"I went into the house of the embalmer," said the old man, after he had
selected a few large flints, to which, with crafty blows, he gave the
shape of knives, "and there I found three bodies in which I had to make
the eight prescribed incisions with my flint-knife. When the dead lie
there undressed on the wooden bench they all look alike, and the begger
lies as still as the favorite son of a king. But I knew very well who
lay before me. The strong old body in the middle of the table was the
corpse of the Superior of the temple of Hatasu, and beyond, close by
each other, were laid a stone-mason of the Necropolis, and a poor girl
from the strangers' quarter, who had died of consumption--two miserable
wasted figures. I had known the Prophet well, for I had met him a
hundred times in his gilt litter, and we always called him Rui, the
rich. I did my duty by all three, I was driven away with the usual
stoning, and then I arranged the inward parts of the bodies with my
mates. Those of the Prophet are to be preserved later in an alabaster
canopus,
[This vase was called canopus at a later date. There were four of
them for each mummy.]
those of the mason and the girl were put back in their bodies.
"Then I went up to the three bodies, and I asked myself, to which I
should do such a wrong as to rob him of his heart. I turned to the two
poor ones, and I hastily went up to the sinning girl. Then I heard the
voice of the demon that cried out in my heart 'The girl was poor and
despised like you while she walked on Seb,
[Seb is the earth; Plutarch calls Seb Chronos. He is often spoken
of as the "father of the gods" on the monuments. He is the god of
time, and as the Egyptians regarded matter as eternal, it is not by
accident that the sign which represented the earth was also used for
eternity.]
perhaps she may find compensation and peace in the other world if you
do not mutilate her; and when I turned to the mason's lean corpse, and
looked at his hands, which were harder and rougher than my own, the
demon whispered the same. Then I stood before the strong, stout corpse
of the prophet Rui, who died of apoplexy, and I remembered the honor and
the riches that he had enjoyed on earth, and that he at least for a time
had known happiness and ease. And as soon as I was alone, I slipped my
hand into the bag, and changed the sheep's heart for his.
"Perhaps I am doubly guilty for playing such an accursed trick with the
heart of a high-priest; but Rui's body will be hung round with a hundred
amulets, Scarabaei
[Imitations of the sacred beetle Scarabaeus made of various
materials were frequently put into the mummies in the place of the
heart. Large specimens have often the 26th, 30th, and 64th chapters
of the Book of the Dead engraved on them, as they treat of the
heart.]
will be placed over his heart, and holy oil and sacred sentences
will preserve him from all the fiends on his road to
Amenti,--[Underworld]--while no one will devote helping talismans to the
poor. And then! thou hast sworn, in that world, in the hall of judgment,
to take my guilt on thyself."
Nebsecht gave the old man his hand.
"That I will," said he, "and I should have chosen as you did. Now take
this draught, divide it in four parts, and give it to Uarda for four
evenings following. Begin this evening, and by the day after to-morrow I
think she will be quite well. I will come again and look after her. Now
go to rest, and let me stay a while out here; before the star of Isis is
extinguished I will be gone, for they have long been expecting me at the
temple."
When the paraschites came out of his but the next morning, Nebsecht had
vanished; but a blood-stained cloth that lay by the remains of the fire
showed the old man that the impatient investigator had examined the
heart of the high-priest during the night, and perhaps cut it up.
Terror fell upon him, and in agony of mind he threw himself on his knees
as the golden bark of the Sun-God appeared on the horizon, and he prayed
fervently, first for Uarda, and then for the salvation of his imperilled
soul.
He rose encouraged, convinced himself that his granddaughter was
progressing towards recovery, bid farewell to his wife, took his flint
knife and his bronze hook,
[The brains of corpses were drawn out of the nose with a hook.
Herodotus II. 87.]
and went to the house of the embalmer to follow his dismal calling.
The group of buildings in which the greater number of the corpses
from Thebes went through the processes of mummifying, lay on the bare
desert-land at some distance from his hovel, southwards from the House
of Seti at the foot of the mountain. They occupied by themselves a
fairly large space, enclosed by a rough wall of dried mud-bricks.
