pace. To encourage them, the driver who
followed them, holding by the tail the nearest animal, began to sing in
a joyous, quick rhythm the old ox-song: "Turn for yourselves, O oxen,
turn for yourselves; measures for you, and measures for your masters."
And the team, with new spirit, started on and disappeared in a cloud of
yellow dust that sparkled like gold.

The work of the oxen done, came servants who, armed with wooden scoops,
threw the grain into the air and let it fall to separate it from the
straw, the awn, and the shell. The grain thus winnowed was put into
bags, the numbers of which were noted by a scribe, and carried to the
lofts, which were reached by ladders.

Tahoser under the shadow of her tree enjoyed this animated and grandiose
spectacle, and often her heedless hand forgot to spin the thread. The
day was waning, and already the sun, which had risen behind Thebes, had
crossed the Nile and was sinking towards the Libyan chain, behind which
its disc sets every evening. It was the hour when the cattle returned
from the fields to the stable. She watched near Poeri the long pastoral
procession.

First was seen advancing the vast herd of oxen, some white, others red,
some black with lighter spots, others piebald, others brindled. They
were of all colours and all sizes. They passed by, lifting up their
lustrous mouths whence hung filaments of saliva, opening their great,
gentle eyes; the more impatient, smelling the stables, half raised
themselves for a moment and peered above the horned multitude, with
which, as they fell, they were soon confounded; the less skilful,
outstripped by their companions, uttered long, plaintive bellows as if
to protest. Near the oxen walked the herds with their whip and their
rolled up cord.

On arriving near Poeri they knelt down, and, with their elbows close to
their sides, touched the ground with their lips as a mark of respect.
Scribes wrote down the number of heads of cattle upon tablets.

Behind the oxen came the asses, trotting along and kicking under the
blows of the donkey drivers. These had smooth-shaven heads, and were
dressed in a mere linen girdle, the end of which fell between their
legs. The donkeys went past, shaking their long ears and trampling the
ground with their little, hard hoofs. The donkey drivers performed the
same genuflection as the ox-herds, and the scribes noted also the exact
number of the animals.

Then it was the turn of the goats. They arrive