of the pattern-house stood several groups of citizens fromThebes, gathered round different individuals, to whom they wereexpressing their sympathy. A new-comer, the superintendent of thevictims of the temple of Anion, who seemed to be known to many and wasgreeted with respect, announced, even before he went to condole withRui's widow, in a tone full of horror at what had happened, that an omen, significant of the greatest misfortune, had occurred in Thebes, in a spotno less sacred than the very temple of Anion himself. 

Many inquisitive listeners stood round him while he related that theRegent Ani, in his joy at the victory of his troops in Ethiopia, haddistributed wine with a lavish hand to the garrison of Thebes, and alsoto the watchmen of the temple of Anion, and that, while the people werecarousing, wolves

 [Wolves have now disappeared from Egypt; they were sacred animals, and were worshipped and buried at Lykopolis, the present Siut, where mummies of wolves have been found. Herodotus says that if a wolf was found dead he was buried, and Aelian states that the herb Lykoktonon, which was poisonous to wolves, might on no account be brought into the city, where they were held sacred. The wolf numbered among the sacral animals is the canis lupaster, which exists in Egypt at the present day. Besides this species there are three varieties of wild dogs, the jackal, fox, and fenek, canis cerda. ]

had broken into the stable of the sacred rams. Some were killed, but thenoblest ram, which Rameses himself had sent as a gift from Mendes when heset out for the war--the magnificent beast which Amon had chosen as thetenement of his spirit, was found, torn in pieces, by the soldiers, whoimmediately terrified the whole city with the news. At the same hournews had come from Memphis that the sacred bull Apis was dead. 

All the people who had collected round the priest, broke out into a far-sounding cry of woe, in which he himself and Rui's widow vehementlyjoined. 

The buyers and functionaries rushed out of the pattern-room, and from themummy-house the taricheutes, paraschites and assistants; the weavers lefttheir looms, and all, as soon as they had learned what had happened, tookpart in the lamentations, howling and wailing, tearing their hair andcovering their faces with dust. 

The noise was loud and distracting, and when its violence diminished, andthe work-people went back to their business, the east wind brought theecho of the cries of the dwellers in the Necropolis, perhaps too, thoseof the citizens of Thebes itself. 

"Bad news, " said the inspector of the victims, cannot fail to reach ussoon from the king and the army; he will regret the death of the ramwhich we called by his name more than that of Apis. It is a bad--a verybad omen. "

"My lost husband Rui, who rests in Osiris, foresaw it all, " said thewidow. "If only I dared to speak I could tell a good deal that manymight find unpleasant. "

The inspector of sacrifices smiled, for he knew that the late superior ofthe temple of Hatasu had been an adherent of the old royal family, and hereplied:

"The Sun of Rameses may be for a time covered with clouds, but neitherthose who fear it nor those who desire it will live to see its setting. "

The priest coldly saluted the lady, and went into the house of a weaverin which he had business, and the widow got into her litter which waswaiting at the gate. 

The old paraschites Pinem had joined with his fellows in the lamentationfor the sacred beasts, and was now sitting on the hard pavement of thedissecting room to eat his morsel of food--for it was noon. 

The stone room in which he was eating his meal was badly lighted; thedaylight came through a small opening in the roof, over which the sunstood perpendicularly, and a shaft of bright rays, in which danced thewhirling motes, shot down through the twilight on to the stone pavement. Mummy-cases leaned against all the walls, and on smooth polished slabslay bodies covered with coarse cloths. A rat scudded now and then acrossthe floor, and from the wide cracks between the stones sluggish scorpionscrawled out. 

The old paraschites was long since blunted to the horror which pervadedthis locality. He had spread a coarse napkin, and carefully laid on itthe provisions which his wife had put into his satchel; first half a cakeof bread, then a little salt, and finally a radish. 

But the bag was not yet empty. 

