on hastily, "Still, I thank you for your splendid gift, and however
you came by it, shall value it much."

"Perhaps my cousin Shabaka will tell us his story," broke in Amada,
her eyes still fixed upon the rose-hued pearls, "and of how he came to
win all the beauteous things that dazzle our eyes to-night."

Now I thought of offering her the pearls, but remembering my mother's
words, also that the Princess might not like to see another woman bear
off such a prize, did not do so. So I began to tell my story instead,
Bes seated on the ground near to me by the Prince's wish, that he
might tell his.

The tale was long for in it was much that went before the day when I
saw myself in the chariot hunting lions with the King of kings, which
I, the modern man who set down all this vision, now learned for the
first time. It told of the details of my journey to the East, of my
coming to the royal city and the rest, all of which it is needless to
repeat. Then I came to the lion hunt, to my winning of the wager, and
all that happened to me; of my being condemned to death, of the
weighing of Bes against the gold, and of how I was laid in the boat of
torment, a story at which I noticed Amada turn pale and tremble.

Here I ceased, saying that Bes knew better than I what had chanced at
the Court while I was pinned in the boat, whereon all present cried
out to Bes to take up the tale. This he did, and much better than I
could have done, bringing out many little things which made the scene
appear before them, as Ethiopians have the art of doing. At last he
came to the place in his story where the king asked him if he had ever
seen a woman fairer than the dancers, and went on thus: