ill see the lotus-flower, which opens at the
rising of the sun and closes at its setting; the enigmatic
double-headed ducklings and the picture of a gazelle, which is
doubtless the representation of the pet which, bound in mummy
trappings, was found beside its royal mistress in the tomb. Across the
lotus-flowers, like a silver shaft, there hung a light throwing-spear.

A very technical description, taken down in rough notes at the museum,
of a specimen of patchwork--even like the patchwork counterpanes of our
great-grandmothers--stitched together by dusky slender fingers in the
days of the great King Solomon.

And to Hugh Carden Ali as he lay in this tent, looking towards Mecca,
there came the sound, from a great distance, as of a horse running at
full speed.

[1]This is a description of the funeral-tent of Queen Isi em Kheb,
contemporary of the wise Solomon, mother-in-law of the Shishak who
besieged Jerusalem and "carried away also the shields of gold which
Solomon had made." (II Chron. 12.)

It served as a pall to cover the royal lady upon her last terrestrial
journey, when she crossed the Nile in the funeral boat from her palace
in Karnak (?) to her burial-chamber in Deir el-Bahari.

CHAPTER XXIX

"_La vie est breve:
Un peu d'espoir,
Un peu de reve
Et puis--Bon soir_!"

MONTENAEKEN.

A great light shone in his eyes as he rose from the couch of wood upon
which his dead body, with feet turned towards Mecca, was to lie.

The light from the lamp of bronze and cut-glass shade of deepest orange
tint struck down upon him, throwing shadows from the snow-white turban
which outlined the fine face to beneath the eyes, and round about the
hawk-nose, and the mouth of which the gentleness was so belied by the
dominant jaw; it gave an ivory shade to the snow-white satin of his
raiment; it glistened on his only jewel, an amulet carved from an emerald
in the shape of a scarab, set in gold and hung from a fine gold chain
about his neck.

His beauty was of the East, but it was male; there was no trace of that
effeminacy which so jars upon the sensibilities of those who are bred in
colder climes and brought up on sterner lines than the luxurious dweller
of the East.

He stood listening to the far-distant sound, then threw out his arms.

"By the mercy of Allah, God of Gods, I am found worthy to serve thee, O
my beloved! Within the hour, yea! in but a little over the passing of
half one hour