d pledged the
loving cup. It was to Nehushta that he went when the cares of state were
heavy and he needed counsel; and it was upon her lap he laid his weary
head, when he had ridden far and fast for many days, returning from some
hard-fought field.

But the queens hated each other with a fierce hatred, and when Darius
was absent, their divisions broke out sometimes into something like open
strife. Their guards buffeted each other in the courts, and their
slave-women tore out each other's hair upon the stairways. Then, when
the king returned, there reigned an armed peace for a time, which none
dared break. But rumours of the disturbances that had taken place often
reached the royal ears, and Darius was angry and swore great oaths, but
could do nothing; being no wiser than many great men who have had to
choose between the caprices of two women who hated each other.

Now the rumour went abroad that Zoroaster would return to the court; and
for a space, the two queens kept aloof, for both knew that if he came
back, some mortal conflict would of necessity arise between them; and
each watched the other, and was cautious.

The days passed by, but no one answered the proclamation. No one had
seen or heard of Zoroaster, since the night when he left the palace at
Shushan. He had taken nothing with him, and had left no trace behind to
guide the search. Many said he had left the kingdom; some said he was
dead in the wilderness. But Nehushta sighed and took little rest, for do
what she would, she had hoped to see him once more.

CHAPTER XV.

The interior of the temple was lighted with innumerable lamps, suspended
from the ceiling, of bronze and of the simplest workmanship, like
everything which pertained to the worship of Auramazda. In the midst,
upon a small altar of black stone, stood a bronze brazier, shaped like a
goblet, wherein a small fire of wood burned quietly, sending up little
wreaths of smoke, which spread over the flat ceiling and hung like a
mist about the lamps; before the altar lay a supply of fuel--fine,
evenly-cut sticks of white pine-wood, piled in regular order in a
symmetrical heap. At one extremity of the oblong hall stood a huge
mortar of black marble, having a heavy wooden pestle, and standing upon
a circular base, in which was cut a channel all around, with an opening
in the front from which the Haoma juice poured out abundantly when the
fresh milkweed was moistened and pounded together in the m