the sea afterward. To prevent pursuit they sank the boat which
had borne the priestess.

Pi-Bast was as excited as a beehive. People talked of nothing else.
They even guessed who did the deed. Some suspected Sargon, who had
offered Kama the title of wife if she would leave the temple and remove
to Nineveh. Others suspected Lykon, the temple singer, who long had
burned with passion for the priestess. He was moreover rich enough to
hire Greek slaves, and so godless that he would not hesitate to snatch
away a priestess.

A Phoenician council of the richest and most faithful members was
summoned to the temple. The council resolved, first of all, to free
Kama from her duties as priestess and remove from her the curse against
a virgin who lost her innocence in the service of the goddess.

That was a wise and pious resolution, for if some one had carried off
the priestess and deprived her of sacredness against her will, it would
have been unjust to punish her.

A couple of days later they announced, with sound of trumpet, to
worshippers in the temple that the priestess Kama was dead, and if any
man should meet a woman seeming like her he would have no right to seek
revenge or even make reproaches. The priestess had not left the
goddess, but evil spirits had borne her off; for this they would be
punished.

That same day the worthy Hiram visited Ramses and gave him in a gold
tube a parchment furnished with a number of seals of priests and
signatures of Phoenician notables.

That was the decision of the spiritual court of Astaroth, which
released Kama from her vows and freed her from the curse if she would
renounce the name which she had borne while priestess.

The prince took this document and went after sundown to a certain lone
villa in his garden. He opened the door in some unknown way and
ascended one story to a room of medium dimensions, where by light from
a carved lamp in which fragrant olive oil was burning, he saw Kama.

"At last!" cried he, giving her the gold tube. "Thou hast everything
according to thy wishes."

The Phoenician woman was feverish; her eyes flashed. She snatched the
tube, looked at it, and threw it on the floor.

"Dost think this gold?" asked she. "I will bet my necklace that that
tube is copper, and only covered on both sides with thin strips of
gold."

"Is that thy way of greeting me?" inquired the astonished Ramses.

"Yes, for I know my brethren," said she. "They counterfeit not only