[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D. W. ]

UARDA

Volume 2. 

By Georg Ebers

CHAPTER V. 

The night during which the Princess Bent-Anat and her followers hadknocked at the gate of the House of Seti was past. 

The fruitful freshness of the dawn gave way to the heat, which began topour down from the deep blue cloudless vault of heaven. The eye could nolonger gaze at the mighty globe of light whose rays pierced the finewhite dust which hung over the declivity of the hills that enclosed thecity of the dead on the west. The limestone rocks showed with blindingclearness, the atmosphere quivered as if heated over a flame; each minutethe shadows grew shorter and their outlines sharper. 

All the beasts which we saw peopling the Necropolis in the evening hadnow withdrawn into their lurking places; only man defied the heat of thesummer day. Undisturbed he accomplished his daily work, and only laidhis tools aside for a moment, with a sigh, when a cooling breath blewacross the overflowing stream and fanned his brow. 

The harbor or clock where those landed who crossed from eastern Thebeswas crowded with barks and boats waiting to return. 

The crews of rowers and steersmen who were attached to priestlybrotherhoods or noble houses, were enjoying a rest till the parties theyhad brought across the Nile drew towards them again in long processions. 

Under a wide-spreading sycamore a vendor of eatables, spirituous drinks, and acids for cooling the water, had set up his stall, and close to him, a crowd of boatmen, and drivers shouted and disputed as they passed thetime in eager games at morra. 

 [In Latin "micare digitis. " A game still constantly played in the south of Europe, and frequently represented by the Egyptians. The games depicted in the monuments are collected by Minutoli, in the Leipziger Illustrirte Zeitung, 1852. ]

Many sailors lay on the decks of the vessels, others on the shore; herein the thin shade of a palm tree, there in the full blaze of the sun, from those burning rays they protected themselves by spreading the cottoncloths, which served them for cloaks, over their faces. 

Between the sleepers passed bondmen and slaves, brown and black, in longfiles one behind the other, bending under the weight of heavy burdens, which had to be conveyed to their destination at the temples forsacrifice, or to the dealers in various wares. Builders dragged blocksof stone, which had come from the quarries of Chennu and Suan, [The Syene of the Greeks, non, called Assouan at the first cataract. ]

on sledges to the site of a new temple; laborers poured water under therunners, that the heavily loaded and dried wood should not take fire. 

All these working men were driven with sticks by their overseers, andsang at their labor; but the voices of the leaders sounded muffled andhoarse, though, when after their frugal meal they enjoyed an hour ofrepose, they might be heard loud enough. Their parched throats refusedto sing in the noontide of their labor. 

Thick clouds of gnats followed these tormented gangs, who with dull andspirit-broken endurance suffered alike the stings of the insects and theblows of their driver. The gnats pursued them to the very heart of theCity of the dead, where they joined themselves to the flies and wasps, which swarmed in countless crowds around the slaughter houses, cooks'shops, stalls of fried fish, and booths of meat, vegetable, honey, cakesand drinks, which were doing a brisk business in spite of the noontideheat and the oppressive atmosphere heated and filled with a mixture ofodors. 

The nearer one got to the Libyan frontier, the quieter it became, and thesilence of death reigned in the broad north-west valley, where in thesouthern slope the father of the reigning king had caused his tomb to behewn, and where the stone-mason of the Pharaoh had prepared a rock tombfor him. 

A newly made road led into this rocky gorge, whose steep yellow and brownwalls seemed scorched by the sun in many blackened spots, and looked likea ghostly array of shades that had risen from the tombs in the night andremained there. 

At the entrance of this valley some blocks of stone formed a sort ofdoorway, and through this, indifferent to the heat of day, a small butbrilliant troop of the men was passing. 

Four slender youths as staff bearers led the procession, each clothedonly with an apron and a flowing head-cloth of gold brocade; the mid-daysun played on their smooth, moist, red-brown skins, and their supplenaked feet hardly stirred the stones on the road. 

Behind them followed an elegant, two-wheeled chariot, with two prancingbrown horses bearing tufts of red and blue feathers on their noble heads, and seeming by the bearing of their arched necks and flowing tails toexpress their pride in the gorgeous housings, richly embroidered insilver, purple, and blue and golden ornaments, which they wore--and evenmore in their beautiful, royal charioteer, Bent-Anat, the daughter ofRameses, at whose lightest word they pricked their ears, and whose littlehand guided them with a scarcely perceptible touch. 

Two young men dressed like the other runners followed the chariot, andkept the rays of the sun off the face of their mistress with large fansof snow-white ostrich feathers fastened to long wands. 

By the side of Bent-Anat, so long as the road was wide enough to allowof it, was carried Nefert, the wife of Mena, in her gilt litter, borne byeight tawny bearers, who, running with a swift and equally measured step, did not remain far behind the trotting horses of the princess and herfan-bearers. 

Both the women, whom we now see for the first time in daylight, were ofremarkable but altogether different beauty. 

The wife of Mena had preserved the appearance of a maiden; her largealmond-shaped eyes had a dreamy surprised look out from under her longeyelashes, and her figure of hardly the middle-height had acquired alittle stoutness without losing its youthful grace. No drop of foreignblood flowed in her veins, as could be seen in the color of her skin, which was of that fresh and equal line which holds a medium betweengolden yellow and bronze brown--and which to this day is so charming inthe maidens of Abyssinia--in her straight nose, her well-formed brow, inher smooth but thick black hair, and in the fineness of her hands andfeet, which were ornamented with circles of gold. 

The maiden princess next to her had hardly reached her nineteenth year, and yet something of a womanly self-consciousness betrayed itself in herdemeanor. Her stature was by almost a head taller than that of herfriend, her skin was fairer, her blue eyes kind and frank, without tricksof glance, but clear and honest, her profile was noble but sharply cut, and resembled that of her father, as a landscape in the mild andsoftening light of the moon resembles the same landscape in the broadclear light of day. The scarcely perceptible aquiline of her nose, sheinherited from her Semitic ancestors, [Many portraits have come down to us of Rameses: the finest is the noble statue preserved at Turin. A likeness has been detected between its profile, with its slightly aquiline nose, and that of Napoleon I. ]

as well as the slightly waving abundance of her brown hair, over whichshe wore a blue and white striped silk kerchief; its carefully-pleatedfolds were held in place by a gold ring, from which in front a hornedurarus

 [A venomous Egyptian serpent which was adopted as the symbol of sovereign power, in consequence of its swift effects for life or death. It is never wanting to the diadem of the Pharaohs. ]

raised its head crowned with a disk of rubies. From her left temple alarge tress, plaited with gold thread, hung down to her waist, the signof her royal birth. She wore a purple dress of fine, almost transparentstuff, that was confined with a gold belt and straps. Round her throatwas fastened a necklace like a collar, made of pearls and costly stones, and hanging low down on her well-formed bosom. 

Behind the princess stood her charioteer, an old officer of noble birth. 

Three litters followed the chariot of the princess, and in each sat twoofficers of the court; then came a dozen of slaves ready for any service, and lastly a crowd of wand-bearers to drive off the idle populace, and oflightly-armed soldiers, who--dressed only in the apron and head-cloth--each bore a dagger-shaped sword in his girdle, an axe in his right hand, and in his left; in token of his peaceful service, a palm-branch. 

Like dolphins round a ship, little girls in long shirt-shaped garmentsswarmed round the whole length of the advancing procession, bearingwater-jars on their steady heads, and at a sign from any one who wasthirsty were ready to give him a drink. With steps as light as thegazelle they often outran the horses, and nothing could be more gracefulthan the action with which the taller ones bent over with the water-jarsheld in both arms to the drinker. 

The courtiers, cooled and shaded by waving fans, and hardly perceivingthe noontide heat, conversed at their ease about indifferent matters, andthe princess pitied the poor horses, who were tormented as they ran, byannoying gadflies; while the runners and soldiers, the litter-bearers andfan-bearers, the girls with their jars and the panting slaves, werecompelled to exert themselves under the rays of the mid-day sun in theservice of their masters, till their sinews threatened to crack and theirlungs to burst their bodies. 

At a spot where the road widened, and where, to the right, lay the steepcross-valley where the last kings of the dethroned race were interred, the procession stopped at a sign from Paaker, who preceded the princess, and who drove his fiery black Syrian horses with so heavy a hand that thebloody foam fell from their bits. 

When the Mohar had given the reins into the hand of a servant, he sprangfrom his chariot, and after the usual form of obeisance said to theprincess:

"In this valley lies the loathsome den of the people, to whom thou, Oprincess, dost deign to do such high honor. Permit me to go forward asguide to thy party. "

"We will go on foot, " said the princess, "and leave our followers behindhere, "

Paaker bowed, Bent-Anat threw the reins to her charioteer and sprang tothe ground, the wife of Mena and the courtiers left their litters, andthe fan-bearers and chamberlains were about to accompany their mistresson foot into the little valley, when she turned round and ordered, "Remain behind, all of you. Only Paaker and Nefert need go with me. "

The princess hastened forward into the gorge, which was oppressive withthe noon-tide heat; but she moderated her steps as soon as she observedthat the frailer Nefert found it difficult to follow her. 

At a bend in the road Paaker stood still, and with him Bent-Anat andNefert. Neither of them had spoken a word during their walk. The valleywas perfectly still and deserted; on the highest pinnacles of the cliff, which rose perpendicularly to the right, sat a long row of vultures, asmotionless as if the mid-day heat had taken all strength out of theirwings. 

Paaker bowed before them as being the sacred animals of the Great Goddessof Thebes, [She formed a triad with Anion and Chunsu under the name of Muth. The great "Sanctuary of the kingdom"--the temple of Karnak--was dedicated to them. ]

and the two women silently followed his example. 

"There, " said the Mohar, pointing to two huts close to the left cliff ofthe valley, built of bricks made of dried Nile-mud, "there, the neatest, next the cave in the rock. "

Bent-Anat went towards the solitary hovel with a beating heart; Paakerlet the ladies go first. A few steps brought them to an ill-constructedfence of canestalks, palm-branches, briars and straw, roughly throwntogether. A heart-rending cry of pain from within the hut trembled inthe air and arrested the steps of the two women. Nefert staggered andclung to her stronger companion, whose beating heart she seemed to hear. Both stood a few minutes as if spellbound, then the princess calledPaaker, and said:

"You go first into the house. "

Paaker bowed to the ground. 

"I will call the man out, " he said, "but how dare we step over histhreshold. Thou knowest such a proceeding will defile us. "

Nefert looked pleadingly at Bent-Anat, but the princess repeated hercommand. 

"Go before me; I have no fear of defilement. " The Mohar still hesitated. 

"Wilt thou provoke the Gods?--and defile thyself?" But the princess lethim say no more; she signed to Nefert, who raised her hands in horror andaversion; so, with a shrug of her shoulders, she left her companionbehind with the Mohar, and stepped through an opening in the hedge into alittle court, where lay two brown goats; a donkey with his forelegs tiedtogether stood by, and a few hens were scattering the dust about in avain search for food. 

Soon she stood, alone, before the door of the paraschites' hovel. No oneperceived her, but she could not take her eyes-accustomed only to scenesof order and splendor--from the gloomy but wonderfully strange picture, which riveted her attention and her sympathy. At last she went up to thedoorway, which was too low for her tall figure. Her heart shrunkpainfully within her, and she would have wished to grow smaller, and, instead of shining in splendor, to have found herself wrapped in abeggar's robe. 

Could she step into this hovel decked with gold and jewels as if inmockery?--like a tyrant who should feast at a groaning table and compelthe starving to look on at the banquet. Her delicate perception made herfeel what trenchant discord her appearance offered to all that surroundedher, and the discord pained her; for she could not conceal from herselfthat misery and external meanness were here entitled to give the key-noteand that her magnificence derived no especial grandeur from contrast withall these modest accessories, amid dust, gloom, and suffering, but ratherbecame disproportionate and hideous, like a giant among pigmies. 

She had already gone too far to turn back, or she would willingly havedone so. The longer she gazed into the but, the more deeply she felt theimpotence of her princely power, the nothingness of the splendid giftswith which she approached it, and that she might not tread the dustyfloor of this wretched hovel but in all humility, and to crave a pardon. 

The room into which she looked was low but not very small, and obtainedfrom two cross lights a strange and unequal illumination; on one side thelight came through the door, and on the other through an opening in thetime-worn ceiling of the room, which had never before harbored so manyand such different guests. 

All attention was concentrated on a group, which was clearly lighted upfrom the doorway. 

On the dusty floor of the room cowered an old woman, with dark weather-beaten features and tangled hair that had long been grey. Her black-bluecotton shirt was open over her withered bosom, and showed a blue startattooed upon it. 

In her lap she supported with her hands the head of a girl, whose slenderbody lay motionless on a narrow, ragged mat. The little white feet ofthe sick girl almost touched the threshold. Near to them squatted abenevolent-looking old man, who wore only a coarse apron, and sitting allin a heap, bent forward now and then, rubbing the child's feet with hislean hands and muttering a few words to himself. 

The sufferer wore nothing but a short petticoat of coarse light-bluestuff. Her face, half resting on the lap of the old woman, was gracefuland regular in form, her eyes were half shut-like those of a child, whosesoul is wrapped in some sweet dream-but from her finely chiselled lipsthere escaped from time to time a painful, almost convulsive sob. 

