Part 8 (2/2)

Did Poeri perceive the evident love of Tahoser for him? Or for some secret reason, did he pretend not to perceive it? His entle and kindly, but reserved, as if he sought to prevent or repel soiven him pain to reply to And yet the sham Hora was very beautiful Her charms, betrayed by the poverty of her dress, were all the more beautiful; and just as in the hottest hours of the day a lu earth, so did an atmosphere of love shi+mmer around her On her half-open lips her passion fluttered like a bird that seeks to take its flight; and softly, very softly, when she was sure that she would not be heard, she repeated like a monotonous cantilena, ”Poeri, I love you”

It was harvest time, and Poeri went out to oversee the workmen Tahoser, who could no more leave him than the shadow can leave the body, followed hi lest he should tell her to re er,--

”Grief is lightened by the sight of the peaceful work of agriculture, and if sohs down your soul, it will disappear at the sight of this joyous activity These things must be novel to you, for your skin, which the sun has never kissed, your delicate feet, your slender hands, and the elegance hich you drape yourself in the piece of coarse stuff which serves you for a vestment, prove to me that you have always inhabited cities, and have lived in the midst of refine your spindle, under the shadow of that tree, where the harvesters have hung up, to keep it cool, the skin which holds their drink”

Tahoser obeyed and sat down under the tree, her arms crossed on her knees and her knees up to her chin Froarden wall, the plain stretched to the foot of the Libyan chain like a yellow sea over which the least breath of air drove waves of gold The light was so intense that the golden tone of the grain whitened in places and becarown strong, straight, and high like javelins, and never had a richer harvest, fla with heat, been outspread in the sun The crop was abundant enough to fill up to the ceiling the range of vaulted granaries which rose near the cellars

The work while at work, and here and there out of the waves of the corn showed their woolly or close-shaven heads covered with pieces of white stuff, and their naked torsos the colour of baked brick They bent and rose with a regular ularly as if they had followed a line leaners with esparto bags, in which they placed the harvested ears, and which they then carried on their shoulders, or suspended fro-mills situated some distance apart

Sometimes the breathless harvesters stopped to take breath, and putting their sickles under their right arht of water Then they quickly resu the forerain was spread on the threshi+ng-floor in layers evened with a pitchfork, and slightly higher on the edges on account of the additional basketfuls which were being poured on

Then Poeri signed to the ox-driver to bring on his ani horns, curved like the head-dress of Isis, with high withers, deep dewlaps, clean, muscular limbs; the brand of the estate, stamped with a red-hot iron, showed upon their flanks They walked slowly, bearing a horizontal yoke which bore equally upon the heads of the four

They were driven on to the threshi+ng-floor; urged by the double-lashed whip, they began to tra from the ear under their cloven hoofs; the sun shone on their lustrous coats, and the dust which they raised ascended to their nostrils, so that after going around about twenty tiainst another, and in spite of the hissing hich lashed their flanks, they would une the by the tail the nearest ani: ”Turn for yourselves, O oxen, turn for yourselves; measures for you, and measures for your masters”

And the team, with new spirit, started on and disappeared in a cloud of yellow dust that sparkled like gold

The work of the oxen done, carain into the air and let it fall to separate it frorain thus as put into bags, the numbers of which were noted by a scribe, and carried to the lofts, which were reached by ladders

Tahoser under the shadow of her tree enjoyed this anirandiose spectacle, and often her heedless hand forgot to spin the thread The day aning, and already the sun, which had risen behind Thebes, had crossed the Nile and was sinking towards the Libyan chain, behind which its disc sets every evening It was the hour when the cattle returned fro pastoral procession

First was seen advancing the vast herd of oxen, sohter spots, others piebald, others brindled They were of all colours and all sizes They passed by, lifting up their lustrous entle eyes; thethe stables, half raised themselves for a moment and peered above the horned multitude, hich, as they fell, they were soon confounded; the less skilful, outstripped by their co, plaintive bellows as if to protest Near the oxen walked the herds with their whip and their rolled up cord

On arriving near Poeri they knelt down, and, with their elbows close to their sides, touched the ground with their lips as a mark of respect

Scribes wrote down the number of heads of cattle upon tablets

Behind the oxen ca under the blows of the donkey drivers These had sirdle, the end of which fell between their legs The donkeys went past, shaking their long ears and traround with their little, hard hoofs The donkey drivers perforenuflection as the ox-herds, and the scribes noted also the exact nuoats They arrived, headed by the he-goat, their broken and shrill voices treoat-herds had ing back to theones which strayed away They were counted, like the oxen and the asses, and with the saoat-herds prostrated themselves at Poeri's feet

The procession was closed by the geese, which, weary alking on the road, balanced thes noisily, stretched out their necks, and uttered hoarse cries Their number was taken, and the tablets handed to the steward of the dooats, and the geese had gone in, a column of dust which the wind could not sweep away still rose slowly into the heavens

”Well, Hora,” said Poeri to Tahoser, ”has the sight of the harvest and the flocks amused you? These are our pastoral pleasures We have not here, as in Thebes, harpists and dancers; but agriculture is holy; it is the nurse of reeable to the Gods Now come and take yourback to the house to calculate how many bushels of wheat the ears have produced”

Tahoser put one hand to the ground and the other on her head as a -hall laughed and chattered a nu servants as they ate their onions and cakes of doora and dates A save theht upon their brown cheeks and bodies which no garment veiled Soainst the ith one leg drawn up

”Where does theestures

”The oes where he pleases,” replied a tall slave, as chewing the petals of a flower ”Is he to tell you what he does? It is not you, in any case, ill keep him here”

”Why not I as well as another?” answered the child, piqued

The tall slave shrugged her shoulders