masis, "in believing this gloom to be a
universal characteristic of the Egyptians. It is true that our religion
requires much serious thought. There are few nations, however, who have
so largely the gift of bantering fun and joke: or who on the occasion of
a festival, can so entirely forget themselves and everything else but the
enjoyments of the moment; but the very sight of a stranger is odious to
the priests, and the moroseness which thou observest is intended as
retaliation on me for my alliance with the strangers. Those very boys, of
whom thou spakest, are the greatest torment of my life. They perform for
me the service of slaves, and obey my slightest nod. One might imagine
that the parents who devote their children to this service, and who are
the highest in rank among the priesthood, would be the most obedient and
reverential servants of the king whom they profess to honor as divine;
but believe me, Croesus, just in this very act of devotion, which no
ruler can refuse to accept without giving offence, lies the most crafty,
scandalous calculation. Each of these youths is my keeper, my spy. They
watch my smallest actions and report them at once to the priests."

"But how canst thou endure such an existence? Why not banish these spies
and select servants from the military caste, for instance? They would be
quite as useful as the priests."

"Ah! if I only could, if I dared!" exclaimed Amasis loudly. And then, as
if frightened at his own rashness, he continued in a low voice, "I
believe that even here I am being watched. To-morrow I will have that
grove of fig-trees yonder uprooted. The young priest there, who seems so
fond of gardening, has other fruit in his mind besides the half-ripe figs
that he is so slowly dropping into his basket. While his hand is plucking
the figs, his ear gathers the words that fall from the mouth of his
king."

"But, by our father Zeus, and by Apollo--"

"Yes, I understand thy indignation and I share it; but every position has
its duties, and as a king of a people who venerate tradition as the
highest divinity, I must submit, at least in the main, to the ceremonies
handed down through thousands of years. Were I to burst these fetters, I
know positively that at my death my body would remain unburied; for, know
that the priests sit in judgment over every corpse, and deprive the
condemned of rest, even in the grave."

[This well-known custom among the ancient Egyptians is confirmed,