Arachne | Page 2

too large and on
account of the pillars at the entrance, which supported a triangular
pediment--also too stately for its sole occupant, sat an old woman,
plucking three ducks.

In front of her a girl, paying no heed to her companion, stood leaning
against the trunk of the low, wide-branching sycamore tree near the
shore. A narrow boat, now concealed from view by the dense growth of
rushes, had brought her to the spot.
The beautiful, motherless young creature, needing counsel, had come to
old Tabus to appeal to her art of prophecy and, if she wanted them, to
render her any little services; for the old dame on the island was closely
bound to Ledscha, the daughter of one of the principal ship-owners in
Tennis, and had once been even more closely united to the girl.
Now, as the sun was about to set, the latter gave herself up to a wild
tumult of sweet memories, anxious fears, and yearning expectation.
Not until a cool breath from the neighbouring sea fanned her brow did
she throw down the cord and implement with which she had been
adding a few meshes to a net, and rising, gaze sometimes across the
water at a large white house in the northern part of the city, sometimes
at the little harbour or the vessels on the horizon steering toward Tennis,
among which her keen eyes discovered a magnificent ship with
bright-hued sails.
Drawing a long breath, she enjoyed the coolness which precedes the
departure of the daystar.
But the effect of this harbinger of night upon her surroundings was
even more powerful than upon herself, for the sun in the western
horizon scarcely began to sink slowly behind the papyrus thicket on the
shore of the straight Tanite arm of the Nile, dug by human hands, than
one new and strange phenomenon followed another.
First a fan, composed of countless glowing rays which spread in
dazzling radiance over the west, rose from the vanishing orb and for
several minutes adorned the lofty dome of the deep-blue sky like the
tail of a gigantic peacock. Then the glitter of the shining plumes paled.
The light-giving body from which they emanated disappeared and, in
its stead, a crimson mantle, with gold-bordered, crocus-yellow edges,
spread itself over the space it had left until the gleaming tints merged

into the deeper hues of the violet.
But the girl paid no heed to this splendid spectacle. Perhaps she noticed
how the fading light diffused a delicate rose-hued veil over the
light-blue sails, embroidered with silver vines, of the approaching state
galley, making its gilded prow glitter more brightly, and saw one
fishing boat after another move toward the harbour, but she gave the
whole scene only a few careless glances.
Ledscha cared little for the poor fishermen of Tennis, and the glittering
state galley could scarcely bring or bear away anything of importance
to her.
The epistrategus of the whole province was daily expected. But of what
consequence to the young girl were the changes which it was rumoured
he intended to introduce into the government of the country,
concerning which her father had expressed such bitter dissatisfaction
before he set out on his last trip to Pontus?
A very different matter occupied her thoughts, and as, pressing her
hand upon her heart, she gazed at the little city, gleaming with crimson
hues in the reflection of the setting sun, a strange, restless stir pervaded
the former stillness of Nature. Pelicans and flamingoes, geese and
ducks, storks and herons, ibises and cranes, bitterns and lapwings, flew
in dark flocks of manifold forms from all directions. Countless
multitudes of waterfowl darkened the air as they alighted upon the
uninhabited islands, and with ear-splitting croaking and cackling,
whistling and chirping, clapping and twittering, dropped into the sedges
and bushes which concealed their nests, while in the city the doors of
the houses opened, and men, women, and children, after toiling at the
loom and in the workshop, came out to enjoy the coolness of the
evening in the open air.
One fishing boat after another was already throwing a rope to the shore,
as the ship with the gay sails approached the little roadstead.
How large and magnificent it was!

None of the king's officials had ever used such a galley, not even the
epistrategus of the Delta, who last year had given the banking and the
oil trade to new lessees. Besides, the two transports that had followed
the magnificent vessel appeared to belong to it.
Ledscha had watched the ships indifferently enough, but suddenly her
gaze--and with it the austere beauty of her face--assumed a different
expression.
Her large black eyes dilated, and with passionate intentness she looked
from the gaily ornamented galley to the shore, which several men in
Greek