Those Arabs—­what fools they were!  Besides the Vekeel only three of their magnates were present, and those men whom no one knew.  Even the Kadi was nowhere to be seen; and he must have forbidden the Moslem women to come, for not a single veiled beauty of the harem was visible.  Not one Egyptian woman would have failed to appear if the plague had not kept so many imprisoned in their houses.  Such a thing would never be seen again; this day’s doings would be a tale to tell to future great-grandchildren!

The music and singing came nearer and nearer; and it did not indeed sound as if it were escorting a hapless creature to a fearful end.  Blast after blast rang out from the trumpets, filling the air with festive defiance; cheerful bridal songs came nearer and nearer to the listeners, the shrill chorus of boys and maidens sounding above the deeper and stronger chant of youths and men of all ages; flutes piped a gay invitation to gladness; the dull roar of drums muttered like the distant waves in time to a march, broken by the clang of cymbals and the tinkle of bells hung around tambourines held high by girlish hands which struck, rattled and waved them above their flowing curls; lute players discoursed sweet music on the strings; and as this vast tide of mingled tones came closer, behind it there was still more music and more song.

To the ear the procession seemed endless, and the eye soon confirmed the impression.

All were listening, gazing, watching to see the Bride and her escort.  Every eye seemed compelled to turn in the same direction; and presently there came:  first the trumpeters on spirited horses, and these ranged themselves on each side of the road by the shore leading to the scene of the “marriage.”  In front of them the choir of women took their stand to the left and, on the right, the men who had marched after them.  All alike were arrayed in light sea-green garments, and loaded with lotos-flowers.  The women’s hair, twined with white blossoms, flowed over their shoulders; the men carried bunches of papyrus and reeds;—­they represented river gods that had risen from the stream.

Then came boys and bearded men, in white robes, with panther-skins on their shoulders, as the heathen priests had been wont to wear them.  They were headed by two old men with long white beards, one holding a silver cup and the other a golden one, ready to fling them into the waves as a first offering, according to the practise of their forefathers, as Horapollo had described and ordered it.  These went on to the pontoon, to its farthest end, and took their place on one side of the platform whence the Bride was to be cast into the river.  Behind them came a large troop of flute-players and drummers, followed by fifty maidens holding tambourines, and fifty men all dressed and carrying emblems as followers of Dionysus, or Osiris-Bacchus, who had been worshipped here in the time of the Romans; with these came the drunken Silenus, goathoofed Satyrs and Pan, with his reed-pipes, all riding grey asses strangely bedaubed with yellow.