ias could be seen above its surface. The branches of the sycamores
and plane-trees drooped and floated on the waves, but the boughs of the
tall silver poplars strained upward, as if anxious to avoid the watery
world beneath. The full-moon had risen; her soft light fell on the
Libyan range of mountains vanishing on the western horizon, and in the
north the shimmer of the Mediterranean could faintly be discerned. Blue
and white lotus-flowers floated on the clear water, bats of all
kinds darted softly through the still air, heavy with the scent of
acacia-blossom and jasmine; the wild pigeons and other birds were at
roost in the tops of the trees, while the pelicans, storks and cranes
squatted in groups on the shore under the shelter of the papyrus-reeds
and Nile-beans. The pelicans and storks remained motionless, their long
bills hidden beneath their wings, but the cranes were startled by the
mere beat of an oar, stretching their necks, and peering anxiously into
the distance, if they heard but the song of the boatmen. The air was
perfectly motionless, and the unbroken reflection of the moon, lying
like a silver shield on the surface of the water, proved that, wildly as
the Nile leaps over the cataracts, and rushes past the gigantic temples
of Upper Egypt, yet on approaching the sea by different arms, he can
abandon his impetuous course, and flow along in sober tranquillity.

On this moonlight night in the year 528 B. C. a bark was crossing the
almost currentless Canopic mouth of the Nile. On the raised deck at
the stern of this boat an Egyptian was sitting to guide the long
pole-rudder, and the half-naked boatmen within were singing as
they rowed. In the open cabin, which was something like a wooden
summer-house, sat two men, reclining on low cushions. They were
evidently not Egyptians; their Greek descent could be perceived even by
the moonlight. The elder was an unusually tall and powerful man of
more than sixty; thick grey curls, showing very little attempt at
arrangement, hung down over his short, firm throat; he wore a simple,
homely cloak, and kept his eyes gloomily fixed on the water. His
companion, on the contrary, a man perhaps twenty years younger, of a
slender and delicate build, was seldom still. Sometimes he gazed into
the heavens, sometimes made a remark to the steersman, disposed his
beautiful purple chlanis in fresh folds, or busied himself in the
arrangement of his scented brown curls, or his carefully cur