Chapter 49

AT sunrise of the twenty-first of Hator there came from Memphis to the camp at the Soda Lakes an order by which three regiments were to march to Libya to stand garrison in the towns, the rest of the Egyptian army was to return home with Ramses.

The army greeted this arrangement with shouts of delight, for a stay of some days in the wilderness had begun to annoy them. In spite of supplies from Egypt and from conquered Libya, there was not an excess of provisions; water in the wells dug out quickly, was exhausted; the heat of the sun burned their bodies, and the ruddy sand wounded their lungs and their eyeballs. The warriors were falling ill of dysentery and a malignant inflammation of the eyelids.

Ramses commanded to raise the camp. He sent three native Egyptian regiments to Libya, commanding the soldiers to treat people mildly and never wander from the camp singly. The army proper he turned toward Memphis, leaving a small garrison at the glass huts and in the fortress.

About nine in the morning, in spite of the heat, both armies were on the road; one going northward, the other toward the south.

The holy Mentezufis approached the heir then, and said,

"It would be well, worthiness, couldst Thou reach Memphis earlier. There will be fresh horses half-way."

"Then my father is very ill?" cried out Ramses.

The priest bent his head.

The prince gave command to Mentezufis, begging him to change in no way commands already made, unless he counseled with lay generals. Taking Pentuer, Tutmosis, and twenty of the best Asiatic horsemen, he went himself on a sharp trot toward Memphis.

In five hours they passed half the journey; at the halt, as Mentezufis had declared, were fresh horses and a new escort. The Asiatics remained at that point, and after a short rest the prince with his two companions and a new escort went farther.

"Woe to me!" said Tutmosis. "It is not enough that for five days I have not bathed and know not rose perfumed oil, but besides I must make in one day two forced marches. I am sure that when we reach Memphis no dancer will look at me."

"What! Art Thou better than we?" asked the prince.

"I am more fragile," said the exquisite. "Thou, prince, art as accustomed to riding as a Hyksos, and Pentuer might travel on a red-hot sword. But I am so delicate."

At sunset the travelers came out on a lofty hill, whence they saw an uncommon picture unfolded before them. For a long distance the green valley of Egypt was visible, on the background of it, like a row of ruddy fires, the triangular pyramids stood gleaming. A little to the right of the pyramids the tops of the Memphis pylons, wrapped in a bluish haze, seemed to be flaming upward.

"Let us go; let us go!" said Ramses.

A moment later the reddish desert surrounded them again, and again the line of pyramids gleamed until all was dissolved in the twilight.

When night fell the travelers had reached that immense district of the dead, which extends for a number of tens of miles on the heights along the left side of the river.

Here during the Ancient Kingdom were buried, for endless ages, Egyptians, the pharaohs in immense pyramids, princes and dignitaries in smaller pyramids, common men in mud structures. Here were resting millions of mummies, not only of people, but of dogs, cats, birds, in a word, all creatures which, while they lived, were dear to Egyptians.

During the time of Ramses, the burial-ground of kings and great persons was transferred to Thebes; in the neighborhood of Memphis were buried only common persons and artisans from regions about there.

Among scattered graves, the prince and his escort met a number of people, pushing about like shadows.

"Who are ye?" asked the leader of the escort.

"We are poor servants of the pharaoh returning from our dead. We took to them roses, cakes, and beer."

"But maybe ye looked into strange graves?"

"O gods!" cried one of the party, "could we commit such a sacrilege? It is only the wicked Thebans may their hands wither! who disturb the dead, so as to drink away their property in dramshops?"

"What mean those fires at the north there?" interrupted the prince.

"It must be, worthiness, that Thou comest from afar if Thou know not," answered they. "Tomorrow our heir is returning with a victorious army. He is a great chief! He conquered the Libyans in one battle. Those are the people of Memphis who have gone out to greet him with solemnity. Thirty thousand persons. When they shout."

"I understand," whispered the prince to Pentuer. "Holy Mentezufis has sent me ahead so that I may not have a triumphal entry. But never mind this time."

The horses were tired, and they had to rest. So the prince sent horsemen to engage barges on the river, and the rest of the escort halted under some palms, which at that time grew between the Sphinx and the group of pyramids.

Those pyramids formed the northern limit of the immense cemetery. On the flat, about a square kilometer in area, overgrown at that time with plants of the desert, were tombs and small pyramids, above which towered the three great pyramids: those of Cheops, Chafre, and Menkere, and the Sphinx. These immense structures stand only a few hundred yards from one another. The three pyramids are in a line from northeast to southwest. East of this line and nearer the Nile is the Sphinx, near whose feet was the underground temple of Horus.

