Scene:—The yard in front of the potter's hut. On the right from the middle of the back of the scene to the footlights, the walls of the dwelling made of beaten clay. Two unequal doors. The wall is slightly raised supporting a terrace where pottery of all kinds is drying in the sun. Left, a wall of loose stones high enough to lean on. Between the wall and the house an opening leading to an invisible inclined plane that descends to the Nile, the water and opposite bank of which are visible. Behind the house and on the right groups of lofty palms. The whole is abject misery beneath the splendor of a heaven blazing with light.
Kirjipa, crouching down, is grinding corn between a large and a small stone. Satni is seated on the wall dreaming.
Kirjipa. Son.
Satni. Mother.
Kirjipa. And so you do not believe that when the moon grows little by little less, 'tis because it is eaten by a pig?
Satni. No, mother.
Kirjipa. Then what beast eats it?
Satni. None.
Kirjipa [laughing] You have ideas that are not reasonable. What makes me marvel, is that your father seems to understand them. I must haste to make the bread, that he find it when he returns.
Satni. Here comes the messenger from Rheou.