d."]

Yet this simple old man had been, but a few years before, the most
envied of his race and age; and even in our day at two thousand years'
interval, his name is used as a synonyme for the highest point of
worldly riches attainable by mankind. The old man to whom we are now
introduced is no other than Croesus, the dethroned king of Lydia, who
was then living at the court of Cambyses, as his friend and counsellor,
and had accompanied the young Bartja to Egypt, in the capacity of
Mentor.

Croesus was followed by Prexaspes, the king's Ambassador, Zopyrus, the
son of Megabyzus, a Persian noble, the friend of Bartja and Darius; and,
lastly, by his own son, the slender, pale Gyges, who after having become
dumb in his fourth year through the fearful anguish he had suffered
on his father's account at the taking of Sardis, had now recovered the
power of speech.

Psamtik descended the steps to welcome the strangers. His austere,
sallow face endeavored to assume a smile. The high officials in his
train bowed down nearly to the ground, allowing their arms to hang
loosely at their sides. The Persians, crossing their hands on their
breasts, cast themselves on the earth before the heir to the Egyptian
throne. When the first formalities were over, Bartja, according to the
custom of his native country, but greatly to the astonishment of the
populace, who were totally unaccustomed to such a sight, kissed the
sallow cheek of the Egyptian prince; who shuddered at the touch of a
stranger's unclean lips, then took his way to the litters waiting to
convey him and his escort to the dwelling designed for them by the king,
in the palace at Sais.

A portion of the crowd streamed after the strangers, but the larger
number remained at their places, knowing that many a new and wonderful
sight yet awaited them.

"Are you going to run after those dressed-up monkeys and children of
Typhon, too?" asked an angry priest of his neighbor, a respectable
tailor of Sais. "I tell you, Puhor, and the high-priest says so too,
that these strangers can bring no good to the black land! I am for the
good old times, when no one who cared for his life dared set foot on
Egyptian soil. Now our streets are literally swarming with cheating
Hebrews, and above all with those insolent Greeks whom may the gods
destroy!

[The Jews were called Hebrews (Apuriu) by the Egyptians; as brought
to light by Chabas. See Ebers, Aegypten I. p. 316. H. Brugsch
opposes