assist at the festival and not starting till to-morrow morning? There
are all kinds of spectacles to be seen, and when it is dark a grand
illumination is to take place."

"What do I care for their barbarian rubbish?" answered the Lesbian.
"Why, the Egyptian music alone drives me to distraction. My business is
concluded. I had inspected the goods brought from Arabia and India by
way of Berenice and Coptos, and had selected those I needed before the
vessel that brought them had moored in the Mariotic harbor, and other
goods will have reached Alexandria before me. I will not stay an hour
longer than is necessary in this horrible place, which is as dismal as it
is huge. Yesterday I visited the gymnasium and the better class of
baths--wretched, I call them! It is an insult to the fish-market and the
horse-ponds of Alexandria to compare them with them."

"And the theatre!" exclaimed the Jew. "The exterior one can bear to
look at--but the acting! Yesterday they gave the 'Thals' of Menander,
and I assure you that in Alexandria the woman who dared to impersonate
the bewitching and cold-hearted Hetaira would have been driven off the
stage--they would have pelted her with rotten apples. Close by me there
sat a sturdy, brown Egyptian, a sugar-baker or something of the kind, who
held his sides with laughing, and yet, I dare swear, did not understand a
word of the comedy. But in Memphis it is the fashion to know Greek, even
among the artisans. May I hope to have you as my guest?"

"With pleasure, with pleasure!" replied the Lesbian. "I was about to
look out for a boat. Have you done your business to your satisfaction?"

"Tolerably!" answered the Jew. "I have purchased some corn from Upper
Egypt, and stored it in the granaries here. The whole of that row yonder