An abundance of soft, but disordered reddish fair hair, in which clung afew withered flowers, fell over the lap of the old woman and on to themat where she lay. Her cheeks were white and rosy-red, and when theyoung surgeon Nebsecht--who sat by her side, near his blind, stupidcompanion, the litany-singer--lifted the ragged cloth that had beenthrown over her bosom, which had been crushed by the chariot wheel, orwhen she lifted her slender arm, it was seen that she had the shiningfairness of those daughters of the north who not unfrequently came toThebes among the king's prisoners of war. 

The two physicians sent hither from the House of Seti sat on the leftside of the maiden on a little carpet. From time to time one or theother laid his hand over the heart of the sufferer, or listened to herbreathing, or opened his case of medicaments, and moistened the compresson her wounded breast with a white ointment. 

In a wide circle close to the wall of the room crouched several women, young and old, friends of the paraschites, who from time to time gaveexpression to their deep sympathy by a piercing cry of lamentation. Oneof them rose at regular intervals to fill the earthen bowl by the side ofthe physician with fresh water. As often as the sudden coolness of afresh compress on her hot bosom startled the sick girl, she opened hereyes, but always soon to close them again for longer interval, and turnedthem at first in surprise, and then with gentle reverence, towards aparticular spot. 

These glances had hitherto been unobserved by him to whom they weredirected. 

Leaning against the wall on the right hand side of the room, dressed inhis long, snow-white priest's robe, Pentaur stood awaiting the princess. His head-dress touched the ceiling, and the narrow streak of light, whichfell through the opening in the roof, streamed on his handsome head andhis breast, while all around him was veiled in twilight gloom. 

Once more the suffering girl looked up, and her glance this time met theeye of the young priest, who immediately raised his hand, and half-mechanically, in a low voice, uttered the words of blessing; and thenonce more fixed his gaze on the dingy floor, and pursued his ownreflections. 

Some hours since he had come hither, obedient to the orders of Ameni, to impress on the princess that she had defiled herself by touching aparaschites, and could only be cleansed again by the hand of the priests. 

He had crossed the threshold of the paraschites most reluctantly, and thethought that he, of all men, had been selected to censure a deed of thenoblest humanity, and to bring her who had done it to judgment, weighedupon him as a calamity. 

In his intercourse with his friend Nebsecht, Pentaur had thrown off manyfetters, and given place to many thoughts that his master would have heldsinful and presumptuous; but at the same time he acknowledged thesanctity of the old institutions, which were upheld by those whom lie hadlearned to regard as the divinely-appointed guardians of the spiritualpossessions of God's people; nor was he wholly free from the pride ofcaste and the haughtiness which, with prudent intent, were inculcated inthe priests. He held the common man, who put forth his strength to win amaintenance for his belongings by honest bodily labor--the merchant--theartizan--the peasant, nay even the warrior, as far beneath the godlybrotherhood who strove for only spiritual ends; and most of all hescorned the idler, given up to sensual enjoyments. 

He held him unclean who had been branded by the law; and how should ithave been otherwise? These people, who at the embalming of the deadopened the body of the deceased, had become despised for their office ofmutilating the sacred temple of the soul; but no paraschites chose hiscalling of his own free will. --[Diodorus I, 91]--It was handed down fromfather to son, and he who was born a paraschites--so he was taught--hadto expiate an old guilt with which his soul had long ago burdened itselfin a former existence, within another body, and which had deprived it ofabsolution in the nether world. It had passed through various animalforms, and now began a new human course in the body of a paraschites, once more to stand after death in the presence of the judges of theunder-world. 

Pentaur had crossed the threshold of the man he despised with aversion;the man himself, sitting at the feet of the suffering girl, had exclaimedas he saw the priest approaching the hovel:

"Yet another white robe! Does misfortune cleanse the unclean?"

Pentaur had not answered the old man, who on his part took no furthernotice of him, while he rubbed the girl's feet by order of the leech; andhis hands impelled by tender anxiety untiringly continued the samemovement, as the water-wheel in the Nile keeps up without intermissionits steady motion in the stream. 

"Does misfortune cleanse the unclean?" Pentaur asked himself. "Does itindeed possess a purifying efficacy, and is it possible that the Gods, who gave to fire the power of refining metals and to the winds power tosweep the clouds from the sky, should desire that a man--made in theirown image--that a man should be tainted from his birth to his death withan indelible stain?"

He looked at the face of the paraschites, and it seemed to him toresemble that of his father. 

This startled him!

And when he noticed how the woman, in whose lap the girl's head wasresting, bent over the injured bosom of the child to catch her breathing, which she feared had come to a stand-still--with the anguish of a dovethat is struck down by a hawk--he remembered a moment in his ownchildhood, when he had lain trembling with fever on his little bed. What then had happened to him, or had gone on around him, he had longforgotten, but one image was deeply imprinted on his soul, that of theface of his mother bending over him in deadly anguish, but who had gazedon her sick boy not more tenderly, or more anxiously, than this despisedwoman on her suffering child. 

"There is only one utterly unselfish, utterly pure and utterly divinelove, " said he to himself, "and that is the love of Isis for Horus--thelove of a mother for her child. If these people were indeed so foul asto defile every thing they touch, how would this pure, this tender, holyimpulse show itself even in them in all its beauty and perfection?"

"Still, " he continued, "the Celestials have implanted maternal love inthe breast of the lioness, of the typhonic river-horse of the Nile. "

He looked compassionately at the wife of the paraschites. 

He saw her dark face as she turned it away from the sick girl. She hadfelt her breathe, and a smile of happiness lighted up her old features;she nodded first to the surgeon, and then with a deep sigh of relief toher husband, who, while he did not cease the movement of his left hand, held up his right hand in prayer to heaven, and his wife did the same. 

It seemed to Pentaur that he could see the souls of these two, floatingabove the youthful creature in holy union as they joined their hands; andagain he thought of his parents' house, of the hour when his sweet, onlysister died. His mother had thrown herself weeping on the pale form, buthis father had stamped his foot and had thrown back his head, sobbing andstriking his forehead with his fist. 

"How piously submissive and thankful are these unclean ones!" thoughtPentaur; and repugnance for the old laws began to take root in his heart. "Maternal love may exist in the hyaena, but to seek and find God pertainsonly to man, who has a noble aim. Up to the limits of eternity--and Godis eternal!--thought is denied to animals; they cannot even smile. Evenmen cannot smile at first, for only physical life--an animal soul--dwellsin them; but soon a share of the world's soul--beaming intelligence--works within them, and first shows itself in the smile of a child, whichis as pure as the light and the truth from which it comes. The child ofthe paraschites smiles like any other creature born of woman, but how fewaged men there are, even among the initiated, who can smile as innocentlyand brightly as this woman who has grown grey under open ill-treatment. "

Deep sympathy began to fill his heart, and he knelt down by the side ofthe poor child, raised her arm, and prayed fervently to that One who hadcreated the heavens and who rules the world--to that One, whom themysteries of faith forbade him to name; and not to the innumerable gods, whom the people worshipped, and who to him were nothing but incarnationsof the attributes of the One and only God of the initiated--of whom hewas one--who was thus brought down to the comprehension of the laity. 

He raised his soul to God in passionate emotion; but he prayed, not forthe child before him and for her recovery, but rather for the wholedespised race, and for its release from the old ban, for theenlightenment of his own soul, imprisoned in doubts, and forstrength to fulfil his hard task with discretion. 

The gaze of the sufferer followed him as he took up his former position. 

The prayer had refreshed his soul and restored him to cheerfulness ofspirit. He began to reflect what conduct he must observe towards theprincess. 

He had not met Bent-Anat for the first time yesterday; on the contrary, he had frequently seen her in holiday processions, and at the highfestivals in the Necropolis, and like all his young companions hadadmired her proud beauty--admired it as the distant light of the stars, or the evening-glow on the horizon. 

Now he must approach this lady with words of reproof. 

He pictured to himself the moment when he must advance to meet her, andcould not help thinking of his little tutor Chufu, above whom he toweredby two heads while he was still a boy, and who used to call up hisadmonitions to him from below. It was true, he himself was tall andslim, but he felt as if to-day he were to play the part towards Bent-Anatof the much-laughed-at little tutor. 

His sense of the comic was touched, and asserted itself at this seriousmoment, and with such melancholy surroundings. Life is rich incontrasts, and a susceptible and highly-strung human soul would breakdown like a bridge under the measured tread of soldiers, if it wereallowed to let the burden of the heaviest thoughts and strongest feelingswork upon it in undisturbed monotony; but just as in music every key-notehas its harmonies, so when we cause one chord of our heart to vibrate forlong, all sorts of strange notes respond and clang, often those which weleast expect. 

Pentaur's glance flew round the one low, over-filled room of theparaschites' hut, and like a lightning flash the thought, "How will theprincess and her train find room here?" flew through his mind. 

His fancy was lively, and vividly brought before him how the daughter ofthe Pharaoh with a crown on her proud head would bustle into the silentchamber, how the chattering courtiers would follow her, and how the womenby the walls, the physicians by the side of the sick girl, the sleekwhite cat from the chest where she sat, would rise and throng round her. There must be frightful confusion. Then he imagined how the smart lordsand ladies would keep themselves far from the unclean, hold their slenderhands over their mouths and noses, and suggest to the old folks how theyought to behave to the princess who condescended to bless them with herpresence. The old woman must lay down the head that rested in her bosom, the paraschites must drop the feet he so anxiously rubbed, on the floor, to rise and kiss the dust before Bent-Anat. Whereupon--the "mind's eye"of the young priest seemed to see it all--the courtiers fled before him, pushing each other, and all crowded together into a corner, and at lastthe princess threw a few silver or gold rings into the laps of the fatherand mother, and perhaps to the girl too, and he seemed to hear thecourtiers all cry out: "Hail to the gracious daughter of the Sun!"--tohear the joyful exclamations of the crowd of women--to see the gorgeousapparition leave the hut of the despised people, and then to see, insteadof the lovely sick child who still breathed audibly, a silent corpse onthe crumpled mat, and in the place of the two tender nurses at her headand feet, two heart-broken, loud-lamenting wretches. 

Pentaur's hot spirit was full of wrath. As soon as the noisy cortegeappeared actually in sight he would place himself in the doorway, forbidthe princess to enter, and receive her with strong words. 

She could hardly come hither out of human kindness. 

"She wants variety, " said he to himself, "something new at Court; forthere is little going on there now the king tarries with the troops in adistant country; it tickles the vanity of the great to find themselvesonce in a while in contact with the small, and it is well to have yourgoodness of heart spoken of by the people. If a little misfortuneopportunely happens, it is not worth the trouble to inquire whether theform of our benevolence does more good or mischief to such wretchedpeople. "

He ground his teeth angrily, and thought no more of the defilement whichmight threaten Bent-Anat from the paraschites, but exclusively, on thecontrary, of the impending desecration by the princess of the holyfeelings astir in this silent room. 

Excited as he was to fanaticism, his condemning lips could not fail tofind vigorous and impressive words. 

He stood drawn to his full height and drawing his breath deeply, like aspirit of light who holds his weapon raised to annihilate a demon ofdarkness, and he looked out into the valley to perceive from afar the cryof the runners and the rattle of the wheels of the gay train he expected. 

And he saw the doorway darkened by a lowly, bending figure, who, withfolded arms, glided into the room and sank down silently by the side ofthe sick girl. The physicians and the old people moved as if to rise;but she signed to them without opening her lips, and with moist, expressive eyes, to keep their places; she looked long and lovingly inthe face of the wounded girl, stroked her white arm, and turning to theold woman softly whispered to her

"How pretty she is!"

The paraschites' wife nodded assent, and the girl smiled and moved herlips as though she had caught the words and wished to speak. 

Bent-Anat took a rose from her hair and laid it on her bosom. 

The paraschites, who had not taken his hands from the feet of the sickchild, but who had followed every movement of the princess, nowwhispered, "May Hathor requite thee, who gave thee thy beauty. "

The princess turned to him and said, "Forgive the sorrow, I have causedyou. "

The old man stood up, letting the feet of the sick girl fall, and askedin a clear loud voice:

"Art thou Bent-Anat?"

"Yes, I am, " replied the princess, bowing her head low, and in so gentlea voice, that it seemed as though she were ashamed of her proud name. 

The eyes of the old man flashed. Then he said softly but decisively:

"Leave my hut then, it will defile thee. "

"Not till you have forgiven me for that which I did unintentionally. "

"Unintentionally! I believe thee, " replied the paraschites. "The hoofsof thy horse became unclean when they trod on this white breast. Lookhere--" and he lifted the cloth from the girl's bosom, and showed her thedeep red wound, "Look here--here is the first rose you laid on mygrandchild's bosom, and the second--there it goes. "

The paraschites raised his arm to fling the flower through the door ofhis hut. But Pentaur had approached him, and with a grasp of iron heldthe old man's hand. 

