"Nor do I, Master. Yet if you see me do strange things, or hear me
speak strange words, take no note of them, since I shall be but
playing a part as I think wisest."

After this we talked of that day's adventure with the lions, and of
others that we had shared together, laughing merrily all the while,
till the soldiers stared at us as though we were mad. Also the fat
eunuch, Houman, who was mounted on an ass, rode up and said,

"What, Egyptian who dared to twist the beard of the Great King, you
laugh, do you? Well, you will sing a different song in the boat to
that which you sing in the chariot. Think of my words on the eighth
day from this."

"I will think of them, Eunuch," I answered, looking at him fiercely in
the eyes, "but who knows what kind of a song you will be singing
before the eighth day from this?"

"What I do is done under the authority of the ancient and holy Seal of
Seals," he answered in a quavering voice, touching the little cylinder
of white shell which I had noted upon the person of the King, but that
now hung from a gold chain about the eunuch's neck.

Then he made the sign which Easterns use to avert evil and rode off
again, looking very frightened.

So we came to the royal city and went up to a wonderful palace. Here
we were taken from the chariot and led into a room where food and
drink in plenty were given to me as though I were an honoured guest,