Thaïs | Page 3

remove, alter or modify the etext or this "small print!"
statement. You may however, if you wish, distribute this etext in
machine readable binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- cessing or
hypertext software, but only so long as *EITHER*:
[*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and does *not*
contain characters other than those intended by the author of the work,
although tilde (), asterisk (*) and underline () characters may be used to
convey punctuation intended by the author, and additional characters
may be used to indicate hypertext links; OR
[*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at no expense into
plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent form by the program that displays
the etext (as is the case, for instance, with most word processors); OR
[*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at no additional
cost, fee or expense, a copy of the etext in its original plain ASCII form
(or in EBCDIC or other equivalent proprietary form).
[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this "Small
Print!" statement.
[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the net profits
you derive calculated using the method you already use to calculate
your applicable taxes. If you don't derive profits, no royalty is due.
Royalties are payable to "Project Gutenberg
Association/Carnegie-Mellon University" within the 60 days following
each date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) your annual
(or equivalent periodic) tax return.
WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU
DON'T HAVE TO?
The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, scanning
machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty free copyright
licenses, and every other sort of contribution you can think of. Money
should be paid to "Project Gutenberg Association / Carnegie-Mellon

University".
*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN
ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*

Etext prepared by Dagny, [email protected] and John Bickers,
[email protected]

THAIS
by ANATOLE FRANCE

Translated By Robert B. Douglas

CONTENTS

PART I. THE LOTUS

PART II. THE PAPYRUS
THE BANQUET THE PAPYRUS (resumed)
PART III. THE EUPHORBIA

THAIS

PART THE FIRST
THE LOTUS
In those days there were many hermits living in the desert. On both
banks of the Nile numerous huts, built by these solitary dwellers, of
branches held together by clay, were scattered at a little distance from
each other, so that the inhabitants could live alone, and yet help one
another in case of need. Churches, each surmounted by a cross, stood
here and there amongst the huts, and the monks flocked to them at each
festival to celebrate the services or to partake of the Communion. There
were also, here and there on the banks of the river, monasteries, where
the cenobites lived in separate cells, and only met together that they
might the better enjoy their solitude.
Both hermits and cenobites led abstemious lives, taking no food till
after sunset, and eating nothing but bread with a little salt and hyssop.
Some retired into the desert, and led a still more strange life in some
cave or tomb.
All lived in temperance and chastity; they wore a hair shirt and a hood,
slept on the bare ground after long watching, prayed, sang psalms, and,
in short, spent their days in works of penitence. As an atonement for
original sin, they refused their body not only all pleasures and
satisfactions, but even that care and attention which in this age are
deemed indispensable. They believed that the diseases of our members
purify our souls, and the flesh could put on no adornment more
glorious than wounds and ulcers. Thus, they thought they fulfilled the
words of the prophet, "The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the
rose."
Amongst the inhabitants of the holy Thebaid, there were some who
passed their days in asceticism and contemplation; others gained their
livelihood by plaiting palm fibre, or by working at harvest-time for the
neighbouring farmers. The Gentiles wrongly suspected some of them of
living by brigandage, and allying themselves to the nomadic Arabs who

robbed the caravans. But, as a matter of fact, the monks despised riches,
and the odour of their sanctity rose to heaven.
Angels in the likeness of young men, came, staff in hand, as travellers,
to visit the hermitages; whilst demons--having assumed the form of
Ethiopians or of animals--wandered round the habitations of the
hermits in order to lead them into temptation. When the monks went in
the morning to fill their pitcher at the spring, they saw the footprints of
Satyrs and Aigipans in the sand. The Thebaid was, really and
spiritually, a battlefield, where, at all times, and more especially at
night, there were terrible conflicts between heaven and hell.
The ascetics, furiously assailed