house.  Pichi,—­you know, that impudent fellow from the temple of Neith,—­pushed me back, barred the door inside and told the police to put me in fetters if I refused to obey him.  Of course I got angry and did not use very civil words to them—­you know that’s my way when I’m put out—­and what does that bit of a fellow do—­by our god Thoth, the protector of knowledge who must know all, I’m speaking the truth—­but order them to bind my hands, forbid me—­me, old Hib—­to speak, and then tell me that he had been told by the high-priest to order me five-and-twenty strokes, if I refused to do his bidding.  He showed me the high-priest’s ring, and so I knew there was nothing for it but to obey the villain, whether I would or no.  And what was his modest demand?  Why, nothing less than to give him all the written papers you had left behind.  But old Hib is not quite so stupid as to let himself be caught in that way, though some people, who ought to know better, do fancy he can be bribed and is no better than the son of an ass.  What did I do then?  I pretended to be quite crushed into submission by the sight of the signet-ring, begged Pichi as politely as I could to unfasten my hands, and told him I would fetch the keys.  They loosened the cords, I flew up the stairs five steps at a time, burst open the door of your sleeping-room, pushed my little grandson, who was standing by it, into the room and barred it within.  Thanks to my long legs, the others were so far behind that I had time to get hold of the black box which you had told me to take so much care of, put it into the child’s arms, lift him through the window on to the balcony which runs round the house towards the inner court, and tell him to put it at once into the pigeon-house.  Then I opened the door as if nothing had happened, told Pichi the child had had a knife in his mouth, and that that was the reason I had run upstairs in such a hurry, and had put him out on the balcony to punish him.  That brother of a hippopotamus was easily taken in, and then he made me show him over the house.  First they found the great sycamore-chest which you had told me to take great care of too, then the papyrus-rolls on your writing-table, and so by degrees every written paper in the house.  They made no distinction, but put all together into the great chest and carried it downstairs; the little black box, however, lay safe enough in the pigeon-house.  My grandchild is the sharpest boy in all Sais!

“When I saw them really carrying the chest downstairs, all the anger I’d been trying so hard to keep down burst out again.  I told the impudent fellows I would accuse them before the magistrates, nay, even before the king if necessary, and if those confounded Persians, who were having the city shown them, had not come up just then and made everybody stare at them, I could have roused the crowd to take my side.  The same evening I went to my son-in-law-he is employed in the temple of Neith too, you know,—­and