"Stay, " he cried in an eager tone, moderated however for the sake of thesick girl. "The third rose, which this noble hand has offered you, yoursick heart and silly head have not even perceived. And yet you must knowit if only from your need, your longing for it. The fair blossom of purebenevolence is laid on your child's heart, and at your very feet, by thisproud princess. Not with gold, but with humility. And whoever thedaughter of Rameses approaches as her equal, bows before her, even if hewere the first prince in the Land of Egypt. Indeed, the Gods shall notforget this deed of Bent-Anat. And you--forgive, if you desire to beforgiven that guilt, which you bear as an inheritance from your fathers, and for your own sins. "

The paraschites bowed his head at these words, and when he raised it theanger had vanished from his well-cut features. He rubbed his wrist, which had been squeezed by Pentaur's iron fingers, and said in a tonewhich betrayed all the bitterness of his feelings:

"Thy hand is hard, Priest, and thy words hit like the strokes of ahammer. This fair lady is good and loving, and I know; that she did notdrive her horse intentionally over this poor girl, who is my grandchildand not my daughter. If she were thy wife or the wife of the leechthere, or the child of the poor woman yonder, who supports life bycollecting the feet and feathers of the fowls that are slaughtered forsacrifice, I would not only forgive her, but console her for having madeherself like to me; fate would have made her a murderess without anyfault of her own, just as it stamped me as unclean while I was still atmy mother's breast. Aye--I would comfort her; and yet I am not verysensitive. Ye holy three of Thebes!--[The triad of Thebes: Anion, Muthand Chunsu. ]--how should I be? Great and small get out of my way that Imay not touch them, and every day when I have done what it is my businessto do they throw stones at me. 

 [The paraschites, with an Ethiopian knife, cuts the flesh of the corpse as deeply as the law requires: but instantly takes to flight, while the relatives of the deceased pursue him with stones, and curses, as if they wished to throw the blame on him. ]

"The fulfilment of duty--which brings a living to other men, which makestheir happiness, and at the same time earns them honor, brings me everyday fresh disgrace and painful sores. But I complain to no man, and mustforgive--forgive--forgive, till at last all that men do to me seems quitenatural and unavoidable, and I take it all like the scorching of the sunin summer, and the dust that the west wind blows into my face. It doesnot make me happy, but what can I do? I forgive all--"

The voice of the paraschites had softened, and Bent-Anat, who looked downon him with emotion, interrupted him, exclaiming with deep feeling:

"And so you will forgive me?--poor man!"

The old man looked steadily, not at her, but at Pentaur, while hereplied: "Poor man! aye, truly, poor man. You have driven me out of theworld in which you live, and so I made a world for myself in this hut. I do not belong to you, and if I forget it, you drive me out as anintruder--nay as a wolf, who breaks into your fold; but you belong justas little to me, only when you play the wolf and fall upon me, I mustbear it!"

"The princess came to your hut as a suppliant, and with the wish of doingyou some good, " said Pentaur. 

"May the avenging Gods reckon it to her, when they visit on her thecrimes of her father against me! Perhaps it may bring me to prison, butit must come out. Seven sons were mine, and Rameses took them all fromme and sent them to death; the child of the youngest, this girl, thelight of my eyes, his daughter has brought to her death. Three of myboys the king left to die of thirst by the Tenat, [Literally the "cutting" which, under Seti I. , the father of Rameses, was the first Suez Canal; a representation of it is found on the northern outer wall of the temple of Karnak. It followed nearly the same direction as the Fresh-water canal of Lesseps, and fertilized the land of Goshen. ]

which is to join the Nile to the Red Sea, three were killed by theEthiopians, and the last, the star of my hopes, by this time is eaten bythe hyaenas of the north. "

At these words the old woman, in whose lap the head of the girl rested, broke out into a loud cry, in which she was joined by all the otherwomen. 

The sufferer started up frightened, and opened her eyes. 

"For whom are you wailing?" she asked feebly. "For your poor father, "said the old woman. 

The girl smiled like a child who detects some well-meant deceit, and said:

"Was not my father here, with you? He is here, in Thebes, and looked atme, and kissed me, and said that he is bringing home plunder, and that agood time is coming for you. The gold ring that he gave me I wasfastening into my dress, when the chariot passed over me. I was justpulling the knots, when all grew black before my eyes, and I saw andheard nothing more. Undo it, grandmother, the ring is for you; I meantto bring it to you. You must buy a beast for sacrifice with it, and winefor grandfather, and eye salve

 [The Egyptian mestem, that is stibium or antimony, which was introduced into Egypt by the Asiatics at a very early period and universally used. ]

for yourself, and sticks of mastic, [At the present day the Egyptian women are fond of chewing them, on account of their pleasant taste. The ancient Egyptians used various pills. Receipts for such things are found in the Ebers Papyrus. ]

which you have so long lead to do without. "

The paraschites seemed to drink these words from the mouth of hisgrandchild. Again he lifted his hand in prayer, again Pentaur observedthat his glance met that of his wife, and a large, warm tear fell fromhis old eyes on to his callous hand. Then he sank down, for he thoughtthe sick child was deluded by a dream. But there were the knots in herdress. 

With a trembling hand he untied them, and a gold ring rolled out on thefloor. 

Bent-Anat picked it up, and gave it to the paraschites. "I came here ina lucky hour, " she said, "for you have recovered your son and your childwill live. "

"She will live, " repeated the surgeon, who had remained a silent witnessof all that had occurred. 

"She will stay with us, " murmured the old man, and then said, as heapproached the princess on his knees, and looked up at her beseechinglywith tearful eyes:

"Pardon me as I pardon thee; and if a pious wish may not turn to a cursefrom the lips of the unclean, let me bless thee. "

"I thank you, " said Bent-Anat, towards whom the old man raised his handin blessing. 

Then she turned to Nebsecht, and ordered him to take anxious care of thesick girl; she bent over her, kissed her forehead, laid her gold braceletby her side, and signing to Pentaur left the hut with him. 

CHAPTER VI. 

During the occurrence we have described, the king's pioneer and the youngwife of Mena were obliged to wait for the princess. 

The sun stood in the meridian, when Bent-Anat had gone into the hovel ofthe paraschites. 

The bare limestone rocks on each side of the valley and the sandy soilbetween, shone with a vivid whiteness that hurt the eyes; not a hand'sbreadth of shade was anywhere to be seen, and the fan-beaters of the two, who were waiting there, had, by command of the princess, staid behindwith the chariot and litters. 

For a time they stood silently near each other, then the fair Nefertsaid, wearily closing her almond-shaped eyes:

"How long Bent-Anat stays in the but of the unclean! I am perishinghere. What shall we do?"

"Stay!" said Paaker, turning his back on the lady; and mounting a blockof stone by the side of the gorge, he cast a practised glance all round, and returned to Nefert: "I have found a shady spot, " he said, "outthere. "

Mena's wife followed with her eyes the indication of his hand, and shookher head. The gold ornaments on her head-dress rattled gently as she didso, and a cold shiver passed over her slim body in spite of the middayheat. 

"Sechet is raging in the sky, " said Paaker. 

 [A goddess with the head of a lioness or a cat, over which the Sun- disk is usually found. She was the daughter of Ra, and in the form of the Uraeus on her father's crown personified the murderous heat of the star of day. She incites man to the hot and wild passion of love, and as a cat or lioness tears burning wounds in the limbs of the guilty in the nether world; drunkenness and pleasure are her gifts She was also named Bast and Astarte after her sister-divinity among the Phoenicians. ]

"Let us avail ourselves of the shady spot, small though it be. At thishour of the day many are struck with sickness. "

"I know it, " said Nefert, covering her neck with her hand. Then she wenttowards two blocks of stone which leaned against each other, and betweenthem afforded the spot of shade, not many feet wide, which Paaker hadpointed out as a shelter from the sun. Paaker preceded her, and rolled aflat piece of limestone, inlaid by nature with nodules of flint, underthe stone pavilion, crushed a few scorpions which had taken refuge there, spread his head-cloth over the hard seat, and said, "Here you aresheltered. "

Nefert sank down on the stone and watched the Mohar, who slowly andsilently paced backwards and forward in front of her. This incessant toand fro of her companion at last became unendurable to her sensitive andirritated nerves, and suddenly raising her head from her hand, on whichshe had rested it, she exclaimed

"Pray stand still. "

The pioneer obeyed instantly, and looked, as he stood with his back toher, towards the hovel of the paraschites. 

After a short time Nefert said, "Say something to me!"

The Mohar turned his full face towards her, and she was frightened at thewild fire that glowed in the glance with which he gazed at her. 

Nefert's eyes fell, and Paaker, saying:

"I would rather remain silent, " recommenced his walk, till Nefert calledto him again and said, "I know you are angry with me; but I was but a child when I was betrothedto you. I liked you too, and when in our games your mother called meyour little wife, I was really glad, and used to think how fine it wouldbe when I might call all your possessions mine, the house you would haveso splendidly restored for me after your father's death, the noblegardens, the fine horses in their stables, and all the male and femaleslaves!"

Paaker laughed, but the laugh sounded so forced and scornful that it cutNefert to the heart, and she went on, as if begging for indulgence:

"It was said that you were angry with us; and now you will take my wordsas if I had cared only for your wealth; but I said, I liked you. Do youno longer remember how I cried with you over your tales of the bad boysin the school; and over your father's severity? Then my uncle died;--then you went to Asia. "

And you, " interrupted Paaker, hardly and drily, "you broke yourbethrothal vows, and became the wife of the charioteer Mena. I know itall; of what use is talking?"

"Because it grieves me that you should be angry, and your good motheravoid our house. If only you could know what it is when love seizes one, and one can no longer even think alone, but only near, and with, and inthe very arms of another; when one's beating heart throbs in one's verytemples, and even in one's dreams one sees nothing--but one only. "

"And do I not know it?" cried Paaker, placing himself close before herwith his arms crossed. "Do I not know it? and you it was who taught meto know it. When I thought of you, not blood, but burning fire, coursedin my veins, and now you have filled them with poison; and here in thisbreast, in which your image dwelt, as lovely as that of Hathor in herholy of holies, all is like that sea in Syria which is called the DeadSea, in which every thing that tries to live presently dies andperishes. "

Paaker's eyes rolled as he spoke, and his voice sounded hoarsely as hewent on. 

"But Mena was near to the king--nearer than I, and your mother--"

"My mother!"--Nefert interrupted the angry Mohar. "My mother did notchoose my husband. I saw him driving the chariot, and to me he resembledthe Sun God, and he observed me, and looked at me, and his glance pierceddeep into my heart like a spear; and when, at the festival of the king'sbirthday, he spoke to me, it was just as if Hathor had thrown round mea web of sweet, sounding sunbeams. And it was the same with Mena; hehimself has told me so since I have been his wife. For your sake mymother rejected his suit, but I grew pale and dull with longing for him, and he lost his bright spirit, and was so melancholy that the kingremarked it, and asked what weighed on his heart--for Rameses loves himas his own son. Then Mena confessed to the Pharaoh that it was love thatdimmed his eye and weakened his strong hand; and then the king himselfcourted me for his faithful servant, and my mother gave way, and we weremade man and wife, and all the joys of the justified in the fields ofAalu

 [The fields of the blest, which were opened to glorified souls. In the Book of the Dead it is shown that in them men linger, and sow and reap by cool waters. ]

are shallow and feeble by the side of the bliss which we two have known--not like mortal men, but like the celestial gods. "

Up to this point Nefert had fixed her large eyes on the sky, like aglorified soul; but now her gaze fell, and she said softly--

"But the Cheta

 [An Aramaean race, according to Schrader's excellent judgment. At the time of our story the peoples of western Asia had allied themselves to them. ]

disturbed our happiness, for the king took Mena with him to the war. Fifteen times did the moon, rise upon our happiness, and then--"

"And then the Gods heard my prayer, and accepted my offerings, " saidPaaker, with a trembling voice, "and tore the robber of my joys from you, and scorched your heart and his with desire. Do you think you can tellme anything I do not know? Once again for fifteen days was Mena yours, and now he has not returned again from the war which is raging hotly inAsia. "

"But he will return, " cried the young wife. 

"Or possibly not, " laughed Paaker. "The Cheta, carry sharp weapons, andthere are many vultures in Lebanon, who perhaps at this hour are tearinghis flesh as he tore my heart. "

Nefert rose at these words, her sensitive spirit bruised as with stonesthrown by a brutal hand, and attempted to leave her shady refuge tofollow the princess into the house of the parascllites; but her feetrefused to bear her, and she sank back trembling on her stone seat. Shetried to find words, but her tongue was powerless. Her powers ofresistance forsook her in her unutterable and soul-felt distress--heart-wrung, forsaken and provoked. 

A variety of painful sensations raised a hot vehement storm in her bosom, which checked her breath, and at last found relief in a passionate andconvulsive weeping that shook her whole body. She saw nothing more, sheheard nothing more, she only shed tears and felt herself miserable. 

Paaker stood over her in silence. 

There are trees in the tropics, on which white blossoms hang close by thewithered fruit, there are days when the pale moon shows itself near theclear bright sun;--and it is given to the soul of man to feel love andhatred, both at the same time, and to direct both to the same end. 

Nefert's tears fell as dew, her sobs as manna on the soul of Paaker, which hungered and thirsted for revenge. Her pain was joy to him, andyet the sight of her beauty filled him with passion, his gaze lingeredspell-bound on her graceful form; he would have given all the bliss ofheaven once, only once, to hold her in his arms--once, only once, to heara word of love from her lips. 

After some minutes Nefert's tears grew less violent. With a weary, almost indifferent gaze she looked at the Mohar, still standing beforeher, and said in a soft tone of entreaty:

'My tongue is parched, fetch me a little water. "

"The princess may come out at any moment, " replied Paaker. 

"But I am fainting, " said Nefert, and began again to cry gently. 

Paaker shrugged his shoulders, and went farther into the valley, which heknew as well as his father's house; for in it was the tomb of hismother's ancestors, in which, as a boy, he had put up prayers at everyfull and new moon, and laid gifts on the altar. 

