loved our sex too much. Why, that is but nature; and Nature
knows her business, else she had made us otherwise. But here is an evil
case. Knowest thou that this Macedonian Queen of thine hath seized the
temple lands and revenues, and driven away the priests--all, save the
holy Amenemhat, who lies here, and whom she left, I know not why; ay,
and caused the worship of the Gods to cease within these walls. Well,
he's gone!--he's gone! and indeed he is better with Osiris, for his life
was a sore burden to him. And hark thou, Harmachis: he hath not left
thee empty-handed; for, so soon as the plot failed, he gathered all his
wealth, and it is large, and hid it--where, I can show thee--and it is
thine by right of descent."

"Talk not to me of wealth, Atoua. Where shall I go and how shall I hide
my shame?"

"Ah! true, true; here mayst thou not abide, for if they found thee,
surely they would put thee to the dreadful death--ay, to the death by
the waxen cloth. Nay, I will hide thee, and, when the funeral rites of
the holy Amenemhat have been performed, we will fly hence, and cover us
from the eyes of men till these sorrows are forgotten. _La! la!_ it is a
sad world, and full of trouble as the Nile mud is full of beetles. Come,
Harmachis, come."

CHAPTER III

OF THE LIFE OF HIM WHO WAS NAMED THE LEARNED OLYMPUS, IN THE TOMB OF THE
HARPERS THAT IS BY TAPE; OF HIS COUNSEL TO CLEOPATRA; OF THE MESSAGE OF
CHARMION; AND OF THE PASSING OF OLYMPUS DOWN TO ALEXANDRIA

These things then came to pass. For eighty days I was hidden of the old
wife, Atoua, while the body of the Prince, my father, was made ready for
burial by those skilled in the arts of embalming. And when at last
all things were done in order, I crept from my hiding-place and made
offerings to the spirit of my father, and placing lotus-flowers on his
breast went thence sorrowing. And on the following day, from where I lay
hid, I saw the Priests of the Temple of Osiris and of the holy shrine of
Isis come forth, and in slow procession bear his painted coffin to the
sacred lake and lay it beneath the funeral tent in the consecrated boat.
I saw them celebrate the symbol of the trial of the dead, and name him
above all men just, and then bear him thence to lay him by his wife,
my mother, in the deep tomb that he had hewn in the rock near to the
resting-place of the Holy Osiris, where, notwithstanding my sins, I,
too, hope to sleep ere long. And when all these things were