Here for an hour we strut in our
forgotten pomp; the crowns that were ours still adorn our brows, and
once more we seem to listen to our people's praise. Our hopes are the
hopes of mortal life, our foes are the foes we feared, our gods grow
real again, and our lovers whisper in our ears. Moreover, this joy is
given to us--to see each other as we are, to know as the gods know, and
therefore to forgive, even where we despise and hate. Now I have done,
and I, the youngest of the rulers of ancient Egypt, call upon him who
was the first of her kings to take my place."
She bowed, and the audience bowed back to her. Then she descended the
steps and was lost in the throng. Where she had been appeared an old
man, simply-clad, long-bearded, wise-faced, and wearing on his grey hair
no crown save a plain band of gold, from the centre of which rose the
snake-headed _uraeus_ crest.
"Your Majesties who came after me," said the old man, "I am Menes, the
first of the accepted Pharaohs of Egypt, although many of those who went
before me were more truly kings than I. Yet as the first who joined
the Upper and the Lower Lands, and took the royal style and titles, and
ruled as well as I could rule, it is given to me to talk with you for
a while this night whereon our spirits are permitted to gather from the
uttermost parts of the uttermost worlds and see each other face to face.
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