In return for his bounty the high priest bestowed on the sovereign a most beautiful dancer fifteen years of age, who seemed greatly delighted with her fortune.
When the pharaoh found himself in the hall of "repose" he sat on the throne, and his substitute in religion, Sem, to the sound of music and amid the smoke of censers, entered the sanctuary to bring forth the divinity.
Half an hour later, to the deafening sound of bells, appeared in the gloom of the chamber a golden boat hidden by curtains which moved at times as if some living being were sitting behind them.
The priests prostrated themselves, and Ramses looked intently at the transparent curtains. One of these was turned aside and the pharaoh saw a child of rare beauty which looked at him with such wise eyes that the ruler of Egypt was almost afraid of it.
"This is Horus," whispered the priest. "Horus the rising sun. He is the son of Osiris and also his father, and the husband of his own mother, who is his sister."
The procession began, but only through the interior of the temple. In advance went harpers and female dancers, next a white bull with a golden shield between his horns, then two choruses of priests and high priests bearing the god, then choruses, and finally the pharaoh in a litter borne by eight priests of the temple.
When the procession had passed through all the corridors and halls of the temple, and the god and Ramses had returned to the chamber of repose, the curtain concealing the sacred boat slipped apart and the beautiful child smiled at the pharaoh.
After that Sem bore away the boat and the god to the chapel.
"One might become a high priest," said the pharaoh, who was so pleased with the child that he would have been glad to see it as often as possible.
But when he had gone forth from the temple and seen the sun and the throng of delighted people, he confessed in his soul that he understood nothing. He knew not whence they had brought that child, unlike any other child in Egypt, whence that superhuman wisdom in its eyes, nor what the meaning was of all that he himself had seen.