Remonstrance was useless, and the prisoners were again conducted to their dungeon where they were heavily chained, and left to ruminate upon the calamities that had befallen them. Far from agreeable were these meditations; for Edric was too angry with the doctor's ill-timed candour to be inclined to speak; and the doctor was too much ashamed of the effect already produced by his eloquence, to wish to make any farther display of it. At length, as his eyes became accustomed to the faint glimmering light admitted into the dungeon, he perceived the wall to which he was chained was covered with hieroglyphics, and endeavoured to divert his chagrin by examining them. "I congratulate you, Sir," said Edric, when he perceived this, feeling rather indignant at his tutor's coolness--"I congratulate you most sincerely upon your philosophy, and most earnestly do I wish that I could imitate it." "Ah, Edric!" returned the doctor, "all men are not equally gifted." "With either the art of making blunders, or forgetting them," said Edric pointedly. "These hieroglyphics are very curious," observed the doctor, who had his own reasons for not wishing to pursue the subject; "see how beautifully the ancient Egyptians worked in granite. The fine polish they contrived to give this hard substance would be perfectly astonishing, if we did not recollect that they always edged their tools with emerald dust." "Humph!" said Edric, in a tone which seemed to imply "and what does it matter to me if they did?" The doctor, however, was unabashed, and continued: "You see, as usual, the figure of the bull is frequently repeated here. This wall is evidently built of stones gathered from some ancient ruin. By the way, Edric, I don't think I ever explained to you why the ancient Egyptians chose a bull as one of their deities, or, rather, as their principal one. You know, that anciently the year began in Taurus, though, by the precession of the equinox, it has now advanced past Aries. Well, as the ancient Egyptians found that the sun began its career in Taurus, what could be more natural than that they should identify a bull with the vivifying principle? The same theory may account for that legend of the Chaldeans, which supposes the world to have been produced by a bull's striking chaos with his horn--which horn, by the way, was probably the origin of the fable of Amalthea, or the Horn of Plenty." Edric made no reply, and the doctor dreading a pause, which might give his pupil an opportunity of upbraiding him, went on:-- "Though the Egyptians had a number of divinities, they clearly worshipped only two, viz. the principles of good and evil. Osiris, Isis, Cneph, Phath, Horus, and all their host of inferior deities, were clearly types of the first, and light and life were their essence; whilst Typhon, Campsa, and the malignant deities, exemplified the second, and their attributes were invariably darkness and death."