with an obelisk set upright in the basin. The walls were adorned
with figures painted in simple colours, most of them in red ochre,
but also in yellow and black. He drew off his sandals, and went on
into a gallery where stood mummy-coffins leaning against the wall.

Then he entered a domed room, on the vault of which were painted the
great constellations of the northern hemisphere. In the middle of
the room stood a table, on which lay a half-globe covered with
designs resembling the outlines of a map. By the window stood
another table, with a model of the largest pyramid set upon a
land-surveyor's board, with a scale of measurements. Close by stood
an alidade, an instrument for measuring angles.

There was no visible outlet to this room, but after some search the
uninitiated Hebrew found some stairs of acacia-wood leading up
through a wooden tower. He climbed and climbed, but when he looked
through the loopholes, he found himself always on a level with the
roof of the domed room. But he continued to ascend, and after he had
again counted a hundred steps and, looked through a loop hole, he
found himself on a level with the floor of the domed room. Then
a wooden door opened, and an elderly man in half-priestly garb
received him with a greeting as though he were a well-known and
expected superior. But when he saw a stranger, he started, and the
two men gazed at each other long, before they could speak. Amram,
who felt unpleasantly surprised, began the verbal encounter:
"Reuben? Don't you know me, the friend of your youth, and your
kinsman in the Promise?"

"Amram, the husband of Jochebed, the son of Kohath! Yes, I know
you!"