"It will be a thinner and poorer procession without either my father or
us, that is one comfort," said Rameri. "The chorus is magnificent; here
come the plume-bearers and singers; there is the chief prophet at the
great temple, old Bek-en-Chunsu. How dignified he looks, but he will not
like going. Now the God is coming, for I, smell the incense."
With these words the prince fell on his knees, and the women followed
his example--when they saw first a noble bull in whose shining skin the
sun was reflected, and who bore between his horns a golden disk, above
which stood white ostrich-feathers; and then, divided from the bull only
by a few fan-bearers, the God himself, sometimes visible, but more often
hidden from sight by great semi-circular screens of black and white
ostrich-feathers, which were fixed on long poles, and with which the
priests shaded the God.
His mode of progress was as mysterious as his name, for he seemed to
float slowly on his gorgeous throne from the temple-gates towards the
stream. His seat was placed on a platform, magnificently decorated with
bunches and garlands of flowers, and covered with hangings of purple and
gold brocade, which concealed the priests who bore it along with a slow
and even pace.
As soon as the God had been placed on board his barge, Bent-Anat and her
companions rose from their knees.
Then came some priests, who carried a box with the sacred evergreen tree
of Amon; and when a fresh outburst of music fell on her ear, and a cloud
of incense was wafted up to her, Bent-Anat said: "Now my father should
be coming."
"And you," cried Rameri, "and close behind, Nefert's husband, Mena,
with the guards. Uncle Ani comes on foot. How strangely he has dressed
himself like a sphinx hind-part before!"
"How so?" asked Nefert.
"A sphinx," said Rameri laughing, it has the body of a lion, and the
head of a man,
[There were no female sphinxes in Egypt. The sphinx was called Neb,
i. e., the lord. The lion-couchant had either a man's or a rams
head.]
and my uncle has a peaceful priest's robe, and on his head the helmet of
a warrior."
"If the king were here, the distributor of life," said Nefert, "you
would not be missing from among his supporters."
"No indeed!" replied the prince, "and the whole thing is altogether
different when my father is here. His heroic form is splendid on his
golden throne; the statues of Truth and justice spread their wings
behind him as if to protect him; his mighty representative in fight, the
lion, lies peacefully before him, and over him spreads the canopy with
the Urmus snake at the top. There is hardly any end to the haruspices,
the pastophori with the standards, the images of the Gods, and the
flocks and herds for sacrifice. Only think, even the North has sent
representatives to the feast, as if my father were here. I know all the
different signs on the standards. Do you recognize the images of the
king's ancestors, Nefert? No? no more do I; but it seemed to me that
Ahmes I., who expelled the Hyksos--from whom our grandmother was
descended--headed the procession, and not my grandfather Seti, as he
should have done. Here come the soldiers; they are the legions which Ani
equipped, and who returned victorious from Ethiopia only last night.
How the people cheer them! and indeed they have behaved valiantly. Only
think, Bent-Anat and Nefert, what it will be when my father comes home,
with a hundred captive princes, who will humbly follow his chariot,
which your Mena will drive, with our brothers and all the nobles of the
land, and the guards in their splendid chariots."
"They do not think of returning yet!" sighed Nefert. While more and more
troops of the Regent's soldiers, more companies of musicians, and rare
animals, followed in procession, the festal bark of Amon started from
the shore.
It was a large and gorgeous barge of wood, polished all over and
overlaid with gold, and its edge was decorated with glittering
glass-beads, which imitated rubies and emeralds; the masts and yards
were gilt, and purple sails floated from them. The seats for the priests
were of ivory, and garlands of lilies and roses hung round the vessel,
from its masts and ropes.
The Regent's Nile-boat was not less splendid; the wood-work shone
with gilding, the cabin was furnished with gay Babylonian carpets; a
lion's-head formed the prow, as formerly in Hatasu's sea-going vessels,
and two large rubies shone in it, for eyes. After the priests had
embarked, and the sacred barge had reached the opposite shore, the
people pressed into the boats, which, filled almost to sinking, soon
so covered the whole breadth of the river that there was hardly a spot
where the sun was mirrored in the yellow waters.
"Now I will put on the dress of a gardener," cried Rameri, "and cross
over with the wreaths."
