"bounteous nile! father of all living! garlanded with lotus blooms, rosy as horus!"
as these words rang out over the rocky hillside in a clear sweet voice, two men who were climbing the steep declivity paused a moment and looked at each other.
"that is the voice," said one of them in a tone of deep satisfaction. "a voice of gold truly, if only breathed forth into royal ears."
"there are two of them," said his companion, wiping his hot face. "the other is a boy, a water-carrier.'
"good! he also will bring a fair price. valuable property both, and going to waste like water spilled in the desert. why buy slaves for gold, when they grow wild in the desert?" and the speaker laughed under his breath.
"thou art a favorite of the gods," said the other with a venomous gleam in his narrow black eyes. "in thy heaven-bestowed wisdom forget not that it was i who came upon the two nesting in a corner of yonder old tomb like a pair of swallows."
"thou shalt have the boy."
"and who gave thee leave to say, friend?"
"canst thou sell them then? is it of thee that the princess will buy slaves? half the price of the two shall be thine; if that pleaseth thee not, why then----"
"look at me! i am thy sister that loveth thee,
do not stay far from me, heavenly one!
come to thine abode with haste, with haste
i see thee no more. i see thee no more--"
trilled the unseen singer.
"ha! the song of isis! the little one is religious," continued the speaker, who had stopped in the midst of his bargaining. "come! what sayest thou?" he added persuasively. "half the price--and it will be a good one--no one can do better in such a matter than----"
"no one better than besa," interrupted the other rudely. "be it so; but lie to me about the price and thou shalt regret it."
the two had reached the top of the hill by this time.
"hist! do not let her see thee."
"nay, rather, do not let her hear thee; she is blind."
"blind?"
"ay! stone blind; but what matters it when she carries a singing bird in her throat. do they not blind the nightingale?"
both men now advanced cautiously, their sandaled feet making little sound on the shelf-like plateau upon which yawned several recesses cut deep into the solid rock. in the door of one of these recesses sat, or rather crouched, the figure of a young girl. her blue-black hair, gathered away from her forehead and plaited in several thick braids, revealed a thin face, delicately featured, the smooth brown cheeks faintly flushed with a warmth, which in the drooping mouth deepened to scarlet. her eyes were large and black, but curiously expressionless, like the eyes of the great god ptah in the temple below. for the rest, she was dressed in the shapeless blue linen robe of an egyptian peasant woman, about her neck hung a string of shining coins, and upon the slender ankles tinkled hoops of wrought silver.
at the sound of the stealthy feet upon the rock, the blind girl bent her head anxiously.
"is it you, seth?" she said doubtfully.
"nay, little one," said one of the men, advancing boldly, "it is only a wayfarer who heard a goddess chanting to herself in a nook of the mountain. didst thou also hear it?"
the girl shrank back into the narrow recess, upon whose rocky walls was pictured gaudily the long-since-ended career of its former occupant. she made no reply.
"this dismal spirit-haunted tomb is no place for thee," continued the speaker in honeyed tones, "for it is thou and no other who hast the voice of isis herself. thou shouldst sing in the abode of princes, and be crowned with perfumed garlands, and all this shall shortly happen if thou wilt but come with me. listen!" he added imperatively in the greek tongue, addressing his companion. "i will take the girl with me, her pretty face adds to her value by half, the blindness is no matter. but do thou wait for the boy and bring him to the city, to the place whereof thou knowest. to-morrow they shall both be sold."
he was standing as he spoke perilously near the edge of the rocky declivity up which he had just clambered, his black snaky eyes fixed upon the maiden, his hand already extended to grasp her, when with the lithe swiftness of a tigress she sprang to her feet, and with a sudden powerful push of her strong young arms sent the unfortunate man flying backward over the verge. then with a loud scream she turned, and, eluding the outstretched arms of the other, fled away and disappeared in some hidden nook among the tombs. the man who remained behind stared after her a moment in silence, then he broke into a short sneering laugh.
"by the seven great gods! it appears that a nightingale is not easy to cage. and what then has become of our bargaining besa? by anubis! i care not if he be dead."
peering over the edge of the precipice he presently descried a motionless mass of dingy red drapery, lodged against the side of a great boulder, and thither, grumbling morosely to himself, he slowly and deliberately made his way.
in the meantime the young girl was cowering breathless in a narrow crevice of the rocks; she listened intensely, her hands upon her heart, as though she feared that its loud beating might betray her hiding-place. but after a few moments the silence reassured her and she began to weep and moan softly to herself.
"o isis, tender-hearted one, what is it that hath befallen me? o god of the sun in thy shining chariot! why dost thou not smite such wickedness? what then if i have killed him. nay, i care not! it is just."
"anat! anat!" shouted a voice. "where art thou?"
"ah! it is seth," said the girl, rising to her feet. "hist! here am i."
"why art thou here?" said the newcomer anxiously. "what hath happened?"
by way of answer the girl burst into a passion of sobbing, rocking herself to and fro and tearing at her black braids. the lad stared at her in amazement and fear, then hastily casting aside the skin water-bottle with its tinkling brass cups, which he carried upon his back, he knelt down by the convulsed little figure, and throwing one arm about it began to speak in low soothing tones.
"anat, little sister, come, tell me what hath happened. thou must indeed, little one. i should not have left thee alone; thou hast been frightened, is it not so?"
thus encouraged the blind girl finally managed to tell her story, albeit in disjointed, half intelligible words.
"he heard thee singing, little one," said her brother, knitting his black brows angrily, "and would have carried thee away like a bird."
"yes," said the girl fiercely. "but that is not all, he said that to-morrow we should both be sold; yet it may be that he will not care for buying and selling on the morrow. i know not how i could have done it, but of a sudden i felt a great strength come upon me. i pushed him over the ledge--i heard him fall--" and she caught her breath with a quick shudder.
"and thou didst well, little one!" said the boy. "it matters not what hath befallen him, the gods helped thee. but the other--there were two, saidst thou? he will return. we must get us away from here and at once."
"where shall we go?" said anat plaintively. "we are even as the birds that flee before the hunter, only to fall at last into his hand."
"not so, little one; the pursued eaglets flee away into the desert. so also will we. i know of a secure resting-place, and thou shalt not again stay alone."
"shall we go now?"
"yes, now. when i shall have gathered together our possessions; but they be few, it will not take long."
the lad rose to his feet with a sigh, and looked out and away from their lofty eyrie. far below them lay a floor of shining blue-green, the fertile plains of the nile, shadowed here and there with groups of clustered palm trees. through the midst of these plains rolled the sacred river, like a flood of gold. on either side of it rose the white walls and strange many-colored towers of the city of memphis, all transfigured in the shining mist of the setting sun. and beyond trooped the grim procession of the pyramids, solemn sentinels on the borders of a desert which the egyptians thought to be boundless, behind whose golden rim, they believed, lay the regions of the departed.
