midnight
`` It was little we ate , '' said Voltaire , `` during the next seven days . We were too anxious to know whether the secrets of the dead were to be revealed . Neither could we speak much , for the tongue is generally silent when the soul is wrapped in mystery ; and right glad were we when the day dawned on which the veil should be made thicker or altogether drawn aside . `` We did not seek to know the mystery after which we were panting until the midnight of Ilfra 's birthday . Then , when the earth in its revolution spelt out that hour , we entered the room of the maiden whose soul had departed . `` The Egyptians have lost much of the knowledge of the ancients , especially in the art of embalming . Often the sons of Egypt moan over that departed wisdom ; still the art is not altogether gone .