"You will leave us alone?" asked Bent-Anat.
"Do not make me anxious," said Rameri.
"Go then," said the princess. "If my father were here how willingly I
would go too."
"Come with me," cried the boy. "We can easily find a disguise for you
too."
"Folly!" said Bent-Anat; but she looked enquiringly at Nefert, who
shrugged her shoulders, as much as to say: "Your will is my law."
Rameri was too sharp for the glances of the friends to have escaped him,
and he exclaimed eagerly:
"You will come with me, I see you will! Every beggar to-day flings his
flower into the common grave, which contains the black mummy of his
father--and shall the daughter of Rameses, and the wife of the chief
charioteer, be excluded from bringing garlands to their dead?"
"I shall defile the tomb by my presence," said Bent-Anat coloring.
"You--you!" exclaimed Rameri, throwing his arms round his sister's neck,
and kissing her. "You, a noble generous creature, who live only to
ease sorrow and to wipe away tears; you, the very image of my
father--unclean! sooner would I believe that the swans down there are
as black as crows, and the rose-wreaths on the balcony rank hemlock
branches. Bek-en-Chunsu pronounced you clean, and if Ameni--"
"Ameni only exercises his rights," said Bent-Anat gently, "and you know
what we have resolved. I will not hear one hard word about him to-day."
"Very well! he has graciously and mercifully kept us from the feast,"
said Rameri ironically, and he bowed low in the direction of the
Necropolis, "and you are unclean. Do not enter the tombs and the temples
on my account; let us stay outside among the people. The roads over
there are not so very sensitive; paraschites and other unclean folks
pass over them every day. Be sensible, Bent-Anat, and come. We will
disguise ourselves; I will conduct you; I will lay the garlands in the
tombs, we will pray together outside, we will see the sacred procession
and the feats of the magicians, and hear the festive discourse. Only
think! Pentaur, in spite of all they have said against him, is to
deliver it. The temple of Seti wants to do its best to-day, and Ameni
knows very well that Pentaur, when he opens his mouth, stirs the hearts
of the people more than all the sages together if they were to sing in
chorus! Come with me, sister."
"So be it then," said Bent-Anat with sudden decision.
Rameri was surprised at this quick resolve, at which however he was
delighted; but Nefert looked anxiously at her friend. In a moment
her eyes fell; she knew now who it was that her friend loved, and the
fearful thought--"How will it end?" flashed through her mind.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
An hour later a tall, plainly dressed woman crossed the Nile, with a
dark-skinned boy and a slender youth by her side. The wrinkles on her
brow and cheeks agreed little with her youthful features; but it would
have been difficult to recognize in these three the proud princess, the
fair young prince, and the graceful Nefert, who looked as charming as
ever in the long white robe of a temple-student.
They were followed by two faithful and sturdy head-servants from among
the litter-bearers of the princess, who were however commanded to appear
as though they were not in any way connected with their mistress and her
companions.
The passage across the Nile had been accomplished but slowly, and thus
the royal personages had experienced for the first time some of the many
difficulties and delays which ordinary mortals must conquer to attain
objects which almost fly to meet their rulers. No one preceded them to
clear the river, no other vessel made way for them; on the contrary,
all tried to take place ahead of them, and to reach the opposite shore
before them.
When at last they reached the landing-place, the procession had already
passed on to the temple of Seti; Ameni had met it with his chorus of
singers, and had received the God on the shore of the Nile; the prophets
of the Necropolis had with their own hands placed him in the sacred
Sam-bark of the House of Seti, which was artistically constructed of
cedar wood and electrum set with jewels; thirty pastophori took the
precious burden on their shoulders, and bore it up the avenue of
Sphinxes--which led from the river to the temple--into the sanctuary
of Seti, where Amon remained while the emissaries from the different
provinces deposited their offerings in the forecourt. On his road from
the shore kolchytes had run before him, in accordance with ancient
custom, strewing sand in his path.
