The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-07-25

ODaIra. Those WHO MlSl NO NhOh NO what perfection word painting can be car ried should read the story in the original or in the gorgeous translation of Lei cadio Hearn.
 ~ LoPATRA had not killed anybody or had a new lover for a month. O Naturally the Queen was ennuye.
 Out of the white-hot sky of Egypt, as ,nournful and changeless as destiny, the coppery orb of the molten sun poured down it's pitiless rays upon the sluggish waters of the Nile, the great stream, with imperceptible movement, glided be- tween the dreamy shores, where the slime 1ay like incrusted salt. Here and there groups of dusty palm trees lifted their heads in a stiffness broken only by the sudden flight of some river bird from nest of reeds by the shore, as the surface of the river was broken only when at in- tervaIs a fish leaped into the air and fell back again into its element. A strip of parched and faded green lay between the river and the vast deserts which stretch ed on either side, and the line of the hori- zon. paIpitating with a dense heat-fog, was broken occasionally by the wedge like forms of pyramids or the huge front of some massive temple or palace too huge for men, too small for gods, the sol emn and oppressive architecture of which was not even relieved by the colors with which it was painted. Here and there were great colossi resting with their stone hands upon their knees as if waiting, implacable as fate itself, for the end of all things.
 In other places there stretched long ave- nues of sphinxes with grave eyes and si- lent mouths asking the eternal mystery of life and death. It was Egypt the an- cient and the mysterious, a land of ne- cropolis under metropolis, where the liv- ing moved about over the mummies of the dead of countless centuries, only waiting to join them; land of the dead where the quick seemed only an infinitesimal and transitory incident. Down this mournful river between these solemn shores, came the gilded and carved gallery of Cleopatra It was shaped like the new moon and the high prov bore the figure of a ram head surmounted by a golden globe.
 At the stern a cabin two stories, in the upper of which stood a swarthy and half-naked man, who manip- ulated two great oars which, in liSu of rudder. reached out behind the galley and had their handles terminated by carved human heads crowned with the pshents- the mystical headdress so familiar in all Egyptians scuipture-and bearing the alle- gorica1 horn upon their chins. The pilot who thus guided the course of the craft had skin like new bronze, over which played, as his muscles moved the bluish surface, gleams of changing light. His eyes were oblique, his hair, black and glossy was plaited into little cords; his lips were full. his cheek-bones high and his ears stood out from the skull. He was, in fact, the true type of the Egyptian as the race was in its purity.
 In the center of the galley arose the cabin of Cleopatra herself, a 'naos'' of honor. It was painted with white on the inside and with decorated arabesques of green and vermillon and golden flowers Through little blinds of reeds, which were from time to time wet with perfumed water, such gentle breezes was created by the rapid passage of the galley down the stream came to refresh the fair crea- ture who reclined within the shade the cabin afforded. On an ivory bed covered with rich silks of the Indies reclined the daughter of the Ptolemys. the glorious tiny and whose love was death A head them ost beautiful in all the world, re- clined upon that curious pillow of wood, that hemisphere of cedar, which the Egyptians found so comfortable and suited to their cline. but which would hardly be affected by & modern beauty, and the fairest form which ever ravished the gaze of mankind stretched It's perfectly nodded and voluptuous limbs along the silken couch.
 Cleopatra was returning from a celebra- ton of the mysteries of Eerrnonthis, whereat were worshipped the holy triad of . the god Mandou, the goddess Ritho and tAeir son Harphra, and still wore the garb intwhich she had appeared at the festival. A light helmet of beaten gold fashioned in the form of the body and wings of the sacred partridge, the wings extending down and opening like fans, formed her headdress. Small openings allowed to be seen on either side ears divinely shaped and rosier than the shield in which that goddess whom the Egyptians called Athor arose from the sea.
 
 fridge, extending up and curving over the low, broad brow Of the wondrous queen, sparked with precious stones, while hair black as night escaping from under this helmet flowed in dark cascade over shoulders the beginning whereof alone was left exposed by the collar, or goret, adorned with many rows of serpentine stones azodrachs and chrysoberyis A linen robe of the gauziest texture, undu- lating in vapory whiteness, lay about the glorious body, whose outlines 1t scarely shaded with its filmy covering. A girdle, the knotted and fringed ends of which hung down in front, confined this robe to a waist the perfect outlines of which scuptors would in vain have sought to copy, and loose sleeves left exposed to above the elbows arms as perfect as any of which the most amorous poet ever dreamed. Golden bracelets blazing with Rems encircled the shapely arms and on one of the exquisitely formed hands shone q great seal ring bearing the sacred scar abaeus.
 Of the face of this wonderful creature who shall speak? For two thousand years