Cambyses bit his lip, looked searchingly into Bartja’s face, and finding that the boy grew uneasy under his glance, exclaimed abruptly and angrily:  “Your first business is to hasten to the Tapuri.  My wife needs your care no longer; she has other protectors now.”  So saying he turned his back on his brother and passed on into the great hall, blazing with gold, purple and jewels, where the chiefs of the army, satraps, judges, treasurers, secretaries, counsellors, eunuchs, door-keepers, introducers of strangers, chamberlains, keepers of the wardrobe, dressers, cup-bearers, equerries, masters of the chase, physicians, eyes and ears of the king, ambassadors and plenipotentiaries of all descriptions—­were in waiting for him.

[The “eyes and ears” of the king may be compared to our police- ministers.  Darius may have borrowed the name from Egypt, where such titles as “the 2 eyes of the king for Upper Egypt, the 2 ears of the king for Lower Egypt” are to be found on the earlier monuments, for instance in the tomb of Amen en, heb at Abd el Qurnah.  And in Herodotus II. 114. the boy Cyrus calls one of his playfellows “the eye of the king,” Herod. (I, 100.)]

The king was preceded by heralds bearing staves, and followed by a host of fan, sedan and footstool-bearers, men carrying carpets, and secretaries who the moment he uttered a command, or even indicated a concession, a punishment or a reward, hastened to note it down and at once hand it over to the officials empowered to execute his decrees.

In the middle of the brilliantly-lighted hall stood a gilded table, which looked as if it must give way beneath the mass of gold and silver vessels, plates, cups and bowls which were arranged with great order upon it.  The king’s private table, the service on which was of immense worth and beauty, was placed in an apartment opening out of the large hall, and separated from it by purple hangings.  These concealed him from the gaze of the revellers, but did not prevent their every movement from being watched by his eye.  It was an object of the highest ambition to be one of those who ate at the king’s table, and even he to whom a portion was sent might deem himself a highly-favored man.

As Cambyses entered the hall, nearly every one present prostrated themselves before him; his relations alone, distinguished by the blue and white fillet on the tiara, contented themselves with a deferential obeisance.

After the king had seated himself in his private apartment, the rest of the company took their places, and then a tremendous revel began.  Animals, roasted whole, were placed on the table, and, when hunger was appeased, several courses of the rarest delicacies followed, celebrated in later times even among the Greeks under the name of “Persian dessert.”

     [Herodotus (I. 133.) writes that the Persians fancied the Greeks’
     hunger was never satisfied, because nothing special was brought to
     the table at the end of the meal.]