"The phœnix, according to the ancients," said the priest, "is a bird of which there exists but one specimen in the world. It comes flying from the east once in the course of six hundred and fifty-one years, many other birds with dazzling wings bearing it company. It reaches the City of the Sun about the time of the vernal equinox, where it burns itself upon the roof of the temple, in the fire of the concentrated rays of the sun, as they are reflected from the golden shield thereon with consuming radiance. No sooner is it consumed to ashes, than an egg appears in the funeral pyre, which the heat that consumed the parent warms instantly into life, and out of it the same phœnix comes forth, in full plumage, and spreading its wings it flies away again, to return no more until the expiration of six hundred and fifty-one years!" "This is a very extraordinary story," I said. "It is," answered the high-priest; "yet it has a simple explanation." "I should be gratified to hear it," I answered. "Do you believe, dear father," asked Osiria, "there ever was such a bird?" "I have seen it," answered the priest, mysteriously. "But I will gratify your curiosity. The first recorded appearance of this phœnix was nineteen hundred and two years ago, in the reign of Sesostris, a king of the twelfth Egyptian dynasty." "The Pharaoh for whom I am named," I said. "How came you, O prince, to have an Egyptian name?" asked Luxora. "The memory of Sesostris the Great was highly venerated by my father, and hence his selection of it for me; besides, I am related to the Phœnician kings." I had no sooner made this unlucky confession, than the two sisters looked at their father, then interchanged glances, and appeared quite embarrassed. I at once reflected that the memory of the Phœnician dynasty is distasteful to the Egyptians; and that, by confessing my alliance with them, I had risked their good-will. But the surprise passed off instantly, for they were too well-bred to show any continued feeling, and the priest resumed-- "The last appearance was six hundred years ago and in fifty-one years he will reappear, to consume himself in the burning rays of the sun." "I hope I shall be alive to see it," said Osiria, with animation. "This singular myth," pursued the hierarch, "signifies to us of the priests who are initiated into these astrological mysteries, nothing more than the transit of the planet Mercury across the disk of the sun. The fabulous bird, the phœnix, is an emblem of Mercury, as Osiris is of the Sun, according to the teaching of the books of Isis." "I perceive the whole truth now," I answered. "What is it, my lord prince?" asked the sisters.