Chapter 48

In the course of those few months, during which Prince Ramses had fulfilled the duties of viceroy of Lower Egypt, his holiness the pharaoh had failed in health continually. The moment was approaching in which the lord of eternity, who roused delight in human hearts, the sovereign of Egypt, and of all lands on which the sun shone, had to occupy a place at the side of his revered ancestors in the Libyan catacombs which lie on the other side of the city Teb.

Not over advanced in age was this potentate, the equal of the gods, he who gave life to his subjects, and had power to take from husbands their wives whenever his heart so desired. But thirty and some years of rule had so wearied him that he wished, of his own accord, to rest and regain youth and beauty in that kingdom of the west, where each pharaoh reigns without care through eternity over people who are so happy that no man of them has ever wished to return to this earth from that region.

Half a year earlier the holy lord had exercised every activity connected with his office, on which rested the safety and prosperity of all visible existence.

Barely had the cocks crowed in the morning when the priests roused the sovereign with a hymn in honor of the rising sun. The pharaoh rose from his bed and bathed in a gilded basin containing water fragrant with roses. Then his divine body was rubbed with priceless perfumes amid the murmur of prayers, which had the power of expelling evil spirits.

Thus purified and incensed by prophets, the lord went to a chapel, removed a clay seal from the door and entered the sanctuary unattended, where on a couch of ivory lay the miraculous image of Osiris. This image bad the wondrous quality that every night the hands, feet and head fall from it. These on a time had been cutoff by the evil god Set; but after the prayer of the pharaoh all the members grew on without evident reason.

When his holiness convinced himself that Osiris was sound again he took the statue from the couch, bathed it, dressed it in precious garments, and putting it on a malachite throne burnt incense before it. This ceremony was vastly important, for if any morning the divine members would not grow together it would signify that Egypt, if not the whole world, was threatened by measureless misfortune.

After the resurrection and restoration of the god, his holiness opened the door of the chapel, so that through it blessings might flow forth to the country. Then he designated the priests, who all that day were to guard the sanctuary, not so much against the ill-will, as the frivolity of people. For more than once it happened that a careless mortal who had gone too near that most holy place received an invisible blow which deprived him of consciousness or of life, even.

After he had finished divine service, the lord went, surrounded by chanting priests to a great hall of refection, where stood a small table and an armchair for him and nineteen other tables before nineteen statues which represented the nineteen preceding dynasties. When the sovereign had seated himself youths and maidens came in with silver plates, on which were meat and cakes, also pitchers of wine. The priest, the inspector of the dishes, tasted what was on the first dish, and what was in the first pitcher, then, on his knees, he gave these to the pharaoh, but the other plates and pitchers were placed before the statues of the pharaoh's ancestors. When the sovereign had satisfied his hunger and left the hall princes or priests had the right to eat food intended for the ancestors.

From the hall of refection the lord betook himself to the grand hall of audience. There the highest dignitaries of state, and the nearest members of the family prostrated themselves before him, after that the minister, Herhor; the chief treasurer, the supreme judge, and the supreme chief of police made reports to him. The reading was varied by religious music and dancing, during which wreaths and flowers were cast on the throne of the pharaoh.

After the audience his holiness betook himself to a side chamber and reposing on a couch slumbered lightly for a time; then he offered wine and incense to the gods, and narrated to the priests his dreams, from which those sages made the final disposition in affairs which his holiness was to settle.

But sometimes, when there were no dreams, or when the interpretation of them seemed inappropriate to the pharaoh, his holiness smiled and commanded kindly to act in this way or that in given cases. This command was law which no one might change except in the execution perhaps of details.

In hours after dinner his holiness, borne in a litter, showed himself in the court to his faithful guard, and then he ascended to the roof and looked toward the four quarters of the earth, to impart to them his blessing. At that moment on the summits of pylons banners appeared, and mighty sounds came from trumpets. Whoso heard these sounds in the city or the country, an Egyptian or a stranger, fell on his face so that a portion of supreme grace might descend on him.

