Egypt, the Egypt of antiquity, at a later time, exercised a mysterious
fascination over me. I recognized a picture of it immediately, without
hesitation and astonishment, in an illustrated magazine. I saluted as
old acquaintances two gods with hawk heads that were cut in profile
upon a stone and placed at each end of a strangely depicted Zodiac,
and although I saw the picture for the first time upon an overcast day,
there came to me, and of that I am sure, a sudden impression of great
heat given out by a pitiless sun.