about nine in the evening
After this terrible oath , which Hiram began , and the second half of which all shouted forth in voices trembling from rage , the three panting Phœnicians rested . After that Rabsun conducted them to a feast where with wine , music , and dancers they forgot for a time the work awaiting them . Not far from the city of Pi-Bast stood the temple of the goddess Hator . In the month Paoni -LRB- March-April -RRB- , on the day of the vernal equinox , about nine in the evening , when the star Sirius inclined toward its setting , two wayfaring priests and one penitent stopped in the gateway . The penitent , who was barefoot , had ashes on his head , and was covered with a coarse cloth which concealed his visage . Though the air was clear , it was impossible to distinguish the faces of those wayfarers . They stood in the shadow of two immense statues of the cow-headed divinity which guarded the entrance to the temple and with kindly eyes protected the province of Habu from pestilence , southern winds , and bad overflows .