he tidying away and the losing were so complete
that no putting forth of precious papyri into cupboards beneath
flights of stairs has ever equalled it.

'Now, therefore, shall I curse these maidens, even in Amenti, the
place of their tormenting.

'Forget them, may they be eternally forgotten.

'Curse them up and down through the whole solar system.'_

'This is very violent language, my dear,' said I.

'Our people swore terribly in Egypt,' answered Leonora, calmly.

'_But it is vain, no woman can curse worth a daric._[10]

[10] From the use of the word _daric_ I conjecture that
Leonora's ancestress lived under the Persian Empire. There
or thereabout.--M. M.

'_But for this, the losing of the one whom I mummied, must I
suffer countless penalties. For I, even the seeress, know not what
the said maidens did with the said mummy, nor do you know, nor any
other. And not to know, for I want my mummy to have a good cry
over, is great part of my punishment. But this I, the seeress, do
know right well, for it was revealed to me in a dream. And this I
do prophesy unto thee, my daughter, or daughter's daughter, ay,
this do I say, that a curse will rest upon me until He who was
mummied shall be found.

'Now this also do I, the seeress, tell thee. He who was mummified
shall be found in the dark country, where there is no sun, and men
breathe the vapour of smoke, and light lamps at noonday, and wire
themselves even with wires when the wind bloweth. And the place
where the mummy dwelleth is beneath the Three Balls of Gold. And
one will lead thee thither who abides hard by the great tree carven
like the head of an Ethiopian. And thou shalt come to the people
who slate strangers, and to the place of the Rolling of Logs, and
the music thereof.

'Thereafter shalt thou find Him, even Jambres. And when thou hast
healed him the Curse shall fall from me!

'Nor, indeed, shall the unmummying be accomplished, even then,
unless thou, O my daughter, or my daughter's daughter as before,
shalt go with He-who-was-mummied to the Hall of Egyptian Darkness
and sit in the Wizard's Chair that is thereby, even the seat which
was erst the Siege Perilous. These things have I said, well knowing
that they shall be accomplished._

'_To thee, my daughter!_

'THY GRANDMOTHER.'

'T