EGYPT 253 



my sarcophagus through all the ages. I have 

 seen Emperors rise and Dynasties fall. I have 

 seen that subtle, irresistible weed of modernity 

 growing in my gardens, and I have been power- 

 less to pluck it. It has choked the lovely 

 blooms of idleness, the buds of joy have been 

 withered; and I see strange flowers growing in 

 their stead, the deadly nightshades of trouble 

 and toil and tribulation have prospered with 

 the weed, and the vermiliary glare of the poppy 

 of insanity becomes more all-pervading every 

 day. They are all growing in your garden," he 

 continued; and the earnestness of his clarion 

 voice made me throb with that strange sense of 

 discomfort which comes to one when his ears 

 must listen to what he knows is the reality of 

 a pitiable truth. 



" Look," he continued, " and I will show you 

 that the slavery of your great, teeming, civilized 

 cities is more degrading, more tedious, more 

 wearying, than ever were the labours of those 

 who raised up my treasure cities of Pithom and 

 Rameses." 



Thereupon he raised his hand, and I saw old 

 Cairo and Memphis, and the countless millions 

 who toiled and made bricks of clay and straw. 

 They laboured under the smile of the god Thoth. 

 Their task-masters were often cruel and flogged 

 them with long whips. Yet their words seemed 

 smiles and sunshine ; the gift of the Nile was full 

 of plenty, and the universe seemed to sing for 

 the very joy of youth. 



The scene changed for a moment, and I saw 

 another vast city and another great river, 

 scurrying past crowded wharves and soot-stained 

 warehouses. It was night, and a cold rain fell — 

 on sloppy pavements, in troubled pools of mud, 



