owledge."

"Perhaps, Bes, those who rule in your place may not wish to give it up
to you. Perhaps they will kill you."

"Have no fear, Master; as I have told you, the Ethiopians are a faithful
people. Moreover they know that such a deed would bring the curse of the
Grasshopper on them, since then the locusts would appear and eat up all
their land, and when they were starving their enemies would attack them.
Lastly they are a very tall folk and simple-minded and would not wish
to miss the chance of being ruled over by the wisest dwarf in all the
world, if only because it would be something new to them, Master."

Again I laughed thinking that Bes was jesting according to his fashion.
But when that night, chancing to go round the corner of the house, I
came upon him with a circlet of feathers round his head and his big bow
in his hand, addressing three great black men who knelt before him as
though he were a god, I changed my mind. As I withdrew he caught sight
of me and said,

"I pray you, my lord Shabaka, stay one moment." Then he spoke to the
three men in his own language, translating sentence by sentence to me
what he said to them. Briefly it was this:--

"Say to the Lords and Councillors of the Ancient Kingdom that I, the
Karoon" (for such it seemed was his title) "have a friend named the lord
Shabaka, he whom you see before you, who again and again has saved my
life, nursing me in his arms as a mother nurses her babe, and who is,
after me, the bravest and the wisest man in all the world. Say to them
that if indeed I double myself by marriage and return having fulfilled
the law, I will beg this mighty prince to accompany me, and that if he
consents that will be the most joyful day which the Ethiopians have seen
for a thousand years, since he will teach them wisdom and lead their
armies in great and glorious battles. Let the priests of the Grasshopper
pray therefore that he may consent to do so. Now salute the mighty lord
Shabaka who can send one arrow through all three of you and two more
behind, and depart, tarrying not day or night till you reach the land
of Ethiopia. Then when you have delivered the message of Karoon to the
Captains and the Councillors, return, or let others return and seek me
out wherever I may be, bringing of the gold of Ethiopia and other gifts,
together with their answer, seeing that I and the lord Shabaka who have
the world beneath our feet, will not come to a land where we are not
welcom