The bodies were brought in through the great gate towards the Nile, and
delivered to the kolchytes,--[The whole guild of embalmers]--while the
priests, paraschites, and tariclleutes,--[Salter of the bodies]--bearers
and assistants, who here did their daily work, as well as innumerable
water-carriers who came up from the Nile, loaded with skins, found their
way into the establishment by a side gate.
At the farthest northern building of wood, with a separate gate, in
which the orders of the bereaved were taken, and often indeed those
of men still in active life, who thought to provide betimes for their
suitable interment.
The crowd in this house was considerable. About fifty men and women were
moving in it at the present moment, all of different ranks, and not
only from Thebes but from many smaller towns of Upper Egypt, to make
purchases or to give commissions to the functionaries who were busy
here.
This bazaar of the dead was well supplied, for coffins of every form
stood up against the walls, from the simplest chest to the richly gilt
and painted coffer, in form resembling a mummy. On wooden shelves
lay endless rolls of coarse and fine linen, in which the limbs of the
mummies were enveloped, and which were manufactured by the people of the
embalming establishment under the protection of the tutelar goddesses
of weavers, Neith, Isis and Nephthys, though some were ordered from a
distance, particularly from Sais.
There was free choice for the visitors of this pattern-room in the
matter of mummy-cases and cloths, as well as of necklets, scarabaei,
statuettes, Uza-eyes, girdles, head-rests, triangles, split-rings,
staves, and other symbolic objects, which were attached to the dead as
sacred amulets, or bound up in the wrappings.
There were innumerable stamps of baked clay, which were buried in the
earth to show any one who might dispute the limits, how far each grave
extended, images of the gods, which were laid in the sand to purify and
sanctify it--for by nature it belonged to Seth-Typhon--as well as the
figures called Schebti, which were either enclosed several together in
little boxes, or laid separately in the grave; it was supposed that they
would help the dead to till the fields of the blessed with the pick-axe,
plough, and seed-bag which they carried on their shoulders.
The widow and the steward of the wealthy Superior of the temple of
Hatasu, and with them a priest of high rank, were in eager discussion
with the officials of the embalming-House, and were selecting the
most costly of the patterns of mummy-cases which were offered to
their inspection, the finest linen, and amulets of malachite, and
lapis-lazuli, of blood-stone, carnelian and green felspar, as well as
the most elegant alabaster canopi for the deceased; his body was to be
enclosed first in a sort of case of papier-mache, and then in a wooden
and a stone coffin. They wrote his name on a wax tablet which was ready
for the purpose, with those of his parents, his wife and children,
and all his titles; they ordered what verses should be written on his
coffin, what on the papyrus-rolls to be enclosed in it, and what should
be set out above his name. With regard to the inscription on the walls
of the tomb, the pedestal of the statue to be placed there and the face
of the stele--[Stone tablet with round pediment.]--to be erected in it,
yet further particulars would be given; a priest of the temple of
Seti was charged to write them, and to draw up a catalogue of the rich
offerings of the survivors. The last could be done later, when, after
the division of the property, the amount of the fortune he had left
could be ascertained. The mere mummifying of the body with the finest
oils and essences, cloths, amulets, and cases, would cost a talent of
silver, without the stone sarcophagus.
The widow wore a long mourning robe, her forehead was lightly daubed
with Nile-mud, and in the midst of her chaffering with the functionaries
of the embalming-house, whose prices she complained of as enormous and
rapacious, from time to time she broke out into a loud wail of grief--as
the occasion demanded.
More modest citizens finished their commissions sooner, though it was
not unusual for the income of a whole year to be sacrificed for the
embalming of the head of a household--the father or the mother of a
family. The mummifying of the poor was cheap, and that of the poorest
had to be provided by the kolchytes as a tribute to the king, to whom
also they were obliged to pay a tax in linen from their looms.
This place of business was carefully separated from the rest of the
establishment, which none but those who were engaged in the processes
carried on there were on any account permitted to enter. The kolchytes
formed a closely-limited guild at the head of which stood a certain
number of priests, and from among them the masters of the many
thousand members were chosen. This guild was highly respected, even the
taricheutes, who were entrusted with the actual work of embalming, could
venture to mix with the other citizens, although in Thebes itself people
always avoided them with a certain horror; only the paraschites, whose
duty it was to open the body, bore the whole curse of uncleanness.
