s and
papyrus-leaves, with strange charms written on them to secure health for
the living and salvation for the souls of the dead. An astrologer, who
foretold the course of a man's life from the position of the planets,
had erected a high platform with large tables displayed to view, and the
instrument wherewith he aimed at the stars as it were with a bow;
and his Syrian slave, accompanying himself on a gayly-painted drum,
proclaimed his master's powers. There were closed tents in which magical
remedies were to be obtained, though their open sale was forbidden by
the authorities, from love-philters to the wondrous fluid which, if
rightly applied, would turn lead, copper, or silver to gold. Here, old
women invited the passer-by to try Thracian and other spells; there,
magicians stalked to and fro in painted caps and flowing, gaudy robes,
most of them calling themselves priests of some god of the abyss. Men
of every race and tongue that dwelt in the north of Africa, or on the
shores of the Mediterranean, were packed in a noisy throng.

The greatest press was behind the houses of the men who buried the dead.
Here sacrifices were offered on the altars of Serapis, Isis, and Anubis;
here the sacred sistrum of Isis might be kissed; here hundreds of
priests performed solemn ceremonies, and half of those who came hither
for the festival of the dead collected about them. The mysteries
were also performed here, beginning before midnight; and a dramatic
representation might be seen of the woes of Isis, and the resurrection
of her husband Osiris. But neither here, nor at the stalls, nor among
the graves, where many families were feasting by torchlight and pouring
libations in the sand for the souls of the dead, did Alexander expect
to find his brother. Nor would Philip be attending the mysterious
solemnities of any of the fraternities. He had witnessed them often
enough with his friend Diodoros, who never missed the procession to
Eleusis, because, as he declared, the mysteries of Demeter alone could
assure a man of the immortality of the soul. The wild ceremonies of the
Syrians, who maimed themselves in their mad ecstasy, repelled him as
being coarse and barbarous.

As she made her way through this medley of cults, this worship of gods
so different that they were in some cases hostile, but more often merged
into each other, Melissa wondered to which she ought to turn in her
present need. Her mother had best loved to sacrifice to Se