The hut of the paraschites was prohibited to him, but he knew thatscarcely a hundred paces from the spot where Nefert was sitting, lived anold woman of evil repute, in whose hole in the rock he could not fail tofind a drink of water. 

He hastened forward, half intoxicated with had seen and felt within thelast few minutes. 

The door, which at night closed the cave against the intrusions of theplunder-seeking jackals, was wide open, and the old woman sat outsideunder a ragged piece of brown sail-cloth, fastened at one end to the rockand at the other to two posts of rough wood. She was sorting a heap ofdark and light-colored roots, which lay in her lap. Near her was awheel, which turned in a high wooden fork. A wryneck made fast to it bya little chain, and by springing from spoke to spoke kept it in continualmotion. --[From Theocritus' idyl: The Sorceress. ]--A large black catcrouched beside her, and smelt at some ravens' and owls' heads, fromwhich the eyes had not long since been extracted. 

Two sparrow-hawks sat huddled up over the door of the cave, out of whichcame the sharp odor of burning juniper-berries; this was intended torender the various emanations rising from the different strangesubstances, which were collected and preserved there, innocuous. 

As Paaker approached the cavern the old woman called out to some onewithin:

"Is the wax cooking?"

An unintelligible murmur was heard in answer. 

Then throw in the ape's eyes, [The sentences and mediums employed by the witches, according to papyrus-rolls which remain. I have availed myself of the Magic papyrus of Harris, and of two in the Berlin collection, one of which is in Greek. ]

and the ibis feathers, and the scraps of linen with the black signs onthem. Stir it all a little; now put out the fire, "Take the jug and fetch some water--make haste, here comes a stranger. "

A sooty-black negro woman, with a piece of torn colorless stuff hanginground her hips, set a large clay-jar on her grey woolly matted hair, andwithout looking at him, went past Paaker, who was now close to the cave. 

The old woman, a tall figure bent with years, with a sharply-cut andwrinkled face, that might once have been handsome, made her preparationsfor receiving the visitor by tying a gaudy kerchief over her head, fastening her blue cotton garment round her throat, and flinging a fibremat over the birds' heads. 

Paaker called out to her, but she feigned to be deaf and not to hear hisvoice. Only when he stood quite close to her, did she raise her shrewd, twinkling eyes, and cry out:

"A lucky day! a white day that brings a noble guest and high honor. "

"Get up, " commanded Paaker, not giving her any greeting, but throwing asilver ring among the roots that lay in her lap, [The Egyptians had no coins before Alexander and the Ptolemies, but used metals for exchange, usually in the form of rings. ]

"and give me in exchange for good money some water in a clean vessel. "

"Fine pure silver, " said the old woman, while she held the ring, whichshe had quickly picked out from the roots, close to her eyes; "it is toomuch for mere water, and too little for my good liquors. "

"Don't chatter, hussy, but make haste, " cried Paaker, taking another ringfrom his money-bag and throwing it into her lap. 

"Thou hast an open hand, " said the old woman, speaking in the dialect ofthe upper classes; "many doors must be open to thee, for money is a pass-key that turns any lock. Would'st thou have water for thy good money?Shall it protect thee against noxious beasts?--shall it help thee toreach down a star? Shall it guide thee to secret paths?--It is thy dutyto lead the way. Shall it make heat cold, or cold warm? Shall it givethee the power of reading hearts, or shall it beget beautiful dreams?Wilt thou drink of the water of knowledge and see whether thy friend orthine enemy--ha! if thine enemy shall die? Would'st thou a drink tostrengthen thy memory? Shall the water make thee invisible? or removethe 6th toe from thy left foot?"

"You know me?" asked Paaker. 

"How should I?" said the old woman, "but my eyes are sharp, and I canprepare good waters for great and small. "

"Mere babble!" exclaimed Paaker, impatiently clutching at the whip inhis girdle; "make haste, for the lady for whom--"

"Dost thou want the water for a lady?" interrupted the old woman. "Whowould have thought it?--old men certainly ask for my philters muchoftener than young ones--but I can serve thee. "

With these words the old woman went into the cave, and soon returned witha thin cylindrical flask of alabaster in her hand. 

"This is the drink, " she said, giving the phial to Paaker. "Pour halfinto water, and offer it to the lady. If it does not succeed at first, it is certain the second time. A child may drink the water and it willnot hurt him, or if an old man takes it, it makes him gay. Ah, I knowthe taste of it!" and she moistened her lips with the white fluid. "It can hurt no one, but I will take no more of it, or old Hekt will betormented with love and longing for thee; and that would ill please therich young lord, ha! ha! If the drink is in vain I am paid enough, if ittakes effect thou shalt bring me three more gold rings; and thou wiltreturn, I know it well. "

Paaker had listened motionless to the old woman, and siezed the flaskeagerly, as if bidding defiance to some adversary; he put it in his moneybag, threw a few more rings at the feet of the witch, and once morehastily demanded a bowl of Nile-water. 

"Is my lord in such a hurry?" muttered the old woman, once more goinginto the cave. "He asks if I know him? him certainly I do? but thedarling? who can it be hereabouts? perhaps little Uarda at theparaschites yonder. She is pretty enough; but she is lying on a mat, runover and dying. We must see what my lord means. He would have pleasedme well enough, if I were young; but he will reach the goal, for he isresolute and spares no one. "

While she muttered these and similar words, she filled a graceful cup ofglazed earthenware with filtered Nile-water, which she poured out of alarge porous clay jar, and laid a laurel leaf, on which was scratched twohearts linked together by seven strokes, on the surface of the limpidfluid. Then she stepped out into the air again. 

As Paaker took the vessel from her looked at the laurel leaf, she said:

"This indeed binds hearts; three is the husband, four is the wife, sevenis the chachach, charcharachacha. "--[This jargon is fund in a magic-papyrus at Berlin. ]

The old woman sang this spell not without skill; but the Mohar appearednot to listen to her jargon. He descended carefully into the valley, anddirected his steps to the resting place of the wife of Mena. 

By the side of a rock, which hill him from Nefert, he paused, set the cupon a flat block of stone, and drew the flask with the philter out of hisgirdle. 

His fingers trembled, but a thousand voices seemed to surge up and cry:

"Take it!--do it!--put in the drink!--now or never. " He felt like asolitary traveller, who finds on his road the last will of a relationwhose possessions he had hoped for, but which disinherits him. Shall hesurrender it to the judge, or shall he destroy it. 

Paaker was not merely outwardly devout; hitherto he had in everythingintended to act according to the prescriptions of the religion of hisfathers. Adultery was a heavy sin; but had not he an older right toNefert than the king's charioteer?

He who followed the black arts of magic, should, according to the law, bepunished by death, and the old woman had a bad name for her evil arts;but he had not sought her for the sake of the philter. Was it notpossible that the Manes of his forefathers, that the Gods themselves, moved by his prayers and offerings, had put him in possession by anaccident--which was almost a miracle--of the magic potion efficacy henever for an instant doubted?

Paaker's associates held him to be a man of quick decision, and, in fact, in difficult cases he could act with unusual rapidity, but what guidedhim in these cases, was not the swift-winged judgment of a prepared andwell-schooled brain, but usually only resulted from the outcome of a playof question and answer. 

Amulets of the most various kinds hung round his neck, and from hisgirdle, all consecrated by priests, and of special sanctity or thehighest efficacy. 

There was the lapis lazuli eye, which hung to his girdle by a gold chain;When he threw it on the ground, so as to lie on the earth, if itsengraved side turned to heaven, and its smooth side lay on the ground, hesaid "yes;" in the other case, on the contrary, "no. " In his purse layalways a statuette of the god Apheru, who opened roads; this he threwdown at cross-roads, and followed the direction which the pointed snoutof the image indicated. He frequently called into council the seal-ringof his deceased father, an old family possession, which the chief priestsof Abydos had laid upon the holiest of the fourteen graves of Osiris, andendowed with miraculous power. It consisted of a gold ring with a broadsignet, on which could be read the name of Thotmes III. , who had longsince been deified, and from whom Paaker's ancestors had derived it. Ifit were desirable to consult the ring, the Mohar touched with the pointof his bronze dagger the engraved sign of the name, below which wererepresented three objects sacred to the Gods, and three that were, on thecontrary, profane. If he hit one of the former, he concluded that hisfather--who was gone to Osiris--concurred in his design; in the contrarycase he was careful to postpone it. Often he pressed the ring to hisheart, and awaited the first living creature that he might meet, regarding it as a messenger from his father;--if it came to him fromthe right hand as an encouragement, if from the left as a warning. 

By degrees he had reduced these questionings to a system. All that hefound in nature he referred to himself and the current of his life. Itwas at once touching, and pitiful, to see how closely he lived with theManes of his dead. His lively, but not exalted fancy, wherever he gaveit play, presented to the eye of his soul the image of his father and ofan elder brother who had died early, always in the same spot, and almosttangibly distinct. 

But he never conjured up the remembrance of the beloved dead in order tothink of them in silent melancholy--that sweet blossom of the thornywreath of sorrow; only for selfish ends. The appeal to the Manes of hisfather he had found especially efficacious in certain desires anddifficulties; calling on the Manes of his brother was potent in certainothers; and so he turned from one to the other with the precision of acarpenter, who rarely doubts whether he should give the preference to ahatchet or a saw. 

These doings he held to be well pleasing to the Gods, and as he wasconvinced that the spirits of his dead had, after their justification, passed into Osiris that is to say, as atoms forming part of the greatworld-soul, at this time had a share in the direction of the universe--he sacrificed to them not only in the family catacomb, but also in thetemples of the Necropolis dedicated to the worship of ancestors, and withspecial preference in the House of Seti. 

He accepted advice, nay even blame, from Ameni and the other priestsunder his direction; and so lived full of a virtuous pride in being oneof the most zealous devotees in the land, and one of the most pleasing tothe Gods, a belief on which his pastors never threw any doubt. 

Attended and guided at every step by supernatural powers, he wanted nofriend and no confidant. In the fleld, as in Thebes, he stood apart, andpassed among his comrades for a reserved man, rough and proud, but with astrong will. 

He had the power of calling up the image of his lost love with as muchvividness as the forms of the dead, and indulged in this magic, not onlythrough a hundred still nights, but in long rides and drives throughsilent wastes. 

Such visions were commonly followed by a vehement and boiling overflow ofhis hatred against the charioteer, and a whole series of fervent prayersfor his destruction. 

When Paaker set the cup of water for Nefert on the flat stone and feltfor the philter, his soul was so full of desire that there was no roomfor hatred; still he could not altogether exclude the idea that he wouldcommit a great crime by making use of a magic drink. Before pouring thefateful drops into the water, he would consult the oracle of the ring. The dagger touched none of the holy symbols of the inscription on thesignet, and in other circumstances he would, without going any farther, have given up his project. 

But this time he unwillingly returned it to its sheath, pressed the goldring to his heart, muttered the name of his brother in Osiris, andawaited the first living creature that might come towards him. 

He had not long to wait, from the mountain slope opposite to him rose, with heavy, slow wing-strokes, two light-colored vultures. 

In anxious suspense he followed their flight, as they rose, higher andhigher. For a moment they poised motionless, borne up by the air, circled round each other, then wheeled to the left and vanished behindthe mountains, denying him the fulfilment of his desire. 

He hastily grasped the phial to fling it from him, but the surgingpassion in his veins had deprived him of his self-control. Nefert'simage stood before him as if beckoning him; a mysterious power clenchedhis fingers close and yet closer round the phial, and with the samedefiance which he showed to his associates, he poured half of the philterinto the cup and approached his victim. 

Nefert had meanwhile left her shady retreat and come towards him. 

She silently accepted the water he offered her, and drank it withdelight, to the very dregs. 

"'Thank you, " she said, when she had recovered breath after her eagerdraught. 

"That has done me good! How fresh and acid the water tastes; but yourhand shakes, and you are heated by your quick run for me--poor man. "

With these words she looked at him with a peculiar expressive glance ofher large eyes, and gave him her right hand, which he pressed wildly tohis lips. 

"That will do, " she said smiling; "here comes the princess with a priest, out of the hovel of the unclean. With what frightful words you terrifiedme just now. It is true I gave you just cause to be angry with me; butnow you are kind again--do you hear?--and will bring your mother again tosee mine. Not a word. I shall see, whether cousin Paaker refuses meobedience. "

She threatened him playfully with her finger, and then growing grave sheadded, with a look that pierced Paaker's heart with pain, and yet withecstasy, "Let us leave off quarrelling. It is so much better when peopleare kind to each other. "

After these words she walked towards the house of the paraschites, whilePaaker pressed his hands to his breast, and murmured:

"The drink is working, and she will be mine. I thank ye--ye Immortals!"

But this thanksgiving, which hitherto he had never failed to utter whenany good fortune had befallen him, to-day died on his lips. Close beforehim he saw the goal of his desires; there, under his eyes, lay the magicspring longed for for years. A few steps farther, and he might slake atits copious stream his thirst both for love and for revenge. 

While he followed the wife of Mena, and replaced the phial carefully inhis girdle, so as to lose no drop of the precious fluid which, accordingto the prescription of the old woman, he needed to use again, warningvoices spoke in his breast, to which he usually listened as to a fatherlyadmonition; but at this moment he mocked at them, and even gave outwardexpression to the mood that ruled him--for he flung up his right handlike a drunken man, who turns away from the preacher of morality on hisway to the wine-cask; and yet passion held him so closely ensnared, thatthe thought that he should live through the swift moments which wouldchange him from an honest man into a criminal, hardly dawned, darkly onhis soul. He had hitherto dared to indulge his desire for love andrevenge in thought only, and had left it to the Gods to act forthemselves; now he had taken his cause out of the hand of the Celestials, and gone into action without them, and in spite of them. 

