Now their chief priest Rui was ill and dying, and Ameni, under whose
jurisdiction they came, had, without consulting them, sent the young poet
Pentaur to fill his place.

They had received the intruder most unwillingly, and combined strongly
against him when it became evident that he was disposed to establish a
severe rule and to abolish many abuses which had become established
customs.

They had devolved the greeting of the rising sun on the temple-servants;
Pentaur required that the younger ones at least should take part in
chanting the morning hymn, and himself led the choir. They had
trafficked with the offerings laid on the altar of the Goddess; the new
master repressed this abuse, as well as the extortions of which they were
guilty towards women in sorrow, who visited the temple of Hathor in
greater number than any other sanctuary.

The poet-brought up in the temple of Seti to self-control, order,
exactitude, and decent customs, deeply penetrated with a sense of the
dignity of his position, and accustomed to struggle with special zeal
against indolence of body and spirit--was disgusted with the slothful
life and fraudulent dealings of his subordinates; and the deeper insight
which yesterday's experience had given him into the poverty and sorrow
of human existence, made him resolve with increased warmth that he would
awake them to a new life.

The conviction that the lazy herd whom he commanded was called upon to
pour consolation into a thousand sorrowing hearts, to dry innumerable
tears, and to clothe the dry sticks of despair with the fresh verdure of