HIGH PRIEST. In truth the granaries of our temples are full to overflowing. Left to themselves, the people would not think of the lean years, in the years of abundance. We think for them, and they bring us, gladly, what they would refuse did they not believe they gave to the gods. We proclaim the Nile sacred; it is forbidden to sully its waters. Is that to honor it as a god? Not so, it is to avoid the plague. And all the animals we deified are those man has need of. You did not learn all things on your travels-- SATNI. You would have the peasant remain a child, because you fear the reckoning he would demand of you, if you let him grow up. You know you could not stay him then by showing him the god-jackal, the god-ram, the god-bull, and the rest that do not exist. HIGH PRIEST. Are you certain they do not exist? SATNI. Yes. HIGH PRIEST. Know you where you are? SATNI. In the temple. HIGH PRIEST. In the temple; where you were brought up. There was a time when you dared not have crossed the first sacred enclosure. You are in the third. Look round! There is the holy of holies. At my will the stones that mask the entrance will roll back, and the goddess will be unveiled. Except the High Priest and the Pharaoh, no mortal, if he be not priest himself, may look on her and live--save at the hour of the annual Festival of Prodigies, which is upon us now. Do you believe that you can endure to be alone in her presence? SATNI. I do believe it. HIGH PRIEST. We shall see. If you be afraid, call and prostrate yourself. Afterwards you shall go and tell what you have seen, to those whom you deceived. _The High Priest makes a sign. Total darkness. A peal of thunder._