eason that has held you there this many a day.

YAOUMA. Yes.

MOUENE. She watches for the coming of the galley with twenty oars,
bearing the travellers from the North. There is a young priest among
them, the potter's son.

DELETHI. A young priest, the potter's son, who went away two years ago.

YAOUMA. He is my betrothed.

NAHASI. But you know what they say?

ZAYA. They say that on the same boat there comes a scribe who preaches
of new gods....

YAOUMA. I know.

DELETHI. Of false gods.

MOUENE. The priests will stop the boat, and eight days hence, perhaps,
Yaouma will still be awaiting her betrothed.

YAOUMA. I shall wait.

_The Steward enters and whispers to Delethi._

DELETHI. The mistress sends word the hour is come to go indoors.

_They go out L, Sitsinit picking up the writing box, Nahasi
juggling with oranges, Mouene carrying her cage and dancing
about, Delethi plays her harp singing with Hanou and
Nagaou._

Black is the hair of my love,
More black than the brows of the night,
Than the fruit of the plum tree.

_The Steward, who had gone out, returns at once, whip in
hand, followed by a poor old man, half naked, and covered
with mud, who carries a hod._

STEWARD [_stopping before the statue of Thoueris_] There. Draw near,
potter, and look. By some mischance, the horn and the plume of Goddess
Thoueris have been broken. The master must not see them when he comes
back for the feast of the Nomination. There is the horn--there is the
plume. Replace them.

PAKH [_with terror_] I--must I ... to-day when my son is coming home?

STEWARD. Are you not our servant?

PAKH. I am.

STEWARD. And a potter?

PAKH. I am.

STEWARD. Did you not say you knew how to do what I ask?

PAKH. I did not know that I must lay hands on the Goddess Thoueris.

STEWARD. Obey.

PAKH [_throwing himself on his knees_] I pray you! I pray you ... I
should never dare. And then ... my son ... my son who is coming back
from a long, long journey....

STEWARD. You shall have twenty blows of the stick for having tired my
tongue. If you refuse to obey me you shall have two hundred.

PAKH. I pray you.

STEWARD. Bid Sokiti help you.

_He goes out at the back; as he passes he gives Sokiti a
blow with his whip, making a sign to him to go and join
Pakh._

_Sokiti obeys without manifesting sorrow or surprise._

PAKH. He says we must lift do