building, on which stood two statues, one of Isis, and its companion represented the silent and mystic Orus.  But the building contained many other deities to grace the court of the Egyptian deity:  her kindred and many-titled Bacchus, and the Cyprian Venus, a Grecian disguise for herself, rising from her bath, and the dog-headed Anubis, and the ox Apis, and various Egyptian idols of uncouth form and unknown appellations.

But we must not suppose that among the cities of Magna Graecia, Isis was worshipped with those forms and ceremonies which were of right her own.  The mongrel and modern nations of the South, with a mingled arrogance and ignorance, confounded the worships of all climes and ages.  And the profound mysteries of the Nile were degraded by a hundred meretricious and frivolous admixtures from the creeds of Cephisus and of Tibur.  The temple of Isis in Pompeii was served by Roman and Greek priests, ignorant alike of the language and the customs of her ancient votaries; and the descendant of the dread Egyptian kings, beneath the appearance of reverential awe, secretly laughed to scorn the puny mummeries which imitated the solemn and typical worship of his burning clime.

Ranged now on either side the steps was the sacrificial crowd, arrayed in white garments, while at the summit stood two of the inferior priests, the one holding a palm branch, the other a slender sheaf of corn.  In the narrow passage in front thronged the bystanders.

‘And what,’ whispered Arbaces to one of the bystanders, who was a merchant engaged in the Alexandrian trade, which trade had probably first introduced in Pompeii the worship of the Egyptian goddess—­’what occasion now assembles you before the altars of the venerable Isis?  It seems, by the white robes of the group before me, that a sacrifice is to be rendered; and by the assembly of the priests, that ye are prepared for some oracle.  To what question is it to vouchsafe a reply?’

‘We are merchants,’ replied the bystander (who was no other than Diomed) in the same voice, ’who seek to know the fate of our vessels, which sail for Alexandria to-morrow.  We are about to offer up a sacrifice and implore an answer from the goddess.  I am not one of those who have petitioned the priest to sacrifice, as you may see by my dress, but I have some interest in the success of the fleet—­by Jupiter! yes.  I have a pretty trade, else how could I live in these hard times?

The Egyptian replied gravely—­’That though Isis was properly the goddess of agriculture, she was no less the patron of commerce.’  Then turning his head towards the east, Arbaces seemed absorbed in silent prayer.