e red.
"Pardon, most worthy prince, but I see badly."

"They are beating surely they are beating!"

"That is possible," answered the nomarch. "Undoubtedly the priests have
caught a band of thieves there."

Not over-pleased with this conversation, the heir went toward the stern
to the engineers, who turned the barge suddenly toward the middle of
the river, and from that point he looked back at Memphis.

Both banks higher up the Nile were almost deserted, the boats had
disappeared, the well-sweeps were moving as if nothing had happened.

"Is the solemnity over?" inquired the prince of an engineer, pointing
to a higher place on the river.

"It is. The people have returned to their work," said the engineer.

"Very quickly."

"They must recover lost time," said the engineer, incautiously.

The heir quivered, and looked at the man sharply. But he calmed himself
soon and returned to the tent. For him shouts were of no further
interest. He was gloomy and silent. After an outburst of pride, he felt
contempt for that throng which passed so promptly from enthusiasm to
well-sweeps and baling up muddy water.

At that point the Nile begins to separate into branches. The barge of
the chief of Aa turned toward the west, sailed an hour, and stopped at
the river bank. The crowds were still greater than at Memphis. A
multitude of pillars had been set up with banners and triumphal arches
entwined with green garlands. Among the people foreign faces and
garments were more and more frequent.

When the prince landed, the priests approached with a baldachin, and
the worthy nomarch Otoes began,

"Be greeted, viceroy of the divine pharaoh, within the borders of Aa.
As a sign of thy favor, which for us is as heavenly dew, be pleased to
make an offering to the god Ptah, who is our patron, and take under thy
protection and control this province, with its temples, officials,
people, cattle, grain, and all that is here existent."

Then he presented a group of young exquisites, fragrant, rouged,
arrayed in gold-embroidered garments. Those were the remoter and nearer
relatives of the nomarch, the local aristocracy.

Ramses looked at them with attention.

"Aha!" said he. "It seemed to me that these gentlemen lacked something,
and now I see what it is, they have no wigs."

"Because thou, most worthy prince, dost not wear wigs, our young men
have vowed not to wear them," replied the nomarch.

After this explanation one of the young men