The sorceress Hekt passed him; she wanted to see the woman for whom shehad given him the philter. He perceived her and shuddered, but soon theold woman vanished among the rocks muttering. 

"Look at the fellow with six toes. He makes himself comfortable with theheritage of Assa. "

In the middle of the valley walked Nefert and the pioneer, with theprincess Bent-Anat and Pentaur who accompanied her. 

When these two had come out of the hut of the paraschites, they stoodopposite each other in silence. The royal maiden pressed her hand to herheart, and, like one who is thirsty, drank in the pure air of themountain valley with deeply drawn breath; she felt as if released fromsome overwhelming burden, as if delivered from some frightful danger. 

At last she turned to her companion, who gazed earnestly at the ground. 

"What an hour!" she said. 

Pentaur's tall figure did not move, but he bowed his head in assent, asif he were in a dream. Bent-Anat now saw him for the first time in falldaylight; her large eyes rested on him with admiration, and she asked:

"Art thou the priest, who yesterday, after my first visit to this house, so readily restored me to cleanness?"

"I am he, " replied Pentaur. 

"I recognized thy voice, and I am grateful to thee, for it was thou thatdidst strengthen my courage to follow the impulse of my heart, in spiteof my spiritual guides, and to come here again. Thou wilt defend me ifothers blame me. "

"I came here to pronounce thee unclean. "

"Then thou hast changed thy mind?" asked Bent-Anat, and a smile ofcontempt curled her lips. 

"I follow a high injunction, that commands us to keep the oldinstitutions sacred. If touching a paraschites, it is said, does notdefile a princess, whom then can it defile? for whose garment is morespotless than hers?"

"But this is a good man with all his meanness, " interrupted Bent-Anat, "and in spite of the disgrace, which is the bread of life to him as honoris to us. May the nine great Gods forgive me! but he who is in there isloving, pious and brave, and pleases me--and thou, thou, who didst thinkyesterday to purge away the taint of his touch with a word--what promptsthee today to cast him with the lepers?"

"The admonition of an enlightened man, never to give up any link of theold institutions; because thereby the already weakened chain may bebroken, and fall rattling to the ground. "

"Then thou condemnest me to uncleanness for the sake of all oldsuperstition, and of the populace, but not for my actions? Thou artsilent? Answer me now, if thou art such a one as I took the for, freelyand sincerely; for it concerns the peace of my soul. " Pentaur breathedhard; and then from the depths of his soul, tormented by doubts, thesedeeply-felt words forced themselves as if wrung from him; at firstsoftly, but louder as he went on. 

"Thou dost compel me to say what I had better not even think; but ratherwill I sin against obedience than against truth, the pure daughter of theSun, whose aspect, Bent-Anat, thou dost wear. Whether the paraschites isunclean by birth or not, who am I that I should decide? But to me thisman appeared--as to thee--as one moved by the same pure and holy emotionsas stir and bless me and mine, and thee and every soul born of woman; andI believe that the impressions of this hour have touched thy soul as wellas mine, not to taint, but to purify. If I am wrong, may the many-namedGods forgive me, Whose breath lives and works in the paraschites as wellas in thee and me, in Whom I believe, and to Whom I will ever address myhumble songs, louder and more joyfully, as I learn that all that livesand breathes, that weeps and rejoices, is the image of their sublimenature, and born to equal joy and equal sorrow. "

Pentaur had raised his eyes to heaven; now they met the proud and joyfulradiance of the princess' glance, while she frankly offered him her hand. He humbly kissed her robe, but she said:

"Nay--not so. Lay thy hand in blessing on mine. Thou art a man and atrue priest. Now I can be satisfied to be regarded as unclean, for myfather also desires that, by us especially, the institutions of the pastthat have so long continued should be respected, for the sake of thepeople. Let us pray in common to the Gods, that these poor people may bereleased from the old ban. How beautiful the world might be, if menwould but let man remain what the Celestials have made him. But Paakerand poor Nefert are waiting in the scorching sun-come, follow me. "

She went forward, but after a few steps she turned round to him, andasked:

"What is thy name?"

"Pentaur. "

"Thou then art the poet of the House of Seti?"

"They call me so. "

Bent-Anat stood still a moment, gazing full at him as at a kinsman whomwe meet for the first time face to face, and said:

"The Gods have given thee great gifts, for thy glance reaches farther andpierces deeper than that of other men; and thou canst say in words whatwe can only feel--I follow thee willingly!"

Pentaur blushed like a boy, and said, while Paaker and Nefert came nearerto them:

"Till to-day life lay before me as if in twilight; but this moment showsit me in another light. I have seen its deepest shadows; and, " he addedin a low tone "how glorious its light can be. "

CHAPTER VII. 

An hour later, Bent-Anat and her train of followers stood before the gateof the House of Seti. 

Swift as a ball thrown from a man's hand, a runner had sprung forward andhurried on to announce the approach of the princess to the chief priest. She stood alone in her chariot, in advance of all her companions, forPentaur had found a place with Paaker. At the gate of the temple theywere met by the head of the haruspices. 

The great doors of the pylon were wide open, and afforded a view into theforecourt of the sanctuary, paved with polished squares of stone, andsurrounded on three sides with colonnades. The walls and architraves, the pillars and the fluted cornice, which slightly curved in over thecourt, were gorgeous with many colored figures and painted decorations. In the middle stood a great sacrificial altar, on which burned logs ofcedar wood, whilst fragrant balls of Kyphi

 [Kyphi was a celebrated Egyptian incense. Recipes for its preparation have been preserved in the papyrus of Ebers, in the laboratories of the temples, and elsewhere. Parthey had three different varieties prepared by the chemist, L. Voigt, in Berlin. Kyphi after the formula of Dioskorides was the best. It consisted of rosin, wine, rad, galangae, juniper berries, the root of the aromatic rush, asphalte, mastic, myrrh, Burgundy grapes, and honey. ]

were consumed by the flames, filling the wide space with their heavyperfume. Around, in semi-circular array, stood more than a hundredwhite-robed priests, who all turned to face the approaching princess, and sang heart-rending songs of lamentation. 

Many of the inhabitants of the Necropolis had collected on either side ofthe lines of sphinxes, between which the princess drove up to theSanctuary. But none asked what these songs of lamentation might signify, for about this sacred place lamentation and mystery for ever lingered. "Hail to the child of Rameses!"--"All hail to the daughter of the Sun!"rang from a thousand throats; and the assembled multitude bowed almost tothe earth at the approach of the royal maiden. 

At the pylon, the princess descended from her chariot, and preceded bythe chief of the haruspices, who had gravely and silently greeted her, passed on to the door of the temple. But as she prepared to cross theforecourt, suddenly, without warning, the priests' chant swelled to aterrible, almost thundering loudness, the clear, shrill voice of theTemple scholars rising in passionate lament, supported by the deep andthreatening roll of the basses. 

Bent-Anat started and checked her steps. Then she walked on again. 

But on the threshold of the door, Ameni, in full pontifical robes, stoodbefore her in the way, his crozier extended as though to forbid herentrance. 

"The advent of the daughter of Rameses in her purity, " he cried in loudand passionate tones, "augurs blessing to this sanctuary; but this abodeof the Gods closes its portals on the unclean, be they slaves or princes. In the name of the Immortals, from whom thou art descended, I ask thee, Bent-Anat, art thou clean, or hast thou, through the touch of theunclean, defiled thyself and contaminated thy royal hand?"

Deep scarlet flushed the maiden's cheeks, there was a rushing sound inher ears as of a stormy sea surging close beside her, and her bosom roseand fell in passionate emotion. The kingly blood in her veins boiledwildly; she felt that an unworthy part had been assigned to her in acarefully-premeditated scene; she forgot her resolution to accuse herselfof uncleanness, and already her lips were parted in vehement protestagainst the priestly assumption that so deeply stirred her to rebellion, when Ameni, who placed himself directly in front of the Princess, raisedhis eyes, and turned them full upon her with all the depths of theirindwelling earnestness. 

The words died away, and Bent-Anat stood silent, but she endured thegaze, and returned it proudly and defiantly. 

The blue veins started in Ameni's forehead; yet he repressed theresentment which was gathering like thunder clouds in his soul, and said, with a voice that gradually deviated more and more from its usualmoderation:

"For the second time the Gods demand through me, their representative:Hast thou entered this holy place in order that the Celestials may purgethee of the defilement that stains thy body and soul?"

"My father will communicate the answer to thee, " replied Bent-Anatshortly and proudly. 

"Not to me, " returned Ameni, "but to the Gods, in whose name I now commandthee to quit this sanctuary, which is defiled by thy presence. "

Bent-Anat's whole form quivered. "I will go, " she said with sullendignity. 

She turned to recross the gateway of the Pylon. At the first step herglance met the eye of the poet. As one to whom it is vouchsafed to standand gaze at some great prodigy, so Pentaur had stood opposite the royalmaiden, uneasy and yet fascinated, agitated, yet with secretly upliftedsoul. Her deed seemed to him of boundless audacity, and yet one suitedto her true and noble nature. By her side, Ameni, his revered andadmired master, sank into insignificance; and when she turned to leavethe temple, his hand was raised indeed to hold her back, but as hisglance met hers, his hand refused its office, and sought instead to stillthe throbbing of his overflowing heart. 

The experienced priest, meanwhile, read the features of these twoguileless beings like an open book. A quickly-formed tie, he felt, linked their souls, and the look which he saw them exchange startled him. The rebellious princess had glanced at the poet as though claimingapprobation for her triumph, and Pentaur's eyes had responded to theappeal. 

One instant Ameni paused. Then he cried: "Bent-Anat!"

The princess turned to the priest, and looked at him gravely andenquiringly. 

Ameni took a step forward, and stood between her and the poet. 

"Thou wouldst challenge the Gods to combat, " he said sternly. "That isbold; but such daring it seems to me has grown up in thee because thoucanst count on an ally, who stands scarcely farther from the Immortalsthan I myself. Hear this:--to thee, the misguided child, much may beforgiven. But a servant of the Divinity, " and with these words he turneda threatening glance on Pentaur--"a priest, who in the war of free-willagainst law becomes a deserter, who forgets his duty and his oath--hewill not long stand beside thee to support thee, for he--even thoughevery God had blessed him with the richest gifts--he is damned. We drivehim from among us, we curse him, we--"

At these words Bent-Anat looked now at Ameni, trembling with excitement, now at Pentaur standing opposite to her. Her face was red and white byturns, as light and shade chase each other on the ground when at noon-daya palm-grove is stirred by a storm. 

The poet took a step towards her. 

She felt that if he spoke it would be to defend all that she had done, and to ruin himself. A deep sympathy, a nameless anguish seized hersoul, and before Pentaur could open his lips, she had sunk slowly downbefore Ameni, saying in low tones:

"I have sinned and defiled myself; thou hast said it--as Pentaur said itby the hut of the paraschites. Restore me to cleanness, Ameni, for I amunclean. "

Like a flame that is crushed out by a hand, so the fire in the high-priest's eye was extinguished. Graciously, almost lovingly, he lookeddown on the princess, blessed her and conducted her before the holy ofholies, there had clouds of incense wafted round her, anointed her withthe nine holy oils, and commanded her to return to the royal castle. 

Yet, said he, her guilt was not expiated; she should shortly learn bywhat prayers and exercises she might attain once more to perfect puritybefore the Gods, of whom he purposed to enquire in the holy place. 

During all these ceremonies the priests stationed in the forecourtcontinued their lamentations. 

The people standing before the temple listened to the priest's chant, and interrupted it from time to time with ringing cries of wailing, foralready a dark rumor of what was going on within had spread among themultitude. 

The sun was going down. The visitors to the Necropolis must soon beleaving it, and Bent-Anat, for whose appearance the people impatientlywaited, would not show herself. One and another said the princess hadbeen cursed, because she had taken remedies to the fair and injuredUarda, who was known to many of them. 

Among the curious who had flocked together were many embalmers, laborers, and humble folk, who lived in the Necropolis. The mutinous andrefractory temper of the Egyptians, which brought such heavy sufferingon them under their later foreign rulers, was aroused, and rising withevery minute. They reviled the pride of the priests, and theirsenseless, worthless, institutions. A drunken soldier, who soon reeledback into the tavern which he had but just left, distinguished himself asringleader, and was the first to pick up a heavy stone to fling at thehuge brass-plated temple gates. A few boys followed his example withshouts, and law-abiding men even, urged by the clamor of fanatical women, let themselves be led away to stone-flinging and words of abuse. 

Within the House of Seti the priests' chant went on uninterruptedly; butat last, when the noise of the crowd grew louder, the great gate wasthrown open, and with a solemn step Ameni, in full robes, and followed bytwenty pastophori--[An order of priests]--who bore images of the Gods andholy symbols on their shoulders--Ameni walked into the midst of thecrowd. 

All were silent. 

"Wherefore do you disturb our worship?" he asked loudly and calmly. 

A roar of confused cries answered him, in which the frequently repeatedname of Bent-Anat could alone be distinguished. 

