"_I, Amenartas, of the Royal House of the Pharaohs of Egypt, wife of
Kallikrates (the Beautiful in Strength), a Priest of Isis whom the
gods cherish and the demons obey, being about to die, to my little son
Tisisthenes (the Mighty Avenger). I fled with thy father from Egypt in
the days of Nectanebes,[*] causing him through love to break the vows
that he had vowed. We fled southward, across the waters, and we wandered
for twice twelve moons on the coast of Libya (Africa) that looks towards
the rising sun, where by a river is a great rock carven like the head
of an Ethiopian. Four days on the water from the mouth of a mighty river
were we cast away, and some were drowned and some died of sickness. But
us wild men took through wastes and marshes, where the sea fowl hid the
sky, bearing us ten days' journey till we came to a hollow mountain,
where a great city had been and fallen, and where there are caves of
which no man hath seen the end; and they brought us to the Queen of the
people who place pots upon the heads of strangers, who is a magician
having a knowledge of all things, and life and loveliness that does not
die. And she cast eyes of love upon thy father, Kallikrates, and would
have slain me, and taken him to husband, but he loved me and feared her,
and would not. Then did she take us, and lead us by terrible ways, by
means of dark magic, to where the great pit is, in the mouth of which
the old philosopher lay dead, and showed to us the rolling Pillar of
Life that dies not, whereof the voice is as the voice of thunder; and
she did stand in the flames, and come forth unharmed, and yet more
beautiful. Then did she swear to make thy father undying even as she is,
if he would but slay me, and give himself to her, for me she could
not slay because of the magic of my own people that I have, and that
prevailed thus far against her. And he held his hand before his eyes to
hide her beauty, and would not. Then in her rage did she smite him by
her magic, and he died; but she wept over him, and bore him thence with