He put his hand in and found a piece of meat wrapped up in two cabbage-leaves. Old Hekt had brought a leg of a gazelle from Thebes for Uarda, and he now saw that the women had put a piece of it into his little sackfor his refreshment. He looked at the gift with emotion, but he did notventure to touch it, for he felt as if in doing so he should be robbingthe sick girl. While eating the bread and the radish he contemplated thepiece of meat as if it were some costly jewel, and when a fly dared tosettle on it he drove it off indignantly. 

At last he tasted the meat, and thought of many former noon-day meals, and how he had often found a flower in the satchel, that Uarda had placedthere to please him, with the bread. His kind old eyes filled withtears, and his whole heart swelled with gratitude and love. He lookedup, and his glance fell on the table, and he asked himself how he wouldhave felt if instead of the old priest, robbed of his heart, the sunshineof his old age, his granddaughter, were lying there motionless. A coldshiver ran over him, and he felt that his own heart would not have beentoo great a price to pay for her recovery. And yet! In the course ofhis long life he had experienced so much suffering and wrong, that hecould not imagine any hope of a better lot in the other world. Then hedrew out the bond Nebsecht had given him, held it up with both hands, asif to show it to the Immortals, and particularly to the judges in thehall of truth and judgment, that they might not reckon with him for thecrime he had committed--not for himself but for another--and that theymight not refuse to justify Rui, whom he had robbed of his heart. 

While he thus lifted his soul in devotion, matters were getting warmoutside the dissecting room. He thought he heard his name spoken, andscarcely had he raised his head to listen when a taricheut came in anddesired him to follow him. 

In front of the rooms, filled with resinous odors and incense, in whichthe actual process of embalming was carried on, a number of taricheuteswere standing and looking at an object in an alabaster bowl. The kneesof the old man knocked together as he recognized the heart of the beastwhich he had substituted for that of the Prophet. 

The chief of the taricheutes asked him whether he had opened the body ofthe dead priest. 

Pinem stammered out "Yes. " Whether this was his heart? The old mannodded affirmatively. 

The taricheutes looked at each other, whispered together; then one ofthem went away, and returned soon with the inspector of victims from thetemple of Anion, whom he had found in the house of the weaver, and thechief of the kolchytes. 

"Show me the heart, " said the superintendent of the sacrifices as heapproached the vase. "I can decide in the dark if you have seen rightly. I examine a hundred animals every day. Give it here!--By all the Gods ofHeaven and Hell that is the heart of a ram!"

"It was found in the breast of Rui, " said one of the taricheutesdecisively. "It was opened yesterday in the presence of us all by thisold paraschites. "

"It is extraordinary, " said the priest of Anion. "And incredible. Butperhaps an exchange was effected. --Did you slaughter any victims hereyesterday or--?"

"We are purifying ourselves, " the chief of the kolchytes interrupted, for the great festival of the valley, and for ten days no beast can havebeen killed here for food; besides, the stables and slaughterhouses area long way from this, on the other side of the linen-factories. "

"It is strange!" replied the priest. "Preserve this heart carefully, kolchytes: or, better still, let it be enclosed in a case. We will takeit over to the chief prophet of Anion. It would seem that some miraclehas happened. "

"The heart belongs to the Necropolis, " answered the chief kolchytes, "andit would therefore be more fitting if we took it to the chief priest ofthe temple of Seti, Ameni. "

"You command here!" said the other. "Let us go. " In a few minutes thepriest of Anion and the chief of the kolchytes were being carried towardsthe valley in their litters. A taricheut followed them, who sat on aseat between two asses, and carefully carried a casket of ivory, in whichreposed the ram's heart. 

The old paraschites watched the priests disappear behind the tamariskbushes. He longed to run after them, and tell them everything. 

