The room, which had formerly been in total darkness, was now illumined as though by a temple lamp. For a moment Unis paused, turned his unseeing eyes full upon his master, the next he had vanished behind a great stone stela which stood beside the ancient tomb which had been his dwelling place. Far better it had been for Unis had he continued to fear the pursuing fury of the _ka_-statue of the son of Hap! Alas for Unis! Searching one day through the manuscripts of the library of Hotephra, Great High Priest of Amen, he had stumbled upon the son of Hap’s will. It lay folded in the High Priest’s copy of the temple ritual. The secret hiding-place of the Book was thus revealed to him. CHAPTER X PHARAOH SEEKS TO EXALT A FOREIGN GOD Pharoah stirred. At once two ebony black Nubians recommenced to wave their ostrich-feather fans above his restless head. Again did Shamash, an Asiatic eunuch, hold to his master’s nose a small glass phial of somnific poppy-oil. Once again did Bekit, his little daughter, chafe with fragrant sandal oil his fleshless ankles. All in vain! Pharaoh’s frame failed to relax. Suddenly, with an impatient gesture, Pharaoh pushed aside the ivory head-rest and summoned Dedu, Keeper of the Royal Linen. The rebuffed, but smiling Bekit, held to her father’s lips a blue glazed goblet filled to its lotiform brim with sparkling Thinite wine. As he drank, the swaying forms of Ata and Mai, youngest of the court dancers, rose from the floor beyond him. Barely had they assumed a single graceful posture before the gold seal-ring upon Pharaoh’s hand flashed in the semi-gloom. He waved them impatiently aside. Entering softly, Dedu, Keeper of the Royal Linen, carefully drew back the curtains from the windows. These green byssus draperies had served to keep out the brilliant rays of the sun, as reflected from Queen Thi’s “pleasure lake,” on the northern shore of which Perao, the royal palace, stood. Thus, one might admire the charming decoration of the room, with its green tiled walls, its cedar columns, its elaborately designed ceiling, and its painted stucco floor covered with powdered lazuli and gold dust.