Chapter 24

RAMSES saw now that either he would not carry out the commands of the pharaoh or that he must yield to the will of the priesthood; this filled him with dislike and anger. Hence he did not hurry toward the secrets hidden in temples. He had time yet for fasting and devotional exercises; so he took part all the more zealously in feasts which were given in his honor.

Tutmosis, a master in every amusement, had just returned, and brought the prince pleasant news from Sarah. She was in good health and looked well, which concerned Ramses less at that time. But the priests gave such a horoscope to the coming child that the prince was delighted.

They assured him that the child would be a son, greatly gifted by the gods, and if his father loved him he would during life obtain high honor.

The prince laughed at the second part of this prediction. "Their wisdom is wonderful," said he to Tutmosis. "They know that it will be a son, while I, its father, do not know; and they doubt whether I shall love it, though it is easy to divine that I shall love the child even should it be a daughter. And as to honor for it, let them be at rest; I will occupy myself with that question."

In the month Pachons (January, February) the heir passed through the province of Ka, where he was received by the nomarch Sofra. The city of Anu lay about seven hours of a foot journey from Atribis, but the prince was three days on this journey. At thought of the fasts and prayers which were awaiting him during initiation into temple secrets, Ramses felt a growing wish for amusements. His retinue divined this; hence pleasure followed pleasure.

Again, on the road over which he traveled to Atribis, appeared throngs of people with shouts, flowers, and music. The enthusiasm reached its height at the city. It even happened that a certain gigantic laborer threw himself under the chariot of the viceroy. But when Ramses held in the horses, a number of young women stepped forth from the crowd and wreathed the whole chariot with flowers.

"Still they love me!" thought the prince.

In the province of Ka he did not ask the nomarch about the income of the pharaoh, he did not visit factories, he did not command to read reports to him; he knew that he would understand nothing, so he deferred those occupations till the time of his initiation. But once, when he saw that the temple of the god Sebak stood on a lofty eminence, he desired to ascend the pylon and examine the surrounding country.

The worthy Sofra accomplished at once the will of the heir, who, when he found himself on the summit of the pylon, passed a couple of hours with great delight there.

The province of Ka was a fertile plain. A number of canals and branches of the Nile passed through it in every direction, like a network of silver and lapis lazuli. Melons and wheat sown in November were ripening. On the fields were crowds of naked people who were gathering cucumbers or planting cotton. The land was covered with small buildings which at points were close together and formed villages.

Most of the dwellings, especially those in the fields, were mud huts covered with straw and palm leaves. In the towns the houses were walled, had flat roofs, and looked like white cubes with holes in places where there were doors and windows. Very often on such a cube was another somewhat smaller, and on that a third still smaller, and each story was painted a different color. Under the fiery sun of Egypt those houses looked like great pearls, sapphires, and rubies, scattered about on the green of the fields, and surrounded by palms and acacias.

From that place Ramses saw a phenomenon which arrested his attention. Near the temples the houses were more beautiful, and more people were moving in the fields about them.

"The lands of the priests are the most valuable," thought he; and once again he ran over with his eyes the temples great and small, of which he saw between ten and twenty from the pylon.

But since he had agreed with Herhor, and needed the services of the priesthood, he did not care to occupy himself longer with that problem.

In the course of the following days the worthy Sofra arranged a series of hunts for Ramses, setting out toward the east from Atribis. Around the canals they shot birds with arrows; some they snared in an immense net trap which took in a number of tens of them, or they let out falcons against those which were flying at freedom. When the prince's retinue entered the eastern desert, great hunts began with dogs and panthers against wild beasts. Of these they killed and seized, in the course of some days, a couple of hundred.

When the worthy Sofra noticed that the prince had had enough of amusement in the open air and of company intents, he ceased hunting and brought his guest by the shortest road to Atribis.

They arrived about four hours after midday, and the nomarch invited all to a feast in his palace.

He conducted the prince to a bath, he assisted at the bathing, and brought out from his own chest perfumes wherewith to anoint Ramses. Then he oversaw the barber who arranged the viceroy's hair; next he kneeled down on the pavement and implored the prince to accept new robes from him.

These were a newly woven tunic covered with embroidery, a skirt worked with pearls, and a mantle interwoven with gold very thickly, but so delicate that it could be held between a man's ten fingers.