The pyramids, but especially that of Cheops, as a work of human labor, astound by their greatness. This pyramid is a pointed stone mountain; its original height was thirty five stories, or four hundred and eighty-one feet, standing on a square foundation each side of which was seven hundred and fifty-five feet. It occupied a little more than thirteen acres of area, and its four triangular walls would cover twenty acres of land. In building it, such vast numbers of stones were used that it would be possible to build a wall of the height of a man, a wall half a meter thick, and two thousand five hundred kilometers long.

When the attendants of the prince had disposed themselves under the wretched trees, some occupied themselves in finding water; others took out cakes, while Tutmosis dropped to the ground and fell asleep directly. But the prince and Pentuer walked up and down conversing.

The night was clear enough to let them see on one side the immense outline of the pyramids, on the other, the Sphinx, which seemed small in comparison.

"I am here for the fourth time," said the heir, "and my heart is always filled with regret and astonishment. When a pupil in the higher school, I thought that, on ascending the throne, I would build something of more worth than the pyramid of Cheops. But today I am ready to laugh at my insolence when I think that the great pharaoh in building his tomb paid sixteen hundred talents (about ten million francs) for the vegetables alone which were used by the laborers. Where should I find sixteen hundred talents even for wages?"

"Envy not Cheops, lord," replied the priest. "Other pharaohs have left better works behind: lakes, canals, roads, schools, and temples."

"But may we compare those things with the pyramids?"

"Of course not," answered Pentuer, hurriedly. "In my eyes and in the eyes of all the people, each pyramid is a great crime, and that of Cheops, the greatest of all crimes."

"Thou art too much excited," said the prince.

"I am not. The pharaoh was building his immense tomb for thirty years; in the course of those years one hundred thousand people worked three months annually. And what good was there in that work? Whom did it feed, whom did it cure, to whom did it give clothing? At that work from ten to twenty thousand people perished yearly; that is, for the tomb of Cheops a half a million corpses were put into the earth. But the blood, the pain, the tears, who will reckon them?

"Therefore, wonder not, lord, that the Egyptian toiler to this day looks with fear toward the west, when above the horizon the triangular forms of the pyramids seem bloody or crimson. They are witnesses of his sufferings and fruitless labor.

"And to think that this will continue till those proofs of human pride are scattered into dust! But when will that be? For three thousand years those pyramids frighten men with their presence; their walls are smooth yet, and the immense inscriptions on them are legible."

"That night in the desert thy speech was different," interrupted the prince.

"For I was not looking at these. But when they are before my eyes, as at present, I am surrounded by the sobbing spirits of tortured toilers, and they whisper, 'See what they did with us! But our bones felt pain, and our hearts longed for rest from labor.'."

Ramses was touched disagreeably by this outburst. "His holiness, my father," said he, after a while, "presented these things to me differently; when we were here five years ago, the sacred lord told me the following narrative:

"During the reign of the pharaoh Tutmosis I, Ethiopian ambassadors came to negotiate touching the tribute to be paid by them. They were all arrogant people. They said that the loss of one war was nothing, that fate might favor them in a second; and for a couple of months they disputed about tribute.

"In vain did the wise pharaoh, in his wish to enlighten the men mildly, show our roads and canals to them. They replied that in their country they had water for nothing wherever they wanted it. In vain he showed them the treasures of the temples; they said that their country concealed more gold and jewels by far than were possessed by all Egypt. In vain did the lord review his armies before them, for they asserted that Ethiopia had incomparably more warriors' than his holiness.

"The pharaoh brought those people at last to these places where we are standing and showed them those structures.

"The Ethiopian ambassadors went around the pyramids, read the inscriptions, and next day they concluded the treaty required of them.

"Since I did not understand the heart of the matter," continued Ramses, "my holy father explained it.

"'My son,' said he, 'these pyramids are an eternal proof of superhuman power in Egypt. If any man wished to raise to himself a pyramid he would pile up a small heap of stones and abandon his labor after some hours had passed, asking: 'What good is this to me?' Ten, one hundred, one thousand men would pile up a few more stones. They would throw them down without order, and leave the work after a few days, for what good would it be to them?

