ss of mirth,--a heifer; Anubis, the
god of embalming, with the head of a jackal; and Menthu out of Hermon;
and the Coptic Minu; and Neith of Sais, the goddess of the sky; and,
finally, in the form of a ram,--the dread god whose name was never
uttered, and who was called Khenti-Amentiu, which signifieth: The
Dweller in the West.

The half-dark altar reared above the entire temple, and the gold upon
the walls of the sanctuary that hid the images of Isis gleamed within
its depths. Three gates,--a large one in the middle, and two small ones
flanking it,--opened into the sanctuary. Before the middle one stood a
small sacrificial altar with a sacred stone knife of AEthiopian obsidian.
Steps led up to the altar, and upon them were disposed young priests and
priestesses with tympani and sistrums, with flutes and tabours.

Queen Astis was reclining within a little, secret chamber. A small
quadrangular opening, artfully concealed by a large curtain, led
directly to the altar, and permitted one to follow all the details
of the sacred service without betraying one's presence. A light,
closely-fitting dress of linen gauze, interwoven with silver, tightly
enveloped the body of the queen, leaving the arms bare up to the
shoulders, and the legs half-way to the calf. Her skin gleamed pinkly
through the diaphanous material, and one could see the pure lines and
elevations of her graceful body, which, despite the queen's age of
thirty, still had lost none of its litheness, beauty and freshness. Her
hair, stained a blue colour, was spread loosely over her shoulders and
back, and was adorned with innumerable little aromatic pomanders. Her
face was much rouged and whitened; while her eyes, finely outlined by
kohl, seemed enormous and glowed in the darkness, like those of some
powerful beasts of the feline species. A sacred uraeus of gold hung down
from her neck, separating the half-bared breasts.

Ever since Solomon had cooled toward Queen Astis, tired of her unbridled
sensuality, she, with all the ardour of southern love-passion, and
with all the jealousy of a woman scorned, had given herself up to those
secret orgies of perverted lust that constituted the highest cult of the
castrates' service of Isis. She always showed herself surrounded by
priests-castrates, and, even now, as one of them fanned her head with
measured strokes of a fan made of peacock feathers, others were seated
upon the floor drinking in the beauty of the queen with eye