Certainly the place where these people fulfilled their office was dismal
enough.
The stone chamber in which the bodies were opened, and the halls in
which they were prepared with salt, had adjoining them a variety of
laboratories and depositaries for drugs and preparations of every
description.
In a court-yard, protected from the rays of the sun only by an awning,
was a large walled bason, containing a solution of natron, in which
the bodies were salted, and they were then dried in a stone vault,
artificially supplied with hot air.
The little wooden houses of the weavers, as well as the work-shops
of the case-joiners and decorators, stood in numbers round the
pattern-room; but the farthest off, and much the largest of the
buildings of the establishment, was a very long low structure, solidly
built of stone and well roofed in, where the prepared bodies were
enveloped in their cerements, tricked out in amulets, and made ready for
their journey to the next world. What took place in this building--into
which the laity were admitted, but never for more than a few
minutes--was to the last degree mysterious, for here the gods themselves
appeared to be engaged with the mortal bodies.
Out of the windows which opened on the street, recitations, hymns, and
lamentations sounded night and day. The priests who fulfilled their
office here wore masks like the divinities of the under-world. Many were
the representatives of Anubis, with the jackal-head, assisted by boys
with masks of the so-called child-Horus. At the head of each mummy stood
or squatted a wailing-woman with the emblems of Nephthys, and one at its
feet with those of Isis.
Every separate limb of the deceased was dedicated to a particular
divinity by the aid of holy oils, charms, and sentences; a specially
prepared cloth was wrapped round each muscle, every drug and every
bandage owed its origin to some divinity, and the confusion of sounds,
of disguised figures, and of various perfumes, had a stupefying effect
on those who visited this chamber. It need not be said that the whole
embalming establishment and its neighborhood was enveloped in a cloud
of powerful resinous fumes, of sweet attar, of lasting musk, and pungent
spices.
When the wind blew from the west it was wafted across the Nile to
Thebes, and this was regarded as an evil omen, for from the south-west
comes the wind that enfeebles the energy of men--the fatal simoon.
In the court of the pattern-house stood several groups of citizens
from Thebes, gathered round different individuals, to whom they were
expressing their sympathy. A new-comer, the superintendent of the
victims of the temple of Anion, who seemed to be known to many and was
greeted with respect, announced, even before he went to condole with
Rui's widow, in a tone full of horror at what had happened, that an
omen, significant of the greatest misfortune, had occurred in Thebes, in
a spot no less sacred than the very temple of Anion himself.
Many inquisitive listeners stood round him while he related that the
Regent Ani, in his joy at the victory of his troops in Ethiopia, had
distributed wine with a lavish hand to the garrison of Thebes, and also
to the watchmen of the temple of Anion, and that, while the people were
carousing, wolves
[Wolves have now disappeared from Egypt; they were sacred animals,
and were worshipped and buried at Lykopolis, the present Siut, where
mummies of wolves have been found. Herodotus says that if a wolf
was found dead he was buried, and Aelian states that the herb
Lykoktonon, which was poisonous to wolves, might on no account be
brought into the city, where they were held sacred. The wolf
numbered among the sacral animals is the canis lupaster, which
exists in Egypt at the present day. Besides this species there are
three varieties of wild dogs, the jackal, fox, and fenek, canis
cerda.]
had broken into the stable of the sacred rams. Some were killed, but the
noblest ram, which Rameses himself had sent as a gift from Mendes when
he set out for the war--the magnificent beast which Amon had chosen as
the tenement of his spirit, was found, torn in pieces, by the soldiers,
who immediately terrified the whole city with the news. At the same hour
news had come from Memphis that the sacred bull Apis was dead.
All the people who had collected round the priest, broke out into a
far-sounding cry of woe, in which he himself and Rui's widow vehemently
joined.
The buyers and functionaries rushed out of the pattern-room, and from
the mummy-house the taricheutes, paraschites and assistants; the
weavers left their looms, and all, as soon as they had learned what had
happened, took part in the lamentations, howling and wailing, tearing
their hair and covering their faces with dust.
The noise was loud and distracting, and when its violence diminished,
and the work-people went back to their business, the east wind brought
the echo of the cries of the dwellers in the Necropolis, perhaps too,
those of the citizens of Thebes itself.