At that moment it was not permitted to strike man, or beast: a stick raised over a man's back dropped of itself. If a criminal sentenced to death, declared that the sentence was read to him at the time when the lord of earth and heaven had appeared, his punishment was lessened. For before the pharaoh went might, and behind him followed mercy.

When he had made his people happy, the ruler of all things beneath the sun entered his gardens among palms and sycamores, there he sat a longer time than elsewhere, receiving homage from his women and looking at the amusements of the children of his household. When one of them arrested his attention by beauty or adroitness he called it up, and made inquiry,

"Who art thou, my little child?"

"I am Prince Binotris, the son of his holiness," answered the little boy.

"And what is thy mother's name?"

"My mother is the lady Ameses, a woman of his holiness."

"What dost Thou know?"

"I know how to count to ten and to write: 'May he live through eternity our god and father, his holiness the pharaoh Ramses!"

The lord of eternity smiled benignly and touched with his delicate, almost transparent, hand the curly head of the sprightly little boy. Then the child became a prince really, though the smile of his holiness was ever enigmatical. But whoso had been touched by the divine hand was not to know misfortune in life and had to be raised above others.

The sovereign dined in another hall of refection and shared his meal with the gods of all the divisions of Egypt, gods whose statues were ranged along the walls there. Whatever the gods did not eat went to the priests and higher court dignitaries.

Toward evening his holiness received a visit from Lady Niort's, the mother to the heir to the throne of Egypt; looked at religious dances and heard a concert. After that he went again to the bath and, thus purified, entered the chapel of Osiris to undress and lay to sleep the marvelous divinity. When he had finished this he closed and sealed the chapel door and then, surrounded by a procession of priests, the pharaoh went to his bed-chamber.

In an adjoining apartment the priests offered up, till the following sunrise, silent prayers to the soul of the pharaoh, which found itself among gods during the sleep of the sovereign. They laid before it their prayers for a favorable transaction of current state business, for guardianship over the boundaries of Egypt, and over the tombs of the pharaohs, so that no thief might dare to enter in and disturb the endless rest of those potentates. But the prayers of the priests, because of night weariness, surely, were not always effectual, for state difficulties increased, and sacred tombs were robbed, not only of costly objects, but even of the mummies of sovereigns.

This was because various foreigners had settled in the country and unbelievers from whom the people learned to disregard the gods of Egypt and the most sacred places.

The repose of the lord of lords was interrupted exactly at midnight. At that hour the astrologers roused his holiness and informed him in what mansion the moon was, what planets were shining above the horizon, what constellations were passing the meridian and whether in general something peculiar had taken place in heavenly regions. For sometimes clouds appeared or stars fell in greater number than usual, or a fiery ball flew over Egypt.

The lord listened to the report of the astrologers. In case of any unusual phenomenon he pacified them concerning the safety of the world, and commanded to write down all observations on appropriate tablets, which were sent every month to priests of the temple of the Sphinx, the greatest sages in Egypt. Those men drew conclusions from those tablets, but the most important they declared to no one, unless to their colleagues the Chaldean priests in Babylon.

After midnight his holiness might sleep till the morning cockcrow if he thought proper.

Such a pious and laborious life had been led, not more than half a year ago, by this kind, divine person, the distributor of protection, life, and health, who watched day and night over the earth and the sky, over the world both visible and invisible. But for the last half year his eternally living soul had begun to be more and more wearied with earthly questions, and with its bodily envelope. There were long days when he ate nothing, and nights during which he had no sleep whatever. Sometimes during an audience, there appeared on his mild face an expression of deep pain, while oftener and oftener, he fainted.

The terrified Queen Niort's, the most worthy Herhor and the priests, asked the sovereign repeatedly whether anything pained him. But the lord shrugged his shoulders, and was silent, fulfilling always his burdensome duties.

