hen the serpent began to speak: 'What has brought thee, little one,
what has brought thee? If thou dost not tell me quickly what has brought
thee to this isle, I shall make thee vanish like a flame.' So saying, he
took me up in his mouth, carried me gently to his lair, and laid me down
unhurt; and again he said, 'What has brought thee, little one, what has
brought thee to this isle of the sea?' So I told him the story of our
shipwreck, and how I alone had escaped from the fury of the waves. Then
said he to me: 'Fear not, little one, and let not thy face be sad. If
thou hast come to me, it is God who has brought thee to this isle, which
is filled with all good things. And now, see: thou shalt dwell for four
months in this isle, and then a ship of thine own land shall come, and
thou shalt go home to thy country, and die in thine own town. As for me,
I am here with my brethren and my children. There are seventy-five of us
in all, besides a young girl, who came here by chance, and was burned by
fire from heaven. But if thou art strong and patient, thou shalt yet
embrace thy children and thy wife, and return to thy home.'

"Then I bowed low before him, and promised to tell of him to Pharaoh,
and to bring him ships full of all the treasures of Egypt; but he smiled
at my speech, and said, 'Thou hast nothing that I need, for I am Prince
of the Land of Punt, and all its perfumes are mine. Moreover, when thou
departest, thou shalt never again see this isle, for it shall be changed
into waves.'

[Illustration: PLATE 9.
AN EGYPTIAN COUNTRY HOUSE.]

"Now, behold! when the time was come, as he had foretold, the ship drew
near. And the good serpent said to me, 'Farewell, farewell! go to thy
home, little one, see again thy children, and let thy name be good in
thy town; these are my wishes for thee.' So I bowed low before him, and
he loaded me with precious gifts of perfume, cassia, sweet woods, ivory,
baboons, and all kinds of precious things, and I embarked in the ship.
And now, after a voyage of two months, we are coming to the house of
Pharaoh, and I shall go in before Pharaoh, and offer the gifts which I
have brought from this isle into Egypt, and Pharaoh shall thank me
before the great ones of the land."

Our last story belongs to a later age than that of the Shipwrecked
Sailor. About 1,500 years before Christ there arose in Egypt a race of
mighty soldier-Kings, who founded a great empire, which stretched from
the Soudan righ