"Bad news," said the inspector of the victims, "cannot fail to reach
us soon from the king and the army; he will regret the death of the ram
which we called by his name more than that of Apis. It is a bad--a very
bad omen."
"My lost husband Rui, who rests in Osiris, foresaw it all," said the
widow. "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.
The old paraschites was long since blunted to the horror which pervaded
this locality. He had spread a coarse napkin, and carefully laid on it
the provisions which his wife had put into his satchel; first half a
cake of bread, then a little salt, and finally a radish.
But the bag was not yet empty.
He put his hand in and found a piece of meat wrapped up in two
cabbage-leaves. Old Hekt had brought a leg of a gazelle from Thebes
for Uarda, and he now saw that the women had put a piece of it into his
little sack for his refreshment. He looked at the gift with emotion, but
he did not venture to touch it, for he felt as if in doing so he should
be robbing the sick girl. While eating the bread and the radish he
contemplated the piece of meat as if it were some costly jewel, and when
a fly dared to settle on it he drove it off indignantly.
At last he tasted the meat, and thought of many former noon-day meals,
and how he had often found a flower in the satchel, that Uarda had
placed there to please him, with the bread. His kind old eyes filled
with tears, and his whole heart swelled with gratitude and love. He
looked up, and his glance fell on the table, and he asked himself how he
would have felt if instead of the old priest, robbed of his heart, the
sunshine of his old age, his granddaughter, were lying there motionless.
A cold shiver ran over him, and he felt that his own heart would not
have been too great a price to pay for her recovery. And yet! In the
course of his long life he had experienced so much suffering and wrong,
that he could not imagine any hope of a better lot in the other world.
Then he drew out the bond Nebsecht had given him, held it up with both
hands, as if to show it to the Immortals, and particularly to the judges
in the hall of truth and judgment, that they might not reckon with him
for the crime he had committed--not for himself but for another--and
that they might not refuse to justify Rui, whom he had robbed of his
heart.
While he thus lifted his soul in devotion, matters were getting warm
outside the dissecting room. He thought he heard his name spoken, and
scarcely had he raised his head to listen when a taricheut came in and
desired him to follow him.
In front of the rooms, filled with resinous odors and incense, in which
the actual process of embalming was carried on, a number of taricheutes
were standing and looking at an object in an alabaster bowl. The knees
of the old man knocked together as he recognized the heart of the beast
which he had substituted for that of the Prophet.
The chief of the taricheutes asked him whether he had opened the body of
the dead priest.
Pinem stammered out "Yes." Whether this was his heart? The old man
nodded affirmatively.
The taricheutes looked at each other, whispered together; then one of
them went away, and returned soon with the inspector of victims from the
temple of Anion, whom he had found in the house of the weaver, and the
chief of the kolchytes.
"Show me the heart," said the superintendent of the sacrifices as he
approached the vase. "I can decide in the dark if you have seen rightly.
I examine a hundred animals every day. Give it here!--By all the Gods of
Heaven and Hell that is the heart of a ram!"
"It was found in the breast of Rui," said one of the taricheutes
decisively. "It was opened yesterday in the presence of us all by this
old paraschites."
"It is extraordinary," said the priest of Anion. "And incredible. But
perhaps an exchange was effected.--Did you slaughter any victims here
yesterday or--?"
"We are purifying ourselves," the chief of the kolchytes interrupted,
"for the great festival of the valley, and for ten days no beast can
have been killed here for food; besides, the stables and slaughterhouses
are a long way from this, on the other side of the linen-factories."
"It is strange!" replied the priest. "Preserve this heart carefully,
kolchytes: or, better still, let it be enclosed in a case. We will take
it over to the chief prophet of Anion. It would seem that some miracle
has happened."
"The heart belongs to the Necropolis," answered the chief kolchytes,
"and it would therefore be more fitting if we took it to the chief
priest of the temple of Seti, Ameni."
"You command here!" said the other. "Let us go." In a few minutes
the priest of Anion and the chief of the kolchytes were being carried
towards the valley in their litters. A taricheut followed them, who sat
on a seat between two asses, and carefully carried a casket of ivory, in
which reposed the ram's heart.
The old paraschites watched the priests disappear behind the tamarisk
bushes. He longed to run after them, and tell them everything.
