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Production Planning and Control
Production Planning
and Control
A Comprehensive Approach

D.R. Kiran
Production Planning and Control
Production Planning
and Control
A Comprehensive Approach

D.R. Kiran
Butterworth-Heinemann is an imprint of Elsevier
The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, United Kingdom
50 Hampshire Street, 5th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States

Copyright © 2019 BSP Books Pvt. Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Distributed in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka by BSP Books Pvt. Ltd.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
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can be found at our website: www.elsevier.com/permissions.

This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by the
Publisher (other than as may be noted herein).

Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience
broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical
treatment may become necessary.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in
evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In
using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of
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To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors,
assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products
liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products,
instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.

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ISBN: 978-0-12-818364-9

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About the author

Professor D. R. Kiran, B.Sc., B.E., M.Sc. (Eng.),

(Ph.D.), FIE(I), FIIIE, FIIProdE, FIIPlantE, FITTE,
FISNT, has a rich practical experience of 40 years
both in industry and academy. Starting his career in
1968 with Larsen & Toubro, he held top positions
including World Bank adviser/instructor for
Transport Managers in Tanzania, planning manager
of Rallifan (CF division), and was the principal of a
Chennai-based engineering college. He was in the
doctors’ panel for a Ph.D. student in 2008.
In recognition of his services in the field of engi-
neering education, Professor Kiran was presented with the coveted Bharat
Excellence Award and Gold Medal for Excellence in Education in New
Delhi in 2006. He is listed as an International Expert in Industrial
Engineering and Management in the International Directory of Experts and
Expertise. He is nominated for the post of Honorary Deputy Director
General in India for the International Biographical Center.
During the 1980s, he was introduced to Dr. Julius Nyerere, the then-
president of Tanzania as a pioneer of work study in that country. He was one
of a few nonpolitical foreigners to be interviewed by the government news-
paper of Tanzania.
He started his academic career in 1979 and taught subjects like produc-
tion planning and control, total quality management, professional ethics and
maintenance engineering management and at the B.E. level.
He was responsible for the establishments of many student chapters for
IIProdE and NIQR. His active participation in these activities and his experi-
ence as the planning manager of Rallifan and the National Bicycle
Company, where he was overall in charge of the production planning and
control (PP&C) department, provided him with the inspiration for planning
for a comprehensive book on production planning and control, providing
several case studies on key topics out of his rich experience. This is expected
to be of immense help to the students as well as the practicing engineers.
His career as an industrial engineer and as planning manager, heading the
function of PP&C at Rallifan and National Bicycle Co. gave him an opportu-
nity to introduce several systems and procedures in production management,

xxix
xxx About the author

and the absence of a comprehensive Indian book with case studies motivated
him to author this book, Production Planning and Control: A Comprehensive
Approach, which is his fourth textbook for engineering students.
Earlier he has authored three engineering textbooks both at BE and PG
levels, the latter two published in the United States by Elsevier and Taylor &
Francis and which were launched successfully in Boston:
ü Professional Ethics and Human Values, published by McGraw Hill
Education, India
ü Maintenance Engineering and Management: Precepts and Practices
ü Total Quality Management, Key Concepts and Case Studies
He has published over 23 papers in Indian and foreign journals as well as
in conference proceedings. He was the organizing secretary for the success-
ful 29th Production Convention of the Institution of Engineers held in
August 2014. He is widely traveled, having visited over 30 countries, and is
a philanthropist. Having taught engineering students for over 3 decades, he
demonstrated his love for the student community by donating for the annual
best student awards at IE(I), ISNT, NIQR, and at Venkateswara Vidhyalaya.
Preface

Production planning and control (PP&C) is a key industrial engineering func-

tion for the manufacturing company whatever may be the fields of operation,
embodying techniques and tools each of which could form a topic by itself.
To comprehend these techniques and topics, it is essential to have basic
knowledge of the production functions and their scope. This book is prepared
in such a manner that even those who do not have much exposure to the
function of production planning would be able to comprehend them as they
are related to industrial engineering.
PP&C function is a cross function, coordinating several specialized sub-
jects related to manufacture. While all aspects of PP&C function are dis-
cussed in this book, it would be beneficial to the students if they refer to
related subjects like quality management, operations management, mainte-
nance engineering, operations research, etc.
As the planning manager at Rallifan, heading the PP&C department, the
author had the opportunity to introduce several PP&C systems and formats,
and with that experience, he was responsible for introducing similar systems
and formats at Tanzania’s National Bicycle Company right from its project
stage. This experience has been fully utilized in this book on the basics of
production planning. With all the case studies, this book is expected to be of
immense help not only to the engineering students but also to practicing
engineers who want to develop their career on production management.
Though several books on PP&C or operations management are available,
there are very few that deal with all related aspects of PP&C, both in prac-
tice as well as prescribed in university syllabi worldwide. In view of this,
syllabi of several Indian and foreign universities on the subjects of PP&C
and operations management were referred to, and almost all the topics speci-
fied in these syllabi are included in this book, giving detailed explanations.
All these syllabi are cited as an appendix in this book.
Special importance is given to the fundamentals of statistics, so that the
reader is fully equipped to understand better the vital topic of forecasting,
which has a high bearing in statistics. Besides, exclusive chapters are
devoted on related topics like plant layout, scientific inventory control, criti-
cal path method, theory of constraints, etc. A unique feature of this book is
that two chapters are devoted to explain the fundamentals of Industry 4.0
and the Internet of things, which are the latest buzzwords reflecting

xxxi
xxxii Preface

advancement in manufacturing technology. This book is thus aptly titled

Production Planning and Control: A Comprehensive Approach.
Another feature of this book is that besides the syllabi, the university
questions from several Indian and foreign universities are compiled, classi-
fied chapter-wise, and given at the end of each chapter as criteria questions,
indicating the relevant paragraph number as a clue. This is expected to make
the book highly examination oriented for the student besides being practical
oriented to the PPC engineer.

D.R. Kiran
Acknowledgments

The author wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to all the persons who
were associated with him during his 45-year-long industrial and academic
careers, and those who helped him in bringing this book, Production
Planning & Control: A Comprehensive Approach, to this shape. Special
acknowledgments are due to Dr. S. P. Srinivasan, head of the Mechanical
Engineering Department and the controller of examinations of Rajalakshmi
Engineering College, Chennai, for authoring the Foreword. He, being the
chair of the Chennai Chapter of Indian Institution of Industrial Engineering,
the parent body of the Industrial Engineers and PP&C Managers of India,
adds special authentication to the Foreword.

