ht. The passers-by jeer and laugh at him as he
lies helpless; but one decent-looking man points him out to his young
son, and says: "See this fellow, my son, and learn not to drink beer to
excess. Thou dost fall and break thy limbs, and bespatter thyself with
mud, like a crocodile, and no one reaches out a hand to thee. Thy
comrades go on drinking, and say, 'Away with this fellow, who is drunk.'
If anyone should seek thee on business, thou art found lying in the dust
like a little child."

But in spite of much wise advice, the Egyptian, though generally
temperate, is only too fond of making "a good day," as he calls it, at
the beerhouse. Even fine ladies sometimes drink too much at their great
parties, and have to be carried away very sick and miserable. Worst of
all, the very judges of the High Court have been known to take a day off
during the hearing of a long case, in order to have a revel with the
criminals whom they were trying; and it is not so long since two of them
had their noses cut off, as a warning to the rest against such shameful
conduct.

Sauntering onwards, we gradually get near to the sacred quarter of the
town, and can see the towering gateways and obelisks of the great
temples over the roofs of the houses. Soon a great crowd comes towards
us, and the sounds of trumpets and flutes are heard coming from the
midst of it. Inquiring what is the meaning of the bustle, we are told
that one of the images of Amen, the great god of Thebes, is being
carried in procession as a preliminary to an important service which is
to take place in the afternoon, and at which the King is going to
preside. Stepping back under the doorway of a house, we watch the
procession go past. After a group of musicians and singers, and a number
of women who are dancing as they go, and shaking curious metal rattles,
there comes a group of six men, who form the centre of the whole crowd,
and on whom the eyes of all are fixed.

They are tall, spare, keen-looking men, their heads clean shaven, their
bodies wrapped in pure white robes of the beautiful Egyptian linen. On
their shoulders they carry, by means of two long poles, a model of a
Nile boat, in the midst of which rises a little shrine. The shrine is
carefully draped round with a veil, so as to hide the god from curious
eyes. But just in front of the doorway where we are standing a small
stone pillar rises from the roadway, and when the bearers come to this
point, the bark of the