f roused from a deep steep, which had not yet left him.

"Tehenna, leader of the Libyans, Thou and thy people are prisoners of
his holiness," said Ramses.

"Better slay me here," said Tehenna, "if I must lose my freedom."

"If thy father, Musawasa, will submit and make peace with Egypt, Thou
wilt be free and happy."

The Libyan turned his face aside, and lay down careless of everything;
he seemed to be sleeping.

He came to himself, in a quarter of an hour, somewhat fresher. He gazed
at the desert and cried out with delight: on the horizon a green
country was visible, water, many palms, and somewhat higher, a town and
a temple.

Around him all were sleeping, both Asiatics and Libyans. But Pentuer,
standing on a rock, had shaded his eyes with his hand and was looking
in some direction.

"Pentuer! Pentuer!" cried Ramses. "Dost Thou see that oasis?"

He sprang up and ran to the priest, whose face was full of anxiety.

"Dost Thou see the oasis?"

"That is no oasis," said Pentuer; "that is the ghost of some region
which is wandering about through the desert a region no longer in
existence. But over there over there is reality!" added he, pointing
southward.

"Are they mountains?"

"Look more sharply."

The prince looked, and saw something suddenly.

"It seems to me that a dark mass is rising my sight must be dulled."

"That is Typhon," whispered the priest. "The gods alone have power to
save us, if only they have the wish."

Indeed, Ramses felt on his face a breath, which amid the heat of the
desert seemed all at once hot to him. That breath, at first very
delicate, increased, growing hotter and hotter, and at the same time
the dark streak rose in the sky with astonishing swiftness.

"What shall we do?" asked Ramses.

"These cliffs," said the priest, "will shelter us from being covered
with sand, but they will not keep away dust or the heat which is
increasing continually. But in a day or two days."

"Does Typhon blow that long?"

"Sometimes three and four days. But sometimes he springs up for a
couple of hours, and drops suddenly, like a vulture pierced with an
arrow. That happens very rarely."

The prince became gloomy, though he did not lose courage. The priest,
drawing from under his mantle a little green flask, said,

"Here is an elixir. It should last thee a number of days. Whenever Thou
art afraid, or feel drowsy, drink a drop. In that way Thou wilt be
strengthened and endure."

"But tho