Limited Conversation 



I started, and wading up the slope knee-deep in flowers, 

 and leaving a lustrous line where my footsteps had shaken 

 the fiery dew, I soon reached the gate of the temple I had 

 seen. It was like some of the great gateways you have seen 

 in Layard's Nineveh, only on the two huge granite blocks 

 on either side couched living winged bulls with ghastly, 

 solemn human faces. 



These rolled their large fiery eyes and fixed them on me ; 

 still I advanced, drawn towards the rosy fountain of flame 

 which sprang from the black marble threshold, and shut the 

 whole portal as with a broad curtain of fire. 



As my feet touched the first step of the great black 

 marble flight, both these beasts rose slowly and spread their 

 wide wings across the entrance, and looking down upon me 

 with a very sinister expression, spoke in an awful voice 

 which sounded like the roaring of a mighty furnace. The 

 one on the right hand said — 



"MENE-MENE!" 



And the one on the left hand — 



"TEKEL UPHARSIN!" 



The beasts were probably aware that the phrase they thus 

 cut in two was all I should probably understand of the 

 Assyrian tongue, and so made the most of it. I replied at 

 once to the beast on the right hand — 



"WAALEYCOM ESSALAM," 

 And to the one on the left — 



"BISMILLAHIRRAHMAN IRRAHIM;" 



