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same water-lily which held Ulysses spellbound, but grown if 

 possible more beautiful, is the sacred lotus of which the 

 priests of the Nile are ever chanting: "I am the pure lotus 

 which springeth up from the divine splendour that belongeth 

 to the nostrils of Ra. I am the pure one who cometh forth 

 out of the field." So common and so dear was this Hly of 

 Egypt that it became in time the symbol of southern or 

 upper Egypt as the papyrus was the index of northern or 

 low coimtry. In the great temple of Kamak, after wander- 

 ing over many acres of beautiful and absorbingly interesting 

 ruins, if we pass into the enclosure which is called the "Hall 

 of Records " (how ghastly modern that sounds !) we shall find 

 still standing two old carved columns erected there to sup- 

 port the roof long since gone; and upon these pillars, which 

 have stood just where they now stand since the days of 

 Moses, we shall find that the masons of almost forgotten 

 days have carved the emblems of the south and of the north, 

 one face bearing still in clear and beautiful cutting the 

 petals of the water-lily to show us of today that the Ramses 

 who put them there ruled a country of which the lily was the 

 sacred flower, a country whence Ramses, masons, pomp and 

 might have long since faded, crumbled and gone, leaving 

 only stone and lilies to remind us of their past glories, jj j 



Nor was Babylon behind the rest of the world of her aay 

 in appreciating this most graceful of flowers. Familiar to us all 

 rings the name of the great home of Darius and his capital 

 which he called "Shushan," and do we not read in the pro- 



