the battle until it was over, in prayers, and offerings to Amon, the king
of the Gods, to Necheb, the Goddess of victory, and to Menth, the God of
war.

The keeper of the lions stood by the Pharaoh's sleeping-tent, and the
tent, which served as a council chamber, was distinguished by the
standards in front of it; but the council-tent was empty and still, while
in the kitchen-tent, as well as in the wine-store close by, all was in a
bustle. The large pavilion, in which Rameses and his suite were taking
their evening meal, was more brilliantly lighted than all the others; it
was a covered tent, a long square in shape, and all round it were colored
lamps, which made it as light as day; a body-guard of Sardinians,
Libyans, and Egyptians guarded it with drawn swords, and seemed too
wholly absorbed with the importance of their office even to notice the
dishes and wine-jars, which the king's pages--the sons of the highest
families in Egypt--took at the tent-door from the cooks and butlers.

The walls and slanting roof of this quickly-built and movable banqueting-
hall, consisted of a strong, impenetrable carpet-stuff, woven at Thebes,
and afterwards dyed purple at Tanis by the Phoenicians. Saitic artists
had embroidered the vulture, one of the forms in which Necheb appears, a
hundred times on the costly material with threads of silver. The cedar-
wood pillars of the tent were covered with gold, and the ropes, which
secured the light erection to the tent-pegs, were twisted of silk, and
thin threads of silver. Seated round four tables, more than a hundred
men were taking their evening meal; at three of them the generals of the
army, the chief priests, and councillors, sat on light stools; at the
fourth, and at some distance from the others, were the princes of the
blood; and the king himself sat apart at a high table, on a throne
supported by gilt figures of Asiatic prisoners in chains. His table and