ths."

"Uuu! they say that he will be a shrewd ruler," put in another. "He is
friendly with the Phoenicians; he passes time willingly with Pentuer,
who is not of priestly family, but of such poor people as we. But the
army, they say the army would let itself be burnt and drowned for the
new pharaoh."

"Besides, he conquered the Libyans most gloriously a few days ago."

"Where is he now, that new pharaoh?" asked another. "In the desert? I
am afraid that misfortune may meet him before he comes back to us."

"What will any one do to him when he has an army behind him? May I not
live to an honest burial if the young lord will not treat the priests
as a buffalo treats growing wheat."

"O Thou fool!" interrupted an embalmer who had been silent till that
moment. "The pharaoh conquer the priests!"

"Why not?"

"But hast Thou ever seen that a lion tore down a pyramid?"

"Nonsense!"

"Or that a buffalo tossed it apart?"

"Of course he cannot toss it."

"Or that a tempest overturned it."

"What has this man begun at today?"

"Well, I tell thee that sooner will a lion, a buffalo, or a tempest
overturn the great pyramid than the pharaoh put an end to the
priesthood. Even if that pharaoh were a lion, a buffalo, and a tempest
in one person."

"Hei ye, there!" cried men from above. "Is the corpse ready?"

"Yes, yes; but its jaw has fallen," answered they at the entrance.

"All one give it up here, for Isis must go to the city an hour from
now."

After a while the golden boat with the dead pharaoh was raised by means
of ropes to an internal balcony.

From the entrance it went into a great hall, painted in the color of
the sky, and ornamented with golden stars. Through the whole length of
the hall, from one wall to the other, was fixed a balcony in the form
of an arch the ends of which were one story high and the centre a story
and a half.

The hall represented the dome of heaven, the balcony the road of the
sun in the sky. The late pharaoh was to represent Osiris, or the sun,
which passes from the east to the west.

On the pavement of the hall stood a throng of priests and priestesses
who, while waiting for the solemnity, conversed about indifferent
subjects.

"Ready!" cried they from the balcony.

Conversation ceased. Above was heard the sound of a metal plate beaten
thrice and on the balcony appeared the golden boat of the sun in which
the late pharaoh was advancing.

Below sounded the hymn in honor of