D.R. Kiran

xxxiii
Abbreviations used in the book

2M Machine-to-Machine Communication
ABC control A, B, and C category control
ALB Assembly Line Balancing
ALDEP Automated Layout Design Program
AMA American Management Association
AMQP Advanced Message Queuing Protocol
ANOVA Analysis of Variance
ARC Activity Relationship Chart
ARD Activity Relationship Diagram
ARIMA Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average
ARMA Autoregressive Moving Average
ARMAX Autoregressive Moving Average with Exogenous Inputs
ATC Average Total Cost
ATO Assemble To Order
ATP Available To Promise
ATS Assemble To Stock
B&B Branch & Bound
BCG Boston Consulting Group
BEA Break-Even Analysis
BEP Break-Even Point
BOM Bill of Materials
BTO Build to Order
BTS Build to Stock
CAD Computer-Aided Design
CAE Computer-Aided Engineering
CAM Computer-Aided Manufacturing
CAPP Computer-Aided Process Planning
CC-Link IE Cyclic Communication Link—Industrial Ethernet
CIM Computer-Integrated Manufacturing
CIPMS Computer—Integrated Production Management System
CLMRP Closed-Loop Manufacturing Resource Planning
CoAP Constrained Application Protocol
CONWIP Constant Work in Progress
CORELAP Computerized Relationship Layout Planning
COTD Customers On-Time Delivery
COVERT Cost Over Time
CPD Critical Path Drag
CPFR Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment

xxxv
xxxvi Abbreviations used in the book

CPM Critical Path Method

CPOF Capacity Planning Using Overall Factors
CRAFT Computerized Relative Allocation of Facilities Technique
CREW Cost Reduction Through Elimination of Waste
CRP Capacity Requirements Planning
CRS Cold Rolled Steel
DBR Drum Buffer Rope
DES Discrete Event Simulation
DFA Design for Assembly
DFR Design for Reliability
DLM Data Life Cycle Management
EDD Earliest Due Date
EOQ Economic Order Quantity
ERP Enterprise Resource Planning
ETO Engineer to Order
EVS Embedded Vision Systems
FA Fatigue Allowance
FAS Final Assembly Schedule
FCFS First Come First Served
FMEA Failure Mode and Effect Analysis
FSN Fast moving, Slow moving, or Nonmoving
GMANOVA Generalized Multivariate Analysis-of-Variance
GMDH Group Method of Data Handling
GMRAE Geometric Mean Relative Absolute Error
GOLF Government, Local or Foreign
GT Group Technology
HML High Cost, Medium Cost, and Low Cost
HRMS Human Resource Management Systems
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
IbT Intercommunication Between Things
ICAIEA - 2014 The 2nd International Conference on Advances in Industrial
Engineering Applications
IETF Internet Engineering Task Force
IIF International Institute of Forecasters
ILO International Labor Organization
IoT Internet of Things
ISF International Symposia on Forecasting
IT Information Technology
JAM Joint Allocation Method
JIS Just-in-Sequence
JIT Just-in-Time
JUSE Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers
LATC Long-Run Average Total Cost Curve
LB Line Balancing
LCCA Least-Cost Center Analysis
LGPL GNU Lesser General Public License
LPT Longest Processing Time
 Abbreviations used in the book xxxvii

LQE Linear Quadratic Estimation

LS Least Slack
LT Lead Time
LUC Least-Unit Cost
M2M Machine-to-Machine
MA Miscellaneous Allowance
MABTS Make-Assemble-Build-to-sequence
MAD Mean Absolute Deviation
MAPE Mean Absolute Percent Error
MAT Moving Annual Total
MBD Make or Buy Decision
MC Marginal Cost
MLP Material Layout Planning
MMIS Manufacturing Management Information System
MND Moving, Nonmoving, or Dead Items
MNG Moving, Nonmoving, or Ghost Items
MPS Master Production Schedule
MQTT Message Queue Telemetry Transport
MRP I Material Requirement Planning
MRP II Manufacturing Resource Planning
MSME Micro, Small, and Medium Scale Enterprises
MTO Make-to-Order
MTS Make-to-Stock
NIIR New Item Indent Request
NPC National Productivity Council, India
NPD New Product Development
O-A-A-E Observation, Analysis, Action, and Evaluation
OPC Operation Process Chart
OSCAR-DCSBC Acronym for Principles of Organization
OT Operation Technology
PBC Period Batch Control
PCB Printed Circuit Board
PCO Preferred Customer Order
P-D-C-A Plan-Do-Check-Act
PDPC Process Decision Program Chart
PED Proper Engineering Decision
PERT Program Evaluation and Review Technique
PMD Proper Management Decision
POH Projected on Hand
POQ Periodic Order Quantity
PP&C or PPC Production Planning and Control
PPB Part Period Balancing
PPL Process Planning Layout
PQRST Product, Quantity, Routing, Services, Time
PSO Particle Swarm Optimization
PSS Product Service Systems
PTS Pick-to-Sequence
xxxviii Abbreviations used in the book

RAMPS Resource Allocation and Multiple Project Schedule System

RBF Rule-Based Forecasting
RCCP Rough Cut Capacity Planning
RF Rating Factor
RFID Radio Frequency Identification
ROL Reorder Level
ROQ Reorder Quantity
SD Standard Deviation
SDE Scarce, Difficult, and Easily Available
SFC Shop Floor Control
SLP Systematic Layout Planning
SM Silver-Meal
SMAPE Symmetric Mean Absolute Percentage Error
SMED Single-Minute Exchange of Die
SOT Standard Operation Time
SPOV System for Production Order Validation
SPT Shortest Processing Time
STOMP Streaming Text-Oriented Messaging Protocol
STS Ship-to-Sequence
TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
TCR Total Closeness Rating
TFC Total Fixed Cost
ToC Theory of Constraints
TPM Total Productive Maintenance
TPS Toyota Production System
TSPT Truncated Shortest Processing Time
TVC Total Variable Cost
VED Vital, Essential, or Desirable
VOC Voice of Customer
VOO Voice of Organization
WAMP Web Application Messaging Protocol
XMPP IETF Constrained Application Protocol
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 Forsaken by everyone on earth.
Their dwelling place knows them no more.
It is as though they had never been:
Rejoice then, mortal, in thy day of life!
Oil thy body with fragrant oil
Make lotos garlands for thy arms
And the breasts of thy sister beloved.
Enjoy the music and the songs
Forget thou all thy sorrows,
Remember nothing but the joy,
Until the day thy boat shall land
Upon the shores of Silence."

The song stopped and the breath of the night blew fresher than before
from the black gaps between the pillars; the flames of the lamps bent lower,
all on one side, as though someone invisible had come into the room.

"Isn't it a fine song?" Saakera asked.

