For now I understood why he had preferred to be a slave in Egypt rather than a king in Ethiopia.
In the morning I rose before the dawn and went out to the river-bank to bathe.

While I was making ready to wash myself, who should appear but Bes, followed, but at a distance, by a number of his people.
"Never have I spent such a night, Master," he said, "at least not since you took me prisoner years ago, since by law I may not stop those horns and musical instruments.

Now, however, also according to the law of the Ethiopians, I am my own lord until the sun rises.

So I have come here to gather some of those blue lilies which she loves as a present for Karema, because I fear that she is angry and must be appeased." "Certainly she is very angry," I said, "or at least was so when I left her last night.

Oh! Bes, why did you let your people tell her that she was ugly ?" "How can I help it, Master?
Have you not always heard that the Ethiopians are chiefly famous for one thing, namely that they speak nothing but the truth.