Theagenes and Chariclea, Cnemon and Thermuthis now started out in separate pairs towards Chemmis, a rich city on the Nile, to get food. The menace of Thermuthis was conveniently removed as he died from the bite of an asp. Near Chemmis Cnemon met an old man who entertained him at his home. He proved to be Calasiris, the foster-father of Theagenes and Chariclea. This he revealed to Cnemon in a long narrative of his own life: how though a priest of Isis he had gone into voluntary exile to break off the wiles of a courtesan; how he had sojourned at Delphi, attending the ceremonies and talking with the philosophers. One, Charicles, related how in his own travels in Egypt he had had intrusted to him by an Ethiopian merchant a beautiful child. The merchant had found her exposed with a bag of jewels and an inscribed fillet. These too he gave to Charicles making him promise to guard her freedom and wed her to a free man. He had named her Chariclea and brought her up in Greece but now, though she was very beautiful, she refused to marry. Calasiris also described to Cnemon the sacrifice to Neoptolemus offered by the Aenianians and the Delphic oracle which he had heard there. “Delphians, regard with reverential care, Both him the goddess-born, and her the fair; “_Grace_” is the sound which ushers in her name, The syllable wherewith it ends, is “_Fame_.” They both my fane shall leave, and oceans past, In regions torrid shall arrive at last; There shall the gods reward their pious vows, And snowy chaplets bind their dusky brows.”[108] Calasiris at the urgent request of Cnemon described all the ceremonies attendant on the sacrifice to Neoptolemus: the hecatomb and the other victims, the Thracian maidens bearing offerings, the hymn to the Hero, the dance, the procession of the fifty armed horsemen led by Theagenes, the radiant appearance of Chariclea in a chariot. All this description was the brilliant setting for the meeting of Theagenes and Chariclea, for when Theagenes took from the priestess’ hand the torch to light the sacrificial pyre, in them both the flame of first love was kindled. The next day Chariclea lay abed very ill in her apartment in the temple. Calasiris feared it was due to “_fascinatio_.” Calasiris after meeting Theagenes had a vision in which Apollo and Diana consigned Theagenes and Chariclea to his care and bade him take them to Egypt. The next morning Theagenes confessed to Calasiris his love and besought his aid. Charicles begged him to heal his daughter. This enabled him to talk to her.