The Works of Theophile Gautier, Volume 5

forgotten her beautiful home in Thebes, her servants, and her ornaments,-a most difficult and incredible thing in a woman. The daughter of Petamounoph had not the least suspi

the royal love as an offering, with all th

en set her,-she followed with her glance every motion of the young Hebrew, her looks enveloped him like a car

fair cheeks, the quick beating of her heart which might be guessed by the rising and falling of her bosom; but seated at a table, he bent ov

given him pain to reply to. And yet the sham Hora was very beautiful. Her charms, betrayed by the poverty of her dress, were all the more beautiful; and just as in the hottest hours of the day a luminous vapour is seen quivering upon the gleaming earth, so did a

e him than the shadow can leave the body, followed him timidly, fearing lest he should tell her

for your skin, which the sun has never kissed, your delicate feet, your slender hands, and the elegance with which you drape yourself in the piece of coarse stuff which serves you for a vestment, prove to me that you have always inhabited

t breath of air drove waves of gold. The light was so intense that the golden tone of the grain whitened in places and became silvery. In the rich mud of the Nile the grain had grown strong, straight, and high like

grain just below the ear, as regularly as if they had followed a line marked out by a cord. Behind them in the furrows walked the gleaners with esparto bags, in which they placed the harvested ears, and which they then carried on their shoulders, or suspended from a cross-bar an

evened with a pitchfork, and slightly higher on the edges on a

ress of Isis, with high withers, deep dewlaps, clean, muscular limbs; the brand of the estate, stamped with a red-hot iro

so that after going around about twenty times, they would lean one against another, and in spite of the hissing whip which lashed their flanks, they would unmistakably slacken their pace. To encourage them, the driver who followed them, holding by the tail the nearest an

let it fall to separate it from the straw, the awn, and the shell. The grain thus winnowed was put into b

was waning, and already the sun, which had risen behind Thebes, had crossed the Nile and was sinking towards the Libyan chain, behind which its d

strous mouths whence hung filaments of saliva, opening their great, gentle eyes; the more impatient, smelling the stables, half raised themselves for a moment and peered above the horned multitude, with which, a

to their sides, touched the ground with their lips as a mark of res

n a mere linen girdle, the end of which fell between their legs. The donkeys went past, shaking their long ears and trampling the ground with their

at-herds had much difficulty in restraining their high spirits and in bringing back to the main body the marauding ones which strayed

, stretched out their necks, and uttered hoarse cries. Their number was taken, and the tablets handed to the steward of the domain. Long after th

Thebes, harpists and dancers; but agriculture is holy; it is the nurse of man, and he who sows a grain of corn does a deed agreeable to the gods. Now

and the other on her head as a mark

thenware vase full of oil, in which dipped a wick, gave them light,-for night had fallen,-and cast a yellow light upon their brown che

?" said a little, sly-looking maid, as she peeled

was chewing the petals of a flower. "Is he to tell you what

as another?" answer

ve shrugged

e service of the Pharaoh, he belongs to the barbarous race of Israel, and if he goes out at night, it is no doubt to be present at

rden behind the mimosa bushes. After waiting two hours, she saw Po?ri issue f