cell beneath the sky."

"Doubtless that was at night, O Bes," answered Karema, "for in such a
house he sleeps, spending his days in the Apis tomb, because of all
the evil that is worked beneath the sun."

"Hump," said Bes, "I should have thought that more was worked beneath
the moon, but doubtless the holy Tanofir knows better, or being asleep
does not mind."

Now in front of each of the walled-up niches was a little chapel, and
at the fourth of these whence a light came, the maiden stopped,
saying,

"Enter. Here dwells the holy Tanofir. He tended this god during its
life-days in his youth, and now that the god is dead he prays above
its bones."

"Prays to the bones of a dead bull in the dark! Well, give me a live
grasshopper in the light; he is more cheerful," muttered Bes.

"O Dwarf," cried a deep and resounding voice from within the chapel,
"talk no more of things you do not understand. I do not pray to the
bones of a dead bull, as you in your ignorance suppose. I pray to the
spirit whereof this sacred beast was but one of the fleshly symbols,
which in this haunted place you will do well not to offend."

Then for once I saw Bes grow afraid, for his great jaw dropped and he
trembled.