[*] Thebes.—­Editor.

And such a place I found.  For to the north of the great city are brown and rugged hills, and desert valley blasted of the sun, and in this place of desolation the Divine Pharaohs, my forefathers, hollowed out their tombs in the solid rock, the most part of which are lost to this day, so cunningly have they been hidden.  But some are open, for the accursed Persians and other thieves broke into them in search of treasure.  And one night—­for by night only did I leave my hiding-place—­just as the dawn was breaking on the mountain tops, I wandered alone in this sad valley of death, like to which there is no other, and presently came to the mouth of a tomb hidden amid great rocks, which afterwards I knew for the place of the burying of the Divine Rameses, the third of that name, now long gathered to Osiris.  And by the faint light of the dawn creeping through the entrance I saw that it was spacious and that within were chambers.

On the following night, therefore, I returned, bearing lights, with Atoua, my nurse, who ever ministered faithfully to me as when I was little and without discretion.  And we searched the mighty tomb and came to the great Hall of the Sarcophagus of granite, in which the Divine Rameses sleeps, and saw the mystic paintings on the walls:  the symbol of the Snake unending, the symbol of Ra resting upon the Scarabaeus, the symbol of Ra resting upon Nout, the symbol of the Headless men, and many others, whereof, being initiated, well I read the mysteries.  And opening from the long descending passage I found chambers in which were paintings beautiful to behold, and of all manner of things.  For beneath each chamber is entombed the master of the craft of which the paintings tell, he who was the chief of the servants of that craft in the house of this Divine Rameses.  And on the walls of the last chamber—­on the left-hand side, looking toward the Hall of the Sarcophagus—­are paintings exceedingly beautiful, and two blind harpers playing upon their bent harps before the God Mou; and beneath the flooring these harpers, who harp no more, are soft at sleep.  Here, then, in this gloomy place, even in the tomb of the Harpers and the company of the dead, I took up my abode; and here for eight long years I worked out my penance and made atonement for my sin.  But Atoua, because she loved to be near the light, abode in the chamber of the Boats—­that is, the first chamber on the right-hand side of the gallery looking toward the Hall of the Sarcophagus.

And this was the manner of my life.  On every second day the old wife, Atoua, went forth and brought water from the city and such food as is necessary to keep the life from failing, and also tapers made from fat.  And one hour at the time of sunrise and one hour at the time of sunset I did go forth also to wander in the valley for my health’s sake and to save my sight from failing in the great darkness of the tomb.  But the other hours of