"Nothing like it has happened for a long time," said a basket-maker.
"And he is particularly glad it should be precisely Rui's body, which the
sacred heart should have blessed. You ask why?--Hatasu is Ani's
ancestress, blockhead!"

"And Rui was prophet of the temple of Hatasu," added the joiner.

"The priests over there are all hangers-on of the old royal house,
that I know," asserted a baker.

"That's no secret!" cried the cobbler. "The old times were better than
these too. The war upsets everything, and quite respectable people go
barefoot because they cannot pay for shoe-leather. Rameses is a great
warrior, and the son of Ra, but what can he do without the Gods; and they
don't seem to like to stay in Thebes any longer; else why should the
heart of the sacred ram seek a new dwelling in the Necropolis, and in the
breast of an adherent of the old--"

"Hold your tongue," warned the basket-maker. "Here comes one of the
watch."

"I must go back to work," said the baker. "I have my hands quite full
for the feast to-morrow."

"And I too," said the shoemaker with a sigh, "for who would follow the
king of the Gods through the Necropolis barefoot."

"You must earn a good deal," cried the basket-maker. "We should do
better if we had better workmen," replied the shoemaker, "but all the
good hands are gone to the war. One has to put up with stupid