to you--

YAOUMA. No words can take away the glory of being chosen by the Gods.

SATNI. By the priests.

YAOUMA. 'Tis the same, the priests are the voice of the Gods.

SATNI. 'Tis they who say so. The Gods of Egypt exist only because men
have invented them.

YAOUMA. The peoples from whose lands you come have made you lose your
reason. [_With a smile of pity_] Say that our Gods exist not! Think,
Satni!

SATNI. Neither the Gods, nor the happy fields, nor the world to come,
nor hell.

YAOUMA. Ah! Ah! I will prove you mad--you say there is no hell--But we
know, we know that it exists, look there! [_Pointing to the sunset_]
When the sun grows red at evening, is it not because the glow of hell is
thrown upon it from below? You have but to open your eyes. [_Laughing_]
The Gods not exist!

SATNI. They do not. In the sanctuaries of our temples is nothing save
beasts, unclean, absurd, and lifeless images; believe me, Yaouma--I
love you--I will not see you die. Your sacrifice is useless. Not because
you are offered up will the waters of the Nile rise! Refuse, hide
yourself, the waters will still rise. Ah, to lose you for a lie! To lose
you--you! How can I convince you?--I know! Yaouma, you saw me cross the
dead scarabs on my path. And yet I live! Oh! it angers me to see my
words move you not. Your reason, your reason! Awaken your reason--

YAOUMA. I am listening to my heart.

SATNI. I will save you in spite of you--I will keep you by force--

YAOUMA. If you do, I shall hate you--

SATNI. What matter I shall have saved you.

YAOUMA. And I shall kill myself.

SATNI [_seizing her_] Will you not understand! The God-bull, the
God-hippopotamus, the God-jackal--they are naught but idols!

YAOUMA. My father worshipped them.

_Every one comes back. Rheou, who during all the preceding
scene was hidden behind a pillar, goes to meet them._

SOME MEN. Yaouma! Yaouma!

ANOTHER. Up to the terrace!

OTHERS. Up to the terrace! Let her go up to the terrace!

ANOTHER. And let her lift her arms to heaven!

ANOTHER. Let her show that she will give herself to the Nile.

SATNI [_to Yaouma_] Stay! Stay with me! Then together--

YAOUMA [_in ecstasy_] He has chosen me from among all others!

ALL. Yaouma!

SATNI. She has refused! She has refused! And I will take her away.

ALL. No! No! To the terrace! The prayer! The prayer!

RHEOU. Yaouma, go and pray.

SATNI. She has refused!

MIERIS. Choose, Yaouma, between