"Before thy eyes, worthy father, the temple hides the whole country, even the treasury of the pharaoh. I am, for that matter, a priestly pupil. I was reared in the shadow of a temple, I know the secret of the spectacles in which the malice of Set is represented, with the death and re-birth of Osiris, and what does that profit me? When my father asks how to replenish the treasury, I can give him no answer. Should I persuade him to pray longer and oftener than he does at the present?" "Prince, thou art blaspheming, thou knowest not the high ceremonies of religion. If thou knew them thou couldst answer many questions which torment thee; and hadst thou seen that which I have, thou wouldst know that the highest interest of Egypt is to support priests and temples." "Men in old age become children," thought Rameses; and he stopped the conversation. Mefres had been very pious at all times, but he had then grown eccentric. "I should end well," thought Rameses, "if I yielded to priests and assisted at puerile ceremonies. Perhaps Mefres would even command me to stand for whole hours at an altar, as he himself does, beyond doubt, while expecting a miracle." In the month Pharmuthi (end of January and beginning of February) the prince took leave of Otoes, before starting for Hak, the next province. He thanked the nomarchs and lords for their splendid reception, but at heart he was sad, for he knew that he had not mastered the problem put forth by his father. Escorted by the family and court of Otoes, the prince with his retinue crossed to the right bank of the river, where he was greeted by Ranuzer, the worthy nomarch, together with the lords and the priests of his province. When the prince reached the land of Hak, the priests raised a statue of Atmu, patron god of the province, and the officials fell prostrate; then the nomarch brought a golden sickle to Rameses, and begged him to open the harvest as viceroy of the pharaoh, that being the time to gather in barley. Rameses took the sickle, cut a couple of handfuls of ears, and burnt them with incense before the god the guardian of the boundaries. After him the nomarch and the great lords cut barley also, and at last harvesters fell to reaping. They cut only ears, which they packed into bags; the straw remained on the field behind them. When he had heard a tedious service before the god, the prince mounted a two-wheeled car, a division of the army moved on, and the priests followed. Two lords led the horses of the heir by the bridles. After the heir, on a second car, rode the nomarch, and next an immense train of lords and court servitors. The people, agreeable to the will of Rameses, did not present themselves, but laborers in the fields, at sight of the procession, fell on their faces. In this manner when he had passed a number of pontoon bridges thrown over arms of the Nile and canals, the prince reached toward evening the city of Anu, the capital.