n the single illusion of the whole adventure.

At last the ship arrived, as it had been foretold, and the sailor
watched her passing over the hazy sea towards the mysterious shore. "I
went and got me up into a tall tree," he said, "and I recognised those
that were in it. And I went to report the matter (to the serpent), and I
found that he knew it."

Very tenderly the great monster addressed him. "Fare thee well, little
one," he said "Fare thee well to thy house. Mayest thou see thy children
and raise up a good name in thy city. Behold, such are my wishes for
thee."

"Then," continued the sailor, "I laid me on my stomach, my arms were
bended before him. And he gave me a freight of frankincense, perfume and
myrrh, sweet-scented woods and antimony, giraffes' tails, great heaps
of incense, elephant tusks, dogs, apes and baboons, and all manner of
valuable things. And I loaded them in that ship, and I laid myself on my
stomach to make thanksgiving to him. Then he said to me: 'Behold, thou
shalt come home in two months, and shalt press thy children to thy
bosom, and shalt flourish in their midst; and there thou shalt be
buried.'"

[Illustration: PL. XV. A Nile boat passing the hills of Thebes.]

[_Photo by E. Bird._]

To appreciate the significance of these last words it is necessary to
remember what an important matter it was to an Egyptian that he should
be buried in his native city. In our own case the position upon the map
of the place where we lay down our discarded bones is generally not of
first-rate importance, and the thought of being buried in foreign lands
does not frighten us. Whether our body is to be packed away in the
necropolis of our city, or shovelled into a hole on the outskirts of
Timbuctoo, is not a matter of vital interest. There is a certain
sentiment that leads us to desire interment amidst familiar scenes, but
it is subordinated with ease to other considerations. To the Egyptian,
however, it was a matter of paramount importance. "What is a greater
thing," says Sinuhe in the tale of his adventures in Asia, "than that I
should be buried in the land in which I was born?" "Thou shalt not die
in a foreign land; Asiatics shall not conduct thee to the tomb," says
the Pharaoh to him; and again, "It is no little thing that thou shalt
be buried without Asiatics conducting thee."[1] There is a stela now
preserved in Stuttgart, in which the deceased man asks those who pass
his t