In the course of an hour the procession once more emerged into the open
air, and turning to the south, rested first in the enormous temple
of Anienophis III., in front of which the two giant statues stood as
sentinels--they still remain, the colossi of the Nile valley. Farther
to the south it reached the temple of Thotmes the Great, then, turning
round, it clung to the eastern face of the Libyan hills--pierced with
tombs and catacombs; it mounted the terraces of the temple of Hatasu,
and paused by the tombs of the oldest kings which are in the immediate
neighborhood; thus by sunset it had reached the scene of the festival
itself, at the entrance of the valley in which the tomb of Setitt had
been made, and in whose westernmost recesses were some of the graves of
the Pharaohs of the deposed race.
This part of the Necropolis was usually visited by lamp-light, and under
the flare of torches, before the return of the God to his own temple and
the mystery-play on the sacred lake, which did not begin till midnight.
Behind the God, in a vase of transparent crystal, and borne high on a
pole that all the multitude might see it, was the heart of the sacred
ram.
Our friends, after they had laid their wreaths on the magnificent altars
of their royal ancestors without being recognized, late in the afternoon
joined the throng who followed the procession. They mounted the eastern
cliff of the hills close by the tomb of Mena's forefathers, which
a prophet of Amon, named Neferhotep--Mena's great-grandfather--had
constructed. Its narrow doorway was besieged by a crowd, for within the
first of the rock-chambers of which it consisted, a harper was singing
a dirge for the long-since buried prophet, his wife and his sister. The
song had been composed by the poet attached to his house; it was graven
in the stone of the second rock-room of the tomb, and Neferhotep had
left a plot of ground in trust to the Necropolis, with the charge of
administering its revenues for the payment of a minstrel, who every-year
at the feast of the dead should sing the monody to the accompaniment of
his lute.
[The tomb of Neferhotep is well preserved, and in it the inscription
from which the monody is translated.]
The charioteer well knew this dirge for his ancestor, and had often sung
it to Nefert, who had accompanied him on her lute; for in their hours
of joy also--nay especially--the Egyptians were wont to remember their
dead.
Now the three companions listened to the minstrel as he sang:
"Now the great man is at rest,
Gone to practise sweeter duties.
Those that die are the elect
Since the Gods have left the earth.
Old men pass and young men come;
Yea, a new Sun rises daily
When the old sun has found rest
In the bosom of the night.
"Hail, O Prophet! on this feast day
Odorous balsams, fragrant resins
Here we bring--and offer garlands,
Throwing flowers down before thee,
And before thy much-loved sister,
Who has found her rest beside thee.
"Songs we sing, and strike the lyre
To thy memory, and thine honor.
All our cares are now forgotten,
Joy and hope our breasts are filling;
For the day of our departure
Now draws near, and in the silence
Of the farther shore is rest."
When the song ceased, several people pressed into the little oratory to
express their gratitude to the deceased prophet by laying a few flowers
on his altar. Nefert and Rameri also went in, and when Nefert had
offered a long and silent prayer to the glorified spirits of her dead,
that they might watch over Mena, she laid her garland beside the grave
in which her husband's mother rested.
Many members of the court circle passed close to the royal party without
recognizing them; they made every effort to reach the scene of the
festival, but the crowd was so great that the ladies had several times
to get into a tomb to avoid it. In each they found the altar loaded with
offerings, and, in most, family-parties, who here remembered their
dead, with meat and fruits, beer and wine, as though they were departed
travellers who had found some far off rest, and whom they hoped sooner
or later to see again.
The sun was near setting when at last the princess and her companions
reached the spot where the feast was being held. Here stood numbers of
stalls and booths, with eatables of every sort, particularly sweet cakes
for the children, dates, figs, pomegranates, and other fruits. Under
light awnings, which kept off the sun, were sold sandals and kerchiefs
of every material and hue, ornaments, amulets, fans, and sun-shades,
sweet essences of every kind, and other gifts for offerings or for
the toilet. The baskets of the gardeners and flower-girls were already
empty, but the money-changers were full of business, and the tavern and
gambling booths were driving a brisk trade.
Friends and acquaintances greeted each other kindly, while the children
showed each other their new sandals, the cakes they had won at the
games, or the little copper rings they had had given to them, and
which must now be laid out. The largest crowd was gathered to see the
magicians from the House of Seti, round which the mob squatted on the
ground in a compact circle, and the children were good-naturedly placed
in the front row.
When Bent-Anat reached the place all the religious solemnity was ended.
