"Thou seest, Kallikrates," she said."Know then that it was I who slew thee; in the Place of Life I gave thee death.I slew thee because of the Egyptian Amenartas, whom thou didst love, for by her wiles she held thy heart, and her I could not smite as but now Ismote the woman, for she was too strong for me.In my haste and bitter anger I slew thee, and now for all these days have I lamented thee, and waited for thy coming.And thou hast come, and none can stand between thee and me, and of a truth now for death I will give thee lifenot life eternal, for that none can give, but life and youth that shall endure for thousands upon thousands of years, and with it pomp and power and wealth, and all things that are good and beautiful, such as have been to no man before thee, nor shall be to any man who comes after.And now one thing more, and thou shalt rest and make ready for the day of thy new birth.Thou seest this body, which was thine own.For all these centuries it hath been my cold comfort and my companion, but now I need it no more, for I have thy living presence, and it can but serve to stir up memories of that which I would fain forget.Let it therefore go back to the dust from which I held it.
"Behold! I have prepared against this happy hour!" and going to the other shelf or stone ledge, which, she said, had served her for a bed, she took from it a large vitrified double-handed vase, the mouth of which was tied up with a bladder.This she loosed, and then, having bent down and gently kissed the white forehead of the dead man, she undid the vase, and sprinkled its contents carefully over the form, taking, I observed, the greatest precautions against any drop of it touching us or herself, and then poured out what remained of the liquid upon the chest and head.