Scouts went on ahead to scour the country, and bring to the King reports
of the enemy's whereabouts. Beside the royal chariot there padded along
a strange, but very useful soldier--a great tame lion, which had been
trained to guard his master and fight with teeth and claws against his
enemies. Last of all came the transport train, with the baggage carried
on the backs of a long line of donkeys, and protected by a
baggage-guard. The Egyptians were good marchers, and even in the hot
Syrian sunshine, and across a rough country where roads were almost
unknown, they could keep up a steady fifteen miles a day for a week on
end without being fagged out.
Let us follow the fortunes of an Egyptian soldier through one of the
great battles of the nation's history. Menna was one of the most skilful
charioteers of the whole Egyptian army--so skilful that, though he was
still quite young, he was promoted to be driver of the royal war-chariot
when King Ramses II. marched out from Zaru, the frontier garrison town
of Egypt, to fight with the Hittites in Northern Syria. During all the
long march across the desert, through Palestine, and over the northern
mountain passes, no enemy was seen at all, and, though Menna was kept
busy enough attending to his horses and seeing that the chariot was in
perfect order, he was in no danger. But as the army began to wind down
the long valley of the Orontes towards the town of Kadesh, the scouts
were kept out in every direction, and the whole host was anxiously on
the lookout for the Hittite troops.
Kadesh came in sight at last. Far on the horizon its towers could be
seen, and the sun's rays sparkled on the river and on the broad moat
which surrounded the walls; but still no enemy was to be seen. The
scouts came in with the report that the Hittites had retreated
northwards in terror, and King Ramses imagined that Kadesh was going to
fall into his hands without a battle. His army was divided into four
brigades, and he himself hurried on rather rashly with the first
brigade, leaving the other three to straggle on behind him, widely
separated from one another (Plate 4).
The first brigade reached its camping-ground to the north-west of
Kadesh; the tired troops pitched camp; the baggage was unloaded; and the
donkeys, released from their burdens, rolled on the ground in delight.
Just at that moment some of the Egyptian scouts came in, bringing with
them two Arabs whom they had caught, and suspected to belong to the
enemy. King Ramses ordered the Arabs to be soundly beaten with sticks,
and the poor creatures confessed that the Hittite King, with a great
army, was concealed on the other side of Kadesh, watching for an
opportunity to attack the Egyptian army. In great haste Ramses, scolding
his scouts the while for not keeping a better lookout, began to get his
soldiers under arms again, while Menna ran and yoked to the royal
chariot the two noble horses which had been kept fresh for the day of
battle.
But before Pharaoh could leap into his chariot a wild uproar broke out
at the gate of the camp, and the scattered fragments of the second
brigade came pouring in headlong flight into the enclosure. Behind them
the whole Hittite chariot force, 2,500 chariots strong, each chariot
with three men in it, came clattering and leaping upon the heels of the
fugitives. The Hittite King had waited till he saw the first brigade
busy pitching camp, and then, as the second came straggling up, he had
launched his chariots upon the flank of the weary soldiers, who were
swept away in a moment as if by a flood.
The rush of terrified men carried off the first brigade along with it in
hopeless rout. Ramses and Menna were left with only a few picked
chariots of the household troops, and the whole Hittite army was coming
on. But though King Ramses had made a terrible bungle of his
generalship, he was at least a brave man. Leaping into his chariot, and
calling to the handful of faithful soldiers to follow him, he bade Menna
lash his horses and charge the advancing Hittites. Menna was no coward,
but when he saw the thin line of Egyptian troops, and looked at the
dense mass of Hittite chariots, his heart almost failed him. He never
thought of disobedience, but, as he stooped over his plunging horses, he
panted to the King: "O mighty strength of Egypt in the day of battle, we
are alone in the midst of the enemy. O, save us, Ramses, my good lord!"
"Steady, steady, my charioteer," said Ramses, "I am going among them
like a hawk!"
In a moment the fiery horses were whirling the King and his charioteer
between the files of the Hittite chariots, which drew aside as if
terrified at the glittering figures that dashed upon them so fearlessly.
As they swept through, Menna had enough to do to manage his steeds,
which were wild with excitement; but Ramses' bow was bent again and
again, and at every twang of the bowstring a Hittite champion fell from
his chariot. Behind the King came his household troops, and all together
they burst through the chariot brigade of the enemy, leaving a long
trail marked by dead and wounded men, overturned chariots, and maddened
horses.
Still King Ramses had only gained a breathing-space. The Hittites far
outnumbered his little force, and, though his orderlies were madly
galloping to bring up the third and fourth brigades, it must be some
time yet before even the nearest could come into action. Besides, on the
other bank of the river there hung a great cloud of 8,000 Hittite
spearmen, under the command of the Hittite King himself. If these got
time to cross the river, the Egyptian position, bad enough as it was,
would be hopeless. There was nothing for it but to charge again and
again, and, if possible, drive back the Hittite chariots on the river,
so as to hinder the spearmen from crossing.