There stood the canopy under which the king and his family were used
to listen to the festal discourse, and under its shade sat to-day
the Regent Ani. They could see too the seats of the grandees, and
the barriers which kept the people at a distance from the Regent, the
priests, and the nobles.
Here Ameni himself had announced to the multitude the miracle of the
sacred heart, and had proclaimed that a new Apis had been found among
the herds of the Regent Ani.
His announcement of these divine tokens had been repeated from mouth to
mouth; they were omens of peace and happiness for the country through
the means of a favorite of the Gods; and though no one said it, the
dullest could not fail to see that this favorite was none other than
Ani, the descendant of the great Hatasu, whose prophet had been graced
by the transfer to him of the heart of the sacred rain. All eyes were
fixed on Ani, who had sacrificed before all the people to the sacred
heart, and received the high-priest's blessing.
Pentaur, too, had ended his discourse when Bent-Anat reached the scene
of the festival. She heard an old man say to his son:
"Life is hard. It often seems to me like a heavy burden laid on our
poor backs by the cruel Gods; but when I heard the young priest from the
House of Seti, I felt that, after all, the Immortals are good, and we
have much to thank them for."
In another place a priest's wife said to her son:
"Could you see Pentaur well, Hor-Uza? He is of humble birth, but he
stands above the greatest in genius and gifts, and will rise to high
things."
Two girls were speaking together, and one said to the other:
"The speaker is the handsomest man I ever saw, and his voice sounds like
soft music."
"And how his eyes shone when he spoke of truth as the highest of all
virtues!" replied the other. "All the Gods, I believe, must dwell in
him."
Bent-Anat colored as these words fell on her ear. It was growing dark,
and she wished to return home but Rameri wished to follow the procession
as it marched through the western valley by torch-light, so that the
grave of his grandfather Seti should also be visited. The princess
unwillingly yielded, but it would in any case have been difficult to
reach the river while every one was rushing in the opposite direction;
so the two ladies, and Rameri, let themselves be carried along by the
crowd, and by the time the daylight was gone, they found themselves
in the western valley, where to-night no beasts of prey dared show
themselves; jackals and hyenas had fled before the glare of the torches,
and the lanterns made of colored papyrus.
The smoke of the torches mingled with the dust stirred by a thousand
feet, and the procession moved along, as it were, in a cloud, which also
shrouded the multitude that followed.
The three companions had labored on as far as the hovel of the
paraschites Pinem, but here they were forced to pause, for guards
drove back the crowd to the right and left with long staves, to clear a
passage for the procession as it approached.
"See, Rameri," said Bent-Anat, pointing out the little yard of the hut
which stood only a few paces from them. "That is where the fair, white
girl lives, whom I ran over. But she is much better. Turn round; there,
behind the thorn-hedge, by the little fire which shines full in your
(her? D.W.) face--there she sits, with her grandfather."
The prince stood on tip-toe, looked into the humble plot of ground, and
then said in a subdued voice "What a lovely creature! But what is she
doing with the old man? He seems to be praying, and she first holds
a handkerchief before his mouth, and then rubs his temples. And how
unhappy she looks!"
"The paraschites must be ill," replied Bent-Anat. "He must have had too
much wine down at the feast," said Rameri laughing. "No doubt of it!
Only look how his lips tremble, and his eyes roll. It is hideous--he
looks like one possessed."
[It was thought that the insane were possessed by demons. A stele
admirably treated by F. de Rouge exists at Paris, which relates
that the sister-in law of Rameses III., who was possessed by devils,
had them driven out by the statue of Chunsu, which was sent to her
in Asia.]
"He is unclean too!" said Nefert.
"But he is a good, kind man, with a tender heart," exclaimed the
princess eagerly. "I have enquired about him. He is honest and sober,
and I am sure he is ill and not drunk."
"Now she is standing up," said Rameri, and he dropped the paper-lantern
which he had bought at a booth. "Step back, Bent-Anat, she must be
expecting some one. Did you ever see any one so very fair, and with such
a pretty little head. Even her red hair becomes her wonderfully; but
she staggers as she stands--she must be very weak. Now she has sat down
again by the old man, and is rubbing his forehead. Poor souls! look how
she is sobbing. I will throw my purse over to them."
