l of the Valley, and he was assisted by scribes,
who kept an account of all that was brought in by the able-bodied
temple-servants and laboring serfs.

Ameni was everywhere: now with the singers, now with the magicians,
who were to effect wonderful transformations before the astonished
multitude; now with the workmen, who were erecting thrones for the
Regent, the emissaries from other collegiate foundations--even from so
far as the Delta--and the prophets from Thebes; now with the priests,
who were preparing the incense, now with the servants, who were trimming
the thousand lamps for the illumination at night--in short everywhere;
here inciting, there praising. When he had convinced himself that all
was going on well he desired one of the priests to call Pentaur.

After the departure of the exiled prince Rameri, the young priest had
gone to the work-room of his friend Nebsecht.

The leech went uneasily from his phials to his cages, and from his cages
back to his flasks. While he told Pentaur of the state he had found his
room in on his return home, he wandered about in feverish excitement,
unable to keep still, now kicking over a bundle of plants, now thumping
down his fist on the table; his favorite birds were starved to death,
his snakes had escaped, and his ape had followed their example,
apparently in his fear of them.

"The brute, the monster!" cried Nebsecht in a rage. "He has thrown over
the jars with the beetles in them, opened the chest of meal that I feed
the birds and insects upon, and rolled about in it; he has thrown my
knives, prickers, and forceps, my pins, compasses, and reed pens all out
of window; and when I came in he was sitting on the cupboard up there,
looking just like a black slave that works night and day in a corn-mill;
he had got hold of the roll which contained all my observations on the
structure of animals--the result of years of study-and was looking at it
gravely with his head on one side. I wanted to take the book from him,
but he fled with the roll, sprang out of window, let himself down to
the edge of the well, and tore and rubbed the manuscript to pieces in a
rage. I leaped out after him, but he jumped into the bucket, took hold
of the chain, and let himself down, grinning at me in mockery, and when
I drew him up again he jumped into the water with the remains of the
book."

"And the poor wretch is drowned?" asked Pentaur.

"I fished him up with the bucket, and laid him to dry i