ept, and the
gods on their thrones wept with her.

"On the seventh day Xisuthrus perceived that the storm had abated and that
the sea had begun to fall. He sent out a dove, it returned; next, a
swallow, which also returned, but with mud on its feet; and again, a
raven, which saw the corpses in the water and ate them, and returned no
more. Then the boat was stayed and settled upon Mount Nasir. Xisuthrus
went out and worshipped the recovered earth. When his companions went in
search of him he had disappeared, but his voice called to them saying that
for his piety he had been carried away; that he was dwelling among the
gods; and that they were to return to Sepharvaim and dig up the books and
give them to mankind. Which they did, and erected many cities and temples,
and rebuilt Babylon and Mylitta's shrine."

"It is simpler in Genesis," Mary said, the first time she heard this
marvellous tale. For to her, as to Martha and Eleazer, the khazzan, the
teacher of the synagogue, had read from the great square letters in which
the Pentateuch was written another account of the commingling of Chaos and
of Light.

At the mention of the sacred canon, Sephorah would smile with that
indulgence which wisdom brings, and smooth her scanty plaits, and draw the
back of her hand across her mouth.

"Burned on tiles in the land of the magi are the records of a million
years. In the unpolluted tombs of Osorapi the history of life and of time
is written on the cerements of kings. Where the bells ring at the neck of
the camels of Iran is a stretch of columns on which are inscribed the
words of those that lived in Paradise. On a wall of the temple of Bel are
the chronicles of creation; in the palace of Assurbanipal, the narrative
of the flood. It is from these lands and monuments the Thorah comes; its
verses are made of their memories; it gathered whatever it found, and
overlooked the essential, immortal life."

And Sephorah added in a whisper, "For we are descended from gods, and
immortal as they."

The khazzan had disclosed to Mary no such prospect as that. To him as to
all orthodox expounders of the Law man was essentially evanescent; he
lived his little day and disappeared forever. God alone was immortal, and
an immortal being would be God. The contrary beliefs of the Egyptians and
the Aryans were to them abominations, and the spiritualistic doctrine
inaugurated by Juda Maccabaeus and accepted by the Pharisees, an impiety.
The Pentateuc