On Nōfert-āri’s head was set a dark brown wig which, covered thickly as it was with a myriad little knots and curls, dropped in well-regulated layers until it grazed the tips of her thin and high-set shoulders. This dainty perruque, fringing with its line of dancing curls a forehead that rivaled polished jasper, and touching as it did at every move and gesture the outer pencilings of her shaven and thickly kohl-stained eyebrows, seemed to soften the rather prominent cheekbones and perhaps too pointed chin. The quiver of her wide though delicate nostrils, bespoke a passionate nature, which the faintest of dimples and the ivory flash of small though regular teeth, did their best to contradict. The dancer’s full round throat, her arms, wrists, and well-formed bust, were ablaze with jewels, amid which pale green beryl, dew-like crystal, rose carnelian, gold, electrum and silver, gleamed in opulent splendor, as her bosom rose and fell. As she stood, a pale blue lotus drooping above each hidden ear, a jeweled _menat_ in one hand, her coffee-colored and well oiled skin agleam with the reflected light of innumerable prismatic colors, she seemed less an animated human form than a figure carved, by Ptah the god of sculptors himself, from a block of glowing opal. With her first perceptible motions the music rose to the major key. The time-beaters accentuated the broken rhythm more and more, while Tutīya, her heavy though sightless eyes glowing in their painted depths—she too had once been hailed a Theban favorite—burst ever and anon into the “Nubian cry,” that blood-stirring cry which acted as an incentive to her now posturing daughter. In the center of the flowery carpet stood Nōfert-āri, languidly shaking her jeweled _menat_. Slowly she turned upon herself, the muscles of her lithe little body seeming to quiver in measure with the vibrant thrumming of the many stringed harps. When again she faced the Egyptian monarch’s dais, unlike the impassive gaze of Pharaoh, her features seemed to have become transformed. The “King’s dance,” into which she now threw all her fascination, all her mesmeric charm and unrivaled ability, portrayed by movement of the body and gesture alone the meeting and stolen tryst of a pair of lovers. At first she affected the love-smitten beauty, a coy beauty, mindful of her many charms. Suddenly with a start, a pigeon-like coo of delight, she appeared to throw herself into her lover’s arms. Again, with all the abandon of an artless coquetry, she stretched out her long arms and supple fingered hands as if to push him from her. Finally, with one or two graceful little steps, accompanied by an arch glance over her shoulder, Nōfert-āri advanced to the very edge of the royal dais and commenced that portion of the dance for which she was so famed.