sary store
of produce for the month's requirements was kept.

In the farther wall of this store-court was a very high doorway, that
led into a large garden with rows of well-tended trees and trellised
vines, clumps of shrubs, flowers, and beds of vegetables. Palms,
sycamores, and acacia-trees, figs, pomegranates, and jasmine throve
here particularly well--for Paaker's mother, Setchem, superintended the
labors of the gardeners; and in the large tank in the midst there was
never any lack of water for watering the beds and the roots of the
trees, as it was always supplied by two canals, into which wheels turned
by oxen poured water day and night from the Nile-stream.

On the right side of this plot of ground rose the one-storied dwelling
house, its length stretching into distant perspective, as it consisted
of a single row of living and bedrooms. Almost every room had its own
door, that opened into a veranda supported by colored wooden columns,
and which extended the whole length of the garden side of the house.
This building was joined at a right angle by a row of store-rooms, in
which the garden-produce in fruits and vegetables, the wine-jars, and
the possessions of the house in woven stuffs, skins, leather, and other
property were kept.

In a chamber of strong masonry lay safely locked up the vast riches
accumulated by Paaker's father and by himself, in gold and silver rings,
vessels and figures of beasts. Nor was there lack of bars of copper and
of precious stones, particularly of lapis-lazuli and malachite.

In the middle of the garden stood a handsomely decorated kiosk, and a
chapel with images of the Gods; in the background stood the statues of
Paaker's ancestors in the form of Osiris wrapped in mummy-cloths.

[The justified dead became Osiris; that is to say, attained to the
fullest union (Henosis) with the divinity.]

The faces, which were likenesses, alone distinguished these statues from
each other.

The left side of the store-yard was veiled in gloom, yet the moonlight
revealed numerous dark figures clothed only with aprons, the slaves of
the king's pioneer, who squatted on the ground in groups of five or six,
or lay near each other on thin mats of palm-bast, their hard beds.

Not far from the gate, on the right side of the court, a few lamps
lighted up a group of dusky men, the officers of Paaker's household, who
wore short, shirt-shaped, white garments, and who sat on a carpet round
a table har