pposite the landing-place for the king's vessels, some of
which were putting out into the stream, spreading their purple sails and
dipping their prows inlaid with ivory and heavily gilt.

"In a couple of hours," said the Jew, "I shall be travelling homewards.
May I offer you a place in my boat, or do you propose remaining here to
assist at the festival and not starting till to-morrow morning? There
are all kinds of spectacles to be seen, and when it is dark a grand
illumination is to take place."

"What do I care for their barbarian rubbish?" answered the Lesbian.
"Why, the Egyptian music alone drives me to distraction. My business is
concluded. I had inspected the goods brought from Arabia and India by
way of Berenice and Coptos, and had selected those I needed before the
vessel that brought them had moored in the Mariotic harbor, and other
goods will have reached Alexandria before me. I will not stay an hour
longer than is necessary in this horrible place, which is as dismal as
it is huge. Yesterday I visited the gymnasium and the better class of
baths--wretched, I call them! It is an insult to the fish-market and the
horse-ponds of Alexandria to compare them with them."

"And the theatre!" exclaimed the Jew. "The exterior one can bear to look
at--but the acting! Yesterday they gave the 'Thals' of Menander, and
I assure you that in Alexandria the woman who dared to impersonate
the bewitching and cold-hearted Hetaira would have been driven off the
stage--they would have pelted her with rotten apples. Close by me there
sat a sturdy, brown Egyptian, a sugar-baker or something of the kind,
who held his sides with laughing, and yet, I dare swear, did not
understand a word of the comedy. But in Memphis it is the fashion
to know Greek, even among the artisans. May I hope to have you as my
guest?"

"With pleasure, with pleasure!" replied the Lesbian. "I was about to
look out for a boat. Have you done your business to your satisfaction?"

"Tolerably!" answered the Jew. "I have purchased some corn from Upper
Egypt, and stored it in the granaries here. The whole of that row yonder
were to let for a mere song, and so we get off cheaply when we let the
wheat lie here instead of at Alexandria where granaries are no longer to
be had for money."

"That is very clever!" replied the Greek. "There is bustle enough here
in the harbor, but the many empty warehouses and the low rents prove
how Memphis is going down. Formerly this cit