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"But during this long journey to Egypt, we had one set Khay's steward, looked upon us with co that he could, in secret, to ease our pain "

Maharet stopped again and looked at Khayman, who sat with his hands folded before him on the table and his eyes down It sees which Maharet described He accepted this tribute but it didn't seem to console himent He seemed dazed and full of questions But he didn't ask thelances as well, acknowledging the steady stare of Ar

Then Maharet continued:

"Khayman loosened our" bonds whenever possible; he allowed us to walk about in the evening; he brought us reat kindness in that he didn't speak to us when he did these things; he did not ask for our gratitude He did these things with a pure heart It was simply not to his taste to see people suffer

"It seemed we traveled ten days to reach the land of Ke that journey the spirits tired of their tricks; and we, dejected and without courage, did not call upon the into each other's eyes

"At last we cado desert ere brought to the rich black land that bordered the Nile River, the black earth frohty river itself by raft ere taken as was all the arrass roofs, of great temples and palaces built of the same coarse materials, but all very fine

"This was long before the tiyptians would become known-the temples of the pharaohs which have stood to this day

"But already there was a great love of show and decoration, a movement towards the -all of these sih walls which were then ashed and painted with lovely designs

"Before the palace into which ere taken as royal prisoners were great colurasses, which had been dried and bound together and plastered with river mud; and within a closed court a lake had beentrees

"Never had we seen people so rich as these Egyptians, people decked out with so much jewelry, people with beautifully plaited hair and painted eyes And their painted eyes tended to unnerve us For the paint hardened their stare; it gave an illusion of depth where perhaps there was no depth; instinctively, we shrank from this artifice

"But allaround us And we could sense froue-that they hated and feared us too It see them; and that ere twins, this too produced fear

"For it had been the custo them now and then to kill twin children; and the red-haired were invariably sacrificed to the gods It was thought to be lucky

"All this ca; irimly to see ould be our fate

"As before, Khayman was our only consolation in those first hours Khay's chief steward, saw that we had coht us fresh linen, and fruit to eat and beer to drink He brought us even combs for our hair and clean dresses; and for the first tiood, and we must not be afraid

"We knew that he was speaking the truth, there was no doubt of it; but so, as it had been er Our trials had only begun