So Menna whipped up his horses again, and, with arrow on string, the
Pharaoh dashed upon his enemies once more. Again they burst through the
opposing ranks, scattering death on either side as they passed. Now some
of the fragments of the first and second brigades were beginning to
rally and come back to the field, and the struggle was becoming less
unequal. The Egyptian quivers were nearly all empty now; but lance and
sword still remained, and inch by inch the Hittites were forced back
upon the river. Their King stood ingloriously on the opposite bank,
unable to do anything. It was too late for him to try to move his
spearmen across--they would only have been trampled down by the
retreating chariots. At last a great shout from the rear announced the
arrival of the third Egyptian brigade, and, the little knot of brave men
who had saved the day still leading, the army swept the broken Hittites
down the bank of the Orontes into the river.
Great was the confusion and the slaughter. As the chariots struggled
through the ford, the Egyptian bowmen, spread out along the bank, picked
off the chiefs. The two brothers of the Hittite King, the chief of his
bodyguard, his shield-bearer, and his chief scribe, were all killed. The
King of Aleppo missed the ford, and was swept down the river; but some
of his soldiers dashed into the water, rescued him, and, in rough first
aid, held the half-drowned leader up by the heels, to let the water
drain out of him. The Hittite King picked up his broken fugitives,
covered them with his mass of spearmen, and moved reluctantly off the
field where so splendid a chance of victory had been missed, and turned
into defeat. The Egyptians were too few and too weary to attempt to
cross the river in pursuit, and they retired to the camp of the first
brigade.
Then Pharaoh called his Captains before him. The troops stood around,
leaning on their spears, ashamed of their conduct in the earlier part of
the day, and wondering at the grim signs of conflict that lay on every
side. King Ramses called Menna to him, and, handing the reins to a
groom, the young charioteer came bowing before his master. Pharaoh
stripped from his own royal neck a collar of gold, and fastened it round
the neck of his faithful squire; and, while the Generals and Captains
hung their heads for shame, the King told them how shamefully they had
left him to fight his battle alone, and how none had stood by him but
the young charioteer. "As for my two horses," he said, "they shall be
fed before me every day in the royal palace."
[Illustration: PLATE 5.
ZAZAMANKH AND THE LOST CORONET.]
Both armies had suffered too much loss for any further strife to be
possible, and a truce was agreed upon. The Hittites drew off to the
north, and the Egyptians marched back again to Egypt, well aware that
they had gained little or nothing by all their efforts, but thankful
that they had been saved from the total destruction which had seemed so
near.
A proud man was Menna when he drove the royal chariot up to the bridge
of Zaru. As the troops passed the frontier canal the road was lined on
either side with crowds of nobles, priests, and scribes, strewing
flowers in the way, and bowing before the King. And after the Pharaoh
himself, whose bravery had saved the day, there was no one so honoured
as the young squire who had stood so manfully by his master in the hour
of danger.
CHAPTER VI
CHILD-LIFE IN ANCIENT EGYPT
How did the boys and girls live in this quaint old land so many hundreds
of years ago? How were they dressed, what sort of games did they play
at, what sort of lessons did they learn, and what kind of school did
they go to? If you could have lived in Egypt in those far-off days, you
would have found many differences between your life of to-day and the
life that the Egyptian children led; but you would also have found that
there were very many things much the same then as they are now. Boys and
girls were boys and girls three thousand years ago, just as they are
now; and you would find that they did very much the same things, and
even played very much the same games as you do to-day.
When you read in your fairy-stories about a little boy or girl, you
often hear that they had fairy godmothers who came to their cradles, and
gave them gifts, and foretold what was going to happen to the little
babies in after years. Well, when little Tahuti or little Sen-senb was
born in Thebes fifteen hundred years before Christ, there were fairy
godmothers too, who presided over the great event; and there were others
called the Hathors, who foretold all that was going to happen to the
little boy or girl as the years went on. The baby was kept a baby much
longer in those days than our little ones are kept. The happy mother
nursed the little thing carefully for three years at all events,
carrying it about with her wherever she went, either on her shoulder, or
astride upon her hip.
If baby took ill, and the doctor was called in, the medicines that were
given were not in the least like the sugar-coated pills and capsules
that make medicine-taking easy nowadays. The Egyptian doctor did not
know a very great deal about medicine and sickness, but he made up for
his ignorance by the nastiness of the doses which he gave to his
patients. I don't think you would like to take pills made up of the
moisture scraped from pig's ears, lizard's blood, bad meat, and decaying
fat, to say nothing of still nastier things. Often the doctor would look
very grave, and say, "The child is not ill; he is bewitched"; and then
he would sit down and write out a prescription something like this:
"Remedy to drive away bewitchment. Take a great beetle; cut off his head
and his wings, boil him, put him in oil, and lay him out. Then cook
his head and his wings; put them in snake-fat, boil, and let the patient
drink the mixture." I think you would almost rather take the risk of
being bewitched than drink a dose like that!
