“While she was rejoicing over her newly-found child, a fresh peal of thunder told that Typhon had returned.  This time the monster rushed upon the beautiful flowering grave, tore the body out of its coffin, hewed it into fourteen pieces, and strewed them over the shores of the lake.

“When Isis came back to the grave, she found nothing but faded flowers and an empty coffin; but at fourteen different places on the shore fourteen beautiful colored flames were burning.  She and her virgins ran to these flames, while Horus led the youths to battle against Typhon on the opposite shore.

“My eyes and ears hardly sufficed for all I had to see and hear.  On the one shore a fearful and interesting struggle, peals of thunder and the braying of trumpets; on the other the sweet voices of the women, singing the most captivating songs to the most enchanting dances, for Isis had found a portion of her husband’s body at every fire and was rejoicing.

“That was something for you, Zopyrus!  I know of no words to describe the grace of those girls’ movements, or how beautiful it was to see them first mingling in intricate confusion, then suddenly standing in faultless, unbroken lines, falling again into the same lovely tumult and passing once more into order, and all this with the greatest swiftness.  Bright rays of light flashed from their whirling ranks all the time, for each dancer had a mirror fastened between her shoulders, which flashed while she was in motion, and reflected the scene when she was still.

“Just as Isis had found the last limb but one of the murdered Osiris, loud songs of triumph and the flourish of trumpets resounded from the opposite shore.

“Horus had conquered Typhon, and was forcing his way into the nether regions to free his father.  The gate to this lower world opened on the west side of the lake and was guarded by a fierce female hippopotamus.

“And now a lovely music of flutes and harps came nearer and nearer, heavenly perfumes rose into the air, a rosy light spread over the sacred grove, growing brighter every minute, and Osiris came up from the lower world, led by his victorious son.  Isis hastened to embrace her risen and delivered husband, gave the beautiful Horus his lotus-flower again instead of the sword, and scattered fruits and flowers over the earth, while Osiris seated himself under a canopy wreathed with ivy, and received the homage of all the spirits of the earth and of the Amenti.”

[The lower world, in Egyptian Amenti, properly speaking, the West or kingdom of death, to which the soul returns at the death of the body, as the sun at his setting.  In a hieroglyphic inscription of the time of the Ptolemies the Amenti is called Hades.]

Darius was silent.  Rhodopis began: 

“We thank you for your charming account; but this strange spectacle must have a higher meaning, and we should thank you doubly if you would explain that to us.”