Then the court physicians began imperceptibly to give the most powerful remedies to restore strength to him. They mixed in his wine and food at first the ashes of a burnt horse and a bull; later of a lion, a rhinoceros, and an elephant; but these strong remedies seemed to have no effect whatever. His holiness fainted so frequently that they ceased to read reports to him.

On a certain day the worthy Herhor with the queen and the priests, fell on their faces; they implored the lord to permit them to examine his divine body. He consented. The physicians examined and struck him, but found no worse sign than great emaciation.

"What feelings dost Thou experience, holiness?" inquired at last the wisest physician.

The pharaoh smiled.

"I feel," replied he, "that it is time for me to return to my radiant father."

"Thou canst not do that, holiness, without the greatest harm to thy people," said Herhor, hurriedly.

"I leave you my son, Ramses, who is a lion and an eagle in one person. And in truth, if ye will obey him, he will prepare for Egypt such a fate as the world has not heard of since the beginning of ages."

A chill passed through holy Herhor and the other priests at that promise. They knew that the heir to the throne was a lion and an eagle in one person, and that they must obey him. But they would have preferred to have for long years that kindly lord, whose heart, filled with compassion, was like the north wind which brings rain to the fields and coolness to mankind. Therefore they fell down all of them as one man to the pavement, groaning, and they lay prostrate till the pharaoh consented to let himself be treated.

Then the physicians took him out for a whole day to the gardens, among frequent pine-trees, they nourished him with chopped meat; they gave him strong herbs with milk and old wine. These effective means strengthened his holiness for something like a week yet; then a new faintness announced itself, and to overcome that they forced their lord to drink the fresh blood of calves descended from Apes.

But neither did this blood help for a long time, and they found it needful to turn for advice to the high priest of the temple of the wicked god Set.

Amid general fear, the gloomy priest entered the bedchamber of his holiness. He looked at the sick pharaoh and prescribed a dreadful remedy.

"It is needful," said he, "to give the pharaoh blood of innocent children to drink; each day a full goblet."

The priests and magnates in the chamber were dumb when they heard this prescription. Then they whispered that the children of earth-tillers were best for the purpose, since the children of priests and great lords lost their innocence even in infancy.

"It is all one to me whose children they are," said the cruel priest, "if only his holiness has fresh blood given him daily."

The pharaoh, lying on the bed with closed eyes, heard that gory counsel, and the whispers of the frightened courtiers. And when one of the physicians asked Herhor timidly if it were possible to take measures to seek proper children, Ramses XII recovered. He fixed his wise eyes on those present,

"The crocodile will not devour its own little ones," said he, "a jackal or a hyena will give its life for its whelps, and am I to drink the blood of Egyptian infants, who are my children? Indeed, I never could have believed that anyone would dare to prescribe means so unworthy."

The priest of the evil god fell to the pavement, and explained that in Egypt no one had ever drunk the blood of infants but that the infernal powers returned health by it. Such means at least were used in Phoenicia and Assyria.

"Shame on thee!" replied the pharaoh, "for mentioning in the palace of Egyptian sovereigns disgusting subjects. Knowest Thou not that Phoenicians and Assyrians are barbarous? But among us the most unenlightened earth-tiller would not believe that blood, shed without cause, could be of service to any one."

Thus spoke he who was equal to immortals. The courtiers covered their faces, spotted now with shame, and the high priest of Set went silently out of the chamber.

Then Herhor, to save the quenching life of the sovereign, had recourse to the last means, and told the pharaoh that in one of the Theban temples, Beroes, the Chaldean, lived in secret. He was the wisest priest of Babylon a miracle worker without equal.

"For thee, holiness," said Herhor, "that sage is a stranger, and he has not the right to impart such important advice to the lord of Egypt. But, O Pharaoh, permit him to look at thee. I am sure that he will find a medicine to cure thy illness, and in no case will he offend thee by impious expressions."

