second.
Arriving in front of the altar they halted and one by one, first a
priest and then a priestess, set down the platters of offerings, piling
them above each other into a cone. Next the priests and the priestesses
ranged themselves in lines on either side of the altar, and Harut took
a platter of corn and a platter of flowers in his hands. These he held
first towards that quarter of the sky in which swam the invisible new
moon, secondly towards the rising sun, and thirdly towards the doors of
the sanctuary, making genuflexions and uttering some chanted prayer, the
words of which we could not hear.

A pause followed, that was succeeded by a sudden outburst of song
wherein all the audience took part. It was a very sonorous and beautiful
song or hymn in some language which I did not understand, divided into
four verses, the end of each verse being marked by the bowing of every
one of those many singers towards the east, towards the west, and
finally towards the altar.

Another pause till suddenly the doors of the sanctuary were thrown wide
and from between them issued--the goddess Isis of the Egyptians as I
have seen her in pictures! She was wrapped in closely clinging draperies
of material so thin that the whiteness of her body could be seen
beneath. Her hair was outspread before her, and she wore a head-dress
or bonnet of glittering feathers from the front of which rose a little
golden snake. In her arms she bore what at that distance seemed to be
a naked child. With her came two women, walking a little behind her
and supporting her arms, who also wore feather bonnets but without the
golden snake, and were clad in tight-fitting, transparent garments.

"My God!" whispered Ragnall, "it is my wife!"

"Then be silent and thank Him that she is alive and well," I answered.

The goddess Isis, or the English lady--in that excitement I did not
reck which--stood still while the priests and priestesses and all the
audience, who, gathered on the upper benches of the amphitheatre, could
see her above the wall of the inner court, raised a thrice-repeated and
triumphant cry of welcome. Then Harut and the first priestess lifted
respectively an ear of corn and a flower from the two topmost platters
and held these first to the lips of the child in her arms and secondly
to her lips.

This ceremony concluded, the two attendant women led her round the altar
to the stone chair, upon which she seated herself. Next fire was kindled