His conscience quaked with self reproach, and if his sluggish
intelligence did not enable him to take in at a glance all the results
that his deed might entail, he still could guess that he had sown a
seed whence deceit of every kind must grow. He felt as if he had fallen
altogether into sin and falsehood, and that the goddess of truth, whom
he had all his life honestly served, had reproachfully turned her back
on him. After what had happened never could he hope to be pronounced a
"truth-speaker" by the judges of the dead. Lost, thrown away, was the
aim and end of a long life, rich in self-denial and prayer! His soul
shed tears of blood, a wild sighing sounded in his ears, which saddened
his spirit, and when he went back to his work again, and wanted to
remove the soles of the feet
[One of the mummies of Prague which were dissected by Czermak, had
the soles of the feet removed and laid on the breast. We learn from
Chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead that this was done that the
sacred floor of the hall of judgment might not be defiled when the
dead were summoned before Osiris.]
from a body, his hand trembled so that he could not hold the knife.
CHAPTER XXIII.
The news of the end of the sacred ram of Anion, and of the death of the
bull Apis of Memphis, had reached the House of Seti, and was received
there with loud lamentation, in which all its inhabitants joined, from
the chief haruspex down to the smallest boy in the school-courts.
The superior of the institution, Ameni, had been for three days in
Thebes, and was expected to return to-day. His arrival was looked for
with anxiety and excitement by many. The chief of the haruspices was
eager for it that he might hand over the imprisoned scholars to condign
punishment, and complain to him of Pentaur and Bent-Anat; the initiated
knew that important transactions must have been concluded on the farther
side of the Nile; and the rebellious disciples knew that now stern
justice would be dealt to them.
The insurrectionary troop were locked into an open court upon bread and
water, and as the usual room of detention of the establishment was too
small for them all, for two nights they had had to sleep in a loft on
thin straw mats. The young spirits were excited to the highest pitch,
but each expressed his feelings in quite a different manner.
Bent-Anat's brother, Rameses' son, Rameri, had experienced the same
treatment as his fellows, whom yesterday he had led into every sort of
mischief, with even more audacity than usual, but to-day he hung his
head.
In a corner of the court sat Anana, Pentaur's favorite scholar, hiding
his face in his hands which rested on his knees. Rameri went up to him,
touched his shoulders and said:
"We have played the game, and now must bear the consequences for good
and for evil. Are you not ashamed of yourself, old boy? Your eyes are
wet, and the drops here on your hands have not fallen from the clouds.
You who are seventeen, and in a few months will be a scribe and a grown
man!"
Anana looked at the prince, dried his eyes quickly; and said:
"I was the ring-leader. Ameni will turn me out of the place, and I must
return disgraced to my poor mother, who has no one in the world but me."
"Poor fellow!" said Rameri kindly. "It was striking at random! If only
our attempt had done Pentaur any good!"
"We have done him harm, on the contrary," said Anana vehemently,
"and have behaved like fools!" Rameri nodded in full assent, looked
thoughtful for a moment, and then said:
"Do you know, Anana, that you were not the ringleader? The trick was
planned in this crazy brain; I take the whole blame on my own shoulders.
I am the son of Rameses, and Ameni will be less hard on me than on you."
"He will examine us all," replied Anana, "and I will be punished sooner
than tell a lie."
Rameri colored.
"Have you ever known my tongue sin against the lovely daughter of Ra?"
he exclaimed. "But look here! did I stir up Antef, Hapi, Sent and all
the others or no? Who but I advised you to find out Pentaur? Did I
threaten to beg my father to take me from the school of Seti or not? I
was the instigator of the mischief, I pulled the wires, and if we are
questioned let me speak first. Not one of you is to mention Anana's
name; do you hear? not one of you, and if they flog us or deprive us of
our food we all stick to this, that I was guilty of all the mischief."
"You are a brave fellow!" said the son of the chief priest of Anion,
shaking his right hand, while Anana held his left.
The prince freed himself laughing from their grasp.
"Now the old man may come home," he exclaimed, "we are ready for him.
But all the same I will ask my father to send me to Chennu, as sure as
my name is Rameri, if they do not recall Pentaur."
"He treated us like school-boys!" said the eldest of the young
malefactors.
