Our dead kings and great ones we enclose in pillars of crystal, but we do this that they may serve a double purpose.
One is that the pillars may support the roof of their successors, and the other, that those who inherit their goods may please themselves by reflecting how much handsomer they are than those who went before them.
For no mummy looks really nice, Master, at least with its wrappings off, and our kings are put naked into the crystal." "And what becomes of the rest, Bes ?" "Their bodies go to the earth or the water and the Grasshopper carries off their souls to--where, Master ?" "I do not know, Bes." "No, Master, no one knows, except the lady Amada and perhaps the holy Tanofir.

Here I think is the entrance to his hole," and he pulled up his beast with a jerk at what looked like the doorway of a tomb.
Apparently we were expected, for a tall and proud-looking girl clad in white and with extraordinarily dark eyes, appeared in the doorway and asked in a soft voice if we were the noble Shabaka and Bes, his slave.
"I am Shabaka," I answered, "and this is Bes, who is not my slave but a free citizen of Egypt." The girl contemplated the dwarf with her big eyes, then said, "And other things, I think." "What things ?" inquired Bes with interest, as he stared at this beautiful lady.
"A very brave and clever man and one perhaps who is more than he seems to be ?" "Who has been telling you about me ?" exclaimed Bes anxiously.
"No one, O Bes, at least not that I can remember." "Not that you can remember! Then who and what are you who learn things you know not how ?" "I am named Karema and desert-bred, and my office is that of Cup to the holy Tanofir." "If hermits drink from such a cup I shall turn hermit," said Bes, laughing.

"But how can a woman be a man's cup and what kind of a wine does he drink from her ?" "The wine of wisdom, O Bes," she replied colouring a little, for like many Arabs of high blood she was very fair in hue.
"Wine of wisdom," said Bes.

"From such cups most drink the wine of folly, or sometimes of madness." "The holy Tanofir awaits you," she interrupted, and turning, entered the doorway.
A little way down the passage was a niche in which stood three lamps ready lighted.

One of these she took and gave the others to us.