EGYPT 251 



Osiris, judge of the dead, and Isis and Aelurus 

 were with him. In death his gods had not 

 deserted him. 



He turned and faced me again, and the mystery 

 of the whole scene set me a-trembhng. 



"I am Meneptah," he said; and his voice 

 seemed to thunder across the desert as though 

 it would echo and re-echo to the edge of the 

 world. 



" I was the ruler of all this land," he con- 

 tinued ; "I caused these monuments to be built," 

 and he waved his hands around till he had denoted 

 each of the great Pyramids — Cheops and Chephren 

 and the seven smaller colossal structures of 

 Gizeh, built over the sepulchral chamber of 

 those who reigned in Egypt more than fifty 

 centuries ago. 



He looked proudly at the great towering piles 

 of stone, and for a while he seemed forgetful 

 of my poor presence. His gods glared at me 

 with true godly anger. 



"What think you of my land? " he queried 

 at last. Aghast at the wonder of his resurrection, 

 I murmured that it was beautiful and fair and 

 vastly interesting. 



" Beautiful and fair and vastly interesting," 

 he repeated after me, and a sad smile crossed 

 the corners of his proud mouth. " And think 

 you that you moderns have made it more 

 beautiful or more fair or more interesting? " 

 he asked, and a subterranean fire seemed to 

 burn his throat and flare and flicker in his dark, 

 searching eyes. 



" Have you increased the majesty of my tombs 

 or drawn more solemnity from the silent watcher, 

 because you have built a hotel to disturb 

 our desert sleep? Have you not defiled our 



