empire to do so in my trance, or whatever it was, I could have wept
with joy at finding him again, especially as I knew by instinct that
as he loved the Allan Quatermain of to-day, so he loved this Egyptian
in a wheeled packing-case, for I may as well say at once that such was
my nationality in the dream.

Now I looked about me and perceived that my chariot was the second of
a cavalcade. Immediately in front of it was one infinitely more
gorgeous in which stood a person who even if I had not known it, I
should have guessed to be a king, and who, as a matter of fact, was
none other than the King of kings, at that time the absolute master of
most of the known world, though what his name may have been, I have no
notion. He wore a long flowing robe of purple silk embroidered with
gold and bound in at the waist by a jewelled girdle from which hung
the private, sacred seal; the little "White Seal" that, as I learned
afterwards, was famous throughout the earth.

On his head was a stiff cloth cap, also purple in colour, round which
was fastened a fillet of light blue stuff spotted with white. The best
idea that I can give of its general appearance is to liken it to a
tall hat of fashionable shape, without a brim, slightly squashed in so
that it bulged at the top, and surrounded by a rather sporting
necktie. Really, however, it was the /kitaris/ or headdress of these
monarchs worn by them alone. If anyone else had put on that hat, even
by mistake in the dark, well, his head would have come off with it,
that is all.

This king held a bow in his hand with an arrow set upon its string,
just as I did, for we were out hunting, and as I shall have to narrate
presently, lions are no respecters of persons. By his side, leaning