At its termination the two truncated pyramids that formed the entrance
to the temple towered upward, two hundred feet of massive masonry.
Egypt had dismantled a dozen mountains to build two.

When he reached the gateway that opened like a tunnel between the
ponderous pylons, he was delayed some minutes waiting till the porter
should admit him through the wicket of bronze. At last, a lank youth,
the son of the regular keeper, appeared, and, with an inarticulate
apology, bade him enter.

Within the overarching portals he was met by a novice, a priest of the
lowest orders, to whom he stated his mission. With a sign to the young
man to follow, the priest passed through the porch into the inner court
of the temple. This was simply an immense roofless chamber. Its sides
were the outer walls of the temple proper, reinforced by stupendous
pilasters and elaborated with much bas-relief and many intaglios. The
ends were formed by the inner pylons of the porch and outer pylons of
the main temple. The latter were guarded by colossal divinities. Down
the center of the court was a second aisle of sphinxes. They had
entered this when the priest, with a startled exclamation, sprang
behind one of the recumbent monsters in time to avoid the frolicsome
salutation of an ape.

"Anubis! Mut, the Mother of Darkness, lends you her cloak! Out!"
Kenkenes cried, striking at his pet. The wary animal eluded the blow
and for a moment revolved about another sphinx, pursued by his master,
and then fled like a phantom out of the court by the path he came. By
this time the priest had emerged from his refuge and was attempting to
prevent the young man's interference with the will of the ape.

"Nay, nay; I am sorry!" the priest exclaimed as Anubis disappeared.
"It is an omen. Toth[2] visiteth Ptah; Wisdom seeketh Power! Came he
by divine summons or did he seek the great god? It is a problem for
the sorcerers and is of ominous import!"

"The pestiferous creature followed me unseen from the house," Kenkenes
explained, rather flushed of countenance. "To me it is an omen that
the idler who keeps the gate is not vigilant."

The priest shook his head and led the way without further words into
the temple. Here the young sculptor was conducted through a wilderness
of jacketed columns, over pavements that rang even under sandaled feet,
to the center of a vast hall. The priest left him and disappeared
through the all-enveloping twilight into