vellum of one slept a cat, whose graceful kittens played with the bells
in the hoop of another.

An old negro-woman went in and out of the little back-door of the tent,
pursued by flies and gnats, while she cleared away a variety of earthen
dishes with the remains of food--pomegranate-peelings, breadcrumbs, and
garlic-tops--which had been lying on one of the carpets for some hours
since the girls had finished their dinner.

Old Hekt sat apart from the girls on a painted trunk, and she was saying,
as she took a parcel from her wallet:

"Here, take this incense, and burn six seeds of it, and the vermin will
all disappear--" she pointed to the flies that swarmed round the platter
in her hand. "If you like I will drive away the mice too and draw the
snakes out of their holes better than the priests."

[Recipes for exterminating noxious creatures are found in the
papyrus in my possession.]

"Keep your magic to yourself," said a girl in a husky voice. "Since you
muttered your words over me, and gave me that drink to make me grow
slight and lissom again, I have been shaken to pieces with a cough at
night, and turn faint when I am dancing."

"But look how slender you have grown," answered Hekt, "and your cough
will soon be well."

"When I am dead," whispered the girl to the old woman. "I know that most
of us end so."