Well, preceded by the eunuch and followed by the dwarf, I crawled though the sand in which grew some thorny plants that pricked my knees and fingers, towards the person of the Monarch of the World.  He had descended from his chariot by help of a footstool, and was engaged in drinking from a golden cup, while his attendants stood around in various attitudes of adoration, he who had handed him the cup being upon his knees.  Presently he looked up and saw us.

“Who are these?” he asked in a high voice that yet was not unmusical, “and why do you bring them into my presence?”

“May it please the King,” answered our guide, knocking his head upon the ground in a very agony of humiliation, “may it please the King——­”

“It would please me better, dog, if you answered my question.  Who are they?”

“May it please the King, this is the Egyptian hunter and noble, Shabaka.”

“I hear,” said his Majesty with a gleam of interest in his tired eyes, “and what does this Egyptian here?”

“May it please the King, the King bade me bring him to the presence, but now when the chariots halted.”

“I forgot; you are forgiven.  But who is that with him?  Is it a man or an ape?”

Here I screwed my head round and saw that my slave in his efforts to obey the eunuch’s instructions and hide his feet, had made himself into a kind of ball, much as a hedgehog does, except that his big head appeared in front of the ball.

“O King, that I understand is the Egyptian’s servant and charioteer.”

Again he looked interested, and exclaimed,

“Is it so?  Then Egypt must be a stranger country than I thought if such ape-men live there.  Stand up, Egyptian, and bid your ape stand up also, for I cannot hear men who speak with their mouths in the dust.”

So I rose and saluted by lifting both my hands and bowing as I had observed others do, trying, however, to keep them covered by my sleeves.  The King looked me up and down, then said briefly,

“Set out your name and the business that brought you to my city.”

“May the King live for ever,” I replied.  “As this lord said,” and I pointed to the eunuch——­

“He is not a lord but a dog,” interrupted the Monarch, “who wears the robe of women.  But continue.”

“As this dog who wears the robe of women said”—­here the King laughed, but the eunuch, Houman, turned green with rage and glowered at me—­“my name is Shabaka.  I am a descendant of the Ethiopian king of Egypt of that same name.”

“It seems from all I hear that there are too many descendants of kings in Egypt.  When I visit that land which perhaps soon I must do with an army at my back,” here he stared at me coldly, “it may be well to lessen their number.  There is a certain Peroa for instance.”

He paused, but I made no answer, since Peroa was my father’s cousin and of the fallen Royal House; also the protector of my youth.