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"It was a damnable lie, but one look at her face told us she'd convinced herself that it was true And of course the King believed it But what did thisto look deeper into their souls

"And now the Queen told us in tender words that our great ht her the two necklaces she most wanted in all the world and for this and this alone she would let us live In suer and more intricate, and more distant from the truth

"And then the King said he would release us, but first he would demonstrate to all the court that we had no power, and therefore the priests would be appeased

"And if at any moment an evil demon should manifest himself and seek to abuse the just worshipers of Ra or Osiris, then our pardon should be revoked and we should be put to death at once For surely the power of our demons would die with us And ould have forfeited the Queen's mercy which we scarce deserved as it was

"Of course we realized as to happen;it now in the hearts of the King and the Queen A coain As the King reold chain and medallion and put it around the neck of Khayman, we knew that ere to be raped before the court, raped as common female prisoners or slaves would have been raped in any war And if we called the spirits we'd die That was our position

" 'But for the love of my Queen,' said Enkil, 'I would take ht; I would do it before you all to show that they have no power and are not great witches, but are merely women, and iven the privilege of doing it in my stead '

"All the court waited in silence as Khay's co him in our helplessness not to do it-not to lay hands upon us or to violate us, before these uncaring eyes

"We could feel the pain in hier that surrounded him, for were he to disobey he would surely have died Yet this was our honor he meant to take; he meant to desecrate us; ruin us as it were; and ho had lived always in the sunshine and peace on ourreall

y of the act which he meant to perform

"I think, as he came towards us, I believed he could not do it, that a man could not feel the pain which he felt and still sharpen his passion for this ugly work But I knew little of men then, of how the pleasures of the flesh can coer; of how they can hurt as they perform the act which women perform, more often than not, for love

"Our spirits claainst as to happen; but for our very lives, we told theave her to know that ould live when this was over; ould be free; this was not death after all; and ould leave these miserable desert people to their lies and their illusions; to their idiot custoo home

"And then Khayman set about to do what he had to do Khay her down on her back against the own, as I stood transfixed and unable to stop him, and then I was subjected to the same fate

"But in his mind, ere not the women whom Khayman raped As his soul trembled, as his body trembled, he stoked the fire of his passion with fantasies of nameless beauties and half remembered moments so that body and soul could be one

"And we, our eyes averted, closed our souls to hiyptians who had done to us these terrible things; our souls were alone and untouched within our bodies; and all around us, I heard without doubt the weeping of the spirits, the sad, terrible weeping, and in the distance, the low rolling thunder of Amel

"You are fools to bear this, witches