h dainties passed near them, and many
of them set up longing howls when a citizen's wife came by with her
slaves, carrying in their baskets freshly killed fowls, and juicy meats
to roast for the festival, among heaps of vegetables and fruits.

Gardeners' boys and young girls were bearing garlands of flowers,
festoons and fragrant nosegays, some piled on large trays which they
carried two and two, some on smaller boards or hung on cross poles for
one to carry; at that part of the quay where the king's barge lay at
anchor numbers of workmen were busily employed in twining festoons of
greenery and flowers round the flag-staffs, and in hanging them with
lanterns.

Long files of the ministers of the god-representing the five phyla or
orders of the priesthood of the whole country--were marching, in holiday
attire, along the harbor-road in the direction of the palace, and the
jostling crowd respectfully made way for them to pass. The gleams of
festal splendor seemed interwoven with the laborious bustle on the quay
like scraps of gold thread in a dull work-a-day garment.

Euergetes, brother of the king, was keeping his birthday in Memphis
to-day, and all the city was to take part in the festivities.

At the first hour after sunrise victims had been sacrificed in the
temple of Ptah, the most ancient, and most vast of the sanctuaries
of the venerable capital of the Pharaohs; the sacred Apis-bull, but
recently introduced into the temple, was hung all over with golden
ornaments; early in the morning Euergetes had paid his devotions to the
sacred beast--which had eaten out of his hand, a favorable augury of
success for his plans; and the building in which the Apis lived, as
well as the stalls of his mother and of the cows kept for him, had been
splendidly decked with flowers.

The citizens of Memphis were not permitted to pursue their avocations or
ply their trades beyond the hour of noon; then the markets, the booths,
the workshops and schools were to be closed, and on the great square in
front of the temple of Ptah, where the annual fair was held, dramas both
sacred and profane, and shows of all sorts were to be seen, heard and
admired by men, women and children--provided at the expense of the two
kings.

Two men of Alexandria, one an AEolian of Lesbos, and the other a Hebrew
belonging to the Jewish community, but who was not distinguishable by
dress or accent from his Greek fellow-citizens, greeted each other on
the quay o