hand of the idol that would
presently claim her. Her face was very pale, but none could detect
fear in it. There was an uneasy stir, a shifting of feet, a mumbling,
as her fresh young beauty struck the watchers. Somewhere a man
muttered that she was very young to die. Aten had returned her once:
perhaps the God did not wish her to perish.... His neighbor demurred.
And the ceremony went on.

Ornate but crude censers were in the hands of two priests; the incense
was lit by long tapers, and its acrid odor wound up in wavering purple
spirals of smoke. On each side of Hrihor were five under-priests, eyes
stiffly on their superior's impassive face. The soldiers had retreated
from the altar and now were massed in the rear of the Temple, their
spear blades glittering dully above their heads.

The High Priest raised his hands slowly, and stared with glazed eyes
into the gloom of the ceiling, high above. "Praise!" he shrilled.
"Praise to Aten!"

* * * * *

The assembled worshippers joined him in the chant of sacrifice. It was
low and soft, and, at first, almost drowsy, like the slow stir of a
tropical wind through palm leaves. But soon it quickened with rising
tones from perfectly concerted voices; it soared up; its tenor
changed; it became fierce, lustful, eager for blood, eager for the
sacrifice, a heathen chant shrilling for sight of a girl's body in the
god's, awful hands.

And it died in a sad, discordant moan on an expectant note....

Hrihor's body, stiff and rigid in its ceremonial robes, did not seem
human as he stretched his arms straight forward and wheeled silently
to the huge idol of stone. A full two minutes he stood without so much
as flicking an eyelash; then, not shifting his glazed stare, he
harshly intoned:

"Ages ago our ancestors set out from the homeland of Egypt in a great
galley, bound for the barbarian countries of the north in quest of
metal. But storms seized upon them, drove them far from their course,
till at last, weak from hunger, they came to this land of ice, where
their galley was wrecked and they were cast ashore. At first all was
dark; then came the Sun God Aten's life giving rays, leading them to
this mountain, which they inhabited and in which they carved this
Temple wherein to worship the God who had saved them. The lord of the
galley was the first Pharaoh; the priest of the galley was called High
Priest; the Pharaoh took a concubine to wife--and thus