DELETHI. Yes, but one must leave the country, then.... None of the daughters of Haka-Phtah could bring themselves to that. _A pause._ YAOUMA [_to herself_] Perhaps! NAHASI. What do you say, Yaouma? YAOUMA. Nothing. I was speaking to my soul. MOUENE. Yaouma's eyes weep for weariness because they watch far off for him, who comes not. YAOUMA. Peace, child. ZAYA [_to Delethi_] One thing is certain, someone must go upon the sacred barge? DELETHI. Without the sacrifice the Nile would not overflow, and all the land would remain barren. HANOU. And the corn would not sprout, nor the beans, nor the maize, nor the lotus. DELETHI. And all the people would perish miserably. HANOU. So that she who dies, sacrificed to the Nile, saves the lives of a whole people. That is a better thing, Nagaou, than to make one man's happiness. _A pause._ YAOUMA [_to herself_] Perhaps. HANOU. And on the appointed day one is borne from the house of the god to the Nile, surrounded by all the dwellers in the town.... The Pharaoh--health and strength be unto him!... DELETHI. You do not know, Hanou, you tell us what you do not know. HANOU. But it is so, is it not, Zaya? Zaya knows about the ceremony, because last year it was her sister who was chosen. MOUENE. Tell us, Zaya. NAHASI. Yes, tell us the manner of it. ZAYA. On the fifth day of the month of Paophi.... MOUENE. To-day--that is to-day? NAHASI. Yes. What will happen.... The prayer of Isis.... But afterwards? Before? _They gather round Zaya._ ZAYA. Before the sun has ended his day's journey, the people, summoned to the terraces by a call from the Temple, will intone the great hymn to Isis, which is sung but once a year. Within the house of the god the assembled priests will await the sign that shall reveal the virgin to be offered to the Nile to obtain its yearly flood. The name of the chosen will be cried from the doorway on high, caught up by those who hear it first, cried out to others, who in turn will cry it running towards the house that Ammon has favored with his choice. Then shall the happy victim of the year stand forth alone, amid her kinsfolk bowed before her, and to her ears shall rise the shoutings of the multitude. ALL. Oh! DELETHI. And after a month of purification she will be borne to the house of the god! ZAYA. And on the day of Prodigies.... NAHASI. Oh, the day of Prodigies! ZAYA. She will be the foremost nearer to the Sanctuary than all the rest. She will pray with the praying crowd, she will behold the lowering of the stone that hides the face of Isis.... DELETHI. She will behold Isis--face to face.... ALL. Oh! ZAYA. She will beg the goddess graciously to incline her head, in sign that, yet another year, Egypt shall be protected. And when the fervor of the crowd's united prayer is great enough, the head of the Goddess of Stone will bow. That will be the first prodigy. DELETHI. The head of the Goddess of Stone will bow--that will be the first prodigy.