a strange thing."

"Speak," said Katuti.

The high and mighty princess Bent-Anat, the daughter of Rameses, is said
to have an open love-affair with a young priest of the House of Seti."

"You barefaced scoundrel!" exclaimed Ani, and his eyes sparkled with
rage. "Prove what you say, or you lose your tongue."

"I am willing to lose it as a slanderer and traitor according to the
law," said the little man abjectly, and yet with a malicious laugh; "but
this time I shall keep it, for I can vouch for what I say. You both know
that Bent-Anat was pronounced unclean because she stayed for an hour and
more in the house of a paraschites. She had an assignation there with the
priest. At a second, in the temple of Hatasu, they were surprised by
Septah, the chief of the haruspices of the House of Seti."

"Who is the priest?" asked Ani with apparent calmness.

"A low-born man," replied Nemu, "to whom a free education was given at
the House of Seti, and who is well known as a verse-maker and interpreter
of dreams. His name is Pentaur, and it certainly must be admitted that he
is handsome and dignified. He is line for line the image of the pioneer
Paaker's late father. Didst thou ever see him, my lord?"

The Regent looked gloomily at the floor and nodded that he had. But
Katuti cried out; "Fool that I am! the dwarf is right! I saw how she
blushed when her brother told her how the boys had rebelled on his
account against Ameni. It is Pentaur and none other!"

"Good!" said Ani, "we will see."

With these words he took leave of Katuti, who, as he disappeared in the
garden, muttered to herself: "He was wonderfully clear and decided
to-day; but jealousy is already blinding him and will soon make him feel
that he cannot get on without my sharp eyes."

Nemu had slipped out after the Regent.

He called to him from behind a fig-tree, and hastily whispered, while he
bowed with deep respect:

"My mother knows a great deal, most noble highness! The sacred Ibis

[Ibis religiosa. It has disappeared from Egypt There were two
varieties of this bird, which was sacred to Toth, and mummies of
both have been found in various places. Elian states that an
immortal Ibis was shown at Hermopolis. Plutarch says, the ibis
destroys poisonous reptiles, and that priests draw the water for
their purifications where the Ibis has drunk, as it will never touch
unwholesome water.]

wades through the fen when it goes in search of prey,