“Not at all, my Uncle, who know that you can if you will.”
“Call the maiden,” he said.
So Bes went out and brought her in.
“Be seated, Karema, there in front of the altar, and look into my eyes.”
She obeyed and presently seemed to go to sleep for her head nodded. Then he said,
“Wake, woman, look into the water in the bowl upon the altar and tell me what you see.”
She appeared to wake, though I perceived that this was not really so, for she seemed a different woman with a fixed face that frightened me, and wide and frozen eyes. She stared into the silver bowl, then spoke in a new voice, as though some spirit used her tongue.
“I see myself crowned a queen in a land I hate,” she said coldly, a saying at which I gasped. “I am seated on a throne beside yonder dwarf,” a saying at which Bes gasped. “Although so hideous, this dwarf is a great man with a good heart, a cunning mind and the courage of a lion. Also his blood is royal.”
Here Bes rolled his eyes and smiled, but Tanofir did not seem in the least astonished, and said,
“Much of this is known to me and the rest can be guessed. Pass on to what will happen in Egypt, before the spirit leaves you.”