The pharaoh yielded this time also to persuasions from his faithful servitors. And in two days Beroes, summoned in some mysterious way, was sailing down toward Memphis.

The wise Chaldean, even without examining the pharaoh minutely, gave this counsel,

"We must find a person in Egypt whose prayers reach the throne of the Highest. And if this person prays sincerely for the pharaoh, the sovereign will receive his health and live for long years in strength again."

On hearing these words the pharaoh looked at the priests surrounding him, and said,

"I see here holy men in such numbers that, if one of them thinks of me, I shall be in health again." And he smiled imperceptibly.

"We are all only men," interrupted Beroes; "hence our souls cannot always rise to the footstool of Him who existed before the ages. But, holiness, I will use an infallible method by which to find a man whose prayers have the utmost sincerity, and the highest effect."

"Discover him, so that he may be a friend to me in my last hour of life," said the pharaoh.

After this favorable answer the Chaldean desired a room with a single door, and unoccupied. And that same day, one hour before sunset, he asked that his holiness be borne into that chamber.

At the appointed hour four of the highest priests dressed the pharaoh in a robe of new linen, pronounced a great prayer above him, this prayer expelled every evil power absolutely, and seating him in a litter they bore him to that simple chamber where there was but one small table.

Beroes was there already, and, looking toward the east, was praying.

When the priests had left the chamber the Chaldean closed the heavy door, put a purple scarf on his arm and placed a glass globe of black color on the table before the pharaoh. In his left hand he held a sharp dagger of Babylonian steel, in his right a staff covered with mysterious signs, and with that staff he described in the air a circle about himself and the pharaoh. Then facing in turn the four quarters of the world, he whispered,

"Amorul, Taneha, Latisten, Rabur, Adonay have pity on me and purify me, O heavenly Father, the compassionate and gracious. Pour down on thy unworthy servant thy sacred blessing, and extend thy almighty arm against stubborn and rebellious spirits, so that I may consider thy sacred work calmly."

He stopped and turned to the pharaoh,

"Mer-Amen-Ramses, high priest of Amon, dost Thou distinguish a spark in that black globe?"

"I see a white spark which seems to move like a bee above a flower."

"Mer-Amen-Ramses, look at that spark and take not thy eyes from it. Look neither to the right nor the left, look not on anything whatever which may come from the sides."

And again he whispered,

"Baralanensis, Baldachiensis, by the mighty princes Genio, Lachidae, the ministers of the infernal kingdom, I summon you, I call you through the strength of Supreme Majesty, by which I am gifted, I adjure, I command!"

At that place the pharaoh started up with aversion.

"Mer-Amen-Ramses, what seest thou?" asked the Chaldean.

"From beyond the globe rises some horrid head reddish hair is standing on end; a face of greenish hue; the eye looking down so that only the white of it is visible; the mouth open widely, as if to shriek."

"That is Terror!" cried Beroes, and he held his sharp dagger point above the globe.

Suddenly the pharaoh bent to the earth.

"Enough!" cried he, "why torment me thus? The wearied body seeks rest, the soul longs to be in the region of endless light. But not only will ye not let me die; ye are inventing new torments. Oh, I wish not."

"What dost Thou see?"

"From the ceiling every instant two spider legs lower themselves they are terrible. As thick as palm trunks; shaggy with hooks at the ends of them. I feel that above my head is a spider of immense size, and he is binding me with a web of ship ropes."

Beroes turned his dagger point upward.

"Mer-Amen-Ramses," said he again, "look ever at the spark, and never at the sides. Here is a sign which I raise in thy presence," whispered he. "Here am I mightily armed with Divine aid, I, foreseeing and unterrified, who summon you with exorcisms Aye, Saraye, Aye, Saraye, Aye, Saraye in the name of the all-powerful, the all-mighty and everlasting divinity."

At that moment a calm smile appeared on the lips of the pharaoh.

