ter lot acquired a
flavor of the sweetest enjoyment.

But to-day it was too late; he must give up his visit to the tomb of
Rameses.

Once more he looked back at the hut, and then hurried into the dark
cave.

CHAPTER XIV.

Pentauer also soon quitted the but of the paraschites.

Lost in meditation, he went along the hill-path which led to the temple
which Ameni had put under his direction.

[This temple is well proportioned, and remains in good preservation.
Copies of the interesting pictures discovered in it are to be found
in the "Fleet of an Egyptian queen" by Dutnichen. Other details may
be found in Lepsius' Monuments of Egypt, and a plan of the place has
recently been published by Mariette.]

He foresaw many disturbed and anxious hours in the immediate future.

The sanctuary of which he was the superior, had been dedicated to her
own memory, and to the goddess Hathor, by Hatasu,

[The daughter of Thotmes I., wife of her brother Thotmes II., and
predecessor of her second brother Thotmes III. An energetic woman
who executed great works, and caused herself to be represented with
the helmet and beard-case of a man.]

a great queen of the dethroned dynasty.

The priests who served it were endowed with peculiar chartered
privileges, which hitherto had been strictly respected. Their dignity
was hereditary, going down from father to son, and they had the right of
choosing their director from among themselves.

Now their chief priest Rui was ill and dying, and Ameni, under whose
jurisdiction they came, had, without consulting them, sent the young
poet Pentaur to fill his place.

They had received the intruder most unwillingly, and combined strongly
against him when it became evident that he was disposed to establish
a severe rule and to abolish many abuses which had become established
customs.

They had devolved the greeting of the rising sun on the temple-servants;
Pentaur required that the younger ones at least should take part
in chanting the morning hymn, and himself led the choir. They had
trafficked with the offerings laid on the altar of the Goddess; the new
master repressed this abuse, as well as the extortions of which they
were guilty towards women in sorrow, who visited the temple of Hathor in
greater number than any other sanctuary.

The poet-brought up in the temple of Seti to self-control, order,
exactitude, and decent customs, deeply penetrated with a sense o