as my mouth!

Now that night, whether by chance or by the will of Heaven, a great tempest sprang up suddenly. The captain of the trireme, a Greek or a half-Greek of Naukratis, Philo by name, whom now upon this ship I met for the first time, came himself to warn me, and to make sure that all was fast in my cabin. He was a quick-brained man, very active in his body and pleasant-faced, with a brown, pointed beard, who had seen some five and thirty years upon the earth. I had made inquiries concerning him from a certain slave who attended me, and was told that although he pretended to timidity, this Philo was in truth a great warrior and one of the best handlers of a bow upon the mouths of Nile, since that which he aimed at he always hit, even if it were a fowl in flight. Moreover, he was a very good seaman and, it was said, faithful to those he served and a worshipper of the gods."If so," I answered to that old slave, "how comes it that this Philo,instead of a humble captain, is not the first general or admiral amongthe Greeks, as a man of such quality should be?"
"Because, divine Lady, of certain faults," answered the slave, "suchfaults as have made of me what I am instead of the Count of a Nomeupon the Nile as I should have been. This Philo has always thoughtmore of the welfare of others than of his own, which is a very evilweakness; also he has loved women too much, which is a worse."
"Vile sins indeed," I said, "more particularly the second. The wisealways think of themselves first, and the holy never love more thanone woman, and her not too much, which perhaps is why the wise and theholy are so hateful and so dull. Bring this Philo to me; he is onewhom I should wish to know."
In the end Philo came, though whether because my message had reachedhim, or because of the advancing storm, I am not certain. At least hecame, and as he bowed before me, made a certain secret sign whereby Iknew that he was a worshipper of Isis and one of high degree, thoughnot of the highest, since when I tried him with that sign he could notanswer. Still his rank in our great company was enough, andthenceforward we spoke to each other under the seal of the goddess, oras our phrase went in those days "within the shadow of her wings," asbrother and sister might, or rather as mother and son.
That is, we did this after I had proved him further and brought to hismind the fate of those who betray the goddess and her ministers upearth.
This Philo told me in few words, that although the trireme wasEgyptian and named Hapi after the god of Nile, for this voyage shewas under charter to Tenes and for the most part manned withSidonians, also with low fellows from Cyprus and the coast-ports.These like the Phœnician guards of Tenes, of whom 

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