f madly.

Indeed the priests were mistaken, both in Ramses and Hiram. The artful
Tyrian gave himself out before them as very proud of his relations with
Ramses, and the prince with no less success played the role of a
riotous stripling.

Mefres was even convinced that the prince was thinking seriously of
expelling the Phoenicians, that meanwhile he and his courtiers were
contracting debts and would never pay them.

But the temple of Astaroth with its numerous courts and gardens was
filled with devotees all the time. Every day, if not every hour, though
the heat was excessive, some company of pilgrims to the great goddess
arrived from the depth of Asia.

Those were strange pilgrims. Wearied, streaming with perspiration,
covered with dust, they advanced with music, and dancing, and songs
sometimes of a very lewd character. The day passed for them in
unbridled license in honor of the goddess. It was possible not only to
recognize every such company from afar, but to catch its odor, since
those people always brought immense bouquets of fresh flowers in their
hands, and in bundles all the male cats that had died in the course of
the current year. The devotees gave these cats to dissectors in Pi-Bast
to be stuffed or embalmed, and bore them home later on as valued
relics.

On the first day of the month Mesori (May-June), Prince Hiram informed
Ramses that he might appear at the temple of Astaroth that evening.
When it had grown dark on the streets after sunset, the viceroy girded
a short sword to his side, put on a mantle with a hood, and unobserved
by any servant, slipped away to the house of Hiram.

The old magnate was waiting for the viceroy.

"Well," said he, with a smile, "art Thou not afraid, prince, to enter a
Phoenician temple where cruelty sits on the altar and perversity
ministers?"

"Fear?" repeated Ramses, looking at him almost contemptuously.
"Astaroth is not Baal, nor am I a child which they might throw into
your god's red-hot belly."

"But does the prince believe this story?"

Ramses shrugged his shoulders.

"An eyewitness and a trustworthy person," answered he, "told me how ye
sacrifice children. Once a storm wrecked a number of tens of your
vessels. Immediately the Tyrian priests announced a religious ceremony
at which throngs of people collected." The prince spoke with evident
indignation. "Before the temple of Baal situated on a lofty place was
an immense bronze statue with the head of a bull.