noon
`` If only I dared to speak I could tell a good deal that many might find unpleasant . '' The inspector of sacrifices smiled , for he knew that the late superior of the temple of Hatasu had been an adherent of the old royal family , and he replied : `` The Sun of Rameses may be for a time covered with clouds , but neither those who fear it nor those who desire it will live to see its setting . '' The priest coldly saluted the lady , and went into the house of a weaver in which he had business , and the widow got into her litter which was waiting at the gate . The old paraschites Pinem had joined with his fellows in the lamentation for the sacred beasts , and was now sitting on the hard pavement of the dissecting room to eat his morsel of food -- for it was noon . The stone room in which he was eating his meal was badly lighted ; the daylight came through a small opening in the roof , over which the sun stood perpendicularly , and a shaft of bright rays , in which danced the whirling motes , shot down through the twilight on to the stone pavement . Mummy-cases leaned against all the walls , and on smooth polished slabs lay bodies covered with coarse cloths . A rat scudded now and then across the floor , and from the wide cracks between the stones sluggish scorpions crawled out .