Queen:
[on the step, kneeling, her two arms stretched upwards]
O holy Nile! Ancient Egyptian river! O blessed Nile!
When I was a little child I played beside you, picking mauve flowers. I threw you down the sweet Egyptian flowers. It is the little Queen that calls to you, Nile. The little Queen that cannot bear to have enemies.
Hear me, O Nile.
Men speak of other rivers. But I do not hearken to fools. There is only Nile. It is the little child that prays to you who used to pick mauve flowers.
Hear me, O Nile.
I have prepared a sacrifice to god. Men speak of other gods: there is only Nile. I have prepared a sacrifice of wine—the Lesbian wine from fairy Mitylene—to mingle with your waters till you are drunken and go singing to the sea from the Abyssinian hills.
O Nile, hear me.
Fruits also I have made ready, all the sweet juices of the earth; and the meat of beasts also.