es, he preferred dreaming to talking, and the
exercise in the open air preserved him from listless lassitude.

In Memphis Hadrian was detained a whole month, for there he was expected
to visit the Egyptian temples with Sabina, who had arrived before him,
and to submit to many ceremonials invested with the regalia of the
Pharaohs. Sabina often felt as if she must faint when, crowned with the
ponderous vulture-headed fillet of the Queens of Egypt, weighed down
with long robes and golden ornaments, she was conducted with her
husband, in procession, through all the rooms, over the roof and
finally into the holiest place of some vast sanctuary. What senseless
ceremonials they had to go through in the course of these long circuits,
and how many sacrifices had they to attend! When she returned from
these visitations she was utterly exhausted, and indeed, it was no
small exertion to undergo so many fumigations with incense and so many
aspersions, to listen to so many litanies and hymns, to parade through
such endless halls and while being elevated to the rank of celestial
beings, to be crowned with so many crowns in turn and decorated with all
kinds of fillets and symbolic adornments.

Her husband set her a good example, however; through all the ceremonials
he displayed the whole grave majesty of his nature, and among the
Egyptians behaved as one of themselves. He even took pleasure in
the mystical lore of the priests, with whom he often held long
conversations.

As at Memphis, so in all the principal temples of the great cities to
the southward, the Imperial pair accepted the homage of the hierarchy
and the honors due to divinity. Wherever Hadrian granted money for the
extension of a temple, he was required to perform the ceremony of laying
a stone with his own hand. But he always found time to hunt in
the desert, to manage the affairs of state, and to visit the most
interesting monuments of past times, and at Memphis especially, the city
of the dead, with the Pyramids, the great Sphinx, the Serapeum and the
tombs of the Apis.

Before quitting the city he and his companions consulted the oracle of
the sacred bull. The fairest future was promised to Balbilla; the bull
to whom she had to offer a cake, with her face averted, had approved
of her gift and had touched her hand with his moist muzzle. Hadrian was
left in ignorance as to the sentence of the priests of Apis, for it
was given to him in a sealed roll with an explanati