ch other. The steps were only four
inches in depth and sixteen feet wide, and were so built that horsemen
could easily mount or descend them.

Into one of the grand halls of the palace Nehemiah the cup-bearer
enters. The pavement is of coloured marble, red, white, and blue;
curtains of blue and white, the Persian royal colours, drape the windows
and are hanging in graceful festoons from the pillars; the fresh morning
breeze is blowing from the snow-clad mountains, and is laden with the
scent of lemons and oranges, and of the Shushan lilies and Persian roses
in the palace gardens.

There is the royal table, covered with golden dishes and cups, and
spread with every dainty that the world could produce.

There is the king, a tall, graceful man, but with one strange
deformity--with hands so long that when he stood upright they touched
his knees, from which he had received the nickname of Longimanus, the
long-handed.

He is dressed in a long loose robe of purple silk, with wide sleeves,
and round his waist is a broad golden girdle. His tunic or under-garment
is purple and white, his trousers are bright crimson, his shoes are
yellow, and have long pointed toes. On his head is a curious high cap
with a band of blue spotted with white. He is moreover covered with
ornaments: he has gold earrings, a gold chain, gold bracelets, and a
long golden sceptre with a golden ball as its crown.

The king is sitting on a throne, in shape like a high-backed chair with
a footstool before it. The chair stands on lion's feet, and the stool on
bull's feet, and both are made of gold.

By the king's side sits the queen; her name was Damaspia, but we know
little more of her in history, except that she died on the same day as
her husband. Behind the king and queen are the fan-bearers, and
fly-flappers, and parasol-bearers, who are in constant attendance on
their royal majesties, and around are the great officers of the
household.

Fifteen thousand people ate the king's food in that palace every day,
but the king always dined alone. It was very rarely that even the queen
or the royal children were allowed to sit at the king's table, which is
probably the reason why Nehemiah mentions the fact that the queen was
sitting by him. Perhaps he hailed the circumstance as a proof that the
king was in good humour that day, and would therefore be more likely to
listen to his petition. But no one who was not closely related to the
king was allowed to si