"Do ye see at your feet that long, narrow strip of green with a broad triangular space at the end of it? On both sides of the strip lie limestone, granite, and, behind these, sandy places. In the middle of the green flows a stream, which in the triangular space is divided into a number of branches." "That is the Nile! That is Egypt!" cried the priests. "But look," interrupted Mefres, with emotion. "I will discover the river. Do ye see those two blue veins running from the elbow to the hand? Is not that the Nile and its canals, which begins opposite the Alabaster mountains and flows to Fayum? And look at the back of my hand: there are as many veins there as the sacred river has branches below Memphis. And do not my fingers remind you of the number of branches through which the Nile sends its waters to the sea?" "A great truth!" exclaimed the priests, looking at their hands. "Here, I tell you," continued the excited high priest, "that Egypt is the trace of the arm of Osiris. Here on this land the great god rested his arm: in Thebes lay his divine elbow, his fingers reached the sea, and the Nile is his veins. What wonder that we call this country blessed!" "Evidently," said the priest, "Egypt is the express imprint of the arm of Osiris." "Has Osiris seven fingers on his hand," interrupted the prince, "for the Nile has seven branches falling into the sea?" Deep silence followed. "Young man," retorted Mefres, with kindly irony, "dost suppose that Osiris could not have seven fingers if it pleased him?" "Of course he could!" said the other priests. "Speak on, renowned Pentuer," said Mentezufis. "Ye are right, worthy fathers," began Pentuer: "this stream with its branches is a picture of the Nile; the narrow strip of green bounded by stones and sand is Upper Egypt, and that triangular space, cut with veins, is a picture of Lower Egypt, the most extensive and richest part of the country. "Well, in the beginning of the nineteenth dynasty, all Egypt, from the cataract to the sea, included five hundred thousand measures of land. On every measure lived sixteen persons: men, women, and children. But during four hundred succeeding years almost with each generation a piece of fertile soil was lost to Egypt." The speaker made a sign. A number of young priests ran out of the building and sprinkled sand on various parts of the green area. "During each generation," continued the priest, "fertile land diminished, and the narrow strip of it became much narrower. At present our country instead of five hundred thousand measures has only four hundred thousand--or during two dynasties Egypt has lost land which supported two millions of people." In the assembly again rose a murmur of horror.