worshipper is received into an ample court, but by degrees the walls
on either side approach one another, the halls become less lofty,
all is gradually tending towards one point. And thus we wander on,
the sights and sounds of God's world without attract us no longer,
we see nothing but the sacred representations which encompass us so
closely, feel only the solemnity of the temple in which we stand.
And the consecrated walls embrace us ever more and more closely,
until at last we reach the lonely, resonant chamber occupied by the
divinity himself, and entered by no human being save his priest."
Schnaase, Kunstaeschirhtc I. 394.]

After a short time a young priest appeared with the intelligence that his
superior awaited the Prince's visit. Psamtik had seated himself under
the shadow of the sacred grove of silver poplars bordering the shores of
the consecrated lake, holy to the great Neith. He rose immediately,
crossed the temple-court, paved with stone and asphalte, on which the
sun's rays were darting like fiery arrows, and turned into one of the
long avenues of Sphinxes which led to the isolated Pylons before the
gigantic temple of the goddess. He then passed through the principal
gate, ornamented, as were all Egyptian temple-entrances, with the winged
sun's disc. Above its widely-opened folding doors arose on either side,
tower-like buildings, slender obelisks and waving flags. The front of
the temple, rising from the earth in the form of an obtuse angle, had
somewhat the appearance of a fortress, and was covered with colored
pictures and inscriptions. Through the porch Psamtik passed on into a
lofty entrance-chamber, and from thence into the great hall itself, the
ceiling of which was strewn with thousands of golden stars, and supported
by four rows of lofty pillars. Their capitals were carved in imitation
of the lotus-flower, and these, the shafts of the columns, the walls of
this huge hall, and indeed every niche and corner that met the eye were