evealed a cincture seemingly of
fire, that burned around his waist, clasped in the centre by a plate
whereon was engraven some sign apparently vague and unintelligible but
which was evidently not unknown to the Saga. She rose hastily, and
threw herself at the feet of Arbaces. 'I have seen, then,' said she, in
a voice of deep humility, 'the Lord of the Mighty Girdle--vouchsafe my
homage.'

'Rise,' said the Egyptian; 'I have need of thee.'

So saying, he placed himself on the same log of wood on which Ione had
rested before, and motioned to the witch to resume her seat.

'Thou sayest,' said he, as she obeyed, 'that thou art a daughter of the
ancient Etrurian tribes; the mighty walls of whose rock-built cities yet
frown above the robber race that hath seized upon their ancient reign.
Partly came those tribes from Greece, partly were they exiles from a
more burning and primeval soil. In either case art thou of Egyptian
lineage, for the Grecian masters of the aboriginal helot were among the
restless sons whom the Nile banished from her bosom. Equally, then, O
Saga! thy descent is from ancestors that swore allegiance to mine own.
By birth as by knowledge, art thou the subject of Arbaces. Hear me,
then, and obey!'

The witch bowed her head.

'Whatever art we possess in sorcery,' continued Arbaces, 'we are
sometimes driven to natural means to attain our object. The ring and
the crystal, and the ashes and the herbs, do not give unerring
divinations; neither do the higher mysteries of the moon yield even the
possessor of the girdle a dispensation from the necessity of employing
ever and anon human measures for a human object. Mark me, then: thou
art deeply skilled, methinks, in the secrets of the more deadly herbs;
thou knowest those which arrest life, which burn and scorch the soul
from out her citadel, or freeze the channels of young blood into that
ice which no sun can melt. Do I overrate thy skill? Speak, and truly!'

'Mighty Hermes, such lore is, indeed, mine own. Deign to look at these
ghostly and corpse-like features; they have waned from the hues of life
merely by watching over the rank herbs which simmer night and day in yon
cauldron.'

The Egyptian moved his seat from so unblessed or so unhealthful a
vicinity as the witch spoke.

'It is well,' said he; 'thou hast learned that maxim of all the deeper
knowledge which saith, "Despise the body to make wise the mind." But to
thy task. There cometh to the