"No, no!" exclaimed Bent-Anat. "I gave them plenty of money, and the
tears which are shed there cannot be staunched with gold. I will send
old Asnath over to-morrow to ask how we can help them. Look, here comes
the procession, Nefert. How rudely the people press! As soon as the God
is gone by we will go home."
"Pray do," said Nefert. "I am so frightened!" and she pressed trembling
to the side of the princess.
"I wish we were at home, too," replied Bent-Anat.
"Only look!" said Rameri. "There they are. Is it not splendid? And how
the heart shines, as if it were a star!"
All the crowd, and with them our three friends, fell on their knees.
The procession paused opposite to them, as it did at every thousand
paces; a herald came forward, and glorified, in a loud voice, the great
miracle, to which now another was added--the sacred heart since the
night had come on had begun to give out light.
Since his return home from the embalming house, the paraschites had
taken no nourishment, and had not answered a word to the anxious
questions of the two frightened women. He stared blindly, muttered a few
unintelligible words, and often clasped his forehead in his hand. A few
hours before he had laughed loud and suddenly, and his wife, greatly
alarmed, had gone at once to fetch the physician Nebsecht.
During her absence Uarda was to rub her grandfather's temples with the
leaves which the witch Hekt had laid on her bruises, for as they had
once proved efficacious they might perhaps a second time scare away the
demon of sickness.
When the procession, with its thousand lamps and torches, paused before
the hovel, which was almost invisible in the dusk, and one citizen said
to another: "Here comes the sacred heart!" the old man started, and
stood up. His eyes stared fixedly at the gleaming relic in its crystal
case; slowly, trembling in every limb, and with outstretched neck he
stood up.
The herald began his eulogy of the miracle.
Then, while all the people were prostrate in adoration, listening
motionless to the loud voice of the speaker, the paraschites rushed
out of his gate, striking his forehead with his fists, and opposite the
sacred heart, he broke out into a mad, loud fit of scornful laughter,
which re-echoed from the bare cliffs that closed in the valley.
Horror full on the crowd, who rose timidly from their knees.
Ameni, who too, was close behind the heart, started too and looked round
on the author of this hideous laugh. He had never seen the paraschites,
but he perceived the glimmer of his little fire through the dust and
gloom, and he knew that he lived in this place. The whole case struck
him at once; he whispered a few significant words to one of the officers
who marched with the troops on each side of the procession; then he gave
the signal, and the procession moved on as if nothing had happened.
The old man tried with still more loud and crazy laughter to reach and
seize the heart, but the crowd kept him back; and while the last groups
passed on after the priests, he contrived to slip back as far as the
door of his hovel, though much damaged and hurt.
There he fell, and Uarda rushed out and threw herself over the old man,
who lay on the earth, scarcely recognizable in the dust and darkness.
"Crush the scoffer!"
"Tear him in pieces!"
"Burn down the foul den!"
"Throw him and the wench into the fire!" shouted the people who had been
disturbed in their devotions, with wild fury.
Two old women snatched the lanterns froth the posts, and flung them at
the unfortunate creatures, while an Ethiopian soldier seized Uarda by
the hair, and tore her away from her grandfather.
At this moment Pinem's wife appeared, and with her Pentaur. She had
found not Nebsecht, but Pentaur, who had returned to the temple after
his speech. She had told him of the demon who had fallen upon her
husband, and implored him to come with her. Pentaur immediately followed
her in his working dress, just as he was, without putting on the white
priest's robe, which he did not wish to wear on this expedition.
When they drew near to the paraschites' hovel, he perceived the tumult
among the people, and, loud above all the noise, heard Uarda's shrill
cry of terror. He hurried forward, and in the dull light of the
scattered fire-brands and colored lanterns, he saw the black hand of the
soldier clutching the hair of the helpless child; quick as thought he
gripped the soldier's throat with his iron fingers, seized him round the
body, swung him in the air, and flung him like a block of stone right
into the little yard of the hut.
The people threw themselves on the champion in a frenzy of rage, but he
felt a sudden warlike impulse surging up in him, which he had never
felt before. With one wrench he pulled out the heavy wooden pole, which
supported the awning which the old paraschites had put up for his sick
grandchild; he swung it round his head, as if it were a reed, driving
back the crowd, while he called to Uarda to keep close to him.
