She next visited the Gymnosophists, who inhabit the grove of Pan, and exhorted them to obey the summons of their king, as also to gratify her by adorning and sanctifying the solemnity with their presence. They, entreating her to wait a few moments, while they consulted the gods, as they are used to do on any new undertaking, entered their temple, and after a short time returned, when Sisimithres, their president, thus addressed her:--"Ο queen! we will attend you, the gods order us to do so; but, at the same time, they signify to us, that this sacrifice will be attended with much disturbance and tumult, which, however, will have an agreeable and happy end. A limb of your body, or a member of the state, seems to have been lost; which will be restored by fate." "Your presence," said Persina, "will avert every threatening presage, and change it into good; I will take care to inform you when Hydaspes arrives." "You will have no occasion to do that," replied Sisimithres: "he will arrive to-morrow, and you will presently receive letters to that effect." His prediction was fulfilled. Persina, on her return to the palace, found a messenger with letters from the king, announcing his intended arrival for the following day. The heralds dispersed the news through the city, and at the same time, made proclamation, that the men alone should be suffered to go out and meet him, but that the women should keep within their houses; for, as the sacrifice was destined to be offered to the purest of all deities--the Sun and Moon--the presence of females was forbidden, lest the victims should acquire even an involuntary contamination. The priestess of the Moon was the only woman suffered to attend the ceremony, and she was Persina; for by the law and custom of the country, the queens of Ethiopia are always priestesses of that divinity, as the kings are of the Sun. Chariclea, also was to be present at the ceremonial, not as a spectatress, but as a victim to the Moon. The eagerness and curiosity of the citizens was incredible. Before they knew the appointed day, they poured in multitudes out of the city, crossed the river Astabora, some over the bridge; some who dwelt at a distance from it, in boats made of canes, many of which lay near the banks, affording an expeditious means of passage. These little skiffs are very swift, both on account of the materials of which they are composed, and the slight burden which they carry, which never exceeds two or three men: for one cane is split in two, and each section forms a boat.[3] Meröe, the metropolis of Ethiopia, is situated in a sort of triangular island, formed by the confluence of three navigable rivers; the Nile, the Astabora, and the Asasoba. The former flows towards it from above, where it forms two branches; the others, flowing round it on either side, unite their waters, and hasten to mingle their stream, and lose their names, in the channel of the Nile.