nd horrible sight. The rods twisted like
branches of green wood in the fire, the ends flattened out into the
shape of heads, thinned out into the shape of tails. Some remained
smooth, others became scaly, according to the kind of serpent. All these
swarmed and crawled and hissed, interlaced and knotted into hideous
knots. There were vipers bearing the mark of the spearhead upon their
low brows, horned snakes with menacing protuberances, greenish, viscous
hydras, asps with movable fangs, yellow trigonocephalae, orvets or blind
serpents, crotalidae with short heads, black skins, and rattles on their
tails, amphisbena, which can glide forward or backward, boas opening
mouths wide enough to swallow an ox, serpents with eyes surrounded with
discs like those of owls;--the pavement of the hall was covered with
them.

Tahoser, who shared the throne of the Pharaoh, raised her beautiful bare
feet and pulled them back under her, pale with terror.

"Well," said the Pharaoh to Mosche, "you see that the skill of my
magicians equals, and even surpasses yours; their rods have turned into
serpents like that of Aharon. Invent another prodigy if you seek to
convince me."

Mosche stretched forth his hand, and Aharon's serpent glided towards the
twenty-four reptiles. The struggle was not long; it soon had swallowed
the hideous things, real or seeming creations of the wise men of Egypt.
Then it resumed its former wand shape.

This result seemed to amaze Ennana. He bent his head, thought for a
moment, and said, like a man who perceives something: "I shall find the
word and the sign. I have interpreted wrongly the fourth hieroglyph of
the fifth perpendicular line in which is the spell of serpents. O King,
do you still need us?" said the chief of the wise men aloud. "I long to
resume the reading of Hermes Trismegistus, which contains more important
secrets than these sleight-of-hand tricks."

The Pharaoh signed to the old man that he might withdraw, and the silent
procession returned to the depths of the palace.

The King re-entered the harem with Tahoser. The priest's daughter,
terrified and still trembling at these prodigies, knelt down before him
and said: "O Pharaoh, do you not fear to anger by your resistance the
unknown god who has ordered these Israelites to go a three days' journey
into the desert to sacrifice unto him? Let Mosche and his Hebrews depart
to fulfil their rites, for perhaps the Lord, as they call him, will
afflict t