"'But when a pharaoh of Egypt decides, when the Egyptian state has decided to rear a pile of stones, thousands of legions of men are sent out, and for a number of tens of years they build, till the work is completed. For the question is not this: Are the pyramids needed, but this is the will of the pharaoh to be accomplished, once it is uttered.' So, Pentuer, this pyramid is not the tomb of Cheops, but the will of Cheops, a will which had more men to carry it out than had any king on earth, and which was as orderly and enduring in action as the gods are.

"While I was yet at school they taught me that the will of the people was a great power, the greatest power under the sun. And still the will of the people can raise one stone barely. How great, then, must be the will of the pharaoh who has raised a mountain of stones only because it pleased him, only because he wished thus, even were it without an object."

"Wouldst thou, lord, wish to show thy power in such fashion?" inquired Pentuer, suddenly.

"No," answered the prince, without hesitation. "When the pharaohs have once shown their power, they may be merciful; unless some one should resist their orders."

"And still this young man is only twenty three years of age!" thought the frightened priest.

They turned toward the river and walked some time in silence.

"Lie down, lord," said the priest, after a while; "sleep. We have made no small journey."

"But can I sleep?" answered the prince. "First I am surrounded by those legions of laborers who, according to thy view, perished in building the pyramids Just as if they could have lived forever had they not raised those structures! Then, again, I think of his holiness, my father, who is dying, perhaps, at this very moment. Common men suffer, common men spill their blood! Who will prove to me that my divine father is not tortured more on his costly bed than thy toilers who are carrying heated stones to a building?

"Laborers, always laborers! For thee, O priest, only he deserves compassion who bites lice. A whole series of pharaohs have gone into their graves; some died in torments, some were killed. But Thou thinkest not of them; Thou thinkest only of those whose service is that they begot other toilers who dipped up muddy water from the Nile, or thrust barley balls into the mouths of their milch cows.

"But my father and I? Was not my son slain, and also a woman of my household? Was Typhon compassionate to me in the desert? Do not my bones ache after a long journey? Do not missiles from Libyan slings whistle over my head? Have I a treaty with sickness, with pain, or with death, that they should be kinder to me than to thy toilers?

"Look there: the Asiatics are sleeping, and quiet has taken possession of their breasts; but I, their lord, have a heart full of yesterday's cares, and of fears for the morrow. Ask a toiling man of a hundred years whether in all his life he had as much sorrow as I have had during my power of a few months as commander and viceroy."

Before them rose slowly from the depth of the night a wonderful shade. It was an object fifty yards long and as high as a house of three stories, having at its side, as it were, a five-storied tower of uncommon structure.

"Here is the Sphinx," said the irritated prince, "purely priests' work! Whenever I see this, in the day or the night time, the question always tortures me: What is this, and what is the use of it? The pyramids I understand: Almighty pharaoh wished to show his power, and, perhaps, which was wiser, wished to secure eternal life which no thief or enemy might take from him. Drat this Sphinx! Evidently that is our sacred priestly order, which has a very large, wise head and lion's claws beneath it.

"This repulsive statue, full of double meaning, which seems to exult because we appear like locusts when we stand near it, it is neither a man nor a beast nor a rock What is it, then? What is its meaning? Or that smile which it has If Thou admire the everlasting endurance of the pyramids, it smiles; if Thou go past to converse with the tombs, it smiles. Whether the fields of Egypt are green, or Typhon lets loose his fiery steeds, or the slave seeks his freedom in the desert, or Ramses the Great drives conquered nations before him, it has for all one and the same changeless smile. Nineteen dynasties have passed like shadows; but it smiles on and would smile even were the Nile to grow dry, and were Egypt to disappear under sand fields.

"Is not that monster the more dreadful that it has a mild human visage? Lasting itself throughout ages, it has never known grief over life, which is fleeting and filled with anguish."

"Dost Thou not remember, lord, the 'faces of the gods," interrupted Pentuer, "or hast Thou not seen mummies? All immortals look on transient things with the selfsame indifference. Even man does when nearing the end of his earth-life."

"The gods hear our prayers sometimes, but the Sphinx never moves. No compassion on that face, a mere gigantic jeering terror. If I knew that in its mouth were hidden some prophecy for me, or some means to elevate Egypt, I should not dare to put a question. It seems to me that I should hear some awful answer uttered with unpitying calmness. This is the work and the image of the priesthood. It is worse than man, for it has a lion's body; it is worse than a beast, for it has a human head; it is worse than stone, for inexplicable life is contained in it."

At that moment groaning and muffled voices reached them, the source of which they could not determine.

"Is the Sphinx singing?" inquired the astonished prince.