"Art thou a man?" spoke Meriamun, in a low clear voice; "are you men,
and yet afraid of what comes to all? Is it only to-night that we first
hear the name of Death? Remember the great Men-kau-ra, remember the
old Pharaoh who built the Pyramid of Hir. He was just and kind, and he
feared the Gods, and for his reward they showed him Death, coming on him
in six short years. Did he scowl and tremble, like all of you to-night,
who are scared by the threats of slaves? Nay, he outwitted the Gods, he
made night into day, he lived out twice his years, with revel and love
and wine in the lamp-lit groves of persea trees. Come, my guests, let us
be merry, if it be but for an hour. Drink, and be brave!"

"For once thou speakest well," said the King. "Drink and forget; the
Gods who give Death give wine," and his angry eyes ranged through the
hall, to seek some occasion of mirth and scorn.

"Thou Wanderer!" he said, suddenly. "Thou drinkest not: I have watched
thee as the cups go round; what, man, thou comest from the North,
the sun of thy pale land has not heat enough to foster the vine. Thou
seemest cold, and a drinker of water; why wilt thou be cold before thine
hour? Come, pledge me in the red wine of Khem. Bring forth the cup of
Pasht!" he cried to them who waited, "bring forth the cup of Pasht, the
King drinks!"

Then the chief butler of Pharaoh went to the treasure-house, and came
again, bearing a huge golden cup, fashioned in the form of a lion's
head, and holding twelve measures of wine. It was an ancient cup, sacred
to Pasht, and a gift of the Rutennu to Thothmes, the greatest of that
name.