[Illustration: Plate 6
GRANITE STATUE OF RAMSES II. _Page_ 75
Note the hieroglyphics on base of statue. _Pages_ 68, 69]
Sometimes the doctor gave no medicines at all, but wrote a few magic
words on a scrap of old paper, and tied it round the part where the pain
was. I daresay it did as much good as his pills. Very often the mother
believed that it was not really sickness that was troubling her child,
but that a ghost was coming and hurting him; so when his cries showed
that the ghost was in the room, the mother would rise up, shaking all
over, I daresay, and would repeat the verse that she had been taught
would drive ghosts away:
"Comest thou to kiss this child? I suffer thee not to kiss him;
Comest thou to quiet him? I suffer thee not to quiet him;
Comest thou to harm him? I suffer thee not to harm him;
Comest thou to take him away? I suffer thee not to take him away."
When little Tahuti has got over his baby aches, and escaped the ghosts,
he begins to run about and play. He and his sister are not bothered to
any great extent with dressing in the mornings. They are very particular
about washing, but as Egypt is so hot, clothes are not needed very much,
and so the little boy and girl play about with nothing at all on their
little brown bodies except, perhaps, a narrow girdle, or even a single
thread tied round the waist. They have their toys just like you. Tahuti
has got a wonderful man, who, when you pull a string, works a roller up
and down upon a board, just like a baker rolling out dough, and besides
he has a crocodile that moves its jaws. His sister has dolls: a fine
Egyptian lady and a frizzy-haired, black-faced Nubian girl. Sometimes
they play together at ninepins, rolling the ball through a little gate.
For about four years this would go on, as long as Tahuti was what the
Egyptians called "a wise little one." Then, when he was four years old,
the time came when he had to become "a writer in the house of books,"
which is what the Egyptians called a school-boy; so little Tahuti set
off for school, still wearing no more clothes than the thread tied round
his waist, and with his black hair plaited up into a long thick lock,
which hung down over his right ear. The first thing that he had to learn
was how to read and write, and this was no easy task, for Egyptian
writing, though it is very beautiful when well done, is rather difficult
to master, all the more as there were two different styles which had to
be learned if a boy was going to become a man of learning. I don't
suppose that you think your old copy-books of much importance when you
are done with them; but the curious thing is that among all the books
that have come down to us from ancient Egypt, there are far more old
copy-books than any others, and these books, with the teachers'
corrections written on the margins, and rough sketches scratched in here
and there among the writing, have proved most valuable in telling us
what the Egyptians learned, and what they liked to read; for a great
deal of the writing consisted in the copying out of wise words of the
men of former days, and sometimes of stories of old times.
These old copy-books can speak to us in one way, but if they could speak
in another, I daresay they would tell us of many weary hours in school,
and of many floggings and tears; for the Egyptian school-master
believed with all his heart in the cane, and used it with great vigour
and as often as he could. Little Tahuti used to look forward to his
daily flogging, much as he did to his lunch in the middle of the day,
when his careful mother regularly brought him three rolls of bread and
two jugs of beer. "A boy's ears," his master used to say, "are on his
back, and he hears when he is beaten." One of the former pupils at his
school writing to his teacher, and recalling his school-days, says: "I
was with thee since I was brought up as a child; thou didst beat my
back, and thine instructions went into my ear." Sometimes the boys, if
they were stubborn, got punishments even worse than the cane. Another
boy, in a letter to his old master, says: "Thou hast made me buckle to
since the time that I was one of thy pupils. I spent my time in the
lock-up, and was sentenced to three months, and bound in the temple." I
am afraid our schoolboys would think the old Egyptian teachers rather
more severe than the masters with whom they have to do nowadays.
Lesson-time occupied about half the day, and when it came to an end the
boys all ran out of the school, shouting for joy. That custom has not
changed much, anyway, in all these hundreds of years. I don't think they
had any home lessons to do, and so, perhaps, their school-time was not
quite so bad as we might imagine from the rough punishments they used to
get.
When Tahuti grew a little older, and had fairly mastered the rudiments
of writing, his teacher set him to write out copies of different
passages from the best known Egyptian books, partly to keep up his
hand-writing, and partly to teach him to know good Egyptian and to use
correct language. Sometimes it was a piece of a religious book that he
was set to copy, sometimes a poem, sometimes a fairy-tale. For the
Egyptians were very fond of fairy-tales, and later on, perhaps, we may
hear some of their stories, the oldest fairy-stories in the world. But
generally the piece that was chosen was one which would not only
exercise the boy's hand, and teach him a good style, but would also help
to teach him good manners, and fill his mind with right ideas. Very
often Tahuti's teacher would dictate to him a passage from the wise
advice which a great King of long ago left to his son, the Crown Prince,
or from some other book of the same kind. And sometimes the exercises
would be in the form of letters which the master and his pupils wrote as
though they had been friends far away from one another. Tahuti's
letters, you may be sure, were full of wisdom and of good resolutions,
and I dare say he was just about as fond of writing them as you are of
writing the letters that your teacher sometimes sets as a task for you.
