gly fanciful chairs; for the
Egyptians are no less clever at carving cedar, cypress, and sycamore
wood, in gilding, colouring, and inlaying it with enamels, than in
cutting in the Philoe or Syene quarries monstrous granite blocks for the
palaces of the Pharaohs and the sanctuaries of the gods.

The King crossed the hall with a slow, majestic step, without his
painted eyelids having once moved; nothing indicated that he heard the
cries of love that welcomed him, or that he perceived the human beings
kneeling or prostrate, whose brows were touched by the folds of the
calasiris that fell around his feet. He sat down, placing his ankles
close together and his hands on his knees in the solemn attitude of the
gods.

The young princes, handsome as women, took their seats to the right and
left of their father. The servants took off their enamelled necklaces,
their belts, and their swords, poured flagons of scent upon their hair,
rubbed their arms with aromatic oils, and presented them with wreaths of
flowers, cool, perfumed collars, odorous luxuries better suited to the
festival than the heavy richness of gold, of precious stones and pearls,
which, for the matter of that, harmonise admirably with flowers.

Lovely nude slaves, whose slender forms showed the graceful transition
from childhood to youth, their hips circled with a narrow belt that
concealed none of their charms, lotus flowers in their hair, flagons of
wavy alabaster in their hands, timidly pressed around the Pharaoh and
poured palm oil over his shoulders, his arms, and his torso, polished
like jasper. Other maids waved around his head broad fans of painted
ostrich-feathers on long ivory or sandal-wood handles, that, as they
were warmed by their small hands, gave forth a delightful odour. Others
placed before the Pharaoh stalks of nymphoea that bloomed like the cup
of the censers. All these attentions were rendered with a deep devotion,
and a sort of respectful awe, as if to a divine, immortal personage,
called down by pity from the superior zones to the vile tribe of men;
for the king is the Son of the gods, the favoured of Phre, the protege
of Ammon Ra.

The women of the harem had risen from their prostrate attitude, and
seated themselves on superb, carved and gilded chairs, with red-leather
cushions filled with thistle-down. Thus ranged, they formed a line of
graceful, smiling heads which a painter would have loved to reproduce.
Some were dressed in tunics of