His conscience quaked with self reproach, and if his sluggishintelligence did not enable him to take in at a glance all the resultsthat his deed might entail, he still could guess that he had sown a seedwhence deceit of every kind must grow. He felt as if he had fallenaltogether into sin and falsehood, and that the goddess of truth, whom hehad all his life honestly served, had reproachfully turned her back onhim. After what had happened never could he hope to be pronounced a"truth-speaker" by the judges of the dead. Lost, thrown away, was theaim and end of a long life, rich in self-denial and prayer! His soulshed tears of blood, a wild sighing sounded in his ears, which saddenedhis spirit, and when he went back to his work again, and wanted to removethe soles of the feet

 [One of the mummies of Prague which were dissected by Czermak, had the soles of the feet removed and laid on the breast. We learn from Chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead that this was done that the sacred floor of the hall of judgment might not be defiled when the dead were summoned before Osiris. ]

from a body, his hand trembled so that he could not hold the knife. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

The news of the end of the sacred ram of Anion, and of the death of thebull Apis of Memphis, had reached the House of Seti, and was receivedthere with loud lamentation, in which all its inhabitants joined, fromthe chief haruspex down to the smallest boy in the school-courts. 

The superior of the institution, Ameni, had been for three days inThebes, and was expected to return to-day. His arrival was looked forwith anxiety and excitement by many. The chief of the haruspices waseager for it that he might hand over the imprisoned scholars to condignpunishment, and complain to him of Pentaur and Bent-Anat; the initiatedknew that important transactions must have been concluded on the fartherside of the Nile; and the rebellious disciples knew that now sternjustice would be dealt to them. 

The insurrectionary troop were locked into an open court upon bread andwater, and as the usual room of detention of the establishment was toosmall for them all, for two nights they had had to sleep in a loft onthin straw mats. The young spirits were excited to the highest pitch, but each expressed his feelings in quite a different manner. 

Bent-Anat's brother, Rameses' son, Rameri, had experienced the sametreatment as his fellows, whom yesterday he had led into every sort ofmischief, with even more audacity than usual, but to-day he hung hishead. 

In a corner of the court sat Anana, Pentaur's favorite scholar, hidinghis face in his hands which rested on his knees. Rameri went up to him, touched his shoulders and said:

"We have played the game, and now must bear the consequences for good andfor evil. Are you not ashamed of yourself, old boy? Your eyes are wet, and the drops here on your hands have not fallen from the clouds. Youwho are seventeen, and in a few months will be a scribe and a grown man!"

Anana looked at the prince, dried his eyes quickly; and said:

"I was the ring-leader. Ameni will turn me out of the place, and I mustreturn disgraced to my poor mother, who has no one in the world but me. "

"Poor fellow!" said Rameri kindly. "It was striking at random! If onlyour attempt had done Pentaur any good!"

"We have done him harm, on the contrary, " said Anana vehemently, "andhave behaved like fools!" Rameri nodded in full assent, lookedthoughtful for a moment, and then said:

"Do you know, Anana, that you were not the ringleader? The trick wasplanned in this crazy brain; I take the whole blame on my own shoulders. I am the son of Rameses, and Ameni will be less hard on me than on you. "

"He will examine us all, " replied Anana, "and I will be punished soonerthan tell a lie. "

Rameri colored. 

"Have you ever known my tongue sin against the lovely daughter of Ra?"he exclaimed. "But look here! did I stir up Antef, Hapi, Sent and allthe others or no? Who but I advised you to find out Pentaur? Did Ithreaten to beg my father to take me from the school of Seti or not?I was the instigator of the mischief, I pulled the wires, and if we arequestioned let me speak first. Not one of you is to mention Anana'sname; do you hear? not one of you, and if they flog us or deprive us ofour food we all stick to this, that I was guilty of all the mischief. "

"You are a brave fellow!" said the son of the chief priest of Anion, shaking his right hand, while Anana held his left. 

The prince freed himself laughing from their grasp. 

