my soul?"

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

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

"Art thou speaking the truth?"

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

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

"I went into the house of the embalmer," said the old man, after he had
selected a few large flints, to which, with crafty blows, he gave the
shape of knives, "and there I found three bodies in which I had to make
the eight prescribed incisions with my flint-knife. When the dead lie
there undressed on the wooden bench they all look alike, and the begger
lies as still as the favorite son of a king. But I knew very well who lay
before me. The strong old body in the middle of the table was the corpse
of the Superior of the temple of Hatasu, and beyond, close by each other,
were laid a stone-mason of the Necropolis, and a poor girl from the
strangers' quarter, who had died of consumption--two miserable wasted
figures. I had known the Prophet well, for I had met him a hundred times
in his gilt litter, and we always called him Rui, the rich. I did my duty
by all three, I was driven away with the usual stoning, and then I
arranged the inward parts of the bodies with my mates. Those of the
Prophet 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 I
should do such a wrong as to rob him of his heart. I turned to the two
poor ones, and I hastily went up to the sinning girl. Then I heard the
voice of the demon that cried out in my heart 'The girl was poor and
despised 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 do
not mutilate her; and when I turned to the mason'