hope that one day something stronger than herself will not cause the
lady Amada to break her vows to the heavenly Isis. Only then, perhaps,
it may be for the sake of another man who did not go off to the East
on account of such fool's talk. But here is a village and the horses
are spent. Let us stop and eat, as I suppose even the lady Amada does
sometimes."



On the following afternoon we crossed the Nile, and towards sunset
entered the vast and ancient city of Memphis. On its white walls
floated the banners of the Great King which Bes pointed out to me,
saying that wherever we went in the whole world, it seemed that we
could never be free from those accursed symbols.

"May I live to spit upon them and cast them into the moat," I answered
savagely, for as I drew near to Amada they grew ten times more hateful
to me than they had been before.

In truth I was nearer to Amada than I thought, for after we had passed
the enclosure of the temple of Ptah, the most wonderful and the
mightiest in the whole world, we came to the temple of Isis. There
near to the pylon gate we met a procession of her priests and
priestesses advancing to offer the evening sacrifice of song and
flowers, clad, all of them, in robes of purest white. It was a day of
festival, so singers went with them. After the singers came a band of
priestesses bearing flowers, in front of whom walked another priestess
shaking a /sistrum/ that made a little tinkling music.

Even at a distance there was something about the tall and slender