"He who touches the child is a dead man!" he cried. "Shame on
you!--falling on a feeble old man and a helpless child in the middle of
a holy festival!"
For a moment the crowd was silent, but immediately after rushed forward
with fresh impetus, and wilder than ever rose the shouts of:
"Tear him to pieces! burn his house down!"
A few artisans from Thebes closed round the poet, who was not
recognizable as a priest. He, however, wielding his tent-pole, felled
them before they could reach him with their fists or cudgels, and down
went every man on whom it fell. But the struggle could not last long,
for some of his assailants sprang over the fence, and attacked him in
the rear. And now Pentaur was distinctly visible against a background of
flaring light, for some fire-brands had fallen on the dry palm-thatch of
the hovel behind him, and roaring flames rose up to the dark heavens.
The poet heard the threatening blaze behind him. He put his left hand
round the head of the trembling girl, who crouched beside him, and
feeling that now they both were lost, but that to his latest breath he
must protect the innocence and life of this frail creature, with his
right hand he once more desperately swung the heavy stake.
But it was for the last time; for two men succeeded in clutching the
weapon, others came to their support, and wrenched it from his hand,
while the mob closed upon him, furious but unarmed, and not without
great fear of the enormous strength of their opponent.
Uarda clung to her protector with shortened breath, and trembling like
a hunted antelope. Pentaur groaned when he felt himself disarmed, but
at that instant a youth stood by his side, as if he had sprung from the
earth, who put into his hand the sword of the fallen soldier--who lay
near his feet--and who then, leaning his back against Pentaur's, faced
the foe on the other side. Pentaur pulled himself together, sent out a
battle-cry like some fighting hero who is defending his last stronghold,
and brandished his new weapon. He stood with flaming eyes, like a lion
at bay, and for a moment the enemy gave way, for his young ally Rameri,
had taken a hatchet, and held it up in a threatening manner.
"The cowardly murderers are flinging fire-brands," cried the prince.
"Come here, girl, and I will put out the pitch on your dress."
He seized Uarda's hand, drew her to him, and hastily put out the flame,
while Pentaur protected them with his sword.
The prince and the poet stood thus back to back for a few moments, when
a stone struck Pentaur's head; he staggered, and the crowd were rushing
upon him, when the little fence was torn away by a determined hand,
a tall womanly form appeared on the scene of combat, and cried to the
astonished mob:
"Have done with this! I command you! I am Bent-Anat, the daughter of
Rameses."
The angry crowd gave way in sheer astonishment. Pentaur had recovered
from the stunning blow, but he thought he must be under some illusion.
He felt as if he must throw himself on his knees before Bent-Anat, but
his mind had been trained under Ameni to rapid reflection; he realized,
in a flash of thought, the princess's position, and instead of bowing
before her he exclaimed:
"Whoever this woman may be, good folks, she is not Bent-Anat the
princess, but I, though I have no white robe on, am a priest of Seti,
named Pentaur, and the Cherheb of to-day's festival. Leave this spot,
woman, I command you, in right of my sacred office."
And Bent-Anat obeyed.
Pentaur was saved; for just as the people began to recover from their
astonishment just as those whom he had hurt were once more inciting the
mob to fight just as a boy, whose hand he had crushed, was crying out:
"He is not a priest, he is a sword's-man. Down with the liar!"
A voice from the crowd exclaimed:
"Make way for my white robe, and leave the preacher Pentaur alone, he is
my friend. You most of you know me."
"You are Nebsecht the leech, who set my broken leg," cried a sailor.
"And cured my bad eye," said a weaver.
"That tall handsome man is Pentaur, I know him well," cried the girl,
whose opinion had been overheard by Bent-Anat.
"Preacher this, preacher that!" shouted the boy, and he would have
rushed forward, but the people held him back, and divided respectfully
at Nebsecht's command to make way for him to get at those who had been
hurt.
First he stooped over the old paraschites.
"Shame upon you!" he exclaimed.--"You have killed the old man."
"And I," said Pentaur, "Have dipped my peaceful hand in blood to save
his innocent and suffering grandchild from a like fate."
"Scorpions, vipers, venomous reptiles, scum of men!" shrieked Nebsecht,
and he sprang wildly forward, seeking Uarda. When he saw her sitting
safe at the feet of old Hekt, who had made her way into the courtyard,
he drew a deep breath of relief, and turned his attention to the
wounded.