The heir accepted this graciously, declaring that he had never received a gift of such beauty.

The sun set, and the nomarch conducted the prince to the hall of entertainment.

It was a large court surrounded by columns and paved with mosaic. All the walls were covered with paintings representing scenes in the lives of the ancestors of Sofra; hence expeditions by sea, hunts, and battles. Over the space, instead of a roof, was a giant butterfly with many-colored wings which were moved by hidden slaves to freshen the atmosphere. In bronze holders fastened to the columns blazed bright tapers which gave out smoke with fragrance.

The hall was divided into two parts: one was empty, the other filled with chairs and small tables for guests. Aside in the second part rose a platform on which, under a costly tent with raised sides, was a table and a couch for Ramses.

At each small table were great vases with palms, acacias, and fig- trees. The table of the heir was surrounded with plants having needle- like leaves; these filled the space round about with the odor of balsam.

The assembled guests greeted the prince with a joyful shout, and when Ramses occupied his place beneath a baldachin whence there was a view of the court, his retinue sat down at the tables.

Harps sounded, and ladies entered in rich muslin robes with open bosoms; precious stones were glittering upon their persons. Four of the most beautiful surrounded Ramses; the others sat near the dignitaries of his retinue.

In the air was the fragrance of roses, lilies of the valley, and violets; the prince felt the throbbing of his temples.

Slaves, male and female, in white, rose-colored, and blue tunics, brought in cakes, roasted birds, and game, fish, wine, fruits, also garlands of flowers with which the guests crowned themselves. The immense butterfly moved its wings more and more quickly, and in the unoccupied part of the court was a spectacle. In turn appeared dancers, gymnasts, buffoons, performers of tricks, swordsmen; when any one gave an unusual proof of dexterity, the spectators threw to him gold rings or flowers from their garlands.

The feast lasted some hours, interspersedwith shouts of guests wishing happiness to the prince, and to the nomarch and his family.

Ramses, who was in a reclining position on a couch covered with a lion's skin which had golden claws, was served by four ladies. One fanned him; another changed the garland on his head; the other two offered food to him. Toward the end of the feast the one with whom the prince talked with most willingness brought a goblet of wine. Ramses drank half, and gave the remainder to the woman; when she had drunk that half, he kissed her lips.

Slaves quenched the torches then quickly, the butterfly ceased to move its wings, there was night in the court, and silence interrupted by the nervous laughter of women.

All on a sudden the quick tramping of people was heard and a terrible shouting.

"Let me in!" cried a hoarse voice. "Where is the heir? Where is the viceroy?"

There was a dreadful disturbance in the hall. Women were terrified; men called out,

"What is it? An attack on the heir! Hei, guards!"

The sound of broken dishes was heard, and the rattle of chairs.

"Where is the heir?" bellowed the stranger.

"Guards! Defend the life of the heir!" shouted men in the courtyard.

"Light the torches!" called the youthful voice of the heir. "Who is looking for me? Here I am!"

Torches were brought. In the hall were piles of overturned and broken furniture behind which guests were in hiding. On the platform the prince tore away from the women, who screamed while they held to his legs and arms firmly. Near the prince was Tutmosis, his wig torn, a bronze pitcher in his hand with which he was ready to open the head of any one who dared to go nearer the viceroy. At the door of the hall appeared warriors with swords drawn for action.

"What is this? Who is here?" cried the terrified nomarch.

At last they beheld the author of the disturbance, a gigantic man, naked, and mud-covered. He had bloody stripes on his shoulders; he was kneeling on the steps of the platform and stretching his hands toward Ramses.

"This is the murderer," shouted the nomarch. "Seize him!"

Tutmosis raised his pitcher; soldiers rushed up from the door. The wounded man fell with his face to the steps, crying,

"Have mercy, sun of Egypt!"

The soldiers were ready to seize him when Ramses pulled himself free of the women and approached the unfortunate giant.

"Touch him not!" cried Ramses to the warriors. "What dost Thou wish, man?"

"I wish, lord, to tell thee of the wrongs which we suffer."

At that moment the nomarch stepped up to the viceroy and whispered,

"This is a Hyksos. Look, worthiness, at his shaggy hair and his beard. But the insolence with which he burst in proves that the criminal is not a genuine Egyptian."

"Who art thou?" asked Ramses.