Ameni preserved his immoveable composure, and, raising his crozier, hecried--

"Make way for the daughter of Rameses, who sought and has foundpurification from the Gods, who behold the guilt of the highest as of thelowest among you. They reward the pious, but they punish the offender. Kneel down and let us pray that they may forgive you, and bless both youand your children. "

Ameni took the holy Sistrum

 [A rattling metal instrument used by the Egyptians in the service of the Gods. Many specimens are extant in Museums. Plutarch describes it correctly, thus: "The Sistrum is rounded above, and the loop holds the four bars which are shaken. " On the bend of the Sistrum they often set the head of a cat with a human face. ]

from one of the attendant pastophori, and held it on high; the priestsbehind him raised a solemn hymn, and the crowd sank on their knees; nordid they move till the chant ceased and the high-priest again cried out:

"The Immortals bless you by me their servant. Leave this spot and makeway for the daughter of Rameses. "

With these words he withdrew into the temple, and the patrol, withoutmeeting with any opposition, cleared the road guarded by Sphinxes whichled to the Nile. 

As Bent-Anat mounted her chariot Ameni said "Thou art the child of kings. The house of thy father rests on the shoulders of the people. Loosen theold laws which hold them subject, and the people will conduct themselveslike these fools. "

Ameni retired. Bent-Anat slowly arranged the reins in her hand, her eyesresting the while on the poet, who, leaning against a door-post, gazed ather in beatitude. She let her whip fall to the ground, that he mightpick it up and restore it to her, but he did not observe it. A runnersprang forward and handed it to the princess, whose horses started off, tossing themselves and neighing. 

Pentaur remained as if spell-bound, standing by the pillar, till therattle of the departing wheels on the flag-way of the Avenue of Sphinxeshad altogether died away, and the reflection of the glowing sunsetpainted the eastern hills with soft and rosy hues. 

The far-sounding clang of a brass gong roused the poet from his ecstasy. It was the tomtom calling him to duty, to the lecture on rhetoric whichat this hour he had to deliver to the young priests. He laid his lefthand to his heart, and pressed his right hand to his forehead, as if tocollect in its grasp his wandering thoughts; then silently andmechanically he went towards the open court in which his disciplesawaited him. But instead of, as usual, considering on the way thesubject he was to treat, his spirit and heart were occupied with theoccurrences of the last few hours. One image reigned supreme in hisimagination, filling it with delight--it was that of the fairest woman, who, radiant in her royal dignity and trembling with pride, had thrownherself in the dust for his sake. He felt as if her action had investedher whole being with a new and princely worth, as if her glance hadbrought light to his inmost soul, he seemed to breathe a freer air, to beborne onward on winged feet. 

In such a mood he appeared before his hearers. When he found himselfconfronting all the the well-known faces, he remembered what it was hewas called upon to do. He supported himself against the wall of thecourt, and opened the papyrus-roll handed to him by his favorite pupil, the young Anana. It was the book which twenty-four hours ago he hadpromised to begin upon. He looked now upon the characters that coveredit, and felt that he was unable to read a word. 

With a powerful effort he collected himself, and looking upwards triedto find the thread he had cut at the end of yesterday's lecture, andintended to resume to-day; but between yesterday and to-day, as it seemedto him, lay a vast sea whose roaring surges stunned his memory and powersof thought. 

His scholars, squatting cross-legged on reed mats before him, gazed inastonishment on their silent master who was usually so ready of speech, and looked enquiringly at each other. A young priest whispered to hisneighbor, "He is praying--" and Anana noticed with silent anxiety thestrong hand of his teacher clutching the manuscript so tightly that theslight material of which it consisted threatened to split. 

At last Pentaur looked down; he had found a subject. While he waslooking upwards his gaze fell on the opposite wall, and the painted nameof the king with the accompanying title "the good God" met his eye. Starting from these words he put this question to his hearers, "How do weapprehend the Goodness of the Divinity?"

He challenged one priest after another to treat this subject as if hewere standing before his future congregation. 

Several disciples rose, and spoke with more or less truth and feeling. At last it came to Anana's turn, who, in well-chosen words, praised thepurpose-full beauty of animate and inanimate creation, in which thegoodness of Amon

 [Amon, that is to say, "the hidden one. " He was the God of Thebes, which was under his aegis, and after the Hykssos were expelled from the Nile-valley, he was united with Ra of Heliopolis and endowed with the attributes of all the remaining Gods. His nature was more and more spiritualized, till in the esoteric philosophy of the time of the Rameses he is compared to the All filling and All guiding intelligence. He is "the husband of his mother, his own father, and his own son, " As the living Osiris, he is the soul and spirit of all creation. ]

of Ra, [Ra, originally the Sun-God; later his name was introduced into the pantheistic mystic philosophy for that of the God who is the Universe. ]

and Ptah, [Ptah is the Greek Henhaistas, the oldest of the Gods, the great maker of the material for the creation, the "first beginner, " by whose side the seven Chnemu stand, as architects, to help him, and who was named "the lord of truth, " because the laws and conditions of being proceeded from him. He created also the germ of light, he stood therefore at the head of the solar Gods, and was called the creator of ice, from which, when he had cleft it, the sun and the moan came forth. Hence his name "the opener. "]

as well as of the other Gods, finds expression. 

Pentaur listened to the youth with folded arms, now looking at himenquiringly, now adding approbation. Then taking up the thread of the, discourse when it was ended, he began himself to speak. 

Like obedient falcons at the call of the falconer, thoughts rushed downinto his mind, and the divine passion awakened in his breast glowed andshone through his inspired language that soared every moment on freer andstronger wings. Melting into pathos, exulting in rapture, he praised thesplendor of nature; and the words flowed from his lips like a limpidcrystal-clear stream as he glorified the eternal order of things, and theincomprehensible wisdom and care of the Creator--the One, who is onealone, and great and without equal. 

"So incomparable, " he said in conclusion, "is the home which God hasgiven us. All that He--the One--has created is penetrated with His ownessence, and bears witness to His Goodness. He who knows how to find Himsees Him everywhere, and lives at every instant in the enjoyment of Hisglory. Seek Him, and when ye have found Him fall down and sing praisesbefore Him. But praise the Highest, not only in gratitude for thesplendor of that which he has created, but for having given us thecapacity for delight in his work. Ascend the mountain peaks and look onthe distant country, worship when the sunset glows with rubies, and thedawn with roses, go out in the nighttime, and look at the stars as theytravel in eternal, unerring, immeasurable, and endless circles on silverbarks through the blue vault of heaven, stand by the cradle of the child, by the buds of the flowers, and see how the mother bends over the one, and the bright dew-drops fall on the other. But would you know where thestream of divine goodness is most freely poured out, where the grace ofthe Creator bestows the richest gifts, and where His holiest altars areprepared? In your own heart; so long as it is pure and full of love. In such a heart, nature is reflected as in a magic mirror, on whosesurface the Beautiful shines in three-fold beauty. There the eye canreach far away over stream, and meadow, and hill, and take in the wholecircle of the earth; there the morning and evening-red shine, not likeroses and rubies, but like the very cheeks of the Goddess of Beauty;there the stars circle on, not in silence, but with the mighty voices ofthe pure eternal harmonies of heaven; there the child smiles like aninfant-god, and the bud unfolds to magic flowers; finally, therethankfulness grows broader and devotion grows deeper, and we throwourselves into the arms of a God, who--as I imagine his glory--is a Godto whom the sublime nine great Gods pray as miserable and helplesssuppliants. "

The tomtom which announced the end of the hour interrupted him. 

Pentaur ceased speaking with a deep sigh, and for a minute not a scholarmoved. 

At last the poet laid the papyrus roll out of his hand, wiped the sweatfrom his hot brow, and walked slowly towards the gate of the court, whichled into the sacred grove of the temple. He had hardly crossed thethreshold when he felt a hand laid upon his shoulder. 

He looked round. Behind him stood Ameni. "You fascinated your hearers, my friend, " said the high-priest, coldly; "it is a pity that only theHarp was wanting. "

Ameni's words fell on the agitated spirit of the poet like ice on thebreast of a man in fever. He knew this tone in his master's voice, forthus he was accustomed to reprove bad scholars and erring priests; but tohim he had never yet so spoken. 

"It certainly would seem, " continued the high-priest, bitterly, "as if inyour intoxication you had forgotten what it becomes the teacher to utterin the lecture-hall. Only a few weeks since you swore on my hands toguard the mysteries, and this day you have offered the great secret ofthe Unnameable one, the most sacred possession of the initiated, likesome cheap ware in the open market. "

"Thou cuttest with knives, " said Pentaur. 

"May they prove sharp, and extirpate the undeveloped canker, the rankweed from your soul, " cried the high-priest. "You are young, too young;not like the tender fruit-tree that lets itself be trained aright, andbrought to perfection, but like the green fruit on the ground, which willturn to poison for the children who pick it up--yea even though it fallfrom a sacred tree. Gagabu and I received you among us, against theopinion of the majority of the initiated. We gainsaid all those whodoubted your ripeness because of your youth; and you swore to me, gratefully and enthusiastically, to guard the mysteries and the law. To-day for the first time I set you on the battle-field of life beyondthe peaceful shelter of the schools. And how have you defended thestandard that it was incumbent on you to uphold and maintain?"

"I did that which seemed to me to be right and true, " answered Pentaurdeeply moved. 

"Right is the same for you as for us--what the law prescribes; and whatis truth?"

"None has lifted her veil, " said Pentaur, "but my soul is the offspringof the soul-filled body of the All; a portion of the infallible spirit ofthe Divinity stirs in my breast, and if it shows itself potent in me--"

"How easily we may mistake the flattering voice of self-love for that ofthe Divinity!"

"Cannot the Divinity which works and speaks in me--as in thee--as in eachof us--recognize himself and his own voice?"

"If the crowd were to hear you, " Ameni interrupted him, "each would sethimself on his little throne, would proclaim the voice of the god withinhim as his guide, tear the law to shreds, and let the fragments fly tothe desert on the east wind. "

"I am one of the elect whom thou thyself hast taught to seek and to findthe One. The light which I gaze on and am blest, would strike the crowd--I do not deny it--with blindness--"

"And nevertheless you blind our disciples with the dangerous glare-"

"I am educating them for future sages. "

"And that with the hot overflow of a heart intoxicated with love!"

"Ameni!"

"I stand before you, uninvited, as your teacher, who reproves you out ofthe law, which always and everywhere is wiser than the individual, whose defender the king--among his highest titles--boasts of being, andto which the sage bows as much as the common man whom we bring up toblind belief--I stand before you as your father, who has loved you from achild, and expected from none of his disciples more than from you; andwho will therefore neither lose you nor abandon the hope he has set uponyou--

"Make ready to leave our quiet house early tomorrow morning. You haveforfeited your office of teacher. You shall now go into the school oflife, and make yourself fit for the honored rank of the initiated which, by my error, was bestowed on you too soon. You must leave your scholarswithout any leave-taking, however hard it may appear to you. After thestar of Sothis

 [The holy star of Isis, Sirius or the dog star, whose course in the time of the Pharaohs coincided with the exact Solar year, and served at a very early date as a foundation for the reckoning of time among the Egyptians. ]

has risen come for your instructions. You must in these next months tryto lead the priesthood in the temple of Hatasu, and in that post to winback my confidence which you have thrown away. No remonstrance; to-nightyou will receive my blessing, and our authority--you must greet therising sun from the terrace of the new scene of your labors. May theUnnameable stamp the law upon your soul!"

Ameni returned to his room. 

He walked restlessly to and fro. 

On a little table lay a mirror; he looked into the clear metal pane, andlaid it back in its place again, as if he had seen some strange anddispleasing countenance. 

The events of the last few hours had moved him deeply, and shaken hisconfidence in his unerring judgment of men and things. 

The priests on the other bank of the Nile were Bent-Anat's counsellors, and he had heard the princess spoken of as a devout and gifted maiden. Her incautious breach of the sacred institutions had seemed to him tooffer a welcome opportunity for humiliating--a member of the royalfamily. 

Now he told himself that he had undervalued this young creature that hehad behaved clumsily, perhaps foolishly, to her; for he did not for amoment conceal from himself that her sudden change of demeanor resultedmuch more from the warm flow of her sympathy, or perhaps of her, affection, than from any recognition of her guilt, and he could notutilize her transgression with safety to himself, unless she feltherself guilty. 

Nor was he of so great a nature as to be wholly free from vanity, and hisvanity had been deeply wounded by the haughty resistance of the princess. 

When he commanded Pentaur to meet the princess with words of reproof, hehad hoped to awaken his ambition through the proud sense of power overthe mighty ones of the earth. 

And now?

How had his gifted admirer, the most hopeful of all his disciples, stoodthe test. 

The one ideal of his life, the unlimited dominion of the priestly ideaover the minds of men, and of the priesthood over the king himself, hadhitherto remained unintelligible to this singular young man. 

He must learn to understand it. 

"Here, as the least among a hundred who are his superiors, all the powersof resistance of his soaring soul have been roused, " said Ameni tohimself. "In the temple of Hatasu he will have to rule over the inferiororders of slaughterers of victims and incense-burners; and, by requiringobedience, will learn to estimate the necessity of it. The rebel, towhom a throne devolves, becomes a tyrant!"

