Here I must say that I found that the title of Karoon meant “Great Grasshopper,” but Karema who did not know this, asked indignantly why she should prostrate herself to a grasshopper.  Indeed she refused to do so even when Bes entered the pavilion wonderfully attired in a gorgeous-coloured robe of which the train was held by two huge men.  So absurd did he look that my mother and I must bow very deeply to hide our laughter while Karema said,

“It would be better, Husband, if you found children to carry your robe instead of two giants.  Moreover, if it is meant to copy the colours of a grasshopper, ’tis badly done, since grasshoppers are green and you are gold and scarlet.  Also they do not wear feathers set awry upon their heads.”

Bes rolled his eyes as though in agony, then turning, bade his attendants be gone.  They obeyed, though doubtfully as though they did not like to leave him alone with us, whereon he let down the flap of the pavilion, threw off his gorgeous coverings and said,

“You must learn to understand, Wife, that our customs are different from those of Egypt.  There I was happy as a slave and you were held to be beautiful as the Cup of the holy Tanofir, also learned.  Here I am wretched as a king and you are held to be ugly, also ignorant as a stranger.  Oh! do not answer, I pray you, but learn that all goes well.  For the time you are accepted as my wife, subject to the decision of a council of matrons, aged relatives of my family, who will decide when we reach the City of the Grasshopper whether or not you shall be acknowledged as the Queen of the Ethiopians.  No, no, I pray you say nothing since I must go away at once, as according to the law of the Ethiopians the time has come for the Grasshopper to sleep, alone, Karema, as you are not yet acknowledged as my wife.  You also can sleep with the lady Tiu and for Shabaka a tent is provided.  Rest sweetly, Wife.  Hark!  They fetch me.”

“Now, if I had my way,” said Karema, “I would rest in that boat going back to Egypt.  What say you, lord Shabaka?”

But I made no answer who followed Bes out of the tent, leaving her to talk the matter over with my mother.  Here I found a crowd of his people waiting to convey him to sleep and watching, saw them place him in another tent round which they ranged themselves, playing upon musical instruments.  After this someone came and led me to my own place where was a good bed in which I lay down to sleep.  This however I could not do for a long while because of my own laughter and the noise of the drums and horns that were soothing Bes to his rest.  For now I understood why he had preferred to be a slave in Egypt rather than a king in Ethiopia.

In the morning I rose before the dawn and went out to the river-bank to bathe.  While I was making ready to wash myself, who should appear but Bes, followed, but at a distance, by a number of his people.

“Never have I spent such a night, Master,” he said, “at least not since you took me prisoner years ago, since by law I may not stop those horns and musical instruments.  Now, however, also according to the law of the Ethiopians, I am my own lord until the sun rises.  So I have come here to gather some of those blue lilies which she loves as a present for Karema, because I fear that she is angry and must be appeased.”