"I am Bakura, a laborer in the regiment of diggers in Sochem. We have no work now, so the nomarch Otoes commanded us."

"He is a drunkard and a madman!" whispered the excited Sofra. "How dares he speak to thee, lord."

The prince gave such a look to the nomarch that he bent double and moved backward.

"What did the worthy Otoes command you the workers?" asked the viceroy of Bakura.

"He commanded us, lord, to go along the bank of the Nile, swim in the river, stand at the roads, make an uproar in thy honor, and he promised to give us what was proper for doing so. For two months before that, we, O lord, received nothing, neither barley cakes, nor fish, nor olive oil for our bodies."

"What is thy answer to this, worthy lord?" asked the prince of the nomarch.

"He is a dangerous drunkard, a foul liar," answered Sofra.

"What noise didst Thou make in my honor?"

"That which was commanded," said the giant. "My wife and daughter cried with the others, 'May he live through eternity!' I sprang into the water and threw a garland at thy barge, worthiness; for this they promised an uten. When Thou wert pleased graciously to enter the city of Atribis, I approached to throw myself under the horses and stop thy chariot."

The prince laughed.

"As I live," said he, "I did not think that we should end the feast with such joyousness. But how much did they pay thee for falling under the chariot?"

"They promised three utens, but have paid nothing to me or my wife or my daughter. Nothing has been given to the whole regiment of diggers to eat for two months past."

"On what do ye live then?"

"On begging, or on that which we earn from some earthworker. In this sore distress we revolted three times, and desired to go home. But the officers and scribes either promised to give something or commanded to beat us."

"For the noise made in my honor?" put in the prince, laughing.

"Thy worthiness speaks truth. Yesterday the revolt was greatest, for which the worthy nomarch Sofra gave command to take the tenth man. Every tenth man was clubbed, and I got the most, for I am big and have three mouths to feed, my own, my wife's, and my daughter's. When I was clubbed I broke away from them to fall down, O lord, in thy presence, and tell thee our sorrows. Beat us if we are guilty, but let the scribes give us that which is due, for we are dying of hunger, we, our wives, and our children."

"This man is possessed!" exclaimed Sofra. "Be pleased, lord, to see the damage he has wrought here. I would not take ten talents for those dishes, pitchers, and tables."

Among the guests, who now were recovering their senses, a muttering began.

"This is a bandit!" said they. "Look at him, really a Hyksos. Boiling up in him is the cursed blood of his ancestors, the men who invaded and ruined Egypt. Such costly furniture, such splendid vessels, broken into fragments!"

"The loss caused the state by one rebellion of unpaid laborers is greater than the value of these vessels," said Ramses.

"Sacred words! They should be written on monuments," said some among the guests. "Rebellion takes people from their labor and grieves the heart of his holiness. It is not proper that laborers should be unpaid for two months in succession."

The prince looked with contempt on those courtiers, changeable as clouds; he turned then to the nomarch.

"I give thee," said he, threateningly, "this punished man. I am certain that a hair of his head will not fall from him. Tomorrow morning I wish to see the regiment to which he belongs and learn whether he speaks truth or falsehood."

After these words Ramses went out, leaving the nomarch and the guests in vexation.

Next morning the prince, while dressing with the aid of Tutmosis, asked him,

"Have the laborers come?"

"They have, lord; they have been waiting for thy commands since daybreak."

"And is that man Bakura among them?"

Tutmosis made a wry face and answered,

"A marvelous thing has happened. The worthy Sofra gave command to shut the fellow up in an empty cellar of the palace. Well, the disorderly rascal, a very strong man, broke the door to another place where there is wine; he overturned a number of pots of very costly wine, and got so drunk that."

"That what?" asked the prince.

"That he perished."

The prince sprang up from his chair.

"And dost them believe that he drank himself to death?"

"I must believe, for I have no proof that they killed him."

"But if I look for proof?" burst out the prince.

He ran through the room, and snorted like an angry lion. When he was somewhat quieted, Tutmosis added,

"Seek not for proof where it is not to be discovered, for Thou wilt not find even witnesses. If any man strangled that laborer at command of the nomarch, he will not confess; the laborer himself is dead, and will not say anything; besides, what would his complaint against the nomarch amount to? In these conditions no court would begin to investigate."

"But if I command?" asked the viceroy.