"Did you knock down all that are lying here?" he whispered to his
friend.
Pentaur nodded assent and smiled; but not in triumph, rather in shame;
like a boy, who has unintentionally squeezed to death in his hand a bird
he has caught.
Nebsecht looked round astonished and anxious. "Why did you not say who
you were?" he asked. "Because the spirit of the God Menth possessed me,"
answered Pentaur. "When I saw that accursed villain there with his hand
in the girl's hair, I heard and saw nothing, I--"
"You did right," interrupted Nebsecht. "But where will all this end?"
At this moment a flourish of trumpets rang through the little valley.
The officer sent by Ameni to apprehend the paraschites came up with his
soldiers.
Before he entered the court-yard he ordered the crowd to disperse; the
refractory were driven away by force, and in a few minutes the valley
was cleared of the howling and shouting mob, and the burning house was
surrounded by soldiers. Bent-Anat, Rameri, and Nefert were obliged to
quit their places by the fence; Rameri, so soon as he saw that Uarda was
safe, had rejoined his sister.
Nefert was almost fainting with fear and excitement. The two servants,
who had kept near them, knit their hands together, and thus carried
her in advance of the princess. Not one of them spoke a word, not even
Rameri, who could not forget Uarda, and the look of gratitude she bid
sent after him. Once only Bent-Anat said:
"The hovel is burnt down. Where will the poor souls sleep to-night?"
When the valley was clear, the officer entered the yard, and found
there, besides Uarda and the witch Hekt, the poet, and Nebsecht, who was
engaged in tending the wounded.
Pentaur shortly narrated the affair to the captain, and named himself to
him.
The soldier offered him his hand.
"If there were many men in Rameses' army," said he, "who could strike
such a blow as you, the war with the Cheta would soon be at an end. But
you have struck down, not Asiatics, but citizens of Thebes, and, much as
I regret it, I must take you as a prisoner to Ameni."
"You only do your duty," replied Pentaur, bowing to the captain, who
ordered his men to take up the body of the paraschites, and to bear it
to the temple of Seti.
"I ought to take the girl in charge too," he added, turning to Pentaur.
"She is ill," replied the poet.
"And if she does not get some rest," added Nebsecht, "she will be dead.
Leave her alone; she is under the particular protection of the princess
Bent-Anat, who ran over her not long ago."
"I will take her into my house," said Hekt, "and will take care of her.
Her grandmother is lying there; she was half choked by the flames, but
she will soon come to herself--and I have room for both."
"Till to-morrow," replied the surgeon. "Then I will provide another
shelter for her."
The old woman laughed and muttered: "There are plenty of folks to take
care of her, it seems."
The soldiers obeyed the command of their leader, took up the wounded,
and went away with Pentaur, and the body of Pinem.
Meanwhile, Bent-Anat and her party had with much difficulty reached
the river-bank. One of the bearers was sent to find the boat which was
waiting for them, and he was enjoined to make haste, for already they
could see the approach of the procession, which escorted the God on his
return journey. If they could not succeed in finding their boat without
delay, they must wait at least an hour, for, at night, not a boat
that did not belong to the train of Amon--not even the barge of a
noble--might venture from shore till the whole procession was safe
across.
They awaited the messenger's signal in the greatest anxiety, for Nefert
was perfectly exhausted, and Bent-Anat, on whom she leaned, felt her
trembling in every limb.
At last the bearer gave the signal; the swift, almost invisible bark,
which was generally used for wild fowl shooting, shot by--Rameri seized
one end of an oar that the rower held out to him, and drew the little
boat up to the landing-place.
The captain of the watch passed at the same moment, and shouting out,
"This is the last boat that can put off before the passage of the God!"
Bent-Anat descended the steps as quickly as Nefert's exhausted state
permitted. The landing-place was now only dimly lighted by dull
lanterns, though, when the God embarked, it would be as light as day
with cressets and torches. Before she could reach the bottom step, with
Nefert still clinging heavily to her arm, a hard hand was laid on her
shoulder, and the rough voice of Paaker exclaimed:
"Stand back, you rabble! We are going first." The captain of the watch
did not stop him, for he knew the chief pioneer and his overbearing
ways. Paaker put his finger to his lips, and gave a shrill whistle that
sounded like a yell in the silence.
