A renewed wave of cheering went up as the linen-draped shrine of Amen appeared. A vacant place was kept clear behind it, in which marched the “souls” of dead kings! Thirty-six tall priests carried this Holy of Holies towards a gleaming barge, moored to the water’s edge at the Sacred Quay. Over two hundred feet long, this barge was built throughout its entire extent of cedar from the Lebanus Terraces. Its sides were covered to the water’s edge with pure Nubian gold. Enormous necklaces of gold were hung at prow and stern. The “Two eyes of Horus,” at the prow, were inlaid in brilliant blue lazuli from Babylon. The great checkered linen sail, which lay furled upon the silver deck, was of the square Egyptian type. It was decorated with squares of red and blue embroidery. There was now as much noise and excitement on the river as on shore. The captains of fifty great painted barges awaited the signal to pull up their mooring-stakes as soon as the Sacred Barge should be well under way. Were it possible, the startled air trembled to still louder shouts as excited overseers, taskmasters and men commenced to pull at the great towing ropes. The swift Nile current made it necessary that the barge be dragged upstream by a whole army of young and lusty Egyptians. Along the line of route people began to disappear from the gayly decorated windows. The last scene of the day’s ceremony was about to take place within the still unfinished forecourt of the Southern Temple of Amen. Carrying-chairs were frantically demanded, but soon abandoned, as who could make headway in that fashion in the midst of such a crowd? A few fortunate people managed to squeeze through the broad square lined with its rows of booths, where slaves were hastily preparing wine, fruit, flowers and incense or cutting up the unfortunate bulls as part of the “beautiful festival of the Apt.” Pharaoh offered incense to his father Amen as four exalted members of the priesthood poured out wine from festooned jars of painted pottery. With the exception of these four noblemen, high initiates of the Sorcerers of Amen and Huy, the Great High Priest, no one could witness the taking of the image of Amen from its jeweled shrine and its transference to the silver tabernacle within the granite naos which stood, beside “the position which the king takes,” deep within the gloom of the upper temple. Pharaoh himself, though the personification of Amen, dare not venture beyond that fixed “position,” a spot marked by a huge block of turquoise from the Sinaitic mines, set in the richly painted wall of the upper temple. Around the great forecourt, the nobles knelt or stood, according as they belonged to the two rival factions of Amen or Aton. To the latter group, this marked what was no doubt the very last procession of its kind. Hence these adherents of Aton, the Syrian God, stood stiffly in the background. A covert smile might have been noted on many a swarthy face among them.