THE DREAM OF MERAPI A while went by; it may have been fourteen days, during which we heard that the Israelites had started on their journey.

They were a mighty multitude who bore with them the coffin and the mummy of their prophet, a man of their blood, Vizier, it is reported, to that Pharaoh who welcomed them to Egypt hundreds of years before.

Some said they went this way and some that, but Bakenkhonsu, who knew everything, declared that they were heading for the Lake of Crocodiles, which others name Sea of Reeds, whereby they would cross into the desert beyond, and thence to Syria.

I asked him how, seeing that at its narrowest part, this lake was six thousand paces in width, and that the depth of its mud was unfathomable.

He replied that he did not know, but that I might do well to inquire of the lady Merapi.
"So you have changed your mind, and also think her a witch," I said, to which he answered: "One must breathe the wind that blows, and Egypt is so full of witchcraft that it is difficult to say.