There were sphinxes: they seemed to lift their basalt heads in prayer to the moon and the sky. Lamps and lights twinkled like stars. The thalamegus hove to; orders rang out; the sailors moored the vessel.
"The temple of Isis-Neith," Thrasyllus repeated to Lucius, who approached with Catullus and Caleb.
They were all arrayed in long, white-linen robes. Cora also was similarly clad, in a long, white, close fitting linen robe. She wore a wreath of wheat-ears and lotus-flowers at her temples. For it was the Night of the Glowing Lights, the Feast of the Burning Lamps.
"Nemu-Pha is waiting for me in the temple," said Thrasyllus. "I wrote to him and he has consented to receive me. He is the high-priest of Isis; and to-night he receives those who come to consult him. I thought, Lucius, of going alone. Nemu-Pha is one of the holiest prophets in Egypt. One word from him can perhaps enable me to guess much. But, if you accompany me, with only a single thought in your sick brain, you would break the mystic thread which might be woven between the high-priest's spirit and mine. Let me go alone. I have no other care than your happiness ... even though we are not agreed on the form which it should take.
"I don't think that I shall go on shore," said Uncle Catullus. "The Night of the Glowing Lights and the Feast of the Burning Lamps leave me cold. It is colourless and cheerless; it will be a spectral orgy. I am too old and fat, Lucius, for spectral orgies. Go on shore alone and amuse yourself as you may."
Lucius assembled his slaves, male and female. They were all in long, white robes, the women wreathed with ears of wheat and lotus-flowers.
"You are all free to-night," said Lucius. "You have a night of liberty. Until sunrise you belong to yourselves. Go your ways and do whatever you please."
Rufus handed each a small sum of money. The slaves bowed low and disappeared, between the palms, in the direction of the moonlit, twinkling city.
Only a guard of sailors kept watch on the barge. Uncle Catullus retired to his cabin. Tarrar also did not wish to go on shore and remained to sleep at his master's threshold. The Feast of Isis made many shudder who were not accustomed from their youth to its shivery mysticism.