"The Greeks! Hast Thou seen the vases which they make, the palaces which they build? From that clay out there and from stone something comes that delights my old age and forbids me to think of my feebleness. "And their language! O gods, it is music and sculpture and painting. In truth, I say that if Egypt could ever die as a man dies, the Greeks would take all its property. Nay more, they would persuade the world that everything done by us was their work, and that we never existed. And still they are only the pupils of our primary schools, for, as Thou knowest, we have no right to communicate the highest knowledge to foreigners." "Still, father, it seems that Thou hast no trust in the Greeks." "No, for they are peculiar; one can trust neither Greek nor Phoenician. The Phoenician, when he wishes, sees and will tell thee genuine truth of Egypt, but Thou wilt never know when he is telling it. The Greek, as simple as a child, would tell the truth always, but he is never able. "The Greeks look at the world in a manner different altogether from our way. In their wonderful eyes everything glitters, assumes colors and changes, as the sky and the water of Egypt. How then could we rely on their judgment? "In the days of the Theban dynasty, far away toward the north, was the little town of Troy. We have in Egypt twenty thousand as large as it. Various Greek vagrants laid siege to that hamlet, and so annoyed its few inhabitants that after ten years of trouble they burned their little fortress and moved to other places. An every-day robber narrative! Meanwhile just see what songs the Greeks sing of the Trojan combats. We laugh at those wonders and heroisms, for our government had accurate information of events there. We see the lies which strike any one, but still we listen to those songs, as a child does to tales which its nurse tells, and we cannot tear ourselves free from them. "Such are the Greeks: born liars, but fascinating; yes, and valiant. Every man of them would rather die than tell truth. They do not lie for profit, as do the Phoenicians, but because their mind constrains them." "Well, what am I to think of the Phoenicians?" "They are wise people of mighty industry and daring, but hucksters: for them life means profit, be it great or the greatest. The Phoenicians are like water: they bring much with them, but bear away much, and push in at all points. One must give them the least possible, and above all watch that they enter not through hidden crannies into Egypt. If Thou pay them well and offer hope of still greater profit, they will be excellent assistants. What we know today of secret movements in Assyria we know through Phoenicians." "And the Jews?" asked the prince, dropping his eyes.