d
which, on the eastern side, divides the acacia-grove of Serapis in half,
they were concealed from the votaries visiting the temple by the back
wall of a colonnade on the eastern side of the great forecourt; but a
portion of this colonnade has now fallen down, and through the breach,
part of these modest structures are plainly visible with their doors
and windows opening towards the sanctuary--or, to speak more accurately,
certain rudely constructed openings for looking out of or for entering
by. Where there is a door there is no window, and where a gap in
the wall serves for a window, a door is dispensed with; none of the
chambers, however, of this long row of low one-storied buildings
communicate with each other.

A narrow and well-trodden path leads through the breach in the wall; the
pebbles are thickly strewn with brown dust, and the footway leads past
quantities of blocks of stone and portions of columns destined for the
construction of a new building which seems only to have been intermitted
the night before, for mallets and levers lie on and near the various
materials. This path leads directly to the little brick houses, and ends
at a small closed wooden door so roughly joined and so ill-hung that
between it and the threshold, which is only raised a few inches above
the ground, a fine gray cat contrives to squeeze herself through by
putting down her head and rubbing through the dust. As soon as she
finds herself once more erect on her four legs she proceeds to clean and
smooth her ruffled fur, putting up her back, and glancing with gleaming
eyes at the house she has just left, behind which at this moment the sun
is rising; blinded by its bright rays she turns away and goes on with
cautious and silent tread into the court of the temple.

The hovel out of which pussy has crept is small and barely furnished; it
would be perfectly dark too, but that the holes in the roof and the rift
in the door admit light into this most squalid room. There is nothing
standing against its rough gray walls but a wooden chest, near this a
few earthen bowls stand on the ground with a wooden cup and a gracefully
wrought jug of pure and shining gold, which looks strangely out of place
among such humble accessories. Quite in the background lie two mats of
woven bast, each covered with a sheepskin. These are the beds of the two
girls who inhabit the room, one of whom is now sitting on a low stool
made of palm-branches, and she yawns as