ominating everything foreign, and regarding every
stranger as the natural enemy of their authority and their teaching,
they can lead the most devout and religious of all nations with a power
that has scarcely any limits. For this I am forced to sacrifice all my
plans, for this I see my life passing away in bondage to their severe
ordinances, this will rob my death-bed of peace, and I cannot be secure
that this host of proud mediators between god and man will allow me to
rest even in my grave!"

"By Zeus our saviour, with all thy good fortune, thou art to be pitied!"
interrupted Croesus sympathetically, "I understand thy misery; for
though I have met with many an individual who passed through life darkly
and gloomily, I could not have believed that an entire race of human
beings existed, to whom a gloomy, sullen heart was as natural as a
poisonous tooth to the serpent. Yet it is true, that on my journey
hither and during my residence at this court I have seen none but morose
and gloomy countenances among the priesthood. Even the youths, thy
immediate attendants, are never seen to smile; though cheerfulness,
that sweet gift of the gods, usually belongs to the young, as flowers to
spring."

"Thou errest," answered Amasis, "in believing this gloom to be a
universal characteristic of the Egyptians. It is true that our religion
requires much serious thought. There are few nations, however, who have
so largely the gift of bantering fun and joke: or who on the occasion
of a festival, can so entirely forget themselves and everything else but
the enjoyments of the moment; but the very sight of a stranger is odious
to the priests, and the moroseness which thou observest is intended as
retaliation on me for my alliance with the strangers. Those very boys,
of whom thou spakest, are the greatest torment of my life. They perform
for me the service of slaves, and obey my slightest nod. One might
imagine that the parents who devote their children to this service,
and who are the highest in rank among the priesthood, would be the most
obedient and reverential servants of the king whom they profess to honor
as divine; but believe me, Croesus, just in this very act of devotion,
which no ruler can refuse to accept without giving offence, lies the
most crafty, scandalous calculation. Each of these youths is my keeper,
my spy. They watch my smallest actions and report them at once to the
priests."

"But how canst thou endure such an existe