carpets of silk (covered with silver embroideries) were looped from column to co

lumn all round the immense circle, between each

pair of pillars a carpet hanging from capitals to bases. but the embroideries re
presented the assessors of amentet: throned in
state they were; and they judged the dead, allotting some to the blissful abodes
, and others to the flaming house
of set who gnawed them with his teeth ever champing in expectation of fresh meal
s. and, while i gazed on
these things, i remembered how that amenemhat had spoken of similar carpets. but
when i thought of that priest of
tanis, i was moved to hold a council with the mind in my dear breast concerning
many things. for it
seemed good to me to recall events in order, so that (knowing the past precisely
) i might understand the present
and proceed securely to the future. wherefore, i reminded myself of my godlike d
ismissal of amenemhat at a time when
i awfully needed a friend, of the ordeal of the scorching staff, of the overwhel
ming and wily inquisitiveness which impelled
me to persist in spite of failure, of the mind-delighting reward promised to my
perseverance, of the flying whirling wheels
which swept me back through panoramas of time, of the apparition of the godlike
company of khem. and i considered
all these things, fully and turn by turn, before i laid them away in the cells o
f my memory, as
sedulous squirrels store nuts in hollow trees, making provision for winter. but,
when, at length, i was satisfied, i came
down the steps from the purple altar; and, gathering my priestly robe from the f
loor where i had cast it
at the beginning of the ordeal, i clothed myself, and proceeded to the doistral
antechambers in search of the truck
of baggage which amenemhat had trundled, from the outer future world, into that
arena of untimed immortality. for i was
convinced that i no longer stood in time where i had been, but rather more than
nineteen hundred years prior
to the life which i had left. but of this, i had no particular or human certaint
y, but only a
general or divine one, for my watch told me that barely eleven hours had elapsed
since my entrance into the
place; and i firmly prepared myself to find that those eleven hours included nin
eteen centuries, and that the land of
egypt (which i had left flourishing under the rule of victory queen of the stalw
art stately anglicans) was now cowering
beneath the talons of roman eagles. but having wound-up my watch, and feeling ve
ry hungry, i refreshed my body with
the provisions in my baggage, leaving nothing for mice. thus i did, in the doist
er behind the embroidered carpets. afterward,
it seemed good to me to take such matters as would be useful to me in my new lif
e, and
to dispose of the rest, before emerging into activity in the sweet sunlight. acc
ordingly, under my linen robe, i buckled
on my belt of beautiful death-parcels with my death-spitter in its proper sling.
and, above that belt, i buckled on
my broad belt with the well-placed pockets, so that the two belts (one above ano
ther) became like a thorax protecting
my vitals. but in the well- sewn pockets of the broad belt, i bestowed my watch,
and a box of
wax-matches, and my gold and silver money, and my pocket-book with its beautiful
pencil, and my waterman s ideal fountain
pen, and my foreigh office passport, with the circular notes from my bankers, an
d eight notes each worth twenty-five ounces

of gold. thus having prepared myself, i laced the strong sandals on my feet, arr
anginng the pleats of my robe
conveniently to conceal what was underneath, yet leaving all things ready to be
snatched-at in case of necessity. but there
was nothing left, excepting my magic apparatus, and the truck and lanthorn which
had come with me to the place.
but, on pondering the thing again, i was ware (from the carpets between the colu
mns, and from a certain aspect
of the porphyry altar), that the temple in which i stood was no longer a deserte
d temple, forgotten because buried
by the lapse of ages, but actually a temple in daily use. from which portent, i
also was ware that
it behoved me to be ready to inflict my presence upon anyone (or at least to exp
lain it plausibly to
anyone) who by chance might totter in my direction, and, indeed, not to wait for
such discovery, but to go
at once in search of the society of articulately-speaking men, and to take my sh
are in life as i should
find it on the grain-giving earth. for these reasons, then, i set my cabinet of
essences and quintessences in a
darkish recess, hiding it, in case i should need it again: but it remains there
to this day. but i
retraced my steps toward the causeway, recrossing the dark river; and, coming th
ere, i broke my truck and lanthorn into
pieces, and committed them to the swiftly-flowing stream. but i went on toward t
he light of the outer world, having
the crystal orb (silver-banded with adornments of rose-crystals and blue- moonst
ones) hanging by its chain from my neck, and the
silver divination-cup in my left hand, and in my right the magic staff with its
silver chain twisted round my
wrist, thus, i passed majestically through the ante-chambers; and a fold of my r
obe inshrouded my head, lest my silver
hair and beard should bewray me to the shaveling priests guarding every portal.
but they, seeing me emerging from the
holy place with a holy and even mind and wearing priestly habiliments, were unpe
rturbed; and, beside, the sight of the
very beautiful instruments in my hands, and the word of silence in the ancient t
ongue of khem which i gave
them in my passage, prevented any doubts of me from afflicting their ingenious m
inds. but also, of course, i was
receiving favour from the gods. so, at last, i stepped up through the secret tra
p-door on to the sandy