begins, that stretches towards the sunrise. I have returned on my
traces and gone northward towards Scythia and Colchis. Wherever I
went I heard murmurs and saw movements. The people have awaked; in
the temples they prophesied the return of the gods; for men had been
left alone to manage their affairs and to guide their destinies, but
had done both badly. Justice had become injustice, and truth,
falsehood; the whole earth groaned for deliverance. At last their
prayers reached the throne of the All-merciful. And now the wise,
the gentle, the saintly proclaim in all tongues the joyful message,
'The gods return again. They return in order to put right what the
children of men have thrown in confusion, to give laws and to
protect justice.' This message I bring home as a spoil of victory,
and thou, wisest of the wise, shalt receive it first from thy lord."

"Thou hearest, my Lord Pharaoh, what is spoken over the whole circle
of the earth; thine eyes see farther than the stars of heaven and
the eye of the sun!"

"And yet only my ear has heard, but my intelligence has not grasped
what the gods have revealed to me in a dream. Interpret it for me."

"Tell it, my lord."

"I saw nothing, but I heard a voice, when sleep had quenched the
light of my eyes. The voice spoke in the darkness, and said, 'The
red earth will spread over all lands, but the black shall be
dispersed like the sand.'"

"The dream, my lord is not hard to interpret, but it forebodes
nothing good."