in
graceful curved lines, was supported by a sort of diagonal stay, which
rose somewhat beyond the upper edge and to which the traveller clung
with his hand when the road was rough or the speed of the oxen rapid. On
the axle, placed at the back of the body in order to diminish the
jolting, were two six-spoked wheels held by keyed bolts. On top of a
staff planted at the back of the vehicle spread a parasol in the shape
of palm leaves.

Nofre, bending over the edge of the chariot, held the reins of the oxen,
bridled like horses, and drove the car in the Egyptian fashion, while
Tahoser, motionless by her side, leaned a hand, studded with rings from
the little finger to the thumb, on the gilded moulding of the shell.
These two lovely maidens, the one brilliant with enamels and precious
stones, the other scarcely veiled in a transparent tunic of gauze,
formed a charming group on the brilliantly painted car. Eight or ten
men-servants, dressed in tunics with transverse stripes, the folds of
which were massed in front, accompanied the equipage, keeping step with
the oxen.

On this side of the river the crowd was not less great. The inhabitants
of the Memnonia quarters and of the neighbouring villages were arriving
in their turn, and every moment the boats, landing their passengers on
the brick quay wall, brought additional sight-seers to swell the
multitude. The wheels of innumerable chariots, all driving towards the
parade ground, flashed like suns in the golden dust which they raised.
Thebes at that moment must have been as deserted as if a conqueror had
carried away its people into captivity.

The frame, too, was worthy of the picture. In the midst of green fields
whence rose the aigrettes of the dom palms, showed in bright colours
houses of pleasaunce, palaces, and summer homes surrounded by sycamores
and mimosas. Pools of water sparkled in the sunshine, the festoons of
vines climbed on the arched arbours, and in the background stood out the
gigantic pylons of the palace of Rameses Meiamoun, with its huge pylons,
its enormous walls, its gilded and painted flagstaffs from which the
colours blew out in the wind; and further to the north the two colossi
sitting in postures of eternal immobility, mountains of granite in human
shape, before the entrance to the Amenophium, showed through a bluish
haze, half masking the still more distant Rhamesseium, and beyond it the
tomb of the high-priest, but allowing the palace of Menepht