foreigners!"

"Yes, it is hard indeed!" sighed the priest, "one might fancy a whole
army arriving. Amasis will go on in this manner until the strangers
drive him from his throne and country, and plunder and make slaves of us
poor creatures, as the evil Hyksos, those scourges of Egypt, and the
black Ethiopians did, in the days of old."

"The seventh boat!" shouted the tailor.

"May my protectress Neith, the great goddess of Sais, destroy me, if I
can understand the king," complained the priest. "He sent three barks to
Naukratis, that poisonous nest hated of the gods, to fetch the servants
and baggage of these Persians; but instead of three, eight had to be
procured, for these despisers of the gods and profaners of dead bodies
have not only brought kitchen utensils, dogs, horses, carriages, chests,
baskets and bales, but have dragged with them, thousands of miles, a
whole host of servants. They tell me that some of them have no other
work than twining of garlands and preparing ointments. Their priests
too, whom they call Magi, are here with them. I should like to know what
they are for? of what use is a priest where there is no temple?"


The old King Amasis received the Persian embassy shortly after their
arrival with all the amiability and kindness peculiar to him.

Four days later, after having attended to the affairs of state, a duty
punctually fulfilled by him every morning without exception, he went
forth to walk with Croesus in the royal gardens. The remaining members
of the embassy, accompanied by the crown-prince, were engaged in an