nt to the
priests and higher court dignitaries.

Toward evening his holiness received a visit from Lady Niort's, the
mother to the heir to the throne of Egypt; looked at religious dances
and heard a concert. After that he went again to the bath and, thus
purified, entered the chapel of Osiris to undress and lay to sleep the
marvelous divinity. When he had finished this he closed and sealed the
chapel door and then, surrounded by a procession of priests, the
pharaoh went to his bed-chamber.

In an adjoining apartment the priests offered up, till the following
sunrise, silent prayers to the soul of the pharaoh, which found itself
among gods during the sleep of the sovereign. They laid before it their
prayers for a favorable transaction of current state business, for
guardianship over the boundaries of Egypt, and over the tombs of the
pharaohs, so that no thief might dare to enter in and disturb the
endless rest of those potentates. But the prayers of the priests,
because of night weariness, surely, were not always effectual, for
state difficulties increased, and sacred tombs were robbed, not only of
costly objects, but even of the mummies of sovereigns.

This was because various foreigners had settled in the country and
unbelievers from whom the people learned to disregard the gods of Egypt
and the most sacred places.

The repose of the lord of lords was interrupted exactly at midnight. At
that hour the astrologers roused his holiness and informed him in what
mansion the moon was, what planets were shining above the horizon, what
constellations were passing the meridian and whether in general
something peculiar had taken place in heavenly regions. For sometimes
clouds appeared or stars fell in greater number than usual, or a fiery
ball flew over Egypt.

The lord listened to the report of the astrologers. In case of any
unusual phenomenon he pacified them concerning the safety of the world,
and commanded to write down all observations on appropriate tablets,
which were sent every month to priests of the temple of the Sphinx, the
greatest sages in Egypt. Those men drew conclusions from those tablets,
but the most important they declared to no one, unless to their
colleagues the Chaldean priests in Babylon.

After midnight his holiness might sleep till the morning cockcrow if he
thought proper.

Such a pious and laborious life had been led, not more than half a year
ago, by this kind, divine person, the distributor