He indicated with his hand a court where one by the side of another lay eight great quadrangles covered with red beans.
"That figure is sixty yards long, thirty yards wide, and as ye see, pious fathers, the grains composing it are of the same kind, for the people of that time were from Egyptian grandfathers and great- grandfathers. But look now."
He went farther, and indicated another group of quadrangles of various colors.
"Ye see this figure which is thirty yards wide, but only forty-five yards in length. Why is this? Because there are in it only six quadrangles, for at present Egypt has not eight, but only six millions of inhabitants. Consider, besides, that as the former figure was composed exclusively of red Egyptian beans in the present one are immense strips of black, yellow, and white beans. For in our army and among the people there are now very many foreigners: black Ethiopians, yellow Syrians and Phoenicians, white Greeks and Libyans."
They interrupted him. The priests who listened began to embrace him;
Mefres was weeping.
"Never yet has there been such a prophet. One cannot imagine when he could make such calculations," said the best mathematician in the temple of Hator.
"Fathers," said Pentuer, "do not overestimate my services. Long years ago in our temples the condition of the state was represented in this manner. I have only disinterred that which later generations had in some degree forgotten."
"But the reckoning?" asked the mathematician.
"The reckonings are continued unbrokenly in all the provinces and temples," replied Pentuer. "The general amounts are found in the palace of his holiness."
"But the figures?" exclaimed the mathematician.