dness my ears
had grown very quick.

CHAPTER III

THE VALLEY OF THE DEAD KINGS

Martina and I had made a plan. Palka, after much coaxing, took us with
her one evening when she went to place the accustomed offerings in the
Valley of the Dead. Indeed, at first she refused outright to allow us
to accompany her, because, she said, only those who were born in
the village of Kurna had made such offerings since the days when the
Pharaohs ruled, and that if strangers shared in this duty it might bring
misfortune. We answered, however, that if so the misfortune would fall
on us, the intruders. Also we pointed out that the jars of water and
milk were heavy, and, as it happened, there was no one from the hamlet
to help to carry them this night. Having weighed these facts, Palka
changed her mind.

"Well," she said, "it is true that I grow fat, and after labouring all
day at this and that have no desire to bear burdens like an ass. So come
if you will, and if you die or evil spirits carry you away, do not
add yourselves to the number of the ghosts, of whom there are too many
hereabouts, and blame me afterwards."

"On the contrary," I said, "we will make you our heirs," and I laid a
bag containing some pieces of money upon the table.

Palka, who was a saving woman, took the money, for I heard it rattle in
her hand, hung the jars about my shoulders, and gave Martina the meat
and corn in a basket. The flat cakes, however, she carried herself on a
wooden trencher, because, as she said, she feared lest we should break
them and anger the ghosts, who liked their food to be well served. So
we started, and presently entered the mouth of that awful valley which,
Martina told me, looked as though it had been riven through the mountain
by lightning strokes and then blasted with a curse.

Up this dry and desolate place, which, she said, was bordered on either
side by walls of grey and jagged rock, we walked in silence. Only I
noted that the dog which had followed us from the house clung close to
our heels and now and again whimpered uneasily.

"The beast sees what we cannot see," whispered Palka in explanation.

At last we halted, and I set down the jars at her bidding upon a flat
rock which she called the Table of Offerings.

"See!" she exclaimed to Martina, "those that were placed here three
days ago are all emptied and neatly piled together by the ghosts. I told
Hodur that they did this, but he would not believe me. Now let us