tening, and
answered,

"'I am fat, because my voice is very woeful; hence I am a martyr at
this temple. When people come to service here, I crawl into an opening
and groan with all the strength that is in my body; for this they give
me food abundantly throughout the year, and a large jug of beer every
day when I am tortured.'

"Thus do they manage in the unbelieving land of Aram," said the leech,
as he raised a finger to his lips, and added, "Remember, prince, what
Thou hast promised, and of boiling pitch in this place think whatever
suits thee."

This story roused the prince anew; he felt relief because a man had not
been killed in the temple, but all his earlier distrust of priests
sprang into life again.

That they deluded simple people, he knew. He remembered the priests'
procession with the sacred bull Apis, while he was in their school. The
people were convinced that Apis led the priests, while every student
saw that the divine beast went in whatever direction priests drove him.

Who could tell, therefore, that Pentuer's discourse was not intended
for him, as that procession of Apis for the people? For that matter, it
was easy to put on the ground beans of red or other colors, and also it
was not difficult to arrange tableaux. How much more splendid were
those exhibitions which he had seen, even the struggles of Set with
Osiris, in which a number of hundreds of persons assisted. But in that
case, too, did not the priests deceive people? That was given as a
battle of the gods: meanwhile it was carried on by men in disguise. In
it Osiris perished, but the priest who represented Osiris came out as
sound as a rhinoceros. What wonders did they not exhibit there! Water
rose; there were peals of thunder; the earth trembled and vomited fire.
And that was all deception. Why should the exhibition made by Pentuer
be true? Besides, the prince had discovered strong indications that
they wished to deceive him. The man groaning underground and covered,
as it were, with boiling pitch by the priests was deception. But let
that pass. The prince had convinced himself frequently that Herhor did
not want war; Mefres also did not want it. Pentuer was the assistant of
one of them, and the favorite of the other.

Such a struggle was taking place in the prince that it seemed to him at
one time that he understood everything, at another that he was
surrounded by darkness; now he was full of hope, and now he doubted
everything. From