hope, urged him to strong measures.

Yesterday he had seen how, with calm indifference, they had listened to
the deserted wife, the betrayed maiden, to the woman, who implored the
withheld blessing of children, to the anxious mother, the forlorn widow,
--and sought only to take advantage of sorrow, to extort gifts for the
Goddess, or better still for their own pockets or belly.

Now he was nearing the scene of his new labors.

There stood the reverend building, rising stately from the valley on four
terraces handsomely and singularly divided, and resting on the western
side against the high amphitheatre of yellow cliffs.

On the closely-joined foundation stones gigantic hawks were carved in
relief, each with the emblem of life, and symbolized Horus, the son of
the Goddess, who brings all that fades to fresh bloom, and all that dies
to resurrection.

On each terrace stood a hall open to the east, and supported on two and
twenty archaic pillars.

[Polygonal pillars, which were used first in tomb-building under the
12th dynasty, and after the expulsion of the Hyksos under the kings
of the 17th and 18th, in public buildings; but under the subsequent
races of kings they ceased to be employed.]

On their inner walls elegant pictures and inscriptions in the finest
sculptured work recorded, for the benefit of posterity, the great things
that Hatasu had done with the help of the Gods of Thebes.