"I swear, even in this first most holy hour of completed womanhood, that I will abandon Evil and cherish Good.I swear that I will be ever guided by thy voice in the straightest path of Duty.I swear that I will eschew Ambition, and through all my length of endless days set Wisdom over me as a guiding star to lead me unto Truth and a knowledge of the Right.Iswear also that I will honor and will cherish thee, Kallikrates, who hast been swept by the wave of time back into my arms, ay, till the very end, come it soon or late.I swearnay, I will swear no more, for what are words? Yet shalt thou learn that Ayesha hath no false tongue.
"So I have sworn, and thou, my Holly, art witness to my oath.Here, too, are we wed, my husband, with the gloom for bridal canopywed till the end of all things; here do we write our marriage vows upon the rushing winds which shall bear them up to heaven, and round and continually round this rolling world.
"And for a bridal gift I crown thee with my beauty's starry crown, and enduring life, and wisdom without measure, and wealth that none can count.Behold! the great ones of the earth shall creep about thy feet, and their fair women shall cover up their eyes because of the shining glory of thy countenance, and their wise ones shall be abased before thee.Thou shalt read the hearts of men as an open writing, and hither and thither shalt thou lead them as thy pleasure listeth.
Like that old Sphinx of Egypt shalt thou sit aloft from age to age, and ever shall they cry to thee to solve the riddle of thy greatness that doth not pass away, and ever shalt thou mock them with thy silence!
"Behold! once more I kiss thee, and by that kiss Igive to thee dominion over sea and earth, over the peasant in his hovel, over the monarch in his palace halls, and cities crowned with towers, and those who breathe therein.Whate'er the sun shakes out his spears, and the lonesome waters mirror up the moon, whate'er storms roll, and heaven's painted bows arch in the skyfrom the pure North clad in snows, across the middle spaces of the world, to where the amorous South, lying like a bride upon her blue couch of seas, breathes in sighs made sweet with the odor of myrtlesthere shall thy power pass and thy dominion find a home.Nor sickness, nor icy-fingered fear, nor sorrow, and pale waste of form and mind hovering ever o'er humanity, shall so much as shadow thee with the shadow of their wings.As a god shalt thou be, holding good and evil in the hollow of thy hand, and I, even I, Ihumble myself before thee.Such is the power of Love, and such is the bridal gift I give unto thee, Kallikrates, beloved of Ra, my Lord and Lord of All.