in one hand a golden goblet and in the other a caduceus. After her came
the river-god Nile, the bridegroom of the marriage, studied from the
famous statue carried away from Alexandria by the Romans: a splendid and
mighty bearded man, resting against an urn. Sixteen naked children--the
sixteen ells that the river must rise for its overflow to bless the land
--played round his herculean form, and a bridal wreath of lotos-flowers
crowned his flowing locks. This car, which was decorated with
crocodiles, sheaves, dates, grapes, and shells, was hailed with shouts of
enthusiasm; it was escorted by old men in the costume of the heathen
priesthood.

Behind this came more music and singers, with a troop of young men and
maidens led by lute-players singing. These too were dressed as the
genie, and nymphs of the river and were the groomsmen and bridesmaids in
attendance on the betrothed.

The longer the procession lasted and the nearer the looked-for victim
approached, the more eagerly attent were the gazing multitude.

When this group of youths and maidens had gone by, there was hardly a
sound to be heard in the tribune and among the crowd. No one felt the
fierce heat of the sun, no one heeded the thirst that parched every
tongue; all eyes were bent in one direction; only the black Vekeel, whose
colossal form towered up where he stood, occasionally sent a sinister and
anxious glance towards the town. He expected to see smoke rising from
the quarter near the prison, and suddenly his lips parted and he
displayed his dazzlingly white teeth in a scornful laugh. That which he
looked for had come to pass; the little grey cloud which he discerned
grew blacker, and then, in the heart of it, rose a crimson glow which did
not take its color from the sun. But of all those thousands he was the