“Who has been telling you about me?” exclaimed Bes anxiously.
“No one, O Bes, at least not that I can remember.”
“Not that you can remember! Then who and what are you who learn things you know not how?”
“I am named Karema and desert-bred, and my office is that of Cup to the holy Tanofir.”
“If hermits drink from such a cup I shall turn hermit,” said Bes, laughing. “But how can a woman be a man’s cup and what kind of a wine does he drink from her?”
“The wine of wisdom, O Bes,” she replied colouring a little, for like many Arabs of high blood she was very fair in hue.
“Wine of wisdom,” said Bes. “From such cups most drink the wine of folly, or sometimes of madness.”
“The holy Tanofir awaits you,” she interrupted, and turning, entered the doorway.
A little way down the passage was a niche in which stood three lamps ready lighted. One of these she took and gave the others to us. Then we followed her down a steep incline of many steps, till at length we found ourselves in a hot and enormous hall hewn from the living rock and filled with blackness.
“What is this place?” said Bes, who looked frightened, and although he spoke in a low whisper, our guide overheard him and turning, answered,