"And with reason," replied Rameri, "I respect him all the more for it.
You all think I am a careless dog--but I have my own ideas, and I will
speak the words of wisdom."
With these words he looked round on his companions with comical gravity,
and continued--imitating Ameni's manner:
"Great men are distinguished from little men by this--they scorn and
contemn all which flatters their vanity, or seems to them for the moment
desirable, or even useful, if it is not compatible with the laws which
they recognize, or conducive to some great end which they have set
before them; even though that end may not be reached till after their
death.
"I have learned this, partly from my father, but partly I have thought
it out for myself; and now I ask you, could Pentaur as 'a great man'
have dealt with us better?"
"You have put into words exactly what I myself have thought ever since
yesterday," cried Anana. "We have behaved like babies, and instead of
carrying our point we have brought ourselves and Pentaur into disgrace."
The rattle of an approaching chariot was now audible, and Rameri
exclaimed, interrupting Anana, "It is he. Courage, boys! I am the guilty
one. He will not dare to have me thrashed--but he will stab me with
looks!"
Ameni descended quickly from his chariot. The gate-keeper informed him
that the chief of the kolchytes, and the inspector of victims from the
temple of Anion, desired to speak with him.
"They must wait," said the Prophet shortly. "Show them meanwhile into
the garden pavilion. Where is the chief haruspex?"
He had hardly spoken when the vigorous old man for whom he was enquiring
hurried to meet him, to make him acquainted with all that had occurred
in his absence. But the high-priest had already heard in Thebes all that
his colleague was anxious to tell him.
When Ameni was absent from the House of Seti, he caused accurate
information to be brought to him every morning of what had taken place
there.
Now when the old man began his story he interrupted him.
"I know everything," he said. "The disciples cling to Pentaur, and have
committed a folly for his sake, and you met the princess Bent-Anat with
him in the temple of Hatasu, to which he had admitted a woman of low
rank before she had been purified. These are grave matters, and must be
seriously considered, but not to-day. Make yourself easy; Pentaur will
not escape punishment; but for to-day we must recall him to this temple,
for we have need of him to-morrow for the solemnity of the feast of the
valley. No one shall meet him as an enemy till he is condemned; I desire
this of you, and charge you to repeat it to the others."
The haruspex endeavored to represent to his superior what a scandal
would arise from this untimely clemency; but Ameni did not allow him to
talk, he demanded his ring back, called a young priest, delivered the
precious signet into his charge, and desired him to get into his chariot
that was waiting at the door, and carry to Pentaur the command, in his
name, to return to the temple of Seti.
The haruspex submitted, though deeply vexed, and asked whether the
guilty boys were also to go unpunished.
"No more than Pentaur," answered Ameni. "But can you call this
school-boy's trick guilt? Leave the children to their fun, and their
imprudence. The educator is the destroyer, if he always and only keeps
his eyes open, and cannot close them at the right moment. Before
life demands of us the exercise of serious duties we have a mighty
over-abundance of vigor at our disposal; the child exhausts it in play,
and the boy in building wonder-castles with the hammer and chisel of
his fancy, in inventing follies. You shake your head, Septah! but I tell
you, the audacious tricks of the boy are the fore-runners of the deeds
of the man. I shall let one only of the boys suffer for what is past,
and I should let him even go unpunished if I had not other pressing
reasons for keeping him away from our festival."
The haruspex did not contradict his chief; for he knew that when Ameni's
eyes flashed so suddenly, and his demeanor, usually so measured, was as
restless as at present, something serious was brewing.
The high-priest understood what was passing in Septah's mind.
"You do not understand me now," said he. "But this evening, at the
meeting of the initiated, you shall know all. Great events are stirring.
The brethren in the temple of Anion, on the other shore, have fallen off
from what must always be the Holiest to us white-robed priests, and will
stand in our way when the time for action is arrived. At the feast of
the valley we shall stand in competition with the brethren from Thebes.
All Thebes will be present at the solemn service, and it must be proved
which knows how to serve the Divinity most worthily, they or we. We must
avail ourselves of all our resources, and Pentaur we certainly cannot do
without. He must fill the function of Cherheb
[Cherheb was the title of the speaker or reciter at a festival. We
cannot agree with those who confuse this personage with the chief of
the Kolchytes.]
for to-morrow only; the day after he must be brought to judgment. Among
the rebellious boys are our best singers, and particularly young Anana,
who leads the voices of the choir-boys.
