descent
colours. In this feather cloth there was none of the rough, gaudy show
of the savage, but a discriminating, tasteful blending of colours and
harmony of design, imitated from the beauty of the bird itself.

Grouped about him on the approaches to his throne were one-and-twenty of
his favourite women, beautifully dressed in feather textures, with the
curved neck and head of a bird surmounting their brows. But their
costume was scant and simple compared with that of the dancing girls
below us. They wore a wonderful head-dress, composed of the entire body
of a small peacock. The head and neck were arched over the forehead, the
back fitted tightly, like a hat over their head, the drooping wings
covered their ears, while the fully spread tail arched above their head
in its wonderful opalescence. Much of the snowy whiteness of their backs
and breasts was bare, and a downy feather ribbon circled the necks,
wrists, and ankles. A two-headed iron serpent with golden eyes clasped
the upper arm and gartered the knee, but no jewels of any kind were to
be seen. All the dancers carried long decorated reeds, which they
flourished wondrously, and with which occasionally they executed the
most surprising leaps. While there was a stateliness about their
movements, there were also the most startling acrobatic surprises, made
possible by the feeble gravity.

The singing women, or what might be called the chorus, were in twelve
sets, each group clad in a different colour or design of feather-silk.
Their head-dress, while composed of the entire body of a bird of
plumage, lacked the flamboyant tail of the peacock. The music was weird
and whimsical, as there were neither stringed nor brass instruments. It
was made wholly by women playing upon a vast variety of drums and reeds.
There were all sizes of whistling reeds or flutes; several of these of
different lengths were grouped into one instrument like the pipes of
Pan; a series of long hollow reeds, when rapidly struck, gave forth a
marvellous cadence; while groups of small drums, of different size and
tensity, gave curious tones. The whole effect was weirdly eloquent,
rather than racy or exciting.

When the burst of welcome was ended, Zaphnath stretched forth his hand
and exclaimed, first to us in Hebrew, and then in Kemish,--

"O Pharaoh, whose power and wisdom from all the Pharaohs have descended,
behold, I bring unto thee these two iron men from the Blue Star, who,
though excellin