When it came to Arithmetic, Tahuti was so far lucky that the number of
rules he had to learn was very few. His master taught him addition and
subtraction, and a very slow and clumsy form of multiplication; but he
could not teach him division, for the very simple reason that he did not
properly understand it himself. Enough of mensuration was taught him to
enable him to find out, though rather roughly, what was the size of a
field, and how much corn would go into a granary of any particular size.
And when he had learned these things, his elementary education was
pretty well over.
[Illustration: Plate 7
NAVE OF THE TEMPLE AT KARNAK. _Pages_ 75, 76]
Of course a great deal would depend on the profession he was going to
follow. If he was going to be only a common scribe, his education
would go no farther; for the work he would have to do would need no
greater learning than reading, writing, and arithmetic. If he was going
to be an officer in the army, he entered as a cadet in a military school
which was attached to the royal stables. But if he was going to be a
priest, he had to join one of the colleges which belonged to the
different temples of the gods, and there, like Moses, he was instructed
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was taught all the strange ideas
which they had about the gods, and the life after death, and the
wonderful worlds, above and below, where the souls of men lived after
they had finished their lives on earth.
But, whether his schooling was carried on to what we should call a
University training or not, there was one thing that Tahuti was taught
with the utmost care, and that was to be very respectful to those who
were older than himself, never to sit down while an older person was
standing in the room, and always to be very careful in his manners.
Chief of the older people to whom he had to show respect were his
parents, and above all, his mother, for the Egyptians reverenced their
mothers more than anyone else in the world. Here is a little scrap of
advice that a wise old Egyptian once left to his son: "Thou shalt never
forget what thy mother has done for thee. She bare thee, and nourished
thee in all manner of ways. She nursed thee for three years. She brought
thee up, and when thou didst enter the school, and wast instructed in
the writings, she came daily to thy master with bread and beer from her
house. If thou forgettest her, she might blame thee; she might lift up
her hands to God, and He would hear her complaint." Children nowadays
might do a great deal worse than remember these wise words of the
oldest book in the world.
But you are not to think that the Egyptian children's life was all
teaching and prim behaviour. When Tahuti got his holidays, he would
sometimes go out with his father and mother and sister on a fishing or
fowling expedition. If they were going fishing, the little papyrus skiff
was launched, and the party paddled away, armed with long thin spears,
which had two prongs at the point. Drifting over the quiet shallow
waters of the marshy lakes, they could see the fish swimming beneath
them, and launch their spears at them. Sometimes, if he was lucky,
Tahuti's father would pierce a fish with either prong of the spear, and
then there was great excitement.
But still more interesting was the fowling among the marshes. The spears
were laid aside on this kind of expedition, and instead, Tahuti and his
father were armed with curved throw-sticks, shaped something like an
Australian boomerang. But, besides the throw-sticks, they had with them
a rather unusual helper. When people go shooting nowadays, they take
dogs with them to retrieve the game. Well, the Egyptians had different
kinds of dogs, too, which they used for hunting; but when they went
fowling they took with them a cat which was trained to catch the wounded
birds and bring them to her master. The little skiff was paddled
cautiously across the marsh, and in among the reeds where the wild ducks
and other waterfowl lived, Sen-senb and her mother holding on to the
tall papyrus plants and pulling them aside to make room for the boat, or
plucking the beautiful lotus-lilies, of which the Egyptians were so
fond. When the birds rose, Tahuti and his father let fly their
throw-sticks, and when a bird was knocked down, the cat, which had been
sitting quietly in the bow of the boat, dashed forward among the reeds
and secured the fluttering creature before it could escape.
[Illustration: PLATE 8.
"AND THE GOOSE STOOD UP AND CACKLED."]
Altogether, it was great fun for the brother and sister, as well as for
the grown folks, and Tahuti and Sen-senb liked nothing so well as when
the gaily-painted little skiff was launched for a day on the marshes. I
think that, on the whole, they had a very bright and happy life in these
old days, and that, though they had not many of the advantages that you
have to-day, the boys and girls of three thousand years ago managed to
enjoy themselves in their own simple way quite as well as you do now.
CHAPTER VII
SOME FAIRY-TALES OF LONG AGO
The little brown boys and girls who lived in Egypt three thousand years
ago were just as fond as you are of hearing wonderful stories that begin
with "Once upon a time;" and I want in this chapter to tell you some of
the tales that Tahuti and Sen-senb used to listen to in the evening when
school was over and play was done--the oldest of all wonder-tales,
stories that were old and had long been forgotten, ages before The
Sleeping Beauty and Jack and the Beanstalk were first thought of.