"Now the old man may come home, " he exclaimed, "we are ready for him. But all the same I will ask my father to send me to Chennu, as sure as myname is Rameri, if they do not recall Pentaur. "

"He treated us like school-boys!" said the eldest of the youngmalefactors. 

"And with reason, " replied Rameri, "I respect him all the more for it. You all think I am a careless dog--but I have my own ideas, and I willspeak the words of wisdom. "

With these words he looked round on his companions with comical gravity, and continued--imitating Ameni's manner:

"Great men are distinguished from little men by this--they scorn andcontemn all which flatters their vanity, or seems to them for the momentdesirable, or even useful, if it is not compatible with the laws whichthey recognize, or conducive to some great end which they have set beforethem; even though that end may not be reached till after their death. 

"I have learned this, partly from my father, but partly I have thought itout for myself; and now I ask you, could Pentaur as 'a great man' havedealt with us better?"

"You have put into words exactly what I myself have thought ever sinceyesterday, " cried Anana. "We have behaved like babies, and instead ofcarrying our point we have brought ourselves and Pentaur into disgrace. "

The rattle of an approaching chariot was now audible, and Rameriexclaimed, interrupting Anana, "It is he. Courage, boys! I am theguilty one. He will not dare to have me thrashed--but he will stab mewith looks!"

Ameni descended quickly from his chariot. The gate-keeper informed himthat the chief of the kolchytes, and the inspector of victims from thetemple of Anion, desired to speak with him. 

"They must wait, " said the Prophet shortly. "Show them meanwhile intothe garden pavilion. Where is the chief haruspex?"

He had hardly spoken when the vigorous old man for whom he was enquiringhurried to meet him, to make him acquainted with all that had occurred inhis absence. But the high-priest had already heard in Thebes all thathis colleague was anxious to tell him. 

When Ameni was absent from the House of Seti, he caused accurateinformation to be brought to him every morning of what had taken placethere. 

Now when the old man began his story he interrupted him. 

"I know everything, " he said. "The disciples cling to Pentaur, and havecommitted a folly for his sake, and you met the princess Bent-Anat withhim in the temple of Hatasu, to which he had admitted a woman of low rankbefore she had been purified. These are grave matters, and must beseriously considered, but not to-day. Make yourself easy; Pentaur willnot escape punishment; but for to-day we must recall him to this temple, for we have need of him to-morrow for the solemnity of the feast of thevalley. No one shall meet him as an enemy till he is condemned; I desirethis of you, and charge you to repeat it to the others. "

The haruspex endeavored to represent to his superior what a scandal wouldarise from this untimely clemency; but Ameni did not allow him to talk, he demanded his ring back, called a young priest, delivered the precioussignet into his charge, and desired him to get into his chariot that waswaiting at the door, and carry to Pentaur the command, in his name, toreturn to the temple of Seti. 

The haruspex submitted, though deeply vexed, and asked whether the guiltyboys were also to go unpunished. 

"No more than Pentaur, " answered Ameni. "But can you call this school-boy's trick guilt? Leave the children to their fun, and theirimprudence. The educator is the destroyer, if he always and only keepshis eyes open, and cannot close them at the right moment. Before lifedemands of us the exercise of serious duties we have a mighty over-abundance of vigor at our disposal; the child exhausts it in play, andthe boy in building wonder-castles with the hammer and chisel of hisfancy, in inventing follies. You shake your head, Septah! but I tellyou, the audacious tricks of the boy are the fore-runners of the deeds ofthe man. I shall let one only of the boys suffer for what is past, and Ishould let him even go unpunished if I had not other pressing reasons forkeeping him away from our festival. "

The haruspex did not contradict his chief; for he knew that when Ameni'seyes flashed so suddenly, and his demeanor, usually so measured, was asrestless as at present, something serious was brewing. 

The high-priest understood what was passing in Septah's mind. 

