er, along which the mummy had to visit between ten and twenty
temples and take part in religious ceremonies.

Some days after the departure of Ramses XII to his eternal rest, Ramses
XIII moved after him to rouse from sorrow by his presence the torpid
hearts of his subjects, receive their homage and give offerings to
divinities.

Behind the dead pharaoh, each on his own barge, went all the high
priests, many of the senior priests, the richest landholders, and the
greater part of the nomarchs. So the new pharaoh thought, not without
sorrow, that his retinue would be very slender,

But it happened otherwise. At the side of Ramses XIII were all the
generals, very many officials, many of the smaller nobility and all the
minor priests, which more astonished than comforted the pharaoh.

This was merely the beginning. For when the barge of the youthful
sovereign sailed out on the Nile there came to meet him such a mass of
boats, great and small, rich and poor, that they almost hid the water.
Sitting in those barges were naked families of earth-tillers and
artisans, well-dressed merchants, Phoenicians in bright garments,
adroit Greek sailors, and even Assyrians and Hittites.

The people of this throng did not shout, they howled; they were not
delighted, they were frantic. Every moment some deputation broke its
way to the pharaoh's barge to kiss the deck which his feet had touched,
and to lay gifts before him: a handful of wheat, a bit of cloth, a
simple earthen pitcher, a pair of birds, but, above all, a bunch of
flowers. So that before the pharaoh had passed Memphis, his attendants
were forced repeatedly to clear the barge of gifts and thus save it
from sinking.

The younger priests said to one another that except Ramses the Great no
pharaoh had ever been greeted with such boundless enthusiasm.

The whole journey from Memphis to Thebes was conducted in a similar
manner and the enthusiasm of people rose instead of decreasing. Earth-
tillers left the fields and artisans the shops to delight themselves
with looking at the new sovereign of whose intentions legends were
already created. They expected great changes, though no one knew what
these changes might be. This alone was undoubted, that the severity of
officials had decreased, that Phoenicians collected rent in a less
absolute manner, and the Egyptian people, always so submissive, had
begun to raise their heads when priests met them.

"Only let the pharaoh permit," sa