One day, when King Khufu, the great King who built the biggest of the
Pyramids, had nothing else to do, he called his sons and his wise men
together, and said, "Is there anyone among you who can tell me the tales
of the old magicians?" Then the King's son, Prince Baufra, stood up and
said, "Your Majesty, I can tell you of a wonder that happened in the
days of your father, King Seneferu. It fell on a day that the King grew
weary of everything, and sought through all his palace for something to
please him, but found nothing. Then he said to his officers, 'Bring to
me the magician Zazamankh.' And when the magician came, the King said to
him, 'O Zazamankh, I have sought through all my palace for some delight,
and I have found none.' Then said Zazamankh, 'Let thy Majesty go in thy
boat upon the lake of the palace, and let twenty beautiful girls be
brought to row thee, and let their oars be of ebony, inlaid with gold
and silver. And I myself will go with thee; and the sight of the
water-birds, and the fair shores, and the green grass will cheer thy
heart.' So the King and the wizard went down to the lake, and the twenty
maidens rowed them about in the King's pleasure-galley. Nine rowed on
this side, and nine on that, and the two fairest stood by the two
rudders at the stern, and set the rowing song, each for her own side.
And the King's heart grew glad and light, as the boat sped hither and
thither, and the oars flashed in the sunshine to the song of the rowers.
"But as the boat turned, the top of the steering-oar struck the hair of
one of the maidens who steered, and knocked her coronet of turquoise
into the water; and she stopped her song, and all the rowers on her
side stopped rowing. Then his Majesty said, 'Why have you stopped
rowing, little one?' And the maiden answered, 'It is because my jewel of
turquoise has fallen into the water.' 'Row on,' said the King, 'and I
will give you another.' But the girl answered, 'I want my own one back,
as I had it before.' So King Seneferu called Zazamankh to come to him,
and said, 'Now, Zazamankh, I have done as you advised, and my heart is
light; but, behold, the coronet of this little one has fallen into the
water, and she has stopped singing, and spoiled the rowing of her side;
and she will not have a new jewel, but wants the old one back again.'
"Then Zazamankh the wizard stood up in the King's boat, and spoke
wonderful words. And, lo! the water of one half of the lake rose up, and
heaped itself upon the top of the water of the other half, so that it
was twice as deep as it was before. And the King's bark rode upon the
top of the piled-up waters; but beyond it the bottom of the lake lay
bare, with the shells and pebbles shining in the sunlight. And there,
upon a broken shell, lay the little rower's coronet. Then Zazamankh
leaped down and picked it up, and brought it to the King. And he spake
wonderful words again, and the water sank down, and covered the whole
bed of the lake, as it had done at first. So his Majesty spent a joyful
day, and gave great rewards to the wizard Zazamankh."
When King Khufu heard that story, he praised the men of olden times. But
another of his sons, Prince Hordadef, stood up, and said, "O King, that
is only a story of bygone days, and no one knows whether it is true or a
lie; but I will show thee a magician of to-day." "Who is he, Hordadef?"
said King Khufu. And Hordadef answered, "His name is Dedi. He is a
hundred and ten years old, and every day he eats five hundred loaves of
bread, and a side of beef, and drinks a hundred jugs of beer. He knows
how to fasten on a head that has been cut off. He knows how to make a
lion of the desert follow him, and he knows the plan of the house of God
that you have wanted to know for so long."
Then King Khufu sent Prince Hordadef to bring Dedi to him, and he
brought Dedi back in the royal boat. The King came out, and sat in the
colonnade of the palace, and Dedi was led before him. Then said his
Majesty, "Why have I never seen you before, Dedi?" And Dedi answered,
"Life, health, strength to your Majesty! A man can only come when he is
called." "Is it true, Dedi, that you can fasten on a head which has been
cut off?" "Certainly I can, your Majesty." Then said the King, "Let a
prisoner be brought from the prison, and let his head be struck off."
But Dedi said, "Long life to your Majesty; do not try it on a man. Let
us try a bird or an animal."
So a goose was brought; its head was cut off; and the head was laid at
the east side of the hall, and the body at the west. Then Dedi rose, and
spoke wonderful words. And, behold! the body of the goose waddled to
meet the head, and the head came to meet the body. They joined together
before his Majesty's throne, and the goose stood up and cackled (Plate
8).
Then, when Dedi had joined to its body again the head that had been
struck off from an ox, and the ox followed him lowing, King Khufu said
to him, "Is it true, O Dedi, that you know the plans of the house of
God?" "It is true, your Majesty; but it is not I who shall give them to
you." "Who, then?" said the King. "It is the eldest of three sons who
shall be born to the lady Rud-didet, wife of the priest of Ra, the
Sun-God. And Ra has promised that these three sons shall reign over this
kingdom of thine." When King Khufu heard that word, his heart was
troubled; but Dedi said, "Let not your Majesty's heart be troubled. Thy
son shall reign first, then thy son's son, and then one of these." So
the King commanded that Dedi should live in the house of Prince
Hordadef; and that every day there should be given to him a thousand
loaves, a hundred jugs of beer, an ox, and a hundred bunches of onions!
When the three sons of Rud-didet were born, Ra sent four goddesses to be
their godmothers. They came attired like travelling dancing-girls; and
one of the gods came with them, dressed like a porter. And when they had
nursed the three children awhile, Rud-didet's husband said to them, "My
ladies, what wages shall I give you?" So he gave them a bushel of
barley, and they went away with their wages. But when they had gone a
little way, Isis, the chief of them, said, "Why have we not done a
wonder for these children?" So they stopped, and made crowns, the red
crown and the white crown of Egypt, and hid them in the bushel of
barley, and sealed the sack, and put it in Rud-didet's store-chamber,
and went away again.
