ie, I must look! Come--to the
work!" and stooping, she with her own hands lifted from the tomb one
of the four alabaster jars, each sealed with the graven likeness of the
heads of the protecting Gods, that held the holy heart and entrails of
the Divine Menkau-ra. But nothing was found in these jars, save only
what should be there.

Then together we mounted on the Sphinx, and with toil drew forth the
body of the Divine Pharaoh, laying it on the ground. Now Cleopatra took
my dagger, and with it cut loose the bandages which held the wrappings
in their place, and the lotus-flowers that had been set in them by
loving hands, three thousand years before, fell down upon the pavement.
Then we searched and found the end of the outer bandage, which was fixed
in at the hinder part of the neck. This we cut loose, for it was glued
fast. This done, we began to unroll the wrappings of the holy corpse.
Setting my shoulders against the sarcophagus, I sat upon the rocky
floor, the body resting on my knees, and, as I turned it, Cleopatra
unwound the cloths; and awesome was the task. Presently something fell
out; it was the sceptre of the Pharaoh, fashioned of gold, and at its
end was a pomegranate cut from a single emerald.

Cleopatra seized the sceptre and gazed on it in silence. Then once
more we went on with our dread business. And ever as we unwound, other
ornaments of gold, such as are buried with Pharaohs, fell from the
wrappings--collars and bracelets, models of sistra, an inlaid axe, and
an image of the holy Osiris and of the holy Khem. At length all the
bandages were unwound, and beneath we found a covering of coarsest
linen; for in those very ancient days the craftsmen were not so skilled
in matters pertaining to the embalming of the body as they are now. And
on the linen was written in an oval, "Menkau-ra, Royal Son of the Sun."
We could in no wise loosen this linen, it held so firm on to the body.
Therefore, faint with the great heat, choked with mummy dust and the
odour of spices, and trembling with fear of our unholy task, wrought
in that most lonesome and holy place, we laid the body down, and ripped
away the last covering with the knife. First we cleared Pharaoh's head,
and now the face that no man had gazed on for three thousand years was
open to our view. It was a great face, with a bold brow, yet crowned
with the royal uraeus, beneath which the white locks, stained yellow by
the spices, fell in long, straight wisps. Not