ly down their backs. This powdery fog was
caused by the marching army, and hung over it like a fallow cloud.

The tumult increased; the whirlwinds of dust opened, and the first
files of musicians entered the immense arena, to the great
satisfaction of the multitude, who in spite of its respect for his
Majesty were beginning to tire of waiting beneath a sun which would
have melted any other skulls than those of the Egyptians. The advance
guard of musicians halted for several instants; colleges of priests,
deputations of the principal inhabitants of Thebes, crossed the
maneuvering-ground to meet the Pharaoh, and arranged themselves in a
row in postures of the most profound respect, in such manner as to
give free passage to the procession. The band, which alone was a small
army, consisted of drums, tabors, trumpets, and sistras.

The first squad passed, blowing a deafening blast upon their short
clarions of polished brass which shone like gold. Each of these
trumpeters carried a second horn under his arm, as if the instrument
might grow weary sooner than the man. The costume of these men
consisted of a short tunic, fastened by a sash with ends falling in
front; a small band, in which were stuck two ostrich-feathers hanging
over on either side, bound their thick hair. These plumes, so worn,
recalled to mind the antennae of scarabaei, and gave the wearers an odd
look of being insects.

The drummers, clothed in a simple gathered skirt, and naked to the
waist, beat the onager-skin heads of their rounded drums with
sycamore-wood drumsticks, their instruments suspended by leather
shoulder-belts, and observed the time which a drum-major marked for
them by repeatedly turning toward them and clapping his hands. After
the drummers came the sistra-players, who shook their instruments by a
quick, abrupt motion, and made at measured intervals the metal links
ring on the four bronze bars. The tabor-players carried their oblong
instruments crosswise, held up by a scarf passed around the neck, and
struck the lightly stretched parchment with both hands.

Each company of musicians numbered at least two hundred men; but the
hurricane of noise produced by trumpets, drums, tabors, and sistras,
and which would have drawn blood from the ears inside a palace, was
none too loud or too unbearable beneath the vast cupola of heaven, in
the midst of this immense open space, amongst this buzzing crowd, at
the head of this army which would baffle no