till, if the God desired you....

ZAYA. Oh! one can refuse....

DELETHI. Yes, but one must leave the country, then.... None of the
daughters of Haka-Phtah could bring themselves to that.

_A pause._

YAOUMA [_to herself_] Perhaps!

NAHASI. What do you say, Yaouma?

YAOUMA. Nothing. I was speaking to my soul.

MOUENE. Yaouma's eyes weep for weariness because they watch far off for
him, who comes not.

YAOUMA. Peace, child.

ZAYA [_to Delethi_] One thing is certain, someone must go upon the
sacred barge?

DELETHI. Without the sacrifice the Nile would not overflow, and all the
land would remain barren.

HANOU. And the corn would not sprout, nor the beans, nor the maize, nor
the lotus.

DELETHI. And all the people would perish miserably.

HANOU. So that she who dies, sacrificed to the Nile, saves the lives of
a whole people. That is a better thing, Nagaou, than to make one man's
happiness.

_A pause._

YAOUMA [_to herself_] Perhaps.

HANOU. And on the appointed day one is borne from the house of the god
to the Nile, surrounded by all the dwellers in the town.... The
Pharaoh--health and strength be unto him!...

DELETHI. You do not know, Hanou, you tell us what you do not know.

HANOU. But it is so, is it not, Zaya? Zaya knows about the ceremony,
because last year it was her sister who was chosen.

MOUENE. Tell us, Zaya.

NAHASI. Yes, tell us the manner of it.

ZAYA. On the fifth day of the month of Paophi....

MOUENE. To-day--that is to-day?

NAHASI. Yes. What will happen.... The prayer of Isis.... But afterwards?
Before?

_They gather round Zaya._

ZAYA. Before the sun has ended his day's journey, the people, summoned
to the terraces by a call from the Temple, will intone the great hymn to
Isis, which is sung but once a year. Within the house of the god the
assembled priests will await the sign that shall reveal the virgin to be
offered to the Nile to obtain its yearly flood. The name of the chosen
will be cried from the doorway on high, caught up by those who hear it
first, cried out to others, who in turn will cry it running towards the
house that Ammon has favored with his choice. Then shall the happy
victim of the year stand forth alone, amid her kinsfolk bowed before
her, and to her ears shall rise the shoutings of the multitude.

ALL. Oh!

DELETHI. And after a month of purification she will be borne to the
house of the god!

ZAYA. And on the day of Prodigies....