"No, prince, it isn't," answered Panehesy, the second priest of Aton and
the head of the king's spies—a man without age who looked like a eunuch.
He was a mild fanatic, 'a holy fool,' in the words of Ay.

"What's wrong with it?"

"It's godless. If it is true, our faith is in vain."

"I would answer you, my friend, but it doesn't behove ignorant men to
speak in the presence of the wise."

"Speak, Saakera," the king said. "I like listening to you. You say what
many people think, but don't say, and to me even a bitter truth is dearer than
a sweet lie."

"Listen then, Panehesy," Saakera began. "Let the son of the Sun who
has come down from heaven speak of heavenly things, and I will speak of
the earthly. We are all creatures of yesterday and we know nothing, for our
days upon earth are like a shadow. The same fate befalls the righteous and
the unrighteous, the good and the wicked, the clean and the unclean, him
that sacrifices and him that does not sacrifice. A man has no pre-eminence
above a beast: all are of the dust and all turn to dust again. I have seen all
the works that are done under the sun and believe the dead are happier than
the living, and happiest of all is he who was never born!"

"What are we to do then, we who have been born?" Panehesy asked.

"The song gives an answer: rejoice in your day, mortals, but remember
that the peace of the god with the unbeating heart is the better portion."

"Thank you very much, our kind host, you have given us a treat!" Ay
laughed. "Why, I couldn't swallow a morsel to the accompaniment of a song
like that!"

"Why not, my friend? Remembrance of sorrow in the midst of joy is

like salt in one's food."

"That's all very well, but every condiment should be used in

moderation, and this is too much salt."

"No, this is not salt," Pentu the physician said, quietly, as though to
himself.

"What is it then?" Ay asked.

"Poison," Pentu answered, quieter still. Mahu glanced at Merira. He sat

with his head bent and his eyes half closed, his face as unmoved as that of a
man asleep or dead.

"Why don't you speak, sire?" Panehesy cried, turning to the king.

"I don't speak because there is nothing to say: he is right," the king
answered.

"Well said, Abby darling!" Princess Meritatona exclaimed, clapping her

hands with delight.

Everyone looked at her with surprise.

 "What does this mean, sire?" Panehesy faltered.

"It means, my friend, that if there is no God man is worse off than a
beast, because a beast does not know its end and a man does."

"But there is God."

"Yes, there is. Everyone says there is, but acts as though there were not.
And haven't you read, my son, that we shall have to give a terrible answer
for empty words? Pentu, too, is right: there is poison in that song. But
poison may be a medicine. There are two endings to the song: one is 'eat,
drink and die' and another 'feed the starving, give drink to the thirsty'.... But
it is better not to speak of it. God is a spring in the wilderness, sealed for the
talkers and open for the silent. Merira is silent and he is right, more right
than any of us. Don't be vexed with our chatter, our silent friend, forgive
us!"

Merira made no answer, he merely looked at the king and his face
remained as unmoved as though he were asleep or dead.

Suddenly there came through the stillness the slow, measured clang of
the cymbals on the roof of Aton's temple, as though a huge heart of brass
began beating in the night.

All rose from their seats; the king, the queen, the princesses, the heir-
apparent and Merira walked to the altar that stood in the depths of the room
before a bas-relief of the god Aton.

"Glory be to the unseen god, to the midnight sun!" Merira intoned. "Oh,
mighty Falcon, with broad wings, flying through the two skies, hastening in
thy sleepless course through the sky underneath the earth, to arise in thy
place in the morning, the most secret of secret gods. In thy life the dead
come to life again; thou givest their nostrils the breath of life and air to their
stifled throats. Thou bringest light to those who are in death; glorifying thee
from within their tombs, the dead lift up their hands and those in the earth
rejoice!"
 When the cymbals sounded Mahu and Dio went into the adjoining
room. He walked up to the wall, knocked at it gently and put his ear to it. A
knock came from the other side, too. The block of stone in the wall turned
round like a swing door, leaving a narrow opening. The palace walls were
double and there was a hiding place between them. No one knew of it
except the king, Mahu and Ramose.

The Hittite Amazons of the king's bodyguard came out of the open door
noiselessly like shadows. The dwarf Iagu jumped out after them, ran up to
Mahu and asked in a whisper:

"Where are they?"

"Who?"

"Tuta, Merira."

"Why do you want to know?"

"I won't give them to anyone, I will throttle them with my own hands."

It was Iagu who had killed Ruru: he had climbed the tree by the
window, looked into the room, listened to all that the conspirators said and
told Mahu.

"You are a fine fellow, Iagu!" said Mahu, patting the dwarf on the head.
"Tiny as you are, you have a lion's heart. But there's one thing, my friend: if
you want to save the king, you must not touch them, do you hear?"

"I hear," Iagu answered, grinding his teeth.

"Make haste, make haste!" Dio hurried them.

"Don't be afraid, we'll be in time," Mahu said calmly. "You go to the

king, and I will wait here. We will run out as soon as you call."

Dio returned to the guest chamber. Both Tuta and Ay had gone. The king
stood by the altar, whispering a prayer. Dio placed herself behind him,
opposite Merira.
 A table with bread, wine and fruit stood near the altar. Merira went to it
and began preparing the libation cup.

He then returned to the altar, holding the cup in his hands.

Dio noticed a ring with a carbuncle on his finger; he had not worn it
before.

Their eyes met. "Who is to drink the cup?" he read the question in her
eyes. "You will see," she read the answer in his.

He approached the king and said:

"King Uaenra, Sun's only Son, light of light, spirit of spirit, flesh of
Sun's flesh, accept the cup of life, drink the cup of immortality, thou who
overcomest death!"

He held out the cup to the king. But before Akhnaton had had time to
take it, Dio snatched it out of Merira's hand and threw it on the floor.

"What are you doing?" the king cried.

"I've poured out the poison," Dio answered and she called:

"Mahu! Mahu!"

The door was flung open, and the Hittite women, led by Mahu, ran into
the room. Some surrounded the king, others occupied the porch and
mounted guard by the doors, but most of them ran to the next room where a
battle with a detachment of Midian mercenaries had started.

"Rebellion! Save the king!" the dignitaries cried, rushing about the
room in search of an exit.

Suddenly there was a loud hammering at the door from which the
Hittite women had come. Both halves of the door were creaking and
shaking under the blows of the axe from the other side. No one had
expected an attack from the rear. The Amazons had barely had time to run
to the door. A new battle began there.
 Arrows and spears whistled in the air. A spear struck the stand with
wines, and it fell with a clatter of broken crockery. A candelabrum was
overthrown and the mats on the floor caught fire.

"Fire! Fire!" the dignitaries shouted, but they did nothing to put it out.

A Nubian girl seized a carpet and flung it over the flame, extinguishing
it at once.