A fortnight later, when Rud-didet was going to brew the household beer,
there was no barley. And her maidservant said, "There is a bushel, but
it was given to the dancing-girls, and lies in the store-room, sealed
with their seal." So the lady said to her maid, "Go down and fetch it,
and we shall give them more when they need it." The maid went down, but
when she came to the store-room, lo! from within there came a sound of
singing and dancing, and all such music as should be heard in a King's
Court. So in fear she crept back to her mistress and told her, and
Rud-didet went down and heard the royal music, and she told her husband
when he came home at night, and their hearts were glad because their
sons were to be Kings.
But after a time the lady Rud-didet quarrelled with her maid, and gave
her a beating, as ladies sometimes did in those days; and the weeping
maid said to her fellow-servants, "Shall she do this to me? She has
borne three Kings, and I will go and tell it to his Majesty, King
Khufu." So she stole away first to her uncle, and told him of her plot;
but he was angry because she wished to betray the children to King
Khufu, and he beat her with a scourge of flax. And as she went away by
the side of the river a great crocodile came out of the water, and
carried her off.... But here, alas! our story breaks off; the rest of
the book is lost, and we cannot tell whether King Khufu tried to kill
the three royal babies or not. Only we do know that the first three
Kings of the race which succeeded the race of Khufu bore the same names
as Rud-didet's three babies, and were called, like all the Kings of
Egypt after them, "Sons of the Sun."
These, then, are absolutely the oldest fairy-stories in the world, and
if they do not seem very wonderful to you, you must remember that
everything has to have a beginning, and that the people who made these
tales hadn't had very much practice in the art of story-telling.
CHAPTER VIII
SOME FAIRY-TALES OF LONG AGO (_Continued_)
Our next story belongs to a time several hundred years later, and I dare
say it seemed as wonderful to the little Egyptians as the story of
Sindbad the Sailor does to you. It is called "The Story of the
Shipwrecked Sailor," and the sailor himself tells it to a noble
Egyptian.
"I was going," he says, "to the mines of Pharaoh, and we set sail in a
ship of 150 cubits long and 40 cubits wide (225 feet by 60 feet--quite a
big ship for the time). We had a crew of 150 of the best sailors of
Egypt, men whose hearts were as bold as lions. They all foretold a happy
voyage, but as we came near the shore a great storm blew, the sea rose
in terrible waves, and our ship was fairly overwhelmed. Clinging to a
piece of wood, I was washed about for three days, and at last tossed up
on an island; but not one was left of all my shipmates--all perished in
the waves.
"I lay down in the shade of some bushes, and when I had recovered a
little, I looked about me for food. There was plenty on every hand--figs
and grapes, berries and corn, with all manner of birds. When my hunger
was satisfied, I lit a fire, and made an offering to the gods who had
saved me. Suddenly I heard a noise like thunder; the trees shook, and
the earth quaked. Looking round, I saw a great serpent approaching me.
He was nearly 50 feet long, and had a beard 3 feet in length. His body
shone in the sun like gold, and when he reared himself up from his coils
before me I fell upon my face.
"Then the serpent began to speak: 'What has brought thee, little one,
what has brought thee? If thou dost not tell me quickly what has brought
thee to this isle, I shall make thee vanish like a flame.' So saying, he
took me up in his mouth, carried me gently to his lair, and laid me down
unhurt; and again he said, 'What has brought thee, little one, what has
brought thee to this isle of the sea?' So I told him the story of our
shipwreck, and how I alone had escaped from the fury of the waves. Then
said he to me: 'Fear not, little one, and let not thy face be sad. If
thou hast come to me, it is God who has brought thee to this isle, which
is filled with all good things. And now, see: thou shalt dwell for four
months in this isle, and then a ship of thine own land shall come, and
thou shalt go home to thy country, and die in thine own town. As for me,
I am here with my brethren and my children. There are seventy-five of us
in all, besides a young girl, who came here by chance, and was burned by
fire from heaven. But if thou art strong and patient, thou shalt yet
embrace thy children and thy wife, and return to thy home.'
"Then I bowed low before him, and promised to tell of him to Pharaoh,
and to bring him ships full of all the treasures of Egypt; but he smiled
at my speech, and said, 'Thou hast nothing that I need, for I am Prince
of the Land of Punt, and all its perfumes are mine. Moreover, when thou
departest, thou shalt never again see this isle, for it shall be changed
into waves.'
[Illustration: PLATE 9.
AN EGYPTIAN COUNTRY HOUSE.]
"Now, behold! when the time was come, as he had foretold, the ship drew
near. And the good serpent said to me, 'Farewell, farewell! go to thy
home, little one, see again thy children, and let thy name be good in
thy town; these are my wishes for thee.' So I bowed low before him, and
he loaded me with precious gifts of perfume, cassia, sweet woods, ivory,
baboons, and all kinds of precious things, and I embarked in the ship.
