ortar. A
square receptacle of marble received the fluid, which remained until it
had fermented during several days, and had acquired the intoxicating
strength for which it was prized, and to which it owed its sacred
character. By the side of this vessel, upon a low marble table, lay a
huge wooden ladle; and two golden cups, short and wide, but made smaller
in the middle like a sand-glass, stood there also.

At the opposite end of the temple, before a marble screen which shielded
the doorway, was placed a great carved chair of ebony and gold and
silver, raised upon a step above the level of the floor.

It was already dark when the king entered the temple, dressed in his
robes of state, with his sword by his side, his long sceptre tipped with
the royal sphere in his right hand, and the many-pointed crown upon his
head. His heavy black beard had grown longer in the three years that had
passed, and flowed down over his vest of purple and white half-way to
his belt. His face was stern, and the deep lines of his strong features
had grown more massive in outline. With the pride of every successive
triumph had come also something more of repose and conscious power. His
step was slower, and his broad brown hand grasped the golden sceptre
with less of nervous energy and more unrelenting force. But his brows
were bent, and his expression, as he took his seat before the screen,
over against the altar of the fire, was that of a man who was prepared
to be discontented and cared little to conceal what he felt.

After him came the chief priest, completely robed in white, with a
thick, white linen sash rolled for a girdle about his waist, the fringed
ends hanging stiffly down upon one side. Upon his head he wore a great
mitre, also of white linen, and a broad fringed stole of the same
material fell in two wide bands from each side of his neck to his feet.
His beard was black and glossy, fine as silk, and reached almost to his
waist. He came and stood with his back to the king and his face to the
altar, ten paces from the second fire.

Then, from behind the screen and from each side of it, the other priests
filed out, two and two, all clad in white like the chief priest, save
that their mitres were smaller and they wore no stole. They came out and
ranged themselves around the walls of the temple, threescore and nine
men, of holy order, trained in the ancient chanting of the Mazdayashnian
hymns; men in the prime and strength of life, b