The sage began modestly, saying that he, in his simplicity, could not but despair of finding any help where so many wise men had failed; he was experienced only in the lore and mysteries of the Fathers, and he had come thither merely to tell the council what they had considered advisable in such cases, and to suggest that their example should be followed.

He spoke low but fluently, and a murmur of approval followed; then, when the president went on to speak of the low state of the Nile as the root of all the evil, the old man interrupted him, begging them to begin by considering the particular difficulties which they might attack by their own efforts.

The pestilence was in possession of the city; he had just come through the quarter that had been destroyed by the fire, and had seen above fifty sick deprived of all care and reduced to destitution.  Here something could be done; here was a way of showing the angry populace that their advisers and leaders were not sitting with their hands in their laps.

A councillor then proposed that the convent of St. Cecilia, or the now deserted and dilapidated odeum should be given up to them; but Horapollo objected explaining very clearly that such a crowd of sick in the midst of the city would be highly dangerous to the healthy citizens.  This opinion was shared by his friend Philippus, who had indeed commended the plan he had to propose as the only right one.  Whither had their forefathers transported, not merely their beneficent institutions, but their vast temples and tomb-buildings which covered so much space?  Always to the desert outside the town.  Arrianus had even written these verses on the gigantic sphinx near the Pyramids.

“The gods erewhile created these far-shining forms, wisely sparing the fields and fertile corn-bearing plain.”

The moderns had forgotten thus to spare the arable land, and they had also neglected to make good use of the desert.  The dead and plague-stricken must not be allowed to endanger the living; they must therefore be lodged away from the town, in the Necropolis in the desert.

“But we cannot let them be under the broiling sun,” cried the president.

“Still less,” added another, “can we build a house for them in a day.”

To this Horapollo replied: 

“And who would be so foolish as to ask you to do either?  But there are linen and posts to be had in Memphis.  Have some large tents pitched in the Necropolis, and all who fall sick of the pestilence removed there at the expense of the city and tended under their shade.  Appoint three or four of your number to carry this into execution and there will be a shelter for the roofless sick in a few hours.  How many boatmen and shipwrights are standing idle on the quays!  Call them together and in an hour they will be at work.”

This suggestion was approved.  A linen-merchant present exclaimed:  “I can supply what is needed,” and another who dealt in the same wares, and exported this famous Egyptian manufacture to remote places, also put in a word, desiring that his house might have the order as he could sell cheaper.  This squabble might have absorbed the attention of the meeting till it rose, and perhaps have been renewed the next day, if Horapollo’s proposal that they should divide the commission equally had not been hastily adopted.