And now, after a voyage of two months, we are coming to the house of
Pharaoh, and I shall go in before Pharaoh, and offer the gifts which I
have brought from this isle into Egypt, and Pharaoh shall thank me
before the great ones of the land."
Our last story belongs to a later age than that of the Shipwrecked
Sailor. About 1,500 years before Christ there arose in Egypt a race of
mighty soldier-Kings, who founded a great empire, which stretched from
the Soudan right through Syria and Mesopotamia as far as the great River
Euphrates. Mesopotamia, or Naharaina, as the Egyptians called it, had
been an unknown land to them before this time; but now it became to them
what America was to the men of Queen Elizabeth's time, or the heart of
Africa to your grandfathers--the wonderful land of romance, where all
kinds of strange things might happen. And this story of the Doomed
Prince, which I have to tell you, belongs partly to Naharaina, and, as
you will see, some of our own fairy-stories have been made out of very
much the same materials as are used in it.
Once upon a time there was a King in Egypt who had no child. His heart
was grieved because he had no child, and he prayed to the gods for a
son; so in course of time a son was born to him, and the Fates (like
fairy godmothers) came to his cradle to foretell what should happen to
him. And when they saw him, they said, "His doom is to die either by the
crocodile, or by the serpent, or by the dog." When the King heard this,
his heart was sore for his little son, and he resolved that he would put
the boy where no harm could come to him; so he built for him a beautiful
house away in the desert, and furnished it with all kinds of fine
things, and sent the boy there, with faithful servants to guard him, and
to see that he came to no hurt. So the boy grew up quietly and safely in
his house in the desert.
But it fell on a day that the young Prince looked out from the roof of
his house, and he saw a man walking across the desert, with a dog
following him. So he said to the servant who was with him, "What is this
that walks behind the man who is coming along the road?" "It is a dog,"
said the page. Then the boy said, "You must bring me one like him," and
the page went and told His Majesty. Then the King said, "Get a little
puppy, and take it to him, lest his heart be sad." So they brought him a
little dog, and it grew up along with him.
Now, it happened that, when the boy had grown to be a strong young man,
he grew weary of being always shut up in his fine house. Therefore he
sent a message to his father, saying, "Why am I always to be shut up
here? Since I am doomed to three evil Fates, let me have my desire, and
let God do what is in His heart." So the King agreed, and they gave the
young Prince arms, and sent him away to the eastern frontier, and his
dog went with him, and they said to him, "Go wherever you will." So he
went northward through the desert, he and his dog, until he came to
the land of Naharaina.
[Illustration: Plate 10
STATUES OF KING AMENHOTEP III.]
Now, the chief of the land of Naharaina had no children, save one
beautiful daughter, and for her he had built a wonderful house. It had
seventy windows, and it stood on a great rock more than 100 feet high.
And the chief summoned the sons of all the chiefs of the country round
about, and said to them, "The Prince who can climb to my daughter's
window shall have her for his wife." So all the young Princes of the
land camped around the house, and tried every day to climb to the window
of the beautiful Princess; but none of them succeeded, for the rock was
very steep and high.
Then, one day when they were climbing as they were wont, the young
Prince of Egypt rode by with his dog; and the Princes welcomed him,
bathed him, and fed his horse, and said to him, "Whence comest thou,
thou goodly youth?" He did not wish to tell them that he was the son of
Pharaoh, so he answered, "I am the son of an Egyptian officer. My father
married a second wife, and, when she had children, she hated me, and
drove me away from my home." So they took him into their company, and he
stayed with them many days.
Now, it fell on a day that he asked them, "Why do you stay here, trying
always to climb this rock?" And they told him of the beautiful Princess
who lived in the house on the top of the rock, and how the man who could
climb to her window should marry her. Therefore the young Prince of
Egypt climbed along with them, and it came to pass that at last he
climbed to the window of the Princess; and when she saw him, she fell in
love with him, and kissed him.
Then was word sent to the Chief of Naharaina that one of the young men
had climbed to his daughter's window, and he asked which of the Princes
it was, and the messenger said, "It is not a Prince, but the son of an
Egyptian officer, who has been driven away from Egypt by his
stepmother." Then the Chief of Naharaina was very angry, and said,
"Shall I give my daughter to an Egyptian fugitive? Let him go back to
Egypt." But, when the messengers came to tell the young man to go away,
the Princess seized his hand, and said, "If you take him from me, I will
not eat; I will not drink; I shall die in that same hour." Then the
chief sent men to kill the youth where he was in the house. But the
Princess said, "If you kill him, I shall be dead before the sun goes
down. I will not live an hour if I am parted from him." So the chief was
obliged to agree to the marriage; and the young Prince was married to
the Princess, and her father gave them a house, and slaves, and fields,
and all sorts of good things.
But after a time the young Prince said to his wife, "I am doomed to die,
either by a crocodile, or by a serpent, or by a dog." And his wife
answered, "Why, then, do you keep this dog always with you? Let him be
killed." "Nay," said he, "I am not going to kill my faithful dog, which
I have brought up since the time that he was a puppy." So the Princess
feared greatly for her husband, and would never let him go out of her
sight.
