of what was going on within had spread among the
multitude.

The sun was going down. The visitors to the Necropolis must soon be
leaving it, and Bent-Anat, for whose appearance the people impatiently
waited, would not show herself. One and another said the princess had
been cursed, because she had taken remedies to the fair and injured
Uarda, who was known to many of them.

Among the curious who had flocked together were many embalmers,
laborers, and humble folk, who lived in the Necropolis. The mutinous and
refractory temper of the Egyptians, which brought such heavy suffering
on them under their later foreign rulers, was aroused, and rising
with every minute. They reviled the pride of the priests, and their
senseless, worthless, institutions. A drunken soldier, who soon reeled
back into the tavern which he had but just left, distinguished himself
as ringleader, and was the first to pick up a heavy stone to fling at
the huge brass-plated temple gates. A few boys followed his example
with shouts, and law-abiding men even, urged by the clamor of fanatical
women, let themselves be led away to stone-flinging and words of abuse.

Within the House of Seti the priests' chant went on uninterruptedly;
but at last, when the noise of the crowd grew louder, the great gate was
thrown open, and with a solemn step Ameni, in full robes, and followed
by twenty pastophori--[An order of priests]--who bore images of the Gods
and holy symbols on their shoulders--Ameni walked into the midst of the
crowd.

All were silent.

"Wherefore do you disturb our worship?" he asked loudly and calmly.

A roar of confused cries answered him, in which the frequently repeated
name of Bent-Anat could alone be distinguished.

Ameni preserved his immoveable composure, and, raising his crozier, he
cried--

"Make way for the daughter of Rameses, who sought and has found
purification from the Gods, who behold the guilt of the highest as
of the lowest among you. They reward the pious, but they punish the
offender. Kneel down and let us pray that they may forgive you, and
bless both you and your children."

Ameni took the holy Sistrum

[A rattling metal instrument used by the Egyptians in the service of
the Gods. Many specimens are extant in Museums. Plutarch describes
it correctly, thus: "The Sistrum is rounded above, and the loop
holds the four bars which are shaken." On the bend of the Sistrum
they often set the head of a cat with a