Thus purified and incensed by prophets, the lord went to a chapel, removed a clay seal from the door and entered the sanctuary unattended, where on a couch of ivory lay the miraculous image of Osiris. This image bad the wondrous quality that every night the hands, feet and head fall from it. These on a time had been cutoff by the evil god Set; but after the prayer of the pharaoh all the members grew on without evident reason.
When his holiness convinced himself that Osiris was sound again he took the statue from the couch, bathed it, dressed it in precious garments, and putting it on a malachite throne burnt incense before it. This ceremony was vastly important, for if any morning the divine members would not grow together it would signify that Egypt, if not the whole world, was threatened by measureless misfortune.
After the resurrection and restoration of the god, his holiness opened the door of the chapel, so that through it blessings might flow forth to the country. Then he designated the priests, who all that day were to guard the sanctuary, not so much against the ill-will, as the frivolity of people. For more than once it happened that a careless mortal who had gone too near that most holy place received an invisible blow which deprived him of consciousness or of life, even.
After he had finished divine service, the lord went, surrounded by chanting priests to a great hall of refection, where stood a small table and an armchair for him and nineteen other tables before nineteen statues which represented the nineteen preceding dynasties. When the sovereign had seated himself youths and maidens came in with silver plates, on which were meat and cakes, also pitchers of wine. The priest, the inspector of the dishes, tasted what was on the first dish, and what was in the first pitcher, then, on his knees, he gave these to the pharaoh, but the other plates and pitchers were placed before the statues of the pharaoh's ancestors. When the sovereign had satisfied his hunger and left the hall princes or priests had the right to eat food intended for the ancestors.
From the hall of refection the lord betook himself to the grand hall of audience. There the highest dignitaries of state, and the nearest members of the family prostrated themselves before him, after that the minister, Herhor; the chief treasurer, the supreme judge, and the supreme chief of police made reports to him. The reading was varied by religious music and dancing, during which wreaths and flowers were cast on the throne of the pharaoh.
After the audience his holiness betook himself to a side chamber and reposing on a couch slumbered lightly for a time; then he offered wine and incense to the gods, and narrated to the priests his dreams, from which those sages made the final disposition in affairs which his holiness was to settle.
But sometimes, when there were no dreams, or when the interpretation of them seemed inappropriate to the pharaoh, his holiness smiled and commanded kindly to act in this way or that in given cases. This command was law which no one might change except in the execution perhaps of details.
In hours after dinner his holiness, borne in a litter, showed himself in the court to his faithful guard, and then he ascended to the roof and looked toward the four quarters of the earth, to impart to them his blessing. At that moment on the summits of pylons banners appeared, and mighty sounds came from trumpets. Whoso heard these sounds in the city or the country, an Egyptian or a stranger, fell on his face so that a portion of supreme grace might descend on him.
At that moment it was not permitted to strike man, or beast: a stick raised over a man's back dropped of itself. If a criminal sentenced to death, declared that the sentence was read to him at the time when the lord of earth and heaven had appeared, his punishment was lessened. For before the pharaoh went might, and behind him followed mercy.
When he had made his people happy, the ruler of all things beneath the sun entered his gardens among palms and sycamores, there he sat a longer time than elsewhere, receiving homage from his women and looking at the amusements of the children of his household. When one of them arrested his attention by beauty or adroitness he called it up, and made inquiry,