"You do not understand me now, " said he. "But this evening, at themeeting of the initiated, you shall know all. Great events are stirring. The brethren in the temple of Anion, on the other shore, have fallen offfrom what must always be the Holiest to us white-robed priests, and willstand in our way when the time for action is arrived. At the feast ofthe valley we shall stand in competition with the brethren from Thebes. All Thebes will be present at the solemn service, and it must be provedwhich knows how to serve the Divinity most worthily, they or we. We mustavail ourselves of all our resources, and Pentaur we certainly cannot dowithout. He must fill the function of Cherheb

 [Cherheb was the title of the speaker or reciter at a festival. We cannot agree with those who confuse this personage with the chief of the Kolchytes. ]

for to-morrow only; the day after he must be brought to judgment. Amongthe rebellious boys are our best singers, and particularly young Anana, who leads the voices of the choir-boys. 

"I will examine the silly fellows at once. Rameri--Rameses' son--wasamong the young miscreants?"

"He seems to have been the ring-leader, " answered Septah. 

Ameni looked at the old man with a significant smile, and said:

"The royal family are covering themselves with honor! His eldestdaughter must be kept far from the temple and the gathering of the pious, as being unclean and refractory, and we shall be obliged to expel his sontoo from our college. You look horrified, but I say to you that the timefor action is come. More of this, this evening. Now, one question: Hasthe news of the death of the ram of Anion reached you? Yes? Rameseshimself presented him to the God, and they gave it his name. A badomen. "

"And Apis too is dead!" The haruspex threw up his arms in lamentation. 

"His Divine spirit has returned to God, " replied Ameni. "Now we havemuch to do. Before all things we must prove ourselves equal to those inThebes over there, and win the people over to our side. The panegyricprepared by us for to-morrow must offer some great novelty. The RegentAni grants us a rich contribution, and--"

"And, " interrupted Septah, "our thaumaturgists understand things verydifferently from those of the house of Anion, who feast while wepractise. "

Ameni nodded assent, and said with a smile: "Also we are moreindispensable than they to the people. They show them the path of life, but we smooth the way of death. It is easier to find the way without aguide in the day-light than in the dark. We are more than a match forthe priests of Anion. "

"So long as you are our leader, certainly, " cried the haruspex. 

"And so long as the temple has no lack of men of your temper!" addedAmeni, half to Septah, and half to the second prophet of the temple, sturdy old Gagabu, who had come into the room. 

Both accompanied him into the garden, where the two priests were awaitinghim with the miraculous heart. 

Ameni greeted the priest from the temple of Anion with dignifiedfriendliness, the head kolchytes with distant reserve, listened to theirstory, looked at the heart which lay in the box, with Septah and Gagabu, touched it delicately with the tips of his fingers, carefully examiningthe object, which diffused a strong perfume of spices; then he saidearnestly:

"If this, in your opinion, kolchytes, is not a human heart, and if inyours, my brother of the temple of Anion, it is a ram's heart, and if itwas found in the body of Rui, who is gone to Osiris, we here have amystery which only the Gods can solve. Follow me into the great court. Let the gong be sounded, Gagabu, four times, for I wish to call all thebrethren together. "

The gong rang in loud waves of sound to the farthest limits of the groupof buildings. The initiated, the fathers, the temple-servants, and thescholars streamed in, and in a few minutes were all collected. Not a manwas wanting, for at the four strokes of the rarely-sounded alarum everydweller in the House of Seti was expected to appear in the court of thetemple. Even the leech Nebsecht came; for he feared that the unusualsummons announced the outbreak of a fire. 

Ameni ordered the assembly to arrange itself in a procession, informedhis astonished hearers that in the breast of the deceased prophet Rui, aram's heart, instead of a man's, had been found, and desired them all tofollow his instructions. Each one, he said, was to fall on his knees andpray, while he would carry the heart into the holiest of holies, andenquire of the Gods what this wonder might portend to the faithful. 

