' One of my boon companions set a field-marshal's helmet on
my head: I made the joke earnest, and we defeated Hophra at Momempliis.
The people joined in the conspiracy, I ascended the throne, and men
pronounced me fortunate. Up to that time I had been every Egyptian's
friend, and now I was the enemy of the best men in the nation.

"The priests swore allegiance to me, and accepted me as a member of their
caste, but only in the hope of guiding me at their will. My former
superiors in command either envied me, or wished to remain on the same
terms of intercourse as formerly. But this would have been inconsistent
with my new position, and have undermined my authority. One day,
therefore, when the officers of the host were at one of my banquets and
attempting, as usual, to maintain their old convivial footing, I showed
them the golden basin in which their feet had been washed before sitting
down to meat; five days later, as they were again drinking at one of my
revels, I caused a golden image of the great god Ra be placed upon the
richly-ornamented banqueting-table.

[Ra, with the masculine article Phra, must be regarded as the
central point of the sun-worship of the Egyptians, which we consider
to have been the foundation of their entire religion. He was more
especially worshipped at Heliopolis. Plato, Eudoxus, and probably
Pythagoras also, profited by the teaching of his priests. The
obelisks, serving also as memorial monuments on which the names and
deeds of great kings were recorded, were sacred to him, and Pliny
remarks of them that they represented the rays of the sun. He was
regarded as the god of light, the director of the entire visible
creation, over which he reigned, as Osiris over the world of
spirits.]

"On perceiving it, they fell down to worship. As they rose from their
knees, I took the sceptre, and holding it up on high with much solemnity,
exclaimed: 'In five days an artificer has transformed the despised vessel
into which ye spat and in which men washed your feet, into this divine
image. Such a vessel was I, but the Deity, which can fashion better and
more quickly than a goldsmith, has made me your king. Bow down then
before me and worship. He who henceforth refuses to obey, or is unmindful
of the reverence due to the king, is guilty of death!'

"They fell down before me, every one, and I saved my authority, but lost
my friends. As I now stood in need of some other prop,