An arrow pierced the fragrant cup on Ty's head and tore off the wig,
leaving her bald head bare. But the old woman sat unperturbed and did not
even take her gloves off; rebellion seemed to be part of the court ceremonial
to her.

Miruit, wounded in the stomach with a spear, lay in a pool of blood on

the floor, scratching the ground with her nails and showing her teeth as it
were in a smile, and the narrow childish hips moved slower and slower as
though ending the dance of love.

The Hittite Amazons might not have withstood the attack of the
Midians, had not half the mercenaries deserted the conspirators at the last
moment.

The noise of the battle began to subside, the rebels were in retreat. The
women had conquered the men. It had all happened so quickly that those
present had hardly come to their senses.

Suddenly Ramose, lightly wounded in the left arm, came into the
chamber dragging Tuta after him. He threw him at the king's feet and cried:

"Here is the chief criminal, sire! It is for his sake the other one has been
working," he pointed to Merira and turned to Tuta again. "Confess, you
rascal, or I'll kill you like a dog."

He raised the knife over Tuta. The king seized his hand.

"Let go the knife!"

Ramose did not obey and, shaking with anger, grumbled:

 "Will you forgive this one, too?"

"It's for me to decide what I will do, but you let go the knife!"

The king pulled the knife out of Ramose's hand by force and threw it
aside.

"Woe to us! God will not save him who ruins himself!" the old man
muttered, sinking into an armchair heavily, exhausted by his wound.

Tuta lay at the king's feet.

"Is it true that you have done it?" the king asked him.

"Not I, not I, sire, God sees it isn't I...." Tuta babbled, pointing his finger
at Merira.

Merira stood at a distance without moving; he looked so unconcerned

that he seemed not to see or hear anything. Someone had tied his hands
behind his back.

The king went up to him and asked:

"You wanted to kill me, Merira?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because you prepare the way for the Son of perdition."

"Haven't we prepared it together?"

"No, not together."

"Why have you lied to me, then?"

"To destroy your work."

 "But why did you rise against Him?"

"May I ask you a favour, sire?"

"Do."

"Don't ask me about anything and put me to death as soon as possible."

"No, Merira, I will not put you to death."

"You will forgive me like Tuta?" Merira said, with a smile that looked
like a grimace of disgust. He had spoken with his eyes on the ground;
suddenly he raised them and said looking straight into the king's eyes:

"Do what you like, but remember, Uaenra, that if you don't kill me, I
will...."

He did not finish, but the king understood 'I will kill you.'

He put both hands on Merira's shoulders, and, also looking straight into
his eyes, said, with a gentle smile:

"Remember, you too, Merira: whatever happens, I love you."

he king was the last to learn that Princess Makitatona was

with child. She confessed it to him herself, but did not say
who the man was and so implored him not to ask her that
he had pity and reassured her:

"Don't tell me if you don't want to; you will tell me

when you feel that you can."
 He blamed himself for everything: "If I loved her more, this would not
have happened!" He was doing himself injustice: he loved all his daughters
and Maki more than the rest.

He thought the queen knew, but she did not. The princess's nurse, old
Asa, may have suspected something, but she would rather have had her
tongue cut off than said anything.

There were strange rumours in the town: it was said that the princess
had been seduced by a tramp, a runaway slave or, perhaps, by the Jew
Iserker himself; it would not have been very difficult, because the king's
daughters were not properly looked after; Princess Makitatona had been
seen to go out alone into the desert through the secret gate in the Maru-Aton
garden wall. And people added, not without malice, that the Jews were
highly delighted, for they thought that the princess would give birth to their
Messiah.

The dwarf, Lagu, was brought one day to the palace half dead: he had
had a fight with a crowd of street ruffians who were gazing at a charcoal
drawing of the princesses made on the wall with an indecent inscription
beneath it.

The king allowed Maki to live in retirement in the Maru-Aton palace

until her confinement. She spent the days there in a perfectly dark room
with the shutters closed and the windows curtained: she could not bear the
light. She had had attacks of this disease before: daylight seemed to stab not
only her eyes, but her whole body as with a knife; if a ray of sunshine
penetrated into the room, she cried and groaned as with intolerable pain.

The eldest princess, Meritatona, or Rita, Saakera's wife, was inseparable

from Maki. There was a year's difference between the sisters—one was
fifteen, the other fourteen; they loved each other tenderly though they were
as different as day and night.

Maki had been betrothed to Saakera, who was passionately in love with
her; she loved him, too, but renounced him for Rita's sake and made a vow
of virginity to the god Attis. The god's chapel was in the hilly desert not far
from Maru-Aton. The droning of the eunuchs engaged in their devotions
sounded like jackals howling in the night.

Some ten days after Saakera's feast Maki and Rita were sitting at Maru-
Aton late one evening in a long and narrow Water House, supported by
palm-shaped pillars with a labyrinth of eleven ornamental pools. Their
slanting walls were covered with paintings of water plants, lotoses and
papyrus, that seemed to be growing out of water; above them were painted
pomegranate bushes and clumps of vine. Beds of living flowers were all
round.

Rita and Maki were reclining on pillows by the water's edge, under
bushes of white, pink, and red roses.

"Why didn't you tell sooner, you silly? We could have arranged things,
and now look at yourself: it is too late," said Rita, feeling Maki's body as an
experienced midwife. Pregnancy seemed monstrous in a little creature like
Maki, almost a child.

"Saakera's Ethiopian has some stuff. Shall I ask her? Perhaps it could
still be done...."

"Oh, Rita, don't speak of it, please don't!"

"Very well, don't whine.... What was I talking about? Yes, about Ankhi.
She wants to run away and join Tuta. The rascals did not stay long in prison
—they escaped to Nut-Amon; I expect they'll stir up a rising there. No, I
would not have let them off: they ought to have been killed on the spot. But
our courtiers are all traitors and scoundrels."

She spoke listlessly, evidently thinking of something else. Suddenly she

smiled, as though recalling something funny.

"Shiha is a clever man! Do you know what he says of Enra?" Shiha was
the high priest and eunuch of the god Attis.

"What?" Maki asked. She started slightly at the name of Shiha and Rita
noticed it.
 "He says Enra lives as though all were well with the world; but all is not
well!"

"All is not well?" Maki repeated, frowning with the childish effort to
understand.

"Do you remember Yuma's death?" Rita went on. Yuma was a little
black slave who died of a tarantula sting.

"She turned greyish-white all over, just like an autumn fly covered with
mildew, and a smell of corruption came from her before she died. And the
day before yesterday someone had attacked a little girl of five by the very
walls of Aton's temple, strangled her and thrown the body to the pigs. Is that
well? And Enra lives as though none of these things happened. Perhaps all
is well for God, but Enra is not God; people say he is, but he himself knows
he isn't."