Ameni, with the heart in his hand, placed himself at the head of theprocession, and disappeared behind the veil of the sanctuary, theinitiated prayed in the vestibule, in front of it; the priests andscholars in the vast court, which was closed on the west by the statelycolonnade and the main gateway to the temple. 

For fully an hour Ameni remained in the silent holy of holies, from whichthick clouds of incense rolled out, and then he reappeared with a goldenvase set with precious stones. His tall figure was now resplendent withrich ornaments, and a priest, who walked before him, held the vessel highabove his head. 

Ameni's eyes seemed spell-bound to the vase, and he followed it, supporting himself by his crozier, with humble inflections. 

The initiated bowed their heads till they touched the pavement, and thepriests and scholars bent their faces down to the earth, when they beheldtheir haughty master so filled with humility and devotion. Theworshippers did not raise themselves till Ameni had reached the middle ofthe court and ascended the steps of the altar, on which the vase with theheart was now placed, and they listened to the slow and solemn accents ofthe high-priest which sounded clearly through the whole court. 

"Fall down again and worship! wonder, pray, and adore! The nobleinspector of sacrifices of the temple of Anion has not been deceived inhis judgment; a ram's heart was in fact found in the pious breast of Rui. I heard distinctly the voice of the Divinity in the sanctuary, andstrange indeed was the speech that met my ear. Wolves tore the sacredram of Anion in his sanctuary on the other bank of the river, but theheart of the divine beast found its way into the bosom of the saintlyRui. A great miracle has been worked, and the Gods have shown awonderful sign. The spirit of the Highest liked not to dwell in the bodyof this not perfectly holy ram, and seeking a purer abiding-place foundit in the breast of our Rui; and now in this consecrated vase. In thisthe heart shall be preserved till a new ram offered by a worthy handenters the herd of Anion. This heart shall be preserved with the mostsacred relics, it has the property of healing many diseases, and thesignificant words seem favorable which stood written in the midst of thevapor of incense, and which I will repeat to you word for word, 'Thatwhich is high shall rise higher, and that which exalts itself, shall soonfall down. ' Rise, pastophori! hasten to fetch the holy images, bringthem out, place the sacred heart at the head of the procession, and letus march round the walls of the temple with hymns of praise. Ye temple-servants, seize your staves, and spread in every part of the city thenews of the miracle which the Divinity has vouchsafed to us. "

After the procession had marched round the temple and dispersed, thepriest of Anion took leave of Ameni; he bowed deeply and formally beforehim, and with a coolness that was almost malicious said:

"We, in the temple of Anion, shall know how to appreciate what you heardin the holy of holies. The miracle has occurred, and the king shalllearn how it came to pass, and in what words it was announced. "

"In the words of the Most High, " said the high priest with dignity; hebowed to the other, and turned to a group of priests, who were discussingthe great event of the day. 

Ameni enquired of them as to the preparations for the festival of themorrow, and then desired the chief haruspex to call the refractory pupilstogether in the school-court. The old man informed him that Pentaur hadreturned, and he followed his superior to the released prisoners, who, prepared for the worst, and expecting severe punishment, neverthelessshook with laughter when Rameri suggested that, if by chance they werecondemned to kneel upon peas, they should get them cooked first. 

"It will be long asparagus

 [Asparagus was known to the Egyptians. Pliny says they held in their mouths, as a remedy for toothache, wine in which asparagus had been cooked. ]

--not peas, " said another looking over his shoulder, and pretending to beflogging. They all shouted again with laughter, but it was hushed assoon as they heard Ameni's well-known footstep. 

Each feared the worst, and when the high-priest stood before them evenRameri's mirth was quite quelled, for though Ameni looked neither angrynor threatening, his appearance commanded respect, and each onerecognized in him a judge against whose verdict no remonstrance wasto be thought of. 

