They watch my smallest actions and report them at once to the priests." "But how canst thou endure such an existence?
Why not banish these spies and select servants from the military caste, for instance?
They would be quite as useful as the priests." "Ah! if I only could, if I dared!" exclaimed Amasis loudly.

And then, as if frightened at his own rashness, he continued in a low voice, "I believe that even here I am being watched.

To-morrow I will have that grove of fig-trees yonder uprooted.

The young priest there, who seems so fond of gardening, has other fruit in his mind besides the half-ripe figs that he is so slowly dropping into his basket.

While his hand is plucking the figs, his ear gathers the words that fall from the mouth of his king." "But, by our father Zeus, and by Apollo--" "Yes, I understand thy indignation and I share it; but every position has its duties, and as a king of a people who venerate tradition as the highest divinity, I must submit, at least in the main, to the ceremonies handed down through thousands of years.