She pondered for a while and began again:

"He does not know how to cry, but one cannot live without tears;
nothing is sweeter than tears..."

"Does Shiha say that?" Maki asked.

"No, I say it .... or perhaps Shiha, I don't remember.... What is Aton, the
Sun? A spark in darkness: death will blow and the sun will be extinguished.
Darkness is more than light; first there was darkness and then light. Maybe
God dwells in darkness."

She laughed suddenly.

"You, too, are a sensible girl; you are afraid of light and love darkness.
The daughter does not take after the father."

Maki listened greedily; sometimes she strove to say something, but

words froze on her lips; she merely looked at her sister with wide open eyes
and seemed like one bound hand and foot waiting for a blow.
 "Well, that's enough moping, let us go! You must walk about, it is good
for you," Rita said, lifting her with apparent roughness, but in reality with
tender care, and led her into the garden.

It was dusk. The sky was clear, but mist was creeping over the ground.
The water in the river had only just returned to its normal level; there were
still pools of water about. Drops fell from the wet leaves. Frogs croaked
ecstatically. The smell of the flowers was intoxicating. All at once the mist
turned rosy from the moon that was rising invisibly.

They walked to the big pond where Maki's birch tree grew. It had never
recovered after the scorching Sheheb. Everything round it was green and in
flower, but it was dead and only on some of the bare branches a withered
leaf showed black.

Maki put her arms round the pale, slender stem and pressed her cheek
against it.

"Poor, poor darling!" she whispered tenderly as though saying good-bye

to a friend who had died.

"A-ah, you remember the superstition!" Rita said, with a laugh. "If one
plants a tree and it dies, the person who planted it will die also. Well, even if
you do die, that's nothing very dreadful—you will have had a child anyway.
To think of God sending such happiness to one who doesn't want it! Why, I
would die ten times if I could only have a child."

After walking round the big pond, they came to the Lotos pond, with
Aton's chapel on a little island and a small bridge leading to it. A huge lotos,
not yet fully opened, showed white on the water. A boat was tied near by.
Rita jumped into it, and seeing a garden knife at the bottom, took it to cut
the lotos; she gave the flower to Maki and hid the knife in the bosom of her
dress.

They went back to the Water-House and sat down in the old place.

"You haven't been to see Shiha for some time, have you?" Rita asked.
 "No, I haven't."

"And I often go to him. It is interesting. A regular abode of love. All our

dignitaries' wives keep going there. These eunuchs are excellent
matchmakers. And they are themselves fond of women—and the women
like it, of course. Shiha tempts me, too, with the god's marriage-bed: 'the
god will come down to you in the night like a bridegroom to his bride,' he
says. But I am not a fool to buy a pig in a poke. Instead of a god a slave or a
dirty Jew may come and disgrace one..."

She paused and then spoke again, looking straight into Maki's eyes:

"Extraordinary! How is it possible not to find out who the father of your
child is? Why, I would get the wretch from the bottom of the sea! But Shiha
knows who came to you then. Would you like me to threaten him so that he
should tell? ... Well, why are you silent? Do you want me to?"

"Do what you like, but don't torment, don't torment me so! Better make
an end of it." Maki moaned, pale and trembling as though she were on the
rack.

Rita drew back, and she trembled, too.

"Make an end of it? Do you think I know everything and merely tease
you, play cat and mouse with you? Well, perhaps I do know.... What's the
matter, why are you so frightened? Perhaps you know, too? A-ah, I've
caught you! Speak, tell me, who is it? He?"

"Yes, he, Saakera," Maki answered, with apparent calm, looking straight
into her eyes. "Well, kill me, I don't care..."

Rita brought the knife out of her bosom and flung it far away. She
buried her face in her hands and sat for a few minutes without moving; then
she drew her hands away from her face and put them on Maki's shoulders.

"There, it's a good thing you told me or very likely I would have killed
you, really. Do you remember Ankhi's doll?"
 When Rita and Ankhi were little they had once a fight over a clay doll, a
hideous thing that they both loved passionately. Rita took it from her sister,
who pulled it out of her hands, and broke it into bits against the wall. Then
Rita fell upon Ankhi like a fury and bit her throat; the nurses had difficulty
in dragging her off. And in the night she stole away into the garden and ate
some poison berries, 'spiders' eggs'; she very nearly died.

"The devil entered into me then, and now, too. We have all taken after
father—we are possessed.... Yes, it is a good thing you told me. All is well
now—it's over! But I do wonder at myself: I thought I would kill you if you
told me; and now I don't feel anything. Silly girls had a fight over a doll, but
perhaps it was not worth while, after all. You know what a number of wives
Saakera has. Sheep are in the stalls, fish in the hatchery and we in his
palace. You and I are no better than the others. You gave me your betrothed,
I gave you my husband, so we are quits and that's an end of it. We'll be
friends as before, better than before. When the baby is born—it must be a
boy, we don't want a girl—we'll look after it together.... What's the matter,
why are you silent again? Don't you believe me?"

"I do, but I am afraid...."

"What of?"

"I don't know.... You may forgive me, but I will torment myself to
death.... Oh, Rita, darling, why didn't you kill me straight away? It would
have been better to make an end of it!"

"Nonsense! All will be forgiven and forgotten if only one lives and
loves. And you do love me, don't you—more than before?"

"More, much more! I love you dreadfully, that's why I will die—
because I love you so. You know, Rita, if one loves very much, one cannot
live, it's too great a joy...."

"It was after that you got to love me so?" Rita asked, with slight
mockery.
 Instead of answering Maki hid her face on Rita's breast and burst into
tears.

"There, that will do," Rita said, drily. "It is time to go home—see what
heavy dew there is."

She took her by the arms and again led her along carefully like a nurse.

They went indoors. Rita put her sister to bed and sat down beside her,
waiting for her to go to sleep.

"Don't go," Maki begged.

"I won't, don't be afraid, I'll sleep here beside you."

"You do love me, yes?" Maki whispered in her ear.

"No, I don't love you a bit. Why, you silly girl, if I didn't love you, I
wouldn't torment you so.... there, that's enough talking, go to sleep."

"No, wait a minute, what was I going to say? ... Oh, yes! You know I do
not know for certain who came to me then. I told you it was he, Saakera,
but I don't really know—perhaps it wasn't he."

"Who was it, then?"

"He Whom I was expecting. I doubted, I did not believe—and this is

why I suffer now. I shall die in misery, but when I am dead, perhaps He will
come again."

"There, don't let us talk of it, sleep. Shall I tell you a story?"