To their infinite astonishment Ameni spoke kindly to the thoughtlessboys, praised the motive of their action--their attachment to a highly-endowed teacher--but then clearly and deliberately laid before them thefolly of the means they had employed to attain their end, and at what acost. "Only think, " he continued, turning to the prince, "if your fathersent a general, who he thought would be better in a different place, fromSyria to Kusch, and his troops therefore all went over to the enemy! Howwould you like that?"

So for some minutes he continued to blame and warn them, and he ended hisspeech by promising, in consideration of the great miracle that gave thatday a special sanctity, to exercise unwonted clemency. For the sake ofexample, he said, he could not let them pass altogether unpunished, andhe now asked them which of them had been the instigator of the deed; heand he only should suffer punishment. 

He had hardly clone speaking, when prince Rameri stepped forward, andsaid modestly:

"We acknowledge, holy father, that we have played a foolish trick; andI lament it doubly because I devised it, and made the others follow me. I love Pentaur, and next to thee there is no one like him in thesanctuary. "

Ameni's countenance grew dark, and he answered with displeasure:

"No judgment is allowed to pupils as to their teachers--nor to you. Ifyou were not the son of the king, who rules Egypt as Ra, I would punishyour temerity with stripes. My hands are tied with regard to you, andyet they must be everywhere and always at work if the hundreds committedto my care are to be kept from harm. "

"Nay, punish me!" cried Rameri. "If I commit a folly I am ready to bearthe consequences. "

Ameni looked pleased at the vehement boy, and would willingly have shakenhim by the hand and stroked his curly head, but the penance he proposedfor Rameri was to serve a great end, and Ameni would not allow anyoverflow of emotion to hinder him in the execution of a well considereddesign. So he answered the prince with grave determination:

"I must and will punish you--and I do so by requesting you to leave theHouse of Seti this very day. "

The prince turned pale. But Ameni went on more kindly:

"I do not expel you with ignominy from among us--I only bid you afriendly farewell. In a few weeks you would in any case have left thecollege, and by the king's command have transferred your blooming life, health, and strength to the exercising ground of the chariot-brigade. No punishment for you but this lies in my power. Now give me your hand;you will make a fine man, and perhaps a great warrior. "

The prince stood in astonishment before Ameni, and did not take hisoffered hand. Then the priest went up to him, and said:

"You said you were ready to take the consequences of your folly, and aprince's word must be kept. Before sunset we will conduct you to thegate of the temple. "

Ameni turned his back on the boys, and left the school-court. 

Rameri looked after him. Utter whiteness had overspread his bloomingface, and the blood had left even his lips. None of his companionsapproached him, for each felt that what was passing in his soul at thismoment would brook no careless intrusion. No one spoke a word; they alllooked at him. 

He soon observed this, and tried to collect himself, and then he said ina low tone while he held out his hands to Anana and another friend:

"Am I then so bad that I must be driven out from among you all like this--that such a blow must be inflicted on my father?"

"You refused Ameni your hand!" answered Anana. "Go to him, offer himyour hand, beg him to be less severe, and perhaps he will let youremain. "

Rameri answered only "No. " But that "No" was so decided that all whoknew him understood that it was final. 

Before the sun set he had left the school. Ameni gave him his blessing;he told him that if he himself ever had to command he would understandhis severity, and allowed the other scholars to accompany him as far asthe Nile. Pentaur parted from him tenderly at the gate. 

When Rameri was alone in the cabin of his gilt bark with his tutor, hefelt his eyes swimming in tears. 

"Your highness is surely not weeping?" asked the official. 

"Why?" asked the prince sharply. 

"I thought I saw tears on your highness' cheeks. "

"Tears of joy that I am out of the trap, " cried Rameri; he sprang onshore, and in a few minutes he was with his sister in the palace. 

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

Ask for what is feasibleI know that I am of useLike the cackle of hens, which is peculiar to Eastern womenThink of his wife, not with affection only, but with prideThose whom we fear, says my uncle, we cannot love