Now, it happened in course of time that the Prince went back to the land
of Egypt; and his wife went with him, and his dog, and he dwelt in
Egypt. And one day, when the evening came, he grew drowsy, and fell
asleep; and his wife filled a bowl with milk, and placed it by his side,
and sat to watch him as he slept. Then a great serpent came out of his
hole to bite the youth. But his wife was watching, and she made the
servants give the milk to the serpent, and he drank till he could not
move. Then the Princess killed the serpent with blows of her dagger. So
she woke her husband, and he was astonished to see the serpent lying
dead, and his faithful wife said to him, "Behold, God has given one of
thy dooms into thy hand; He will also give the others." And the Prince
made sacrifice to God, and praised Him.
Now, it fell on a day that the Prince went out to walk in his estate,
and his dog went with him. And as they walked, the dog ran after some
game, and the Prince followed the dog. They came to the River Nile, and
the dog went into the river, and the Prince followed him. Then a great
crocodile rose in the river, and laid hold on the youth, and said, "I am
thy doom, following after thee." ...
But just here the old papyrus roll on which the story is written is torn
away, and we do not know what happened to the Doomed Prince. I fancy
that, in some way or other, his dog would save him from the crocodile,
and that later, by some accident, the poor faithful dog would be the
cause of his master's death. At least, it looks as if the end of the
story must have been something like that; for the Egyptians believed
that no one could escape from the doom that was laid upon him, but had
to suffer it sooner or later. Perhaps, some day, one of the explorers
who are searching the land of Egypt for relics of the past may come on
another papyrus roll with the end of the story, and then we shall find
out whether the dog did kill the Prince, or whether God gave all his
dooms into his hand, as his wife hoped.
These are some of the stories that little Tahuti and Sen-senb used to
listen to in the long evenings when they were tired of play. Perhaps
they seem very simple and clumsy to you; but I have no doubt that, when
they were told in those old days, the black eyes of the little Egyptian
boys and girls used to grow very big and round, and the wizard who could
fasten on heads which had been cut off seemed a very wonderful person,
and the talking serpents and crocodiles seemed very real and very
dreadful.
Anyhow, you have heard the oldest stories in all the world--the fathers
and mothers, so to speak, of all the great family of wonder-tales that
have delighted and terrified children ever since.
CHAPTER IX
EXPLORING THE SOUDAN
There is no more wonderful or interesting story than that which tells
how bit by bit the great dark continent of Africa has been explored, and
made to yield up its secrets. But did you ever think what a long story
it is, and how very early it begins? It is in Egypt that we find the
first chapters of the story; and they can still be read, written in the
quaint old picture writing which the Egyptians used, on the rock
tombs of a place in the south of Egypt, called Elephantine.
[Illustration: Plate 11
THE SPHINX AND THE SECOND PYRAMID. _Page_ 79]
In early days the land of Egypt used to end at what was called the First
Cataract of the Nile, a place where the river came down in a series of
rapids among a lot of rocky islets. The First Cataract has disappeared
now, for British engineers have made a great dam across the Nile just at
this point, and turned the whole country, for miles above the dam, into
a lake. But in those days the Egyptians used to believe that the Nile,
to which they owed so much, began at the First Cataract. Yet they knew
of the wild country of Nubia beyond and, in very early times indeed,
about 5,000 years ago, they used to send exploring expeditions into that
half-desert land which we have come to know as the Soudan.
Near the First Cataract there lies the island of Elephantine, and when
the Egyptian kingdom was young the great barons who owned this island
were the Lords of the Egyptian Marches, just as the Percies and the
Douglases were the Lords of the Marches in England and Scotland. It was
their duty to keep in order the wild Nubian tribes south of the
Cataract, to see that they allowed the trading caravans to pass safely,
and sometimes to lead these caravans through the desert themselves. A
caravan was a very different thing then from the long train of camels
that we think of now when we hear the name. For, though there are some
very old pictures which show that, before Egyptian history begins at
all, the camel was known in Egypt, somehow that useful animal seems to
have disappeared from the land for many hundreds of years. The Pharaohs
and their adventurous barons never used the queer, ungainly creature
that carries the desert postman in our picture (Plate 12), and the
ivory, gold-dust, and ebony that came from the Soudan had to be carried
on the backs of hundreds of asses.
The barons of Elephantine bore the proud title of "Keepers of the Door
of the South," and, in addition, they display, seemingly just as
proudly, the title "Caravan Conductors." In those days it was no easy
task to lead a caravan through the Soudan, and bring it back safe with
its precious load through all the wild and savage tribes who inhabited
the land of Nubia. More than one of the barons of Elephantine set out
with a caravan never to return, but to leave his bones, and those of his
companions, to whiten among the desert sands; and one of them has told
us how, hearing that his father had been killed on one of these
adventurous journeys, he mustered his retainers, marched south with a
train of a hundred asses, punished the tribe which had been guilty of
the deed, and brought his father's body home, to be buried with all due honours. |
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