The day broke in the east, and gangs of slaves went by to work. They jeered at him and pelted him with pebbles.
Suddenly across the desert sands he saw the faint pink rim of the rising sun. On the instant the big bronze doors against which he was leaning swung suddenly in. He fell with them, and coarse, rough hands seized his hair and pulled him into the hall.
The doors swung to and closed with a clang. Pythagoras was in dense darkness, lying on the stone floor.
A voice, seemingly coming from afar, demanded, "Do you still wish to go on?"
And his answer was, "I desire to go on."
A black-robed figure, wearing a mask, then appeared with a flickering light, and Pythagoras was led into a stone cell.
His head was shaved, and he was given a coarse robe and then left alone. Toward the end of the day he was given a piece of black bread and a bowl of water. This he was told was to fortify him for the ordeal to come.
What that ordeal was we can only guess, save that it consisted partially in running over hot sands where he sank to his waist. At a point where he seemed about to perish a voice called loudly, "Do you yet desire to go on?"
And his answer was, "I desire to go on."
Returning to the inmost temple he was told to enter a certain door and wait therein. He was then blindfolded and when he opened the door to enter, he walked off into space and fell into a pool of ice-cold water.