"Do," Maki answered in a sleepy, childish voice.

"Once upon a time there lived a king and queen," Rita began the tale of
the Bewitched Prince, in a sing-song voice like the old nurse, Asa. "One day
they prayed to the gods and the gods gave them a son. And when he was
born the seven Hathor came to decree his destiny and said, 'this man will
meet with death from a crocodile, a snake, or a dog.' And the king was very,
very sorry when he heard of this. And he caused a tower to be built in the
mountains and settled the prince there. And the prince was very, very happy
there...."

She stopped, listened to her sister's even breathing and kissing her on
the eyes, that she might have good dreams, went out of the room.

Old Asa, the princesses' nurse, could not go to sleep in her stuffy room
and went out into the garden; seeing something white flit among the trees
she was frightened and wondered if it were Tiy—she knew that the dead
queen walked about at night. But, recognizing Princess Meritatona, she
called to her. The girl stopped, looked round without answering and ran
along, disappearing among the thick bushes.

Used as Asa was to the princess's whims, she was surprised and then
frightened—in a different way than at first: she felt there was something
really alarming about the white phantom.

She ran after Rita, but her old legs did not obey her very well. She went
on and on, calling her name, but there was no trace of her.

She met the gardener.

"Have you seen the princess?"

"Yes, I have."

"Where?"

"On the Lotos pond, in the chapel."

"What was she doing there?"

"I can't say."

"Let us go and look."

They walked to the chapel. The gardener did not dare to go in; Asa went
in, but ran out immediately, screaming wildly, and fell to the ground, almost
knocking the gardener off his feet.

He went into the chapel and saw the princess hanging on the brass rod
of the curtain before the altar. She had made the noose out of the curtain
drawstring but so badly that it slipped off. Hanging unevenly, her body
rested with the toes of the left foot on the corner of the bench she had
knocked down after climbing on to it to throw the string over the rod.

When the gardener cut the string and took the noose off Rita's neck she
did not breathe and her face was so blue and fixed that he thought her dead.

Maki dreamt that she was lying on the marriage-bed in a high tower in
the starry sky, waiting for Him as she had done then, in the temple of Attis;
she knew that He would come and that His face would be like the moon, the
sun of the night, not burning, not terrible, like the face of the god whose
name is Quiet Heart.

She woke up and called:

"Rita!"

She looked round—there was no one in the room; only the moon looked
in at the window, bright as the sun of the night.

Suddenly far away in the garden cries were heard. Maki jumped up, ran
into the garden and listened. The cries came nearer and nearer. Men with
torches ran about shouting.

Maki ran towards the torches. The men were carrying something long
and white. Maki rushed forward with a shriek. The men made way for her.
Moonlight fell upon Rita's face, and Maki fell fainting upon the ground.

Rita was in a deep swoon. She was saved in the end, but for several
weeks she was at death's door as in childhood when she had eaten 'spiders'
eggs.'
 The same night Maki's labour pains began and by the morning she was
safely delivered of a son.

VI
 here was brilliant sunshine outside, but it was dark as
night in the bedchamber of the Maru-Aton palace, with the
shutters closed and the windows curtained; only the gilded
columns glimmered faintly in the dim lamplight.

A bed of carved ebony and ivory, painted and gilded,

stood in the middle of the room on a platform with four steps. It was shaped
like a fantastic monster, a mixture of crocodile and hippopotamus, with
lion's feet and open jaws: it guarded the sleeper; the more fearful the bed,
the sweeter the sleep. Strangely convex, round and hard, with a wooden
crescent for a pillow, it seemed uncomfortable, but was in truth better than
any other bed, for it was cool to sleep on in the hot nights when feather beds
and pillows were unendurable.

Princess Makitatona lay on the bed. On the fourth day after her delivery
she had been attacked with child-bed fever.

The dark, stuffy room smelt of drugs. Pentu, the physician, was
pounding in a mortar of stone a complicated remedy, composed of forty-six
ingredients, corresponding to the same number of blood vessels in the
human body. In addition to medicinal herbs it contained lizard's blood,
sulphur from pigs' ears, powder from the head and wings of the sacred
beetle, Kheper, a pregnant woman's milk, a hippopotamus's tooth and flies'
dirt.

In another corner of the room a Babylonian sorcerer, Assursharatta, was

boiling in a cauldron the blood of a freshly slain lamb with magical herbs
and muttering a spell against the seven demons of fever:
Sibiti shunu, sibiti shunu,
Sibit adi shina shunu.
They are seven, they are seven,
They are seven twice over.
There are seven of them in heaven,
There are seven of them in hell.
They are neither male nor female,
They are childless and unmarried.
Whirlwinds that bring destruction
 Do not know what mercy is,
Do not bend their ear to prayer.
They are evil, they are mighty,
They are seven, they are seven!

But nothing helped the patient—neither the medicines nor the spells,
nor even the healing water from the well of the Sun in Heliopolis, where the
god Ra washed his face when he lived on earth.

In vain old Asa whispered the incantation:

Mother Isis cries
From the top of the hill:
"Horus my son,
The hill is on fire,
Bring me water,
Quench the fire."

The fire of the fever would not be quenched.

In vain the queen read over her daughter the prayer of Mother Isis.
When a scorpion stung baby Horus she cried to the sun and the sun was
darkened, night was upon the earth until the god Tot healed the baby and
gave it back to its mother. Since then the magical prayer of Isis had always
been read over sick children.

"Stand still, O Sun, stand still until the child is restored to its mother!"
the queen repeated with frenzied entreaty, but she knew the miracle would
not happen, the sun would not stop.

She recalled the hymn to Aton:

Thou conquerest all through love,

Thou soothest the babe in the womb
Before its mother can soothe it.
 But now He failed to soothe her.

Thou hast mercy upon a worm

And upon the midges of the air.

But now He had no mercy upon her.

The king and queen never left the invalid's side, but she was delirious
and did not recognize them. If a ray of sunlight penetrated between the
curtains or through a crack in the door, she grew restless and cried:

"It is coming, it is coming again! There it is stretching out its leg....

Abby darling, do drive it away, quick! It will seize me and suck me dry like
a fly ... whoever could have let a spider into the sky?"

The king understood: Aton the Sun was the spider, the hand shaped rays
were the spider's legs.

But most often she talked in her delirium about Shiha, the eunuch.

"Shiha, what does it mean 'light is greater than darkness'? Who has
blasphemed against divine darkness? Do you say King Uaenra is godless?
.... How dare you, you old monkey? .... Drink, drink! Isn't there something
cooler? You gave me boiling water last time, it scalded my mouth...."

They gave her the freshest water out of porous Tyntyrian vessels, but
she pushed the cup away:

"Hot water again!"

