her punishment!" I exclaimed, for
the regular eclipse was just beginning. "Look! and tell us all thou
seest."

"I see a glorious orb, far larger than the Day-Giver and very near to
Ptah! But it is the Perverse Daughter, grown larger and come nearer, for
she alone knoweth how to draw the veil of night across her face like
that. Now she hath fully hidden! It is most wonderful, O Pharaoh!"

"Be not deceived by mere appearance, O Zaphnath," replied the Pharaoh.
"All that thou seest may be contained within the thing thou gazest into.
'Tis true, the Perverse Daughter hath drawn her veil, but be thou sure
thou seest what is beyond and not merely what is within."

As soon as this was translated to us, the doctor focussed the telescope
upon the Gnomons, which were just visible over the edge of the plateau,
and I said,--

"Look now again, and behold all the familiar features of the landscape,
the plateau yonder and the ponderous Gnomons, which could never be
contained within this little enclosure."

"'Tis all most true, O Pharaoh, and with this little instrument thy
reign may be more glorious, and come to greater wisdom, than any of that
long line of Pharaohs, whose toiling slaves have built the towering
Gnomons. Let this grey-beard be made chief of all thy wise men; let the
others teach him our language and make him acquainted with all our
monuments and records; also command them to record most faithfully all
the wonders which he is able to reveal. Mayhap he may be able to write
thy name among the stars of night, to shine for ever, instead of upon
the crumbling stone which telleth of thy ancestors!"

"O men of Kem," replied the Pharaoh, addressing the other guests, "hear
ye the wisdom of Zaphnath, which cometh with the swift wings of birds,
while thy halting counsel stumbleth slowly upon the lazy legs of asses!
What Zaphnath asketh hath already been decreed touching these two men
from the Blue Star, provided only that they live peaceably among us
obedient to our laws."

We assured him of our obedience and our best efforts to discharge our
new duties, whereupon the feast continued. Courses of small birds' eggs
and of fruits and confections were each served by a separate group of
maidens. When the feast was finally completed, I turned to Zaphnath with
my cigars and said,--

"In our travelling house I brought with me many such things as these and
others of a smaller, milder form, which might delight the women; but now
th