Reverently the young
man closed the eyes and straightened the chilling limbs. Going into
his patrimony of jewels sewn in his belt, he took an emerald, and
putting it in the hands, crossed them above the breast. Then he laid
his mantle over the bier.
At the threshold he found a soft stone and with that he wrote upon the
head of the long table the name of the dead man, and Mendes, his native
city. Under this he wrote further to the villagers, charging them, in
the name of the goddess, to care for the body reverently and return it
to the tomb of Atsu's fathers. Having made note of the emerald as
remuneration for their labors, he completed the inscription without
signature.
Thus he insured the safety and preservation of the bones of Atsu, and
in the eye of the average Egyptian he had served the soldier well. But
Kenkenes was not satisfied.
As he left the shrine he muttered with trembling lips:
"Bless him! The fate is not kind which yields to such goodness no
reward save gratitude. There must be, because of the great God's
justness, some especial blessing laid up for Atsu."
In the time he had spent in the sanctuary the atmosphere had grown hazy
and the sun shone obscurely. To the east were tumbled and darkening
masses, which gathered even as he looked and joined till they stretched
in a vast and unillumined sweep about the horizon.
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