ion and
gratitude by loud shouting.

The old man bowed modestly, pointed to his narrow chest and toothless
mouth and then to the head of the Council as the man who had undertaken
to transmit his opinion to the populace; so Alexander went on:

"Great favors, my friends and fellow-citizens, must be purchased by great
gifts. The ancients knew this, and when the river--on which, as we know
only too well, the weal or woe of this land solely depends--refused to
rise, and its low ebb brought evils of many kinds upon its banks, they
offered in sacrifice the thing they deemed most noble of all the earth
has to show a pure and beautiful maiden.

"It is just as we expected: you are horrified! I hear your murmur, I see
your horror-stricken faces; how can a Christian fail to be shocked at the
thought of such a victim? But is it indeed so extraordinary? Have we ever
wholly given up everything of the kind? Which of us does not entreat
Saint Orion, either at home or under the guidance of the priests in
church, whenever he craves a gift from our splendid river; and this very
year as usual, on the Night of Dropping, did we not cast into the waters
a little box containing a human finger.

[So late as in the XIV. century after Christ the Egyptian Christians
still threw a small casket containing a human finger into the Nile
to induce it to rise. This is confirmed by the trustworthy
Makrizi.]

"This lesser offering takes the place of the greater and more precious
sacrifice of the heathen; it has been offered, and its necessity has
never at any time been questioned; even the severest and holiest
luminaries of the Church--Antonius and Athanasius, Theophilus and
Cyrillus had nothing to say against it, and year after year it has been
thrown into the waters under their very eyes.

"A finger in a box! What a miserable exchange for the fairest and purest
that God has allowed to move on earth among men. Can we wonder if the
Almighty has at last disdained and rejected the wretched substitute, and
claims once more for His Nile that which was formerly given? But where is
the mother, where is the father, you will ask, who, in our selfish days,
is so penetrated with love for his country, his province, his native
town, that he will dedicate his virgin daughter to perish in the waters
for the common good? What daughter of our nation is ready of her own free
will to die for the salvation of others?

"But be not afraid. Have no fears for