CHAPTER VI.
IN THE TOMBS OF THE APIS The dwelling-places of the Apis, in the grim darkness beneath the Memphite desert, are, as all the world knows, monster coffins of black granite ranged in catacombs, hot and stifling as eternal stoves.
To reach them from the banks of the Nile we have first to traverse the low region which the inundations of the ancient river, regularly repeated since the beginning of time, have rendered propitious to the growth of plants and to the development of men; an hour or two's journey, this evening through forests of date-trees whose beautiful palms temper the light of the March sun, which is now half veiled in clouds and already declining.

In the distance herds are grazing in the cool shade.

And we meet fellahs leading back from the field towards the village on the river-bank their little donkeys, laden with sheaves of corn.

The air is mild and wholesome under the high tufts of these endless green plumes, which move in the warm wind almost without noise.
We seem to be in some happy land, where the pastoral life should be easy, and even a little paradisiacal.
But beyond, in front of us, quite a different world is gradually revealed.

Its aspect assumes the importance of a menace from the unknown; it awes us like an apparition of chaos, of universal death.
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