The baby boy had been born prematurely; it had no nails, no hair and
was weak and pale like a blade of grass grown in darkness. It hardly cried at
all and only wrinkled its face painfully at the lamplight.
 "It isn't right for a baby to be in darkness: it may go blind; it must be
taken into the sunshine," the midwives decided.

But as soon as they took it out into the light of day it screamed and
struggled as in a fit; they had to take it back into the dark. It was born an
enemy of Aton the Sun.

"Is it night outside?" Maki asked in one of her lucid intervals.

"No, it is day," the king answered.

"The day of life is short, the night of death is long," she said, with a
quiet smile, looking into his eyes, as it were into his very heart. "Shiha says
'darkness was before light; sunshine is a veil over darkness.' Shall the dead
see the sun? What do you think, Enra?"

He was about to answer, but she began to wander again.

"A hen, a white hen with a red wig on like Ty's.... It is running after
me.... Oh, it has stuck its teeth into me!"

The king remembered that the white hen was the mate of the cock with
which he and the princesses had played once. Old Asa wept bitterly: she
thought the hen with teeth was a bad omen.

"Do explain, Shiha," Maki wandered, "King Uaenra is wiser than all the
sons of men: how is it he does not know death? He lives and sings to the
sun as though there were no death and all were well... What will he sing
when he does know death?"

Sometimes the king fancied it was not mere delirium: it was as though
she knew that he was there without seeing him and spoke for his benefit,
passed dreadful judgment upon him, laughed at him with a terrible laugh.

"Enra, Enra, why don't you pray?" the queen repeated like one insane,
looking at him with dry, tearless eyes. "Pray! Your prayer is strong: the
Father will hear His son. Save her, Enra!"
 The king was silent. He felt so ashamed that he could have screamed
with shame, as with pain, but worse than shame, pain and death was the
mockery "what will you sing when you do know death?"

At the same time princess Meritatona was lying ill in the apartments of
Saakera, the heir-apparent.

Maki kept talking of her as of one dead.

"All through me, through me!" she repeated in anguish.

"But, darling, Rita is alive," her mother said, trying to comfort her. But
she would not believe it.

"No, mother, don't deceive me, I saw how they carried her, dead."

"She might be saved if only she believed me," the queen thought. "But
how can I convince her? And what has happened between them? A fine
mother I am—I don't know why one daughter strangled herself and by
whom the other has had a child.... Perhaps Enra knows? He spoke with her
then—he must know."

She questioned the king when they were alone together.

"Enra, do you know who the baby's father is?"

"No, I don't know."

"Haven't you asked her?"

"I have, but she did not say."

"How is it you didn't find out, how could you have left her to face such
torture alone?"

"I pitied her."

 "And don't you pity her now? Enra, Enra, what have you done!"

The baby did not live long: it died by the evening of the fifth day as
quietly as though it had gone to sleep.

"Where is the boy?" Maki asked, coming to herself.

"It is asleep," the queen answered.

"Never mind, I'll be very careful, let me have him!"

No one moved or spoke.

"Give him to me, do!" Maki repeated, looking round at them all.
"Mother, where is he? Tell me the truth.... What has happened? Is he dead?"

The queen covered her face with her hands.

"Well, perhaps it is better so," Maki said quietly. "We shall soon be
together...."

That same night before dawn the death struggle began. She no longer
tossed about or wandered; she lay quite naked: the lightest covering
oppressed her; the slender, childish body seemed flat and crushed as though
it had been trodden on like a blade of grass; the head with the elongated
skull was thrown back, the eyes closed, the face immovable and the
breathing so faint that at times it was not noticeable.

Pentu, the physician, brought to her lips a round brass mirror and when
it grew slightly clouded, he said:

"She breathes."

Suddenly she opened her eyes and called:

 "Enra, where is Enra?"

"Here," the king answered bending over her, and she whispered in his
ear, like a blade of grass rustling:

"Open the shutters."

He knew she was afraid of light and did not venture to open all the
shutters at once, but ordered them to draw the curtains from one window
only.

"All, all," she whispered.

All the windows were flung open. The morning sun flooded the room—
the rays of the god Aton like a child's hands embraced her naked body.

"Lift me up," the blade of grass rustled, and the king lifted her as easily
as though she were a blade of grass. The sun lighted her face.

"Akhnaton, Sun's joy, Sun's only Son!" she said, looking into his eyes so
that he understood this was not delirium, "I know that you are...."

She did not finish, but he understood: "I know that you are He."

Suddenly she trembled in his arms, like a leaf in a storm. He laid her
down on the bed.

Pentu put the mirror to her lips, but this time its brass surface remained
clear. The rays of the Sun—a child's hands—embraced the body of the
dead.

There was the sound of weeping in the chamber. The women cried,
wailed frantically, beat their breasts, tore their hair, scratched their own
faces till they bled, with a kind of rapture of despair. But all was decorous
like a holy rite: this was how they had wailed thousands of years before and
how they would wail thousands of years hence.
 The king heard the wailing, but there was bitter laughter in his heart:
"you are He!"

VII

want to have Maki buried according to the ancient

custom," the queen said.

"It shall be as you wish," the king answered. He

understood what 'according to the ancient custom' meant.
The hieroglyphics and mural paintings of the new tombs
in the province of Aton contained no name or image of the
ancient gods, no prayers, no incantations from the ancient scrolls of Going
out into the World, Unsealing of lips and eyes, from the Book of the Gates,
the Book of what is beyond the Tomb; no name or image of Osiris himself,
the bringer of life to the dead.

It was only now that the king grasped the meaning of the inscription in
Merira's tomb: 'may Aton and Unnofer revive the flesh on my bones.'
Unnofer was the Good Spirit, Osiris, the King Akhnaton himself. There was
a challenge and a temptation in it: "if you are He, conquer death!"

"I am not He! I am not! I am not!" he wanted to cry out in terror.

The mild fanatic, "the holy fool," Panehesy, looked straight into his
eyes, as though asking: "Will you renounce the work of your whole life,
will you lie, You-Who-live-in-truth, Ankh-em-maat?" And he read in his
eyes the answer, "Yes, I will lie."

The best embalmers of Thebes, Memphis and Heliopolis, herhebs and

mesras, "divine sealers, cutters and cleaners," were working at the dead
body of princess Makitatona.
 Cauldrons were boiling night and day in the House of Life, the
embalming chamber: ointments and unguents were being cooked—balm,
styrax, cinnamon, myrrh and cassia; piles of wood were heaped up—sandal,
terebinth, cedar, currant wood, mastic and the fragrant wood of the shuu
tree; heaps of incense from Punt in lumps as big as a fist lay about. Clouds
of dust rose over the copper mortars in which powders were made. Anyone
unaccustomed to these pungent smells would have fainted coming into the
chamber.

