ction; and presently
there came: first the trumpeters on spirited horses, and these ranged
themselves on each side of the road by the shore leading to the scene of
the "marriage." In front of them the choir of women took their stand
to the left and, on the right, the men who had marched after them.
All alike were arrayed in light sea-green garments, and loaded with
lotos-flowers. The women's hair, twined with white blossoms, flowed over
their shoulders; the men carried bunches of papyrus and reeds;--they
represented river gods that had risen from the stream.

Then came boys and bearded men, in white robes, with panther-skins on
their shoulders, as the heathen priests had been wont to wear them. They
were headed by two old men with long white beards, one holding a silver
cup and the other a golden one, ready to fling them into the waves as
a first offering, according to the practise of their forefathers, as
Horapollo had described and ordered it. These went on to the pontoon,
to its farthest end, and took their place on one side of the platform
whence the Bride was to be cast into the river. Behind them came a large
troop of flute-players and drummers, followed by fifty maidens holding
tambourines, and fifty men all dressed and carrying emblems as followers
of Dionysus, or Osiris-Bacchus, who had been worshipped here in the time
of the Romans; with these came the drunken Silenus, goathoofed Satyrs
and Pan, with his reed-pipes, all riding grey asses strangely bedaubed
with yellow.

Then followed giraffes, elephants, ostriches, antelopes, gazelles; even
some tamed lions and panthers were led past the wondering crowd; for
this had been done in the famous procession in honor of the second
Ptolemy, described by Callixenus of Rhodes.

Next came a large car drawn by twelve black horses, and on it a
symbolical group of Famine and Pestilence overthrown; they were
surrounded by shrieking black children, with pointed wings on their
shoulders and horns on their foreheads, bound to stakes to represent the
hosts of hell--a performance which they tried to make at once ghastly
and droll.

On another car the Goddess of the Inundation was to be seen. She sat
amid sheaves, fruits, and garlands of vine; while round her were groups
of children with apples and corn, pomegranates and bunches of dates,
wine-jars and cups in their hands.

Presently there appeared in a large shell, as though lounging in a bath,
the goddess of health; she wa