Part 22 (1/2)
For no s off, and our kings are put naked into the crystal”
”And what becoo to the earth or the water and the Grasshopper carries off their souls to--where, Master?”
”I do not know, Bes”
”No, Master, no one knows, except the lady Amada and perhaps the holy Tanofir Here I think is the entrance to his hole,” and he pulled up his beast with a jerk at what looked like the doorway of a tomb
Apparently ere expected, for a tall and proud-looking girl clad in white and with extraordinarily dark eyes, appeared in the doorway and asked in a soft voice if ere the noble Shabaka and Bes, his slave
”I am Shabaka,” I answered, ”and this is Bes, who is not irl conte eyes, then said,
”And other things, I think”
”What things?” inquired Bes with interest, as he stared at this beautiful lady
”A very brave and clever man and one perhaps who isyou about me?” exclaimed Bes anxiously
”No one, O Bes, at least not that I can remember”
”Not that you can res you know not how?”
”I am named Karema and desert-bred, and my office is that of Cup to the holy Tanofir”
”If hermits drink fro ”But how can a woman be a man's cup and what kind of a wine does he drink from her?”
”The wine of wisdo a little, for like h blood she was very fair in hue
”Wine of wisdom,” said Bes ”From such cups most drink the wine of folly, or sometimes of madness”
”The holy Tanofir awaits you,” she interrupted, and turning, entered the doorway
A little way down the passage was a niche in which stood three laave the others to us Then we followed her down a steep incline of th we found ourselves in a hot and enor rock and filled with blackness
”What is this place?” said Bes, who looked frightened, and although he spoke in a lohisper, our guide overheard hi, answered,
”This is the burial place of the Apis bulls See, here lies the last, not yet closed in,” and holding up her laranite set in a niche of the mausoleuroaned Bes ”Oh!
what a land But when I have seen the holy Tanofir it was in a brick cell beneath the sky”