For a while, some months indeed, this Grecian Kallikrates vanished
from my sight and even from my thoughts, save when, from time to time,
I heard of him as studying the Mysteries among the priests, having, it
was said, determined to renounce the world and be sworn to the service
of the goddess. Noot told me that he was very earnest in this design
and made great progress in the faith, which pleased the priests who
desired above all things to convert those that served Grecian gods
with whom the deities of Egypt, and above all Isis, were at war.
Therefore they hastened his preparation so that as soon as might be he
should be bound to the Heavenly Queen by bonds that could not be
loosed.At length his fasts and instruction were completed; his trials had
been passed and the hour came when he must make his last confession to
the goddess and swear the awful oaths to her very self.Now since Isis did not descend to earth to stand face to face with
every neophyte, it was needful in this great ceremony that one filled
with her spirit should take her place and as may be guessed, that one
was I, Ayesha the Arab. To speak truth, in all Egypt, because of my
beauty, my learning, and the grace that was given to me, there was
none so fitting to wear her mantle as myself. Indeed afterward this
was acknowledged when, with a single voice, the Colleges of her
servants throughout the land, men and women together, promoted me to
be her high-priestess, and gave me, who aforetime among them was known
by the title of Wisdom's Daughter, the new name of _Isis-come-to-earth_,
or in shorter words, _The Isis_. For my own name of Ayesha I kept hid
lest it should be discovered that I was that chieftainess, the child of
Yarab, who had defeated the army of Nectanebes.Therefore at a certain hour of the night, draped in the holy robes,
wearing on my brow the vulture cap and the bent symbol of the moon,
holding in my hand the _sistrum_ and the cross of Life, I was
conducted to the pillared sanctuary and seated alone upon the throne
of blackest marble, with the round symbol of the world for my
footstool.Thus, having learned my part and the ancient hallowed words that I
must say, I sat awhile wondering in my heart whether Isis herself
could be more glorious or more fair. So indeed did the priests and
priestesses who saw me thus arrayed and bent the knee to me as though
I were the very goddess, which in truth many of the humbler among them
half believed.Thus I sat in the moonlight that flowed from the unroofed hall beyond,
while the carven gods watched me with their quiet eyes.At length I heard the sound of footsteps whereon there came a
priestess and flung over me the white veil of innocence sewn with
golden stars that until the appointed moment must hide Isis from her

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