e point. And thus we wander on,
the sights and sounds of God's world without attract us no longer,
we see nothing but the sacred representations which encompass us so
closely, feel only the solemnity of the temple in which we stand.
And the consecrated walls embrace us ever more and more closely,
until at last we reach the lonely, resonant chamber occupied by the
divinity himself, and entered by no human being save his priest."
Schnaase, Kunstaeschirhtc I. 394.]

After a short time a young priest appeared with the intelligence that
his superior awaited the Prince's visit. Psamtik had seated himself
under the shadow of the sacred grove of silver poplars bordering
the shores of the consecrated lake, holy to the great Neith. He rose
immediately, crossed the temple-court, paved with stone and asphalte, on
which the sun's rays were darting like fiery arrows, and turned into one
of the long avenues of Sphinxes which led to the isolated Pylons before
the gigantic temple of the goddess. He then passed through the principal
gate, ornamented, as were all Egyptian temple-entrances, with the winged
sun's disc. Above its widely-opened folding doors arose on either side,
tower-like buildings, slender obelisks and waving flags. The front of
the temple, rising from the earth in the form of an obtuse angle, had
somewhat the appearance of a fortress, and was covered with colored
pictures and inscriptions. Through the porch Psamtik passed on into a
lofty entrance-chamber, and from thence into the great hall itself,
the ceiling of which was strewn with thousands of golden stars, and
supported by four rows of lofty pillars. Their capitals were carved in
imitation of the lotus-flower, and these, the shafts of the columns, the
walls of this huge hall, and indeed every niche and corner that met the
eye were covered with brilliant colors and hieroglyphics. The columns
rose to a gigantic height, the eye seemed to wander through immeasurable
space, and the air breathed by the worshippers was heavy with the
fragrance of Kyphi and incense, and the odors which arose from the
laboratory attached to the temple. Strains of soft music, proceeding
from invisible hands, flowed on unceasingly, only occasionally
interrupted by the deep lowing of the sacred cows of Isis, or the shrill
call of the sparrow-hawk of Horus, whose habitations were in one of the
adjoining halls. No sooner did the prolonged low of a cow break like
distant thunde