curls,
showing very little attempt at arrangement, hung down over his short,
firm throat; he wore a simple, homely cloak, and kept his eyes gloomily
fixed on the water. His companion, on the contrary, a man perhaps twenty
years younger, of a slender and delicate build, was seldom still.
Sometimes he gazed into the heavens, sometimes made a remark to the
steersman, disposed his beautiful purple chlanis in fresh folds, or
busied himself in the arrangement of his scented brown curls, or his
carefully curled beard.

[The chlanis was a light summer-mantle, worn especially by the more
elegant Athenians, and generally made of expensive materials. The
simpler cloak, the himation, was worn by the Doric Greeks, and
principally by the Spartans.]

The boat had left Naukratis, at that time the only Hellenic port in
Egypt, about half an hour before.

[This town, which will form the scene of a part of our tale, lies in
the northwest of the Nile Delta, in the Saitic Nomos or district, on
the left bank of the Canopic mouth of the river. According to
Strabo and Eusebius it was founded by Milesians, and Bunsen reckons
749 B. C. It seems that in the earliest times Greek ships were only
allowed to enter this mouth of the Nile in case of necessity. The
entire intercourse of the Egyptians with the hated strangers was, at
that time, restricted to the little island of Pharos lying opposite
to the town of Thonis.]

During their journey, the grey-haired, moody man had not spoken one word,
and the other had left him to his meditations. But now, as the boat
neared the shore, the restless traveller, rising from his couch, called
to his companion: "We are just at our destination, Aristomachus! That
pleasant house to the left yonder, in the garden of palms which you can
see rising above the waters, is the dwelling of my friend Rhodopis. It
was built by her husband Charaxus, and all her friends, not excepting the
king himself, vie with one another in adding new beauties to it year by
year. A useless effort! Let them adorn that house with all the treasures
in the world, the woman who lives within will still remain its best
ornament!"

[We are writing of the month of October, when the Nile begins to
sink. The inundations can now be accurately accounted for,
especially since the important and laborious synoptical work of H.
Barth and S. Baker. They are occasioned by the tropical rains, and
the m