igh priest. "There alone can thy noble curiosity be
pacified."

Ramses started up with impatience.

"Before thy eyes, worthy father, the temple hides the whole country,
even the treasury of the pharaoh. I am, for that matter, a priestly
pupil. I was reared in the shadow of a temple, I know the secret of the
spectacles in which the malice of Set is represented, with the death
and re-birth of Osiris, and what does that profit me? When my father
asks how to replenish the treasury, I can give him no answer. Should I
persuade him to pray longer and oftener than he does at the present?"

"Prince, Thou art blaspheming, Thou knowest not the high ceremonies of
religion. If Thou knew them Thou couldst answer many questions which
torment thee; and hadst Thou seen that which I have, Thou wouldst know
that the highest interest of Egypt is to support priests and temples."

"Men in old age become children," thought Ramses; and he stopped the
conversation.

Mefres had been very pious at all times, but he had then grown
eccentric.

"I should end well," thought Ramses, "if I yielded to priests and
assisted at puerile ceremonies. Perhaps Mefres would even command me to
stand for whole hours at an altar, as he himself does, beyond doubt,
while expecting a miracle."

In the month Pharmuthi (end of January and beginning of February) the
prince took leave of Otoes, before starting for Hak, the next province.
He thanked the nomarchs and lords for their splendid reception, but at
heart he was sad, for he knew that he had not mastered the problem put
forth by his father.

Escorted by the family and court of Otoes, the prince with his retinue
crossed to the right bank of the river, where he was greeted by
Ranuzer, the worthy nomarch, together with the lords and the priests of
his province.

When the prince reached the land of Hak, the priests raised a statue of
Atmu, patron god of the province, and the officials fell prostrate;
then the nomarch brought a golden sickle to Ramses, and begged him to
open the harvest as viceroy of the pharaoh, that being the time to
gather in barley.

Ramses took the sickle, cut a couple of handfuls of ears, and burnt
them with incense before the god the guardian of the boundaries. After
him the nomarch and the great lords cut barley also, and at last
harvesters fell to reaping. They cut only ears, which they packed into
bags; the straw remained on the field behind them.

When he had heard a tedious se