"Pentuar's poet soul, " so he continued to reflect "has quickly yieldeditself a prisoner to the charm of Bent-Anat; and what woman could resistthis highly favored being, who is radiant in beauty as Ra-Harmachis, andfrom whose lips flows speech as sweet as Techuti's. They ought never tomeet again, for no tie must bind him to the house of Rameses. "

Again he paced to and fro, and murmured:

"How is this? Two of my disciples have towered above their fellows, ingenius and gifts, like palm trees above their undergrowth. I broughtthem up to succeed me, to inherit my labors and my hopes. 

"Mesu fell away;

 [Mesu is the Egyptian name of Moses, whom we may consider as a contemporary of Rameses, under whose successor the exodus of the Jews from Egypt took place. ]

and Pentaur may follow him. Must my aim be an unworthy one because itdoes not attract the noblest? Not so. Each feels himself made of betterstuff than his companions in destiny, constitutes his own law, and fearsto see the great expended in trifles; but I think otherwise; like a brookof ferruginous water from Lebanon, I mix with the great stream, and tingeit with my color. "

Thinking thus Ameni stood still. 

Then he called to one of the so-called "holy fathers, " his privatesecretary, and said:

"Draw up at once a document, to be sent to all the priests'-colleges inthe land. Inform them that the daughter of Rameses has lapsed seriouslyfrom the law, and defiled herself, and direct that public--you hear mepublic--prayers shall be put up for her purification in every temple. Lay the letter before me to be signed within in hour. But no! Give meyour reed and palette; I will myself draw up the instructions. "

The "holy father" gave him writing materials, and retired into thebackground. Ameni muttered: "The King will do us some unheard-ofviolence! Well, this writing may be the first arrow in oppositionto his lance. "

CHAPTER VIII. 

The moon was risen over the city of the living that lay opposite theNecropolis of Thebes. 

The evening song had died away in the temples, that stood about a milefrom the Nile, connected with each other by avenues of sphinxes andpylons; but in the streets of the city life seemed only just reallyawake. 

The coolness, which had succeeded the heat of the summer day, tempted thecitizens out into the air, in front of their doors or on the roofs andturrets of their houses; or at the tavern-tables, where they listened tothe tales of the story-tellers while they refreshed them selves withbeer, wine, and the sweet juice of fruits. Many simple folks squatted incircular groups on the ground, and joined in the burden of songs whichwere led by an appointed singer, to the sound of a tabor and flute. 

To the south of the temple of Amon stood the king's palace, and near it, in more or less extensive gardens, rose the houses of the magnates of thekingdom, among which, one was distinguished by it splendor and extent. 

Paaker, the king's pioneer, had caused it to be erected after the deathof his father, in the place of the more homely dwelling of his ancestors, when he hoped to bring home his cousin, and install her as its mistress. A few yards further to the east was another stately though older and lesssplendid house, which Mena, the king's charioteer, had inherited from hisfather, and which was inhabited by his wife Nefert and her motherIsatuti, while he himself, in the distant Syrian land, shared the tent ofthe king, as being his body-guard. Before the door of each house stoodservants bearing torches, and awaiting the long deferred return home oftheir masters. 

The gate, which gave admission to Paaker's plot of ground through thewall which surrounded it, was disproportionately, almost ostentatiously, high and decorated with various paintings. On the right hand and on theleft, two cedar-trunks were erected as masts to carry standards; he hadhad them felled for the purpose on Lebanon, and forwarded by ship toPelusium on the north-east coast of Egypt. Thence they were conveyed bythe Nile to Thebes. 

On passing through the gate one entered a wide, paved court-yard, at thesides of which walks extended, closed in at the back, and with roofssupported on slender painted wooden columns. Here stood the pioneer'shorses and chariots, here dwelt his slaves, and here the necessary storeof produce for the month's requirements was kept. 

In the farther wall of this store-court was a very high doorway, that ledinto a large garden with rows of well-tended trees and trellised vines, clumps of shrubs, flowers, and beds of vegetables. Palms, sycamores, andacacia-trees, figs, pomegranates, and jasmine throve here particularlywell--for Paaker's mother, Setchem, superintended the labors of thegardeners; and in the large tank in the midst there was never any lack ofwater for watering the beds and the roots of the trees, as it was alwayssupplied by two canals, into which wheels turned by oxen poured water dayand night from the Nile-stream. 

On the right side of this plot of ground rose the one-storied dwellinghouse, its length stretching into distant perspective, as it consisted ofa single row of living and bedrooms. Almost every room had its own door, that opened into a veranda supported by colored wooden columns, and whichextended the whole length of the garden side of the house. This buildingwas joined at a right angle by a row of store-rooms, in which the garden-produce in fruits and vegetables, the wine-jars, and the possessions ofthe house in woven stuffs, skins, leather, and other property were kept. 

In a chamber of strong masonry lay safely locked up the vast richesaccumulated by Paaker's father and by himself, in gold and silver rings, vessels and figures of beasts. Nor was there lack of bars of copper andof precious stones, particularly of lapis-lazuli and malachite. 

In the middle of the garden stood a handsomely decorated kiosk, and achapel with images of the Gods; in the background stood the statues ofPaaker's ancestors in the form of Osiris wrapped in mummy-cloths. 

 [The justified dead became Osiris; that is to say, attained to the fullest union (Henosis) with the divinity. ]

The faces, which were likenesses, alone distinguished these statues fromeach other. 

The left side of the store-yard was veiled in gloom, yet the moonlightrevealed numerous dark figures clothed only with aprons, the slaves ofthe king's pioneer, who squatted on the ground in groups of five or six, or lay near each other on thin mats of palm-bast, their hard beds. 

Not far from the gate, on the right side of the court, a few lampslighted up a group of dusky men, the officers of Paaker's household, whowore short, shirt-shaped, white garments, and who sat on a carpet round atable hardly two feet high. They were eating their evening-meal, consisting of a roasted antelope, and large flat cakes of bread. Slaveswaited on them, and filled their earthen beakers with yellow beer. Thesteward cut up the great roast on the table, offered the intendant of thegardens a piece of antelope-leg, and said:

 [The Greeks and Romans report that the Egyptians were so addicted to satire and pungent witticisms that they would hazard property and life to gratify their love of mockery. The scandalous pictures in the so-called kiosk of Medinet Habu, the caricatures in an indescribable papyrus at Turin, confirm these statements. There is a noteworthy passage in Flavius Vopiscus, that compares the Egyptians to the French. ]

"My arms ache; the mob of slaves get more and more dirty and refractory. "

"I notice it in the palm-trees, " said the gardener, "you want so manycudgels that their crowns will soon be as bare as a moulting bird. "

"We should do as the master does, " said the head-groom, "and get sticksof ebony--they last a hundred years. "

"At any rate longer than men's bones, " laughed the chief neat-herd, whohad come in to town from the pioneer's country estate, bringing with himanimals for sacrifices, butter and cheese. "If we were all to follow themaster's example, we should soon have none but cripples in the servant'shouse. "

"Out there lies the lad whose collar-bone he broke yesterday, " said thesteward, "it is a pity, for he was a clever mat-platter. The old lordhit softer. "

"You ought to know!" cried a small voice, that sounded mockingly behindthe feasters. 

They looked and laughed when they recognized the strange guest, who hadapproached them unobserved. 

The new comer was a deformed little man about as big as a five-year-oldboy, with a big head and oldish but uncommonly sharply-cut features. 

The noblest Egyptians kept house-dwarfs for sport, and this little wightserved the wife of Mena in this capacity. He was called Nemu, or "thedwarf, " and his sharp tongue made him much feared, though he was afavorite, for he passed for a very clever fellow and was a good tale-teller. 

"Make room for me, my lords, " said the little man. "I take very littleroom, and your beer and roast is in little danger from me, for my maw isno bigger than a fly's head. "

"But your gall is as big as that of a Nile-horse, " cried the cook. 

"It grows, " said the dwarf laughing, "when a turn-spit and spoon-wielder like you turns up. There--I will sit here. "

"You are welcome, " said the steward, "what do you bring?"

"Myself. "

"Then you bring nothing great. "

"Else I should not suit you either!" retorted the dwarf. "Butseriously, my lady mother, the noble Katuti, and the Regent, who just nowis visiting us, sent me here to ask you whether Paaker is not yetreturned. He accompanied the princess and Nefert to the City of theDead, and the ladies are not yet come in. We begin to be anxious, for itis already late. "

The steward looked up at the starry sky and said: "The moon is alreadytolerably high, and my lord meant to be home before sun-down. "

"The meal was ready, " sighed the cook. "I shall have to go to work againif he does not remain all night. "

"How should he?" asked the steward. "He is with the princess Bent-Anat. "

"And my mistress, " added the dwarf. 

"What will they say to each other, " laughed gardener; "your chief litter-bearer declared that yesterday on the way to the City of the Dead theydid not speak a word to each other. "

"Can you blame the lord if he is angry with the lady who was betrothed tohim, and then was wed to another? When I think of the moment when helearnt Nefert's breach of faith I turn hot and cold. "

"Care the less for that, " sneered the dwarf, "since you must be hot insummer and cold in winter. "

"It is not evening all day, " cried the head groom. "Paaker never forgetsan injury, and we shall live to see him pay Mena--high as he is--for theaffront he has offered him. 

"My lady Katuti, " interrupted Nemu, "stores up the arrears of her son-in-law. "

Besides, she has long wished to renew the old friendship with your house, and the Regent too preaches peace. Give me a piece of bread, steward. I am hungry!"

"The sacks, into which Mena's arrears flow seem to be empty, " laughed thecook. 

"Empty! empty! much like your wit!" answered the dwarf. "Give me a bitof roast meat, steward; and you slaves bring me a drink of beer. "

"You just now said your maw was no bigger than a fly's head, " cried thecook, "and now you devour meat like the crocodiles in the sacred tank ofSeeland. You must come from a world of upside-down, where the men are assmall as flies, and the flies as big as the giants of the past. "

"Yet, I might be much bigger, " mumbled the dwarf while he munched onunconcernedly, "perhaps as big as your spite which grudges me the thirdbit of meat, which the steward--may Zefa bless him with great possessions--is cutting out of the back of the antelope. "

"There, take it, you glutton, but let out your girdle, " said the stewardlaughing, "I had cut the slice for myself, and admire your sharp nose. "

"All noses, " said the dwarf, "they teach the knowing better than anyharuspex what is inside a man. "

"How is that?" cried the gardener. 

"Only try to display your wisdom, " laughed the steward; for, if you wantto talk, you must at last leave off eating. "

"The two may be combined, " said the dwarf. "Listen then! A hooked nose, which I compare to a vulture's beak, is never found together with asubmissive spirit. Think of the Pharaoh and all his haughty race. TheRegent, on the contrary, has a straight, well-shaped, medium-sized nose, like the statue of Amon in the temple, and he is an upright soul, and asgood as the Gods. He is neither overbearing nor submissive beyond justwhat is right; he holds neither with the great nor yet with the mean, butwith men of our stamp. There's the king for us!"

"A king of noses!" exclaimed the cook, "I prefer the eagle Rameses. But what do you say to the nose of your mistress Nefert?"

"It is delicate and slender and moves with every thought like the leavesof flowers in a breath of wind, and her heart is exactly like it. "

"And Paaker?" asked the head groom. 

"He has a large short nose with wide open nostrils. When Seth whirls upthe sand, and a grain of it flies up his nose, he waxes angry--so it isPaaker's nose, and that only, which is answerable for all your bluebruises. His mother Setchem, the sister of my lady Katuti, has a littleroundish soft--"

"You pigmy, " cried the steward interrupting the speaker, "we have fed youand let you abuse people to your heart's content, but if you wag yoursharp tongue against our mistress, I will take you by the girdle andfling you to the sky, so that the stars may remain sticking to yourcrooked hump. "

At these words the dwarf rose, turned to go, and said indifferently: "Iwould pick the stars carefully off my back, and send you the finest ofthe planets in return for your juicy bit of roast. But here come thechariots. Farewell! my lords, when the vulture's beak seizes one of youand carries you off to the war in Syria, remember the words of the littleNemu who knows men and noses. "

The pioneer's chariot rattled through the high gates into the court ofhis house, the dogs in their leashes howled joyfully, the head groomhastened towards Paaker and took the reins in his charge, the stewardaccompanied him, and the head cook retired into the kitchen to make readya fresh meal for his master. 

Before Paaker had reached the garden-gate, from the pylon of the enormoustemple of Amon, was heard first the far-sounding clang of hard-struckplates of brass, and then the many-voiced chant of a solemn hymn. 

The Mohar stood still, looked up to heaven, called to his servants--"Thedivine star Sothis is risen!" threw himself on the earth, and lifted hiswards the star in prayer. 

The slaves and officers immediately followed his example. 

No circumstance in nature remained unobserved by the priestly guides ofthe Egyptian people. Every phenomenon on earth or in the starry heavenswas greeted by them as the manifestation of a divinity, and theysurrounded the life of the inhabitants of the Nile-valley--from morningto evening--from the beginning of the inundation to the days of drought--with a web of chants and sacrifices, of processions and festivals, whichinseparably knit the human individual to the Divinity and its earthlyrepresentatives the priesthood. 

For many minutes the lord and his servants remained on their knees insilence, their eyes fixed on the sacred star, and listening to the piouschant of the priests. 

As it died away Paaker rose. All around him still lay on the earth; onlyone naked figure, strongly lighted by the clear moonlight, stoodmotionless by a pillar near the slaves' quarters. 

