"Master," he said to me, "when next you visit tombs where maidens look
into your heart and hermits hear your very thoughts, I pray you leave
me behind. The holy Tanofir I love, if from afar, but I like not his
house, or his----" Here he looked at Karema who was regarding him with
a sweet smile over the lamp flame, and added, "There is something the
matter with me, Master; I cannot even lie."

"Cease from talking follies, O Shabaka and Bes, and enter," said the
tremendous voice from within.

So we entered and saw a strange sight. Against the back wall of the
chapel which was lit with lamps, stood a life-sized statue of Maat,
goddess of Law and Truth, fashioned of alabaster. On her head was a
tall feather, her hair was covered with a wig, on her neck lay a
collar of blue stones; on her arms and wrists were bracelets of gold.
A tight robe draped her body. In her right hand that hung down by her
side, she held the looped Cross of Life, and in her left which was
advanced, a long, lotus-headed sceptre, while her painted eyes stared
fixedly at the darkness. Crouched upon the ground, at the feet of the
statue, scribe fashion, sat my great-uncle Tanofir, a very aged man
with sightless eyes and long hands, so thin that one might see through
them against the lamp-flame. His head was shaven, his beard was long
and white; white too was his robe. In front of him was a low altar, on
which stood a shallow silver vessel filled with pure water, and on
either side of it a burning lamp.

We knelt down before him, or rather I knelt, for Bes threw himself
flat upon his face.

"Am I the King of kings whom you have so lately visited, that you