s a priest where there is no temple?"

The old King Amasis received the Persian embassy shortly after their
arrival with all the amiability and kindness peculiar to him.

Four days later, after having attended to the affairs of state, a duty
punctually fulfilled by him every morning without exception, he went
forth to walk with Croesus in the royal gardens. The remaining members
of the embassy, accompanied by the crown-prince, were engaged in an
excursion up the Nile to the city of Memphis.

The palace-gardens, of a royal magnificence, yet similar in their
arrangement to those of Rhodopis, lay in the north-west part of Sais,
near the royal citadel.

Here, under the shadow of a spreading plane-tree, and near a gigantic
basin of red granite, into which an abundance of clear water flowed
perpetually through the jaws of black basalt crocodiles, the two old men
seated themselves.

The dethroned king, though in reality some years the elder of the two,
looked far fresher and more vigorous than the powerful monarch at his
side. Amasis was tall, but his neck was bent; his corpulent body was
supported by weak and slender legs: and his face, though well-formed,
was lined and furrowed. But a vigorous spirit sparkled in the small,
flashing eyes, and an expression of raillery, sly banter, and at times,
even of irony, played around his remarkably full lips. The low, broad
brow, the large and beautifully-arched head bespoke great mental power,
and in the changing color of his eyes one seemed to read that neither
wit nor passion were wanting in the man, who, from his simple place
as soldier in the ranks, had worked his way up to the throne of the
Pharaohs. His voice was sharp and hard, and his movements, in comparison
with the deliberation of the other members of the Egyptian court,
appeared almost morbidly active.

The attitude and bearing of his neighbor Croesus were graceful, and in
every way worthy of a king. His whole manner showed that he had lived
in frequent intercourse with the highest and noblest minds of Greece.
Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes of Miletus, Bias of Priene, Solon of
Athens, Pittakus of Lesbos, the most celebrated Hellenic philosophers,
had in former and happier days been guests at the court of Croesus in
Sardis. His full clear voice sounded like pure song when compared with
the shrill tones of Amasis.

[Bias, a philosopher of Ionian origin, flourished about 560 B. C.
and was especially celebrate