uld have had yearly one hundred and
thirty-three thousand minas of gold. [Mina equals one and a half
kilograms.] And since one warrior can carry on his shoulders the weight
of twenty-six minas, about five thousand warriors would have been
needed to carry that treasure."

The priests whispered to one another without hiding their wonder. Even
the prince forgot the man tortured to death beneath the pavement.

"Today," said Pentuer, "the yearly income of his holiness for all
products of his land is worth only ninety-eight thousand talents. For
these it would be possible to obtain as much gold as four thousand
warriors could carry."

"That the income of the state has decreased greatly, I know," said
Ramses, "but what is the cause of this?"

"Be patient, O servant of the gods," replied Pentuer. "It is not the
income of his holiness alone that is subject to decrease. During the
nineteenth dynasty Egypt had under arms one hundred and eighty thousand
warriors. If by the action of the gods every soldier of that time had
been turned into a pebble the size of a grape."

"That cannot be!" said Ramses.

"The gods can do anything," answered Mefres, the high priest, severely.

"But better," continued Pentuer, "if each soldier were to place on the
ground one pebble, there would be one hundred and eighty thousand
pebbles; and, look, worthy fathers, these pebbles would occupy so much
space." He pointed to a quadrangle of reddish color to the court. "In
this figure the pebbles deposited by warriors of the time of Ramses I.
would find their places. This figure is nine yards long and about five
wide. This figure is ruddy; it has the color of Egyptian bodies, for in
those days all our warriors were Egyptian exclusively."

The priests began to whisper a second time. The prince frowned, for
that seemed to him a reprimand, since he loved foreign soldiers.

"Today," said Pentuer, "we assemble one hundred and twenty thousand
warriors with great difficulty. If each one of those cast his pebble on
the ground, they would form a figure of this sort. Look this way,
worthiness." At the side of the first quadrangle lay a second of the
same width, but considerably shorter; its color was not uniform either,
but was composed of a number of colors. "This figure," said Pentuer,
"is about five yards wide, but is only six yards in length. An immense
number of men is now lacking, our army has lost one-third of its
warriors."

"Wisdom of men like thee