, allowed the strangers to unloose the
plait of hair which hung down at the left side of her head, and was the
distinctive mark of an Egyptian princess, and to array her in Median
garments.

[In almost all the Egyptian pictures, the daughters and sons of the
Pharaohs are represented with these locks of hair, plaited and
reaching from the forehead to the neck. Rosellini, Mon. stor. II.
123. Lepsius, Denkmaler. The daughter of Rameses II. is drawn
thus, and we have examples of the same in many other pictures.]

In the meantime, a repast had been commanded by the princes
who accompanied her. Eager and agile attendants rushed to the
baggage-waggons, fetching thence, in a few moments, seats, tables, and
golden utensils of all kinds. The cooks vied with them and with each
other, and as if by magic, in a short space of time a richly-adorned
banquet for the hungry guests appeared, at which even the flowers were
not wanting.

During the entire journey our travellers had lived in a similar luxury,
as their beasts of burden carried every imaginable convenience, from
tents of water-proof materials inwrought with gold, down to silver
foot-stools; and in the vehicles which composed their train were
not only bakers, cooks, cup-bearers and carvers, but perfumers,
hair-dressers and weavers of garlands. Beside these conveniences, a
well-fitted up caravansary, or inn, was to be found about every eighteen
miles along the whole route, where disabled horses could be replaced,
the plantations around which afforded a refreshing shelter from the
noonday heat, or their hearths a refuge from the snow and cold on the
mountain-passes.

The kingdom of Persia was indebted for these inns (similar to the
post-stations of modern days) to Cyrus, who had endeavored to connect
the widely-distant provinces of his immense dominions by a system of
well-kept roads, and a regular postal service. At each of these stations
the horseman carrying the letter-bag was relieved by a fresh man on a
fresh steed, to whom the letters were transferred, and who, in his turn,
darted off like the wind, to be again replaced at a similar distance
by another rider. These couriers, called Angari, were considered the
swiftest horsemen in the world.

[Herodotus V. 14. 49-52. Persian milestones are still to be found
among the ruins of the old king's road, which led from Nineveh to
Ecbatana. The Kurds call them keli-Shin (blue pillars).]

Just as the ba