en; there were delineated
the houses of the inhabitants of the land of frankincense, and all the
fishes of the Red Sea, in distinct and characteristic outline.

On the third and fourth terraces were the small adjoining rooms of
Hatasu and her brothers Thotmes II. and III., which were built against
the rock, and entered by granite doorways. In them purifications
were accomplished, the images of the Goddess worshipped, and the more
distinguished worshippers admitted to confess. The sacred cows of the
Goddess were kept in a side-building.

As Pentaur approached the great gate of the terrace-temple, he became
the witness of a scene which filled him with resentment.

A woman implored to be admitted into the forecourt, to pray at the
altar of the Goddess for her husband, who was very ill, but the sleek
gate-keeper drove her back with rough words.

"It is written up," said he, pointing to the inscription over the gate,
"only the purified may set their foot across this threshold, and you
cannot be purified but by the smoke of incense."

"Then swing the censer for me," said the woman, and take this silver
ring--it is all I have."

"A silver ring!" cried the porter, indignantly. "Shall the goddess be
impoverished for your sake! The grains of Anta, that would be used in
purifying you, would cost ten times as much."

"But I have no more," replied the woman, "my husband, for whom I come to
pray, is ill; he cannot work, and my children--"

"You fatten them up and deprive the goddess of her due," cried the
gate-keeper. "Three rings down, or I shut the gate."

"Be merciful," said the woman, weeping. "What will become of us if
Hathor does not help my husband?"

"Will our goddess fetch the doctor?" asked the porter. "She has
something to do besides curing sick starvelings. Besides, that is not
her office. Go to Imhotep or to Chunsu the counsellor, or to the great
Techuti herself, who helps the sick. There is no quack medicine to be
got here."

"I only want comfort in my trouble," said the woman.

"Comfort!" laughed the gate-keeper, measuring the comely young woman
with his eye. "That you may have cheaper."

The woman turned pale, and drew back from the hand the man stretched out
towards her.

At this moment Pentaur, full of wrath, stepped between them.

He raised his hand in blessing over the woman, who bent low before him,
and said, "Whoever calls fervently on the Divinity is near to him. You
are pure. Enter."

As s