The pioneer gave a sign, the attendants rose; but Paaker went with hastysteps to the man who had disdained the act of devotion, which he had soearnestly performed, and cried:

"Steward, a hundred strokes on the soles of the feet of this scoffer. "

The officer thus addressed bowed and said: "My lord, the surgeoncommanded the mat-weaver not to move and he cannot lift his arm. He issuffering great pain. Thou didst break his collar-bone yesterday. 

"It served him right!" said Paaker, raising his voice so much that theinjured man could not fail to hear it. Then he turned his back upon him, and entered the garden; here he called the chief butler, and said: "Givethe slaves beer for their night draught--to all of them, and plenty. "

A few minutes later he stood before his mother, whom he found on the roofof the house, which was decorated with leafy plants, just as she gave hertwo-years'-old grand daughter, the child of her youngest son, into thearms of her nurse, that she might take her to bed. 

Paaker greeted the worthy matron with reverence. She was a woman of afriendly, homely aspect; several little dogs were fawning at her feet. Her son put aside the leaping favorites of the widow, whom they amusedthrough many long hours of loneliness, and turned to take the child inhis arms from those of the attendant. But the little one struggled withsuch loud cries, and could not be pacified, that Paaker set it down onthe ground, and involuntarily exclaimed:

"The naughty little thing!"

"She has been sweet and good the whole afternoon, " said his motherSetchem. "She sees you so seldom. "

"May be, " replied Paaker; "still I know this--the dogs love me, but nochild will come to me. "

"You have such hard hands. "

"Take the squalling brat away, " said Paaker to the nurse. "Mother, Iwant to speak to you. "

Setchem quieted the child, gave it many kisses, and sent it to bed; thenshe went up to her son, stroked his cheeks, and said:

"If the little one were your own, she would go to you at once, and teachyou that a child is the greatest blessing which the Gods bestow on usmortals. " Paaker smiled and said: "I know what you are aiming at--butleave it for the present, for I have something important to communicateto you. "

"Well?" asked Setchem. 

"To-day for the first time since--you know when, I have spoken to Nefert. The past may be forgotten. You long for your sister; go to her, I havenothing more to say against it. "

Setchem looked at her son with undisguised astonishment; her eyes whicheasily filled with tears, now overflowed, and she hesitatingly asked:"Can I believe my ears; child, have you?--"

"I have a wish, " said Paaker firmly, "that you should knit once more theold ties of affection with your relations; the estrangement has lastedlong enough. "

"Much too long!" cried Setchem. 

The pioneer looked in silence at the ground, and obeyed his mother's signto sit down beside her. 

"I knew, " she said, taking his hand, "that this day would bring us joy;for I dreamt of your father in Osiris, and when I was being carried tothe temple, I was met, first by a white cow, and then by a weddingprocession. The white ram of Anion, too, touched the wheat-cakes that Ioffered him. "--[It boded death to Germanicus when the Apis refused to eatout of his hand. ]

"Those are lucky presages, " said Paaker in a tone of conviction. 

"And let us hasten to seize with gratitude that which the Gods set beforeus, " cried Setchem with joyful emotion. "I will go to-morrow to mysister and tell her that we shall live together in our old affection, andshare both good and evil; we are both of the same race, and I know that, as order and cleanliness preserve a house from ruin and rejoice thestranger, so nothing but unity can keep up the happiness of the familyand its appearance before people. What is bygone is bygone, and let itbe forgotten. There are many women in Thebes besides Nefert, and ahundred nobles in the land would esteem themselves happy to win you for ason-in-law. "

Paaker rose, and began thoughtfully pacing the broad space, while Setchemwent on speaking. 

"I know, " she said, that I have touched a wound in thy heart; but it isalready closing, and it will heal when you are happier even than thecharioteer Mena, and need no longer hate him. Nefert is good, but she isdelicate and not clever, and scarcely equal to the management of so largea household as ours. Ere long I too shall be wrapped in mummy-cloths, and then if duty calls you into Syria some prudent housewife must take myplace. It is no small matter. Your grandfather Assa often would saythat a house well-conducted in every detail was a mark of a family owningan unspotted name, and living with wise liberality and secure solidity, in which each had his assigned place, his allotted duty to fulfil, andhis fixed rights to demand. How often have I prayed to the Hathors thatthey may send you a wife after my own heart. "

"A Setchem I shall never find!" said Paaker kissing his mother'sforehead, "women of your sort are dying out. "

"Flatterer!" laughed Setchem, shaking her finger at her son. But it istrue. Those who are now growing up dress and smarten themselves withstuffs from Kaft, --[Phoenicia]--mix their language with Syrian words, andleave the steward and housekeeper free when they themselves ought tocommand. Even my sister Katuti, and Nefert--

"Nefert is different from other women, " interrupted Paaker, "and if youhad brought her up she would know how to manage a house as well as how toornament it. "

Setchem looked at her son in surprise; then she said, half to herself:"Yes, yes, she is a sweet child; it is impossible for any one to be angrywith her who looks into her eyes. And yet I was cruel to her because youwere hurt by her, and because--but you know. But now you have forgiven, I forgive her, willingly, her and her husband. "

Paaker's brow clouded, and while he paused in front of his mother he saidwith all the peculiar harshness of his voice:

"He shall pine away in the desert, and the hyaenas of the North shalltear his unburied corpse. "

At these words Setchem covered her face with her veil, and clasped herhands tightly over the amulets hanging round her neck. Then she saidsoftly:

"How terrible you can be! I know well that you hate the charioteer, forI have seen the seven arrows over your couch over which is written 'Deathto Mena. '

"That is a Syrian charm which a man turns against any one whom he desiresto destroy. How black you look! Yes, it is a charm that is hateful tothe Gods, and that gives the evil one power over him that uses it. Leaveit to them to punish the criminal, for Osiris withdraws his favor fromthose who choose the fiend for their ally. "

"My sacrifices, " replied Paaker, "secure me the favor of the Gods; butMena behaved to me like a vile robber, and I only return to him the evilthat belongs to him. Enough of this! and if you love me, never againutter the name of my enemy before me. I have forgiven Nefert and hermother--that may satisfy you. "

Setchem shook her head, and said: "What will it lead to! The war cannotlast for ever, and if Mena returns the reconciliation of to-day will turnto all the more bitter enmity. I see only one remedy. Follow my advice, and let me find you a wife worthy of you. "

"Not now!" exclaimed Paaker impatiently. "In a few days I must go againinto the enemy's country, and do not wish to leave my wife, like Mena, tolead the life of a widow during my existence. Why urge it? my brother'swife and children are with you--that might satisfy you. "

"The Gods know how I love them, " answered Setchem; "but your brotherHorns is the younger, and you the elder, to whom the inheritance belongs. Your little niece is a delightful plaything, but in your son I should seeat once the future stay of our race, the future head of the family;brought up to my mind and your father's; for all is sacred to me that mydead husband wished. He rejoiced in your early betrothal to Nefert, andhoped that a son of his eldest son should continue the race of Assa. "

"It shall be by no fault of mine that any wish of his remainsunfulfilled. The stars are high, mother; sleep well, and if to-morrowyou visit Nefert and your sister, say to them that the doors of my houseare open to them. But stay! Katuti's steward has offered to sell a herdof cattle to ours, although the stock on Mena's land can be but small. What does this mean?"

"You know my sister, " replied Setchem. "She manages Mena's possessions, has many requirements, tries to vie with the greatest in splendor, seesthe governor often in her house, her son is no doubt extravagant--and sothe most necessary things may often be wanting. "

Paaker shrugged his shoulders, once more embraced his mother and lefther. 

Soon after, he was standing in the spacious room in which he wasaccustomed to sit and to sleep when he was in Thebes. The walls of thisroom were whitewashed and decorated with pious glyphic writing, whichframed in the door and the windows opening into the garden. 

In the middle of the farther wall was a couch in the form of a lion. Theupper end of it imitated a lion's head, and the foot, its curling tail; afinely dressed lion's skin was spread over the bell, and a headrest ofebony, decorated with pious texts, stood on a high foot-step, ready forthe sleeper. 

Above the bed various costly weapons and whips were elegantly displayed, and below them the seven arrows over which Setchem had read the words"Death to Mena. " They were written across a sentence which enjoinedfeeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, and clothing the naked;with loving-kindness, alike to the great and the humble. 

A niche by the side of the bed-head was closed with a curtain of purplestuff. 

In each corner of the room stood a statue; three of them symbolized thetriad of Thebes-Anion, Muth, and Chunsu--and the fourth the dead fatherof the pioneer. In front of each was a small altar for offerings, with ahollow in it, in which was an odoriferous essence. On a wooden standwere little images of the Gods and amulets in great number, and inseveral painted chests lay the clothes, the ornaments and the papers ofthe master. In the midst of the chamber stood a table and several stool-shaped seats. 

When Paaker entered the room he found it lighted with lamps, and a largedog sprang joyfully to meet him. He let him spring upon him, threw himto the ground, let him once more rush upon him, and then kissed hisclever head. 

Before his bed an old negro of powerful build lay in deep sleep. Paakershoved him with his foot and called to him as he awoke--

"I am hungry. "

The grey-headed black man rose slowly, and left the room. 

As soon as he was alone Paaker drew the philter from his girdle, lookedat it tenderly, and put it in a box, in which there were several flasksof holy oils for sacrifice. He was accustomed every evening to fill thehollows in the altars with fresh essences, and to prostrate himself inprayer before the images of the Gods. To-day he stood before the statueof his father, kissed its feet, and murmured: "Thy will shall be done. --The woman whom thou didst intend for me shall indeed be mine--thy eldestson's. "

Then he walked to and fro and thought over the events of the day. 

At last he stood still, with his arms crossed, and looked defiantly atthe holy images; like a traveller who drives away a false guide, andthinks to find the road by himself. 

His eye fell on the arrows over his bed; he smiled, and striking hisbroad breast with his fist, he exclaimed, "I--I--I--"

His hound, who thought his master meant to call him, rushed up to him. He pushed him off and said--"If you meet a hyaena in the desert, you fallupon it without waiting till it is touched by my lance--and if the Gods, my masters, delay, I myself will defend my right; but thou, " he continuedturning to the image of his father, "thou wilt support me. "

This soliloquy was interrupted by the slaves who brought in his meal. 

Paaker glanced at the various dishes which the cook had prepared for him, and asked: "How often shall I command that not a variety, but only onelarge dish shall be dressed for me? And the wine?"

"Thou art used never to touch it?" answered the old negro. 

"But to-day I wish for some, " said the pioneer. " Bring one of the oldjars of red wine of Kakem. "

The slaves looked at each other in astonishment; the wine was brought, and Paaker emptied beaker after beaker. When the servants had left him, the boldest among them said: "Usually the master eats like a lion, anddrinks like a midge, but to-day--"

"Hold your tongue!" cried his companion, "and come into the court, forPaaker has sent us out beer. The Hathors must have met him. "

The occurrences of the day must indeed have taken deep hold on the inmostsoul of the pioneer; for he, the most sober of all the warriors ofRameses, to whom intoxication was unknown, and who avoided the banquetsof his associates--now sat at the midnight hours, alone at his table, andtoped till his weary head grew heavy. 

He collected himself, went towards his couch and drew the curtain whichconcealed the niche at the head of the bed. A female figure, with thehead-dress and attributes of the Goddess Hathor, made of paintedlimestone, revealed itself. 

Her countenance had the features of the wife of Mena. 

The king, four years since, had ordered a sculptor to execute a sacredimage with the lovely features of the newly-married bride of hischarioteer, and Paaker had succeeded in having a duplicate made. 

He now knelt down on the couch, gazed on the image with moist eyes, looked cautiously around to see if he was alone, leaned forward, presseda kiss to the delicate, cold stone lips; laid down and went to sleepwithout undressing himself, and leaving the lamps to burn themselves out. 

Restless dreams disturbed his spirit, and when the dawn grew grey, hescreamed out, tormented by a hideous vision, so pitifully, that the oldnegro, who had laid himself near the dog at the foot of his bed, sprangup alarmed, and while the dog howled, called him by his name to wake him. 

Paaker awoke with a dull head-ache. The vision which had tormented himstood vividly before his mind, and he endeavored to retain it that hemight summon a haruspex to interpret it. After the morbid fancies of thepreceding evening he felt sad and depressed. 

The morning-hymn rang into his room with a warning voice from the templeof Amon; he cast off evil thoughts, and resolved once more to resign theconduct of his fate to the Gods, and to renounce all the arts of magic. 

As he was accustomed, he got into the bath that was ready for him. Whilesplashing in the tepid water he thought with ever increasing eagerness ofNefert and of the philter which at first he had meant not to offer toher, but which actually was given to her by his hand, and which might bythis time have begun to exercise its charm. 

Love placed rosy pictures--hatred set blood-red images before his eyes. He strove to free himself from the temptations, which more and moretightly closed in upon him, but it was with him as with a man who hasfallen into a bog, who, the more vehemently he tries to escape from themire, sinks the deeper. 

As the sun rose, so rose his vital energy and his self-confidence, andwhen he prepared to quit his dwelling, in his most costly clothing, hehad arrived once more at the decision of the night before, and had againresolved to fight for his purpose, without--and if need were--against theGods. 

The Mohar had chosen his road, and he never turned back when once he hadbegun a journey. 

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

Blossom of the thorny wreath of sorrowEyes kind and frank, without tricks of glanceMoney is a pass-key that turns any lockRepugnance for the old laws began to take root in his heartThou canst say in words what we can only feelWhether the form of our benevolence does more good or mischief