"In that case they will investigate and prove the innocence of Sofra. Then Thou wilt be put to shame, and all the nomarchs with their relatives and servants will become thy enemies."

The prince stood in the middle of the chamber and pondered.

"Finally," said Tutmosis, "everything seems to show this, that the unfortunate Bakura was a drunkard or a maniac, and, above all, a man of foreign blood. If a genuine Egyptian in his senses were to go without pay for a year, and be clubbed twice as much as this man, would he dare to break into the palace of the nomarch and appeal to thee with such an outcry?"

Ramses bent his head, and seeing that there were nobles in the next chamber, he said in a voice somewhat lowered,

"Knowest thou, Tutmosis, since I set out on this journey Egypt begins to appear somehow strange to me? At times I ask my own self if I am not in some foreign region. Then again my heart is disturbed, as if I had a curtain before me, behind which all kinds of villainy are practiced, but which I myself cannot see with my own eyes."

"Then do not look at them; for if Thou do, it will seem at last to thee that we should all be sent to the quarries," said Tutmosis, smiling. "Remember that the nomarchs and officials are the shepherds of thy flock. If one of them takes a measure of milk for himself, or kills a little sheep, of course Thou wilt not kill him or drive the man away. Thou hast many sheep, and it is not easy to find shepherds."

The viceroy, now dressed, passed into the hall of waiting, where his suite stood assembled, priests, officers, and officials. Then he left the palace with them, and went to the outer courtyard.

That was a broad space, planted with acacias, under the shade of which the laborers were waiting for the viceroy. At the sound of a trumpet the whole crowd sprang up, and stood in five ranks before him.

Ramses, attended by a glittering retinue of dignitaries, halted suddenly, wishing, first of all, to look at the regiment from a distance. The men were naked, each with a white cap on his head, and girt about the hips with stuff like that of which the cap was made. In the ranks Ramses could distinguish easily the brown Egyptian, the negro, the yellow Asiatic, the white inhabitants of Libya, and also the Mediterranean islands.

In the first rank stood workers with pickaxes, in the second those with mattocks, in the third those with shovels. The fourth rank was composed of carriers, of whom each had a pole and two buckets; the fifth was also of carriers, but with large boxes borne by two men. These last carried earth freshly dug.

In front of the ranks, some yards distant, stood the overseers; each held a long stick in his hand, and either a large wooden circle or a square measure.

When the prince approached them, they cried in a chorus,

"Live Thou through eternity!" and kneeling, they struck the earth with their foreheads. The heir commanded them to rise, and surveyed them again with attention.

They were healthy, strong persons, not looking in the least like men who had lived two months on begging.

Sofra with his retinue approached the prince. But Ramses, feigning not to see him, turned to one of the overseers,

"Are ye earth-tillers from Sochem?" inquired he.

The overseer fell at full length with his face to the earth.

The prince shrugged his shoulders, and called out to the laborers,

"Are ye from Sochem?"

"We are earth workers from Sochem," answered they, in chorus.

"Have ye received pay?"

"We have received pay; we are sated and happy servants of his holiness," answered the chorus, giving out each word with emphasis.

"Turn around!" commanded the prince.

They turned. It is true that each had frequent and deep scars from the club, but no fresh stripes on their bodies.

"They are deceiving me," thought the heir.

He commanded the laborers to go to their barracks, and, without greeting the nomarch or taking leave of him, he returned to the palace.

"Wilt thou, too, tell me," said he to Tutmosis on the road, "that those men are laborers from Sochem?"

"But they say that they are, they themselves give answer," replied the courtier.

Ramses gave command to bring his horse, and he rode to the army encamped beyond the city. He reviewed the regiments all day. About noon, on the field of exercise, appeared, at command of the nomarch, some tens of carriers with food and wine, tents and furniture. But the prince sent them back to Atribis; and when the hour came for army food, he commanded to serve that to him; so he ate dried meat with oat cakes.

These were the mercenary regiments of Libya. When the prince ordered them to lay aside arms in the evening, and took farewell of the men, it seemed as though the soldiers and officers had yielded to madness. Shouting "May he live through eternity!" they kissed his hands and feet, made a litter of their spears and mantles, and bore him to the city, disputing on the way with one another for the honor of carrying the heir on their shoulders.

The nomarch and the officials of the province were frightened, when they saw the enthusiasm of the Libyans, and the favor which the heir showed barbarians.

