gh the desert, he and his dog, until he came to
the land of Naharaina.
[Illustration: Plate 10
STATUES OF KING AMENHOTEP III.]
Now, the chief of the land of Naharaina had no children, save one
beautiful daughter, and for her he had built a wonderful house. It had
seventy windows, and it stood on a great rock more than 100 feet high.
And the chief summoned the sons of all the chiefs of the country round
about, and said to them, "The Prince who can climb to my daughter's
window shall have her for his wife." So all the young Princes of the
land camped around the house, and tried every day to climb to the window
of the beautiful Princess; but none of them succeeded, for the rock was
very steep and high.
Then, one day when they were climbing as they were wont, the young
Prince of Egypt rode by with his dog; and the Princes welcomed him,
bathed him, and fed his horse, and said to him, "Whence comest thou,
thou goodly youth?" He did not wish to tell them that he was the son of
Pharaoh, so he answered, "I am the son of an Egyptian officer. My father
married a second wife, and, when she had children, she hated me, and
drove me away from my home." So they took him into their company, and he
stayed with them many days.
Now, it fell on a day that he asked them, "Why do you stay here, trying
always to climb this rock?" And they told him of the beautiful Princess
who lived in the house on the top of the rock, and how the man who could
climb to her window should marry her. Therefore the young Prince of
Egypt climbed along with them, and it came to pass that at last he
climbed to the window of the Princess; and when she saw him, she fell in
love with him, and kissed him.
Then was word sent to the Chief of Naharaina that one of the young men
had climbed to his daughter's window, and he asked which of the Princes
it was, and the messenger said, "It is not a Prince, but the son of an
Egyptian officer, who has been driven away from Egypt by his
stepmother." Then the Chief of Naharaina was very angry, and said,
"Shall I give my daughter to an Egyptian fugitive? Let him go back to
Egypt." But, when the messengers came to tell the young man to go away,
the Princess seized his hand, and said, "If you take him from me, I will
not eat; I will not drink; I shall die in that same hour." Then the
chief sent men to kill the youth where he was in the house. But the
Princess said, "If you kill him, I shall be dead before the sun goes
down.
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