It seemed to come home to me--Shabaka or Allan Quatermain, for in my dream the inspiration or whatever it might be, struck through the spirit that animated both of us--as it had never done before, that everything is _nothing_, that victory and love and even life itself have no meaning; that naught really exists save the soul of man and God, of whom perchance that soul is a part sent forth for a while to do His work through good and ill.

The thought lifted me up and yet crushed me, since for a moment all that makes a man passed away, and I felt myself standing in utter loneliness, naked before the glory of God, watched only by the flaming stars that light his throne.

Yes, and at that moment suddenly I learned that all the gods are but one God, having many shapes and called by many names.
Then I heard the priests saying, "Pharaoh the Osiris greets Pharaoh the living on the Earth and sends to him this message--'As I am, so shalt thou be, and where I am, there thou shalt dwell through all the ages of Eternity.'" Then Pharaoh the living rose and bowed to Pharaoh the dead and Pharaoh the dead was taken away back to his Eternal House and I wondered whether his Ka or his spirit, or whatever is the part of him that lives on, were watching us and remembering the feasts whereof he had partaken in his pomp in this pillared hall, as his forefathers had done before him for hundreds or thousands of years.
Not until the mummy had gone and the last sound of the chanting of the priests had died, did the hearts of the feasters grow light again.

But soon they forgot, as men alive always forget death and those whom Time has devoured, for the wine was good and strong and the eyes of the women were bright and victory had crowned our spears, and for a while Egypt was once more free.
So it went on till Pharaoh rose and departed, the great gold earrings in his ears jingling as he walked, and the trumpets sounding before and after him.

I too rose to go with my mother when a messenger came and bade me wait upon Pharaoh, and with me the dwarf Bes.