"It seems to me," said he, "that I behold Egypt all Egypt. Yes! that is the Nile the desert. Here is Memphis, there Thebes."

Indeed he saw Egypt, all Egypt, but no larger than the path which extended through the garden of his palace. The wonderful picture had this trait, that when the Pharaoh turned more deliberate attention to any point of it, that point with its environments grew to be of real size almost.

The sun was going down, covering the earth with golden and purple light. Birds of the daytime were settling to sleep, the night birds were waking up in their concealments. In the desert hyenas and jackals were yawning, and the slumbering lion had begun to stretch his strong body and prepare to hunt victims.

The Nile fisherman drew forth his nets hastily, men were tying up at the shores the great transport barges. The wearied earth-worker removed from the sweep his bucket with which he had drawn water since sunrise; another returned slowly with the plough to his mud hovel. In cities they were lighting lamps, in the temples priests were assembling for evening devotions. On the highways the dust was settling down and the squeak of carts was growing silent. From the pylon summits shrill voices were heard calling people to prayer.

A moment later, the pharaoh saw with astonishment flocks of silvery birds over the earth everywhere. They were flying up out of palaces, temples streets, workshops, Nile barges, country huts, even from the quarries. At first each of them shot upward like an arrow, but soon it met in the sky another silvery feathered bird, which stopped its way, striking it with all force and both fell to the earth lifeless.

Those were the unworthy prayers of men, which prevented each other from reaching the throne of Him who existed before the ages.

The pharaoh strained his hearing. At first only the rustle of wings reached him, but soon he distinguished words also.

And now he heard a sick man praying for the return of his health, and also the physician, who begged that that same patient might be sick as long as possible. The landowner prayed Amon to watch over his granary and cow-house, the thief stretched his hands heavenward so that he might lead forth another man's cow without hindrance, and fill his own bags from another man's harvest.

Their prayers knocked each other down like stones which had been hurled from slings and had met in the air.

The wanderer in the desert fell on the sand and begged for a north wind, to bring a drop of rain to him, the sailor on the sea beat the deck with his forehead and prayed that wind might blow from the east a week longer. The earth-worker wished that swamps might dry up quickly after inundation; the needy fisherman begged that the swamps might not dry up at any time.

Their prayers killed each other and never reached the divine ears of Amon.

The greatest uproar reigned above the quarries where criminals, lashed together in chain gangs, split enormous rocks with wedges, wetted with water. There a party of day convicts prayed for the night, so that they might lie down to slumber; while parties of night toilers, roused by their overseers, beat their breasts, asking that the sun might not set at any hour. Merchants who purchased quarried and dressed stones prayed that there might be as many criminals in the quarries as possible, while provision contractors lay on their stomachs, sighing for the plague to kill laborers, and make their own profits as large as they might be.

So the prayers of men from the quarries did not reach the sky in any case.

On the western boundary the pharaoh saw two armies preparing for battle. Both were prostrate on the sand, calling on Amon to rub out the other side. The Libyans wished shame and death to Egyptians; the Egyptians hurled curses on the Libyans.

The prayers of these and of those, like two flocks of falcons, fought above the earth and fell dead in the desert. Amon did not even see them.

And whithersoever the pharaoh turned his wearied glance he saw the same picture everywhere. The laborers were praying for rest and decrease of taxes, scribes were praying that taxes might increase and work never be finished. The priests implored Amon for long life to Ramses XII and death to Phoenicians, who interfered with their interests; the nomarchs implored the gods to preserve the Phoenicians and let Ramses XIII ascend the throne at the earliest, for he would curb priestly tyranny. Lions, jackals, and hyenas were panting with hunger and desire for fresh blood; deer and rabbits slipped out of hiding-places, thinking to preserve wretched life a day longer, though experience declared that numbers of them must perish, even on that night, so that beasts of prey might not famish. So throughout the whole world reigned cross-purposes everywhere. Each wished that which filled others with terror; each begged for his own good, without asking if he did harm to the next man.