The stroke of oars responded to the call, and Paaker called out to his
boatmen:
"Bring the boat up here! these people can wait!" The pioneer's boat was
larger and better manned than that of the princess.
"Jump into the boat!" cried Rameri.
Bent-Anat went forward without speaking, for she did not wish to make
herself known again for the sake of the people, and for Nefert's; but
Paaker put himself in her way.
"Did I not tell you that you common people must wait till we are gone.
Push these people's boat out into the stream, you men."
Bent-Anat felt her blood chill, for a loud squabble at once began on the
landing-steps.
Rameri's voice sounded louder than all the rest; but the pioneer
exclaimed:
"The low brutes dare to resist? I will teach them manners! Here,
Descher, look after the woman and these boys!"
At his call his great red hound barked and sprang forward, which, as it
had belonged to his father, always accompanied him when he went with his
mother to visit the ancestral tomb. Nefert shrieked with fright, but
the dog at once knew her, and crouched against her with whines of
recognition.
Paaker, who had gone down to his boat, turned round in astonishment,
and saw his dog fawning at the feet of a boy whom he could not possibly
recognize as Nefert; he sprang back, and cried out:
"I will teach you, you young scoundrel, to spoil my dog with spells--or
poison!"
He raised his whip, and struck it across the shoulders of Nefert, who,
with one scream of terror and anguish, fell to the ground.
The lash of the whip only whistled close by the cheek of the poor
fainting woman, for Bent-Anat had seized Paaker's arm with all her
might.
Rage, disgust, and scorn stopped her utterance; but Rameri had heard
Nefert's shriek, and in two steps stood by the women.
"Cowardly scoundrel!" he cried, and lifted the oar in his hand. Paaker
evaded the blow, and called to the dog with a peculiar hiss:
"Pull him down, Descher."
The hound flew at the prince; but Rameri, who from his childhood, had
been his father's companion in many hunts and field sports, gave the
furious brute such a mighty blow on the muzzle that he rolled over with
a snort.
Paaker believed that he possessed in the whole world no more faithful
friend than this dog, his companion on all his marches across desert
tracts or through the enemy's country, and when he saw him writhing on
the ground his rage knew no bounds, and he flew at the youngster with
his whip; but Rameri--madly excited by all the events of the night, full
of the warlike spirit of his fathers, worked up to the highest pitch
by the insults to the two ladies, and seeing that he was their only
protector--suddenly felt himself endowed with the strength of a man; he
dealt the pioneer such a heavy blow on the left hand, that he dropped
his whip, and now seized the dagger in his girdle with his right.
Bent-Anat threw herself between the man and the stripling, who was
hardly more than a boy, once more declared her name, and this time her
brother's also, and commanded Paaker to make peace among the boatmen.
Then she led Nefert, who remained unrecognized, into the boat, entered
it herself with her companions, and shortly after landed at the palace,
while Paaker's mother, for whom he had called his boat, had yet a long
time to wait before it could start. Setchem had seen the struggle from
her litter at the top of the landing steps, but without understanding
its origin, and without recognizing the chief actors.
The dog was dead. Paaker's hand was very painful, and fresh rage was
seething in his soul.
"That brood of Rameses!" he muttered. "Adventurers! They shall learn to
know me. Mena and Rameses are closely connected--I will sacrifice them
both."
CHAPTER XXIX.
At last the pioneer's boat got off with his mother and the body of the
dog, which he intended to send to be embalmed at Kynopolis, the city in
which the dog was held sacred above all animals;
[Kynopolis, or in old Egyptian Saka, is now Samalut; Anubis was the
chief divinity worshipped there. Plutarch relates a quarrel between
the inhabitants of this city, and the neighboring one of Oxyrynchos,
where the fish called Oxyrynchos was worshipped. It began because
the Kynopolitans eat the fish, and in revenge the Oxyrynchites
caught and killed dogs, and consumed them in sacrifices. Juvenal
relates a similar story of the Ombites--perhaps Koptites--and Pentyrites in the 15th Satire.] |
|
댓글 없음:
댓글 쓰기