"Here is a ruler!" whispered the chief secretary to Sofra. "If he wished, those people would kill us and our children."

The troubled nomarch sighed to the gods, and commended himself to their gracious protection.

Late at night Ramses found himself in his own palace, and there the servants told him that another bedchamber had been given him.

"Why is this?"

"Because in the first chamber people saw a poisonous serpent, which hid, and no one could find it."

In a wing near the house of the nomarch was a new sleeping chamber, a four-cornered room, surrounded by columns on all sides. Its walls were of alabaster, covered with painted bas-reliefs; below were plants in vases; higher up garlands of olive and laurel.

Almost in the centre of the room stood a great bed inlaid with ebony, gold, and ivory. The chamber was lighted by two fragrant tapers; under the colonnade were small tables with wine, food, and garlands of roses. In the ceiling was a large quadrangular opening covered with linen.

The prince bathed and lay on the soft bed; his servants went to remote chambers. The tapers were burning out; cool air filled with the odor of flowers moved in the chamber. At the same time low music from harps was heard above him.

Ramses raised his head. The linen canopy of the chamber slipped to one side, and through the opening he saw the constellation Leo, and in it the brilliant star Regulus. The music of harps became louder.

"Are the gods preparing to make me a visit?" thought the viceroy, with a smile.

In the opening of the ceiling shone a broad streak of light; it was powerful but tempered. A moment later a litter appeared in the form of a golden boat, bearing a small arbor with flowers in it; the pillars of the arbor were entwined with garlands of roses, the top of it covered with lotuses and violets.

On ropes, entwined with green, the golden boat descended to the chamber in silence. It stopped on the pavement, and from beneath the flowers came forth a naked maiden of unparalleled beauty. Her body had the smoothness of marble; from her amber-like waves of hair came an intoxicating odor.

The maiden stepped from the litter and knelt before Ramses.

"Art Thou the daughter of Sofra?" asked he.

"Thou speakest truth, Lord Ramses."

"And still Thou hast come to me!"

"To implore thee to pardon my father. He is unhappy; since midday he has been shedding tears and covering his head with ashes."

"And if I would not forgive him, wouldst Thou leave me?"

"No," whispered she.

Ramses drew her toward him and kissed her with passion. His eyes flashed.

"For this I forgive him."

"Oh, how good Thou art!" cried she, nestling up to Ramses; then she added with sweetness,

"Wilt Thou command a reward for the damages done by that mad laborer?"

"I will command."

"And wilt Thou take me to thy household?"

Ramses looked at her.

"I will take thee, for Thou art a beauty."

"Really?" asked she, putting her arm around his neck. "Look at me better. Among the beauties of Egypt I hold only the fourth place."

"What does that mean?"

"In Memphis, or near there, dwells thy first; happily she is only a Jewess! In Sochem is the second."

"I know nothing of that one," interrupted Ramses.

"Oh, Thou dove! Then surely Thou knowest nothing of the third one in Ami."

"Does she too belong to my household?"

"Ungrateful!" cried the girl, striking him with a lotus flower. "Thou wouldst be ready to say the same of me a month hence. But I will not let myself be injured."

"Like thy father."

"Hast Thou not forgotten him yet? Remember that I will go-"

"Stay, stay!"

Next day the viceroy was pleased to receive homage and a feast from Sofra. He praised in public the nomarch's government of the province, and to reward him for the damages caused by the drunken laborer, Ramses presented him with one-half of the furniture and vessels presented in Anu.

The second half of those gifts was taken by the beautiful Abeb, daughter of the nomarch, as lady of the court. Besides, she commanded that five talents be given her from the treasury of the viceroy, for clothes, slaves, and horses.

In the evening the prince, while yawning, spoke thus to Tutmosis,

"His holiness my father gave me a great lesson when he said that women are very costly."

"The position is worse when there are no women," replied the exquisite.

"But I have four, and I do not even know clearly how. I might give thee two of them."

"And Sarah?"

"Not her, especially if she has a son."

"If Thou wilt assign a good dowry, husbands will be found for those charmers most easily."

The prince yawned a second time.

"I do not like to hear of dowries," said he. "Aaa! What luck, that I shall tear away from thee and settle among the priests!"

"Wilt Thou indeed?"

"I must. At last I shall learn of them why the pharaohs are growing poorer. Well, I shall sleep."