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An Egyptian Princess — Volume 03 by Ebers, Georg, 1837-1898

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[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an entire meal of them. D.W.]

AN EGYPTIAN PRINCESS, Part 1.

By Georg Ebers

Volume 3.

CHAPTER VII.

Psamtik went at once from his father's apartments to the temple of the goddess Neith. At the entrance he asked for the high-priest and was begged by one of the inferior priests to wait, as the great Neithotep was at that moment praying in the holiest sanctuary of the exalted Queen of Heaven.

[The temples of Egypt were so constructed as to intensify the
devotion of the worshipper by conducting him onward through a series
of halls or chambers gradually diminishing in size. "The way
through these temples is clearly indicated, no digression is
allowed, no error possible. We wander on through the huge and
massive gates of entrance, between the ranks of sacred animals. The
worshipper is received into an ample court, but by degrees the walls
on either side approach one another, the halls become less lofty,
all is gradually tending towards one point. And thus we wander on,
the sights and sounds of God's world without attract us no longer,
we see nothing but the sacred representations which encompass us so
closely, feel only the solemnity of the temple in which we stand.
And the consecrated walls embrace us ever more and more closely,
until at last we reach the lonely, resonant chamber occupied by the
divinity himself, and entered by no human being save his priest."
Schnaase, Kunstaeschirhtc I. 394.]