"I will examine the silly fellows at once. Rameri--Rameses' son--was
among the young miscreants?"
"He seems to have been the ring-leader," answered Septah.
Ameni looked at the old man with a significant smile, and said:
"The royal family are covering themselves with honor! His eldest
daughter must be kept far from the temple and the gathering of the
pious, as being unclean and refractory, and we shall be obliged to expel
his son too from our college. You look horrified, but I say to you
that the time for action is come. More of this, this evening. Now, one
question: Has the news of the death of the ram of Anion reached you?
Yes? Rameses himself presented him to the God, and they gave it his
name. A bad omen."
"And Apis too is dead!" The haruspex threw up his arms in lamentation.
"His Divine spirit has returned to God," replied Ameni. "Now we have
much to do. Before all things we must prove ourselves equal to those in
Thebes over there, and win the people over to our side. The panegyric
prepared by us for to-morrow must offer some great novelty. The Regent
Ani grants us a rich contribution, and--"
"And," interrupted Septah, "our thaumaturgists understand things
very differently from those of the house of Anion, who feast while we
practise."
Ameni nodded assent, and said with a smile: "Also we are more
indispensable than they to the people. They show them the path of life,
but we smooth the way of death. It is easier to find the way without a
guide in the day-light than in the dark. We are more than a match for
the priests of Anion."
"So long as you are our leader, certainly," cried the haruspex.
"And so long as the temple has no lack of men of your temper!" added
Ameni, half to Septah, and half to the second prophet of the temple,
sturdy old Gagabu, who had come into the room.
Both accompanied him into the garden, where the two priests were
awaiting him with the miraculous heart.
Ameni greeted the priest from the temple of Anion with dignified
friendliness, the head kolchytes with distant reserve, listened to their
story, looked at the heart which lay in the box, with Septah and Gagabu,
touched it delicately with the tips of his fingers, carefully examining
the object, which diffused a strong perfume of spices; then he said
earnestly:
"If this, in your opinion, kolchytes, is not a human heart, and if in
yours, my brother of the temple of Anion, it is a ram's heart, and if
it was found in the body of Rui, who is gone to Osiris, we here have a
mystery which only the Gods can solve. Follow me into the great court.
Let the gong be sounded, Gagabu, four times, for I wish to call all the
brethren together."
The gong rang in loud waves of sound to the farthest limits of the group
of buildings. The initiated, the fathers, the temple-servants, and the
scholars streamed in, and in a few minutes were all collected. Not a man
was wanting, for at the four strokes of the rarely-sounded alarum every
dweller in the House of Seti was expected to appear in the court of the
temple. Even the leech Nebsecht came; for he feared that the unusual
summons announced the outbreak of a fire.
Ameni ordered the assembly to arrange itself in a procession, informed
his astonished hearers that in the breast of the deceased prophet Rui, a
ram's heart, instead of a man's, had been found, and desired them all to
follow his instructions. Each one, he said, was to fall on his knees
and pray, while he would carry the heart into the holiest of holies, and
enquire of the Gods what this wonder might portend to the faithful.
Ameni, with the heart in his hand, placed himself at the head of the
procession, and disappeared behind the veil of the sanctuary, the
initiated prayed in the vestibule, in front of it; the priests and
scholars in the vast court, which was closed on the west by the stately
colonnade and the main gateway to the temple.
For fully an hour Ameni remained in the silent holy of holies, from
which thick clouds of incense rolled out, and then he reappeared with
a golden vase set with precious stones. His tall figure was now
resplendent with rich ornaments, and a priest, who walked before him,
held the vessel high above his head.
Ameni's eyes seemed spell-bound to the vase, and he followed it,
supporting himself by his crozier, with humble inflections.
The initiated bowed their heads till they touched the pavement, and
the priests and scholars bent their faces down to the earth, when they
beheld their haughty master so filled with humility and devotion. The
worshippers did not raise themselves till Ameni had reached the middle
of the court and ascended the steps of the altar, on which the vase
with the heart was now placed, and they listened to the slow and solemn
accents of the high-priest which sounded clearly through the whole
court.
