During the banquet, sweet strains of music floated around us. After we had closed the feast, and were drinking wine, an attendant entered, bearing a miniature mummy, elaborately painted and gilded. Holding this emblem of mortality before me and the admiral, he said solemnly:

{37}

"Behold this, and drink and be happy; for such thou shalt be when thou art dead!"

I was not a little surprised at this unwelcome, and, as it seemed to me, unseasonable intrusion. Pathromenes, observing my looks, said with a smile: "This introduction of a memorial of death to our feasts, O prince, is not unseasonable. It is designed to exhort us to enjoy life while we possess it, for when we are no more, enjoyment will be past." Thus saying, he poured out a vase of wine into our golden cups, and pledged me "Thy health, my mother!" So I drank to thee, and the glory of thy reign. Nevertheless, I do not agree with the admiral, but think, rather, that the intention of this exhibition of Death to guests, is to warn them that, while life is so short, it ought not to be spent wholly in pleasure and festivities.

At length, night coming on, I returned to my ship, and the next day, with a light wind and aided by but one bank of rowers, entered the mighty Nile, and slowly ascended its powerful but sluggish stream. The courtly Pathromenes escorted me past Pelusium, and then took leave of me, embracing me more like a father than a friend. I left my fleet at the Pelusian Delta, to return to Tyre after it shall have received fresh water on board from the Nile. The only galleys I took with me are the one I came in, and that on board of which I {38} sent my secretary to the capital in advance of me. I trust the remainder will safely reach Syria.

{38}

The shores of the Eastern Nile, as we ascended, presented an unchanging scene of gardens, verdant fields of corn, villages, temples, and tombs, all united in one unbroken belt for leagues. The river was dotted with fishers in their slender boats, and we constantly met vessels descending, bound to the open sea: some for Afric for gold-dust and ivory; others to Philistia, for copper and iron; others to Colchis, for silver, or to the Isle of Thasos. The evening of the day we entered the river, we beheld the sacred crocodile. It was a vast scaly monster, basking on the shore. I gazed upon him with wonder and fear. If he be a god, his votaries worship him rather through terror than from love. But to my senses all the minor deities of Egypt are gross and revolting. Yet 

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