While he talked a small ape entered the
room and, discovering the paint-pots, proceeded to decorate his person
with a liberal hand. At this moment Kenkenes became aware of him and,
by an accurately aimed lump of clay, drove the meddler out with a show
of more asperity than the offense would ordinarily excite. Meanwhile
the sculptor wetted his pen and, poising it over the plans, regarded
his drawings with half-closed eyes. Then, as if he read his words on
the papyrus he proceeded:
"Thou wast not ignorant. All thy life hast thou had the decorous laws
of the ritual before thee. And there, in the holy precincts of the
Incomparable Pharaoh's tomb, with the opportunity of a lifetime at
hand, the skill of thy fathers in thy fingers, thou didst execute an
impious whim,--an unheard-of apostasy." He broke off suddenly,
changing his tone. "What if the priesthood had learned of the deed?
The Hathors be praised that they did not and that no heavier punishment
than the loss of the signet is ours."
"But it may have caught on thy chisel and broken from its fastening.
Thou dost remember that the floor was checkered with deep black
shadows."
"The hand of the insulted Pharaoh reached out of Amenti[3] and stripped
it off my neck," Mentu replied sternly.
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