For this cause their prayers, though like silvery birds flying heavenward, did not reach their destination. And the divine Amon, to whom no voice of the earth came at any time, dropped his hands on his knees, and sank ever deeper in meditation over his own divinity, while on the earth blind force and chance ruled without interruption.

All at once the pharaoh heard the voice of a woman, "Rogue! Little rogue! come in, Thou unruly, it is time for prayers."

"This minute! this minute!" answered the voice of the little child.

The sovereign looked toward the point whence the voice came and saw the poor hut of a cattle scribe. The hut owner had finished his register in the light of the setting sun, his wife was grinding flour for a cake, and before the house, like a young kid, was running and jumping the six-year-old little boy, laughing, it was unknown for what reason.

The evening air full of sweetness had given him delight, that was evident.

"Rogue! Little rogue! come here to me for a prayer," repeated the woman.

"This minute! this minute!"

And again he ran with delight as if wild.

At last the mother, seeing that the sun was beginning to sink in the sands of the desert, put away her mill stones, and, going out, seized the boy, who raced around like a little colt. He resisted but gave way to superior force finally. The mother, drawing him to the hut as quickly as possible, held him with her hand so that he might not escape from her.

"Do not twist," said she, "put thy feet under thee, sit upright, put thy hands together and raise them upward. Ah, Thou bad boy!"

The boy knew that he could not escape now; so to be free again as soon as possible he raised his eyes and hands heavenward piously, and with a thin squeaky voice, he said,

"O kind, divine Amon, I thank thee, Thou hast kept my papa today from misfortune, Thou hast given wheat for cakes to my mamma. What more? Thou hast made heaven. I thank thee. And the earth, and sent down the Nile which brings bread to us. And what more? Aha, I know now! And I thank thee because out-of-doors it is so beautiful, and flowers are growing there, and birds singing and the palms give us sweet dates. For these good things which Thou hast given us, may all love thee as I do, and praise thee better than I can, for I am a little boy yet and I have not learned wisdom. Well, is that enough, mamma?"

"Bad boy!" muttered the cattle scribe, bending over his register. "Bad boy! Thou art giving honor to Amon carelessly."

But the pharaoh in that magic globe saw now something altogether different. Behold the prayer of the delighted little boy rose, like a lark, toward the sky, and with fluttering wings it went higher and higher till it reached the throne where the eternal Amon with his hands on his knees was sunk in meditation on his own all-mightiness.

Then it went still higher, as high as the head of the divinity, and sang with the thin, childish little voice to him:

"And for those good things which Thou hast given us may all love thee as I do."

At these words the divinity, sunk in himself, opened his eyes there came to the earth immense calm. Every pain ceased, every fear, every wrong stopped. The whistling missile hung in the air, the lion stopped in his spring on the deer, the stick uplifted did not fall on the back of the captive. The sick man forgot his pains, the wanderer in the desert his hunger, the prisoner his chains. The storm ceased, and the wave of the sea, though ready to drown the ship, halted. And on the whole earth such rest settled down that the sun, just hiding on the horizon, thrust up his shining head again.

The pharaoh recovered. He saw before him a little table, on the table a black globe, at the side of it Beroes the Chaldean.

"Mer-Amen-Ramses," asked the priest, "hast Thou found a person whose prayers reach the footstool of Him who existed before the ages?"

"I have."

"Is he a prince, a noble, a prophet, or perhaps an ordinary hermit?"

"He is a little boy, six years old, who asked Amon for nothing, he only thanked him for everything."

"But dost Thou know where he dwells?" inquired the Chaldean.

"I know, but I will not steal for my own use the virtue of his prayer. The world, Beroes, is a gigantic vortex, in which people are whirled around like sand, and they are whirled by misfortune. That child with his prayer gives people what I cannot give: a brief space of peace and oblivion. Dost understand, O Chaldean?"

Beroes was silent.