ss
decreases, though guarded well, as Thou hast told me."

"Be pleased to remember," continued the nomarch, "that Set, though a
full brother of the radiant Osiris, hates that god, wars with him, and
deforms all his labors. He sends deadly diseases on beasts and on men;
he causes the overflow of the Nile to be scant or over-violent, and he
hurls clouds of sand in time of heat upon Egypt.

"When a year is good, the Nile reaches the desert; when it is bad, the
desert comes down to the Nile, and then the royal income decreases.

"Look!" continued he, pointing at the meadow. "The flocks there are
numerous, but in my youth they were greater in number. But who is the
cause of this? No other than Set, whom human power cannot vanquish.
This meadow, great today, was once greater, and from this spot they
could not see the desert, which now is a terror.

"When the gods are battling, men can do nothing; where Set conquers
Osiris, who can bar the way to him?"

The worthy Otoes finished; the prince hung his head. In school he had
heard not a little about the love of Osiris and the malice of Set, and
while still a child he was angry that no one had forced Set to a final
reckoning.

"When I grow up," thought he at that time, "and carry a javelin, I will
seek out Set and we will make a trial."

And he was looking now at that measureless sand space, that kingdom of
the ominous godhead which was decreasing the income of Egypt; but he
had no thought to do battle with Set. For how can man fight with the
desert? Man can only avoid it or perish.

CHAPTER XXII

HIS stay in Aa had so wearied Ramses that to seek rest and rally his
thoughts he commanded to stop all solemnities in his honor, and
directed that during his journey people should never come forth to
greet him.

The prince's retinue were astonished, even somewhat offended; but they
carried out the command, and Ramses again found some quiet. He had time
to review his troops, which was his most agreeable occupation, and he
could collect his scattered thoughts in some measure.

Shut up in the remotest corner of the palace, the prince began to
consider how far he had carried out the commands of the pharaoh his
father.

He had surveyed Aa with his own eyes, its fields, towns, population,
officials. He had verified the fact that the eastern edge of the
province was yielding to the advance of the desert. He had observed
that laborers were indifferent and stupid; that they di