[The Pharaohs themselves, as well as their subjects, were in the habit of playing at draughts and other similar games.  Rosellini gives its Rameses playing with his daughter; see also two Egyptians playing together, Wilkinson II. 419.  An especially beautiful draught-board exists in the Egyptian collection at the Louvre Museum.  The Egyptians hoped to be permitted to enjoy these pleasures even in the other world.]

     [Balls that have been found in the tombs are still to be seen; some,
     for instance, in the Museum at Leyden.]

“Really,” said Bartja, as he watched Nitetis catching the slight hoop, ornamented with gay ribbons, for the hundredth time on her slender ivory rod, “really we must introduce this game at home.  We Persians are so different from you Egyptians.  Everything new has a special charm for us, while to you it is just as hateful.  I shall describe the game to Our mother Kassandane, and she will be delighted to allow my brother’s wives this new amusement.”

“Yes, do, do!” exclaimed the fair Tachot blushing deeply.  “Then Nitetis can play too, and fancy herself back again at home and among those she loves; and Bartja,” she added in a low voice, “whenever you watch the hoops flying, you too must remember this hour.”

“I shall never forget it,” answered he with a smile, and then, turning to his future sister-in-law, he called out cheerfully, “Be of good courage, Nitetis, you will be happier than you fancy with us.  We Asiatics know how to honor beauty; and prove it by taking many wives.”

Nitetis sighed, and the queen Ladice exclaimed, “On the contrary, that very fact proves that you understand but poorly how to appreciate woman’s nature!  You can have no idea, Bartja, what a woman feels on finding that her husband—­the man who to her is more than life itself, and to whom she would gladly and without reserve give up all that she treasures as most sacred—­looks down on her with the same kind of admiration that he bestows on a pretty toy, a noble steed, or a well-wrought wine-bowl.  But it is yet a thousand-fold more painful to feel that the love which every woman has a right to possess for herself alone, must be shared with a hundred others!”

“There speaks the jealous wife!” exclaimed Amasis.  “Would you not fancy that I had often given her occasion to doubt my faithfulness?”

“No, no, my husband,” answered Ladice, “in this point the Egyptian men surpass other nations, that they remain content with that which they have once loved; indeed I venture to assert that an Egyptian wife is the happiest of women.