"Fall down again and worship! wonder, pray, and adore! The noble
inspector of sacrifices of the temple of Anion has not been deceived
in his judgment; a ram's heart was in fact found in the pious breast of
Rui. I heard distinctly the voice of the Divinity in the sanctuary, and
strange indeed was the speech that met my ear. Wolves tore the sacred
ram of Anion in his sanctuary on the other bank of the river, but the
heart of the divine beast found its way into the bosom of the saintly
Rui. A great miracle has been worked, and the Gods have shown a
wonderful sign. The spirit of the Highest liked not to dwell in the body
of this not perfectly holy ram, and seeking a purer abiding-place found
it in the breast of our Rui; and now in this consecrated vase. In this
the heart shall be preserved till a new ram offered by a worthy hand
enters the herd of Anion. This heart shall be preserved with the most
sacred relics, it has the property of healing many diseases, and the
significant words seem favorable which stood written in the midst of the
vapor of incense, and which I will repeat to you word for word, 'That
which is high shall rise higher, and that which exalts itself, shall
soon fall down.' Rise, pastophori! hasten to fetch the holy images,
bring them out, place the sacred heart at the head of the procession,
and let us march round the walls of the temple with hymns of praise. Ye
temple-servants, seize your staves, and spread in every part of the city
the news of the miracle which the Divinity has vouchsafed to us."
After the procession had marched round the temple and dispersed, the
priest of Anion took leave of Ameni; he bowed deeply and formally before
him, and with a coolness that was almost malicious said:
"We, in the temple of Anion, shall know how to appreciate what you heard
in the holy of holies. The miracle has occurred, and the king shall
learn how it came to pass, and in what words it was announced."
"In the words of the Most High," said the high priest with dignity;
he bowed to the other, and turned to a group of priests, who were
discussing the great event of the day.
Ameni enquired of them as to the preparations for the festival of the
morrow, and then desired the chief haruspex to call the refractory
pupils together in the school-court. The old man informed him that
Pentaur had returned, and he followed his superior to the released
prisoners, who, prepared for the worst, and expecting severe punishment,
nevertheless shook with laughter when Rameri suggested that, if by
chance they were condemned to kneel upon peas, they should get them
cooked first.
"It will be long asparagus
[Asparagus was known to the Egyptians. Pliny says they held in
their mouths, as a remedy for toothache, wine in which asparagus had
been cooked.]
--not peas," said another looking over his shoulder, and pretending to
be flogging. They all shouted again with laughter, but it was hushed as
soon as they heard Ameni's well-known footstep.
Each feared the worst, and when the high-priest stood before them even
Rameri's mirth was quite quelled, for though Ameni looked neither
angry nor threatening, his appearance commanded respect, and each one
recognized in him a judge against whose verdict no remonstrance was to
be thought of.
To their infinite astonishment Ameni spoke kindly to the thoughtless
boys, praised the motive of their action--their attachment to a
highly-endowed teacher--but then clearly and deliberately laid before
them the folly of the means they had employed to attain their end, and
at what a cost. "Only think," he continued, turning to the prince,
"if your father sent a general, who he thought would be better in a
different place, from Syria to Kusch, and his troops therefore all went
over to the enemy! How would you like that?"
So for some minutes he continued to blame and warn them, and he ended
his speech by promising, in consideration of the great miracle that gave
that day a special sanctity, to exercise unwonted clemency. For the sake
of example, he said, he could not let them pass altogether unpunished,
and he now asked them which of them had been the instigator of the deed;
he and he only should suffer punishment.
He had hardly clone speaking, when prince Rameri stepped forward, and
said modestly:
"We acknowledge, holy father, that we have played a foolish trick; and I
lament it doubly because I devised it, and made the others follow me.
I love Pentaur, and next to thee there is no one like him in the
sanctuary."
Ameni's countenance grew dark, and he answered with displeasure:
"No judgment is allowed to pupils as to their teachers--nor to you. If
you were not the son of the king, who rules Egypt as Ra, I would punish
your temerity with stripes. My hands are tied with regard to you, and yet they must be everywhere and always at work if the hundreds committed to my care are to be kept from harm." |
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