thee a club, not a censer. That crocodile
is the most unendurable brute in the whole temple. Once it seized a
child."

"And ate it?"

"The parents were satisfied!" said the priest.

"Tell me," said the pharaoh, after thinking, "how can ye sages render
homage to beasts which, moreover, when there are no witnesses, ye beat
with sticks?"

The high priest looked around again, and seeing no one near by, he
answered,

"Of course Thou canst not suspect, sovereign, that worshippers of one
god believe in the divinity of beasts. What is done is done for the
people."

In the temple of Hator the pharaoh passed quickly through the school of
medicine, and listened without great interest to predictions given by
astrologers concerning him. When the astrologer high priest showed him
a tablet on which was engraved a map of heaven, he asked,

"How often do these predictions come true which ye read in the stars?"

"They come true sometimes."

"But if ye predict from trees, stones, or running water, do those
predictions come true also?"

The high priest was troubled.

"Holiness, do not consider us untruthful. We predict the future for
people because it concerns them, and we tell them, indeed, what they
can understand of astronomy."

"And what do ye understand?"

"We understand," said the priest, "the structure of the heavenly dome
and the movement of the stars."

"What good is that to any one?"

"We have rendered no small service to Egypt. We indicate the main
directions according to which edifices are built and canals are dug.
Without the aid of our science vessels sailing on the sea could not go
far from laud. Finally we compose calendars and calculate future
heavenly phenomena. For instance, the sun will be eclipsed within a
short period."

Ramses was not listening; he had turned and gone out.

"How is it possible," thought the pharaoh, "to build a temple for such
childish amusements, and besides to engrave the results on golden
tablets? These holy men do not know what to snatch at from idleness."

After he had remained a short time in Tan-ta-ren, the sovereign crossed
over to Keneh.

In that place were no celebrated temples, incensed crocodiles, or
golden tablets with stars. But commerce and pottery flourished. From
that city went two roads to ports on the Red Sea: Koseir and Berenice,
also a road to the porphyry mountains, whence they brought statues and
great sticks of timber.

Keneh was swarming with Pho