with outstretched neck
and trailing legs, their shapely bodies shone in the water like
submerged statues of jasper.

Amense and Twea, weary of swimming, had emerged from the water, and
kneeling on the edge of the basin, were spreading out to dry in the sun
their thick black hair, the long locks of which made their white skins
seem whiter still. A few last drops of water ran down their shining
shoulders and their arms polished like jade. Maids rubbed them with
aromatic oil and essences, while a young Ethiopian girl held out the
calyx of a large flower so that they might breathe its perfume.

It might have been thought that the artist who had carved the decorative
_bassi-relievi_ of the rooms in the harem had taken these graceful
groups as models; but the Pharaoh could not have looked with a colder
glance at the designs cut in the stone. Perched on the back of his
armchair the tame monkey was eating dates and cracking its jaws; against
the master's legs the tame cat rubbed itself, arching its back; the
deformed dwarf pulled the monkey's tail and the cat's moustaches, making
the one scratch and the other chatter, a performance which usually
caused His Majesty to smile; but His Majesty was not in a smiling mood
on that day. He put the cat aside, made the monkey get off the armchair,
smote the dwarf on the head, and walked toward the granite apartments.

Each of those rooms was formed of blocks of prodigious size, and closed
by stone gates which no human power could have forced unless the secret
of opening them were known. Within these halls were kept the riches of
the Pharaoh, and the booty taken from conquered nations. They held
ingots of precious metals, crowns of gold and silver, neckplates and
bracelets of cloisonne enamel, earrings which shone like the disc of
Moui, necklaces of seven rows of cornelian, lapis-lazuli, red jasper,
pearls, agates, sardonyx, and onyx; exquisitely chased anklets, belts,
with plates engraved with hieroglyphs, rings with scarabaei set in them;
quantities of fishes, crocodiles, and hearts stamped out of gold,
serpents in enamel twisted on themselves; bronze vases, flagons of wavy
alabaster, and of blue glass on which wound white spirals; coffers of
enamelled ware; boxes of sandal wood of strange and chimerical forms;
heaps of aromatic gums from all countries; blocks of ebony; precious
stuffs so fine that a whole piece could have been pulled through a ring;
white and black ostrich plumes, an