For thirty days and thirty nights they were cleaning, soaking, drying,
salting, embalming, smoking and pickling the body.

The king watched everything. He saw the entrails being taken out
through a slanting slit in the stomach, and the lapis lazuli sun beetle,
Kheper, being put in the place of the heart. He heard the cracking of the
bones when the nose was broken and the brain scooped out with a long flint
knife.

Eyes of glass were set into the empty sockets. The hair of the wig,
eyebrows and eyelashes was smoothed carefully. The nails, finger and toe,
were gilded. A narrow plaited Osiris's beard in a wooden box was tied to the
chin, for, in the resurrection of the dead, woman becomes man, the god
Osiris. The bandage of the god Ra was put round the forehead, of the god
Horus round the neck, of the god Tot on the ears, of the goddess Hathor on
the mouth. And the mummy spun round and round like a spindle in the
clever hands that bound it in endless bandages like a chrysalis in a cocoon.

A wooden, crescent-shaped support for the head was prepared and a

prayer to the Sun—not the new god, Aton, but to the ancient god Ra—was
written on a new sheet of papyrus: "Give warmth under his head. Do not
forget his name. Come to the Osiris Makitaton. His name is the Radiant, the
Ever-Living, the Ancient of Days. He is Thee."

Thus a new great and terrible god Makitaton grew out of little Maki.

Ancient wisdom went hand in hand with ancient crudeness and

childishness: the hieroglyphic of the serpent in the tomb inscription was cut
into two, so that the snake should not sting the dead, and fledgelings on the
paintings had their feet cut so that they should not run away. A silver boat
was placed in the tomb for the dead to sail the Sunset Sea, also a mirror,
rouge, powder, a book of fairy tales and draughts: the dead could play a
game with her soul; toys were also put in, among them Ankhi's broken doll,
carefully pieced together.

A tomb effigy was made for the mummy: the bird Ba with a human face
and hands, the soul of the dead girl, placing its hands upon her heart and
looking lovingly upon her face was saying:

"The heart of my birth, my mother's heart, my earthly heart, do not

forsake me. Thou art in me; thou art my Ka, my Double within my body;
thou art Khnum, the Potter who hath made my limbs."

The Germinating Osiris was prepared, too: linen was stretched on a

wooden frame, the likeness of Osiris's mummy was drawn upon it, a thin
layer of black earth was placed over it and thickly sown with wheat. The
frame was watered until the seeds germinated; then the crop was cut down
smoothly like grass on the lawn. This green, spring-like resurrected body of
Osiris was placed in the tomb by the side of the corpse. The living seemed
to be teaching the dead: "Look, the seed has come to life—you do the
same!"

The ancient custom was not observed in one respect only: the head of
queen Nefertiti, the earthly mother, was sculptured in the four corners of the
granite tomb instead of the head of Isis, the heavenly mother. When the
queen heard of this she was indignant and rebelled against the king for the
first time in her life. But it was too late to prepare a new tomb.

On the fortieth day after Maki's death the funeral procession started out.
The coffin was put into a boat, the boat into a sledge—the carriage of the
ancient times when there were no wheels; two pairs of oxen drew it and the
runners slowly creaked on the white sand of the desert as it were on snow.

Mourners dressed in blue—the colour of the sky, the colour of death—

walked in front, throwing dust over their heads with a wail, monotonous
like the howling of jackals.
 "Weep, weep, weep, O sisters! Shed tears, shed endless tears! Draw
your mistress to the West, oxen, draw her to the West! Poor darling, you
were so fond of talking to me, why are you silent now, why don't you speak
a word? So many friends you had, and now you are alone, alone, alone! The
little feet that walked so fast, the little hands that held so tight are bound,
confined, tied down. Weep, weep, weep, O sisters! shed tears, shed endless
tears!"

The sun was setting when they entered the Princesses' Valley, with the
yawning openings of the tombs cut in the rocks. Close by an old fig tree
was an unfading patch of green against the dead sands and a sweetbriar
flowered fragrant with the scent of honey and roses: the secret waters of an
underground spring kept them fresh. The drowsy humming of bees sounded
like faraway cymbals.

The mummy was placed at the entrance of the tomb and stood against
the yawning blackness of the cave, bathed in the last radiance of the setting
sun. Two priests, one wearing the mask of the jackal-headed Anubis and the
other of the falcon-headed Horus, stood on either side of the mummy, while
the officiating priest, herheb, performing the sacrament Apra, the opening
of lips and eyes, read the magical words from a papyrus:

"Get up, get up, get up, Osiris Makitaton! I, thy son Horus, have come
to give thee back thy life, to join thy bones, to bind thy flesh, to put thy
limbs together. I am Horus, thy son, who gives birth to his father. Horus
opens thy eyes that they may see, thy lips that they may Speak, thy ears that
they may hear; he strengthens thy legs that they may walk and thy arms that
they may work!"

The priest embraced the mummy, brought his face near its face and
breathed into its mouth.

"Thy flesh increases, thy blood flows and all thy limbs are whole."

"I am, I am! I live, I live! I shall not know corruption," another priest,
hidden behind the mummy, answered as though it were itself speaking.
 "Thou art a god among gods, transfigured, indestructible, ruling over
other gods;" the officiating priest declared.

"I am one. My being is the being of all the gods throughout eternity,"
the mummy answered and the dead eyes glittered more brightly than the
living. "He is—I am; I am—He is."

The king fell on his face: he understood that this new terrible god,
Lightgiving, Everlasting, Ancient of days, Makitaton, had overthrown Aton.

He breathed with relief when the body was put back in the coffin and
Makitaton became little Maki once more.

He bent over her, kissed her on the mouth and put upon her heart a
branch of mimosa: the tender, feathery leaves were to respond with their
tremour to the first stir of the heart at resurrection.

The king spent the night in a tent in the desert, waiting for sunrise, to
say the morning prayers at the tomb.

He could not go to sleep for hours. At last he got up, lifted the side of
the tent and looked out. The Milky Way stretched like a cloud rent in two
from one end of the desert to the other, the Pleiades glowed, and the seven
stars of Tuart the Hippopotamus glittered with a cold brilliance. Dead
stillness was all round; only the jackals' howling and the hooting of owls
came from the gorge below.

He lay down again and went to sleep.

He dreamt he was standing on a square platform at the top of Cheops'

great pyramid. The desert below was thronged with a countless multitude of
men: there seemed to be as many heads as there were grains of sand in the
desert; it was as though all tribes and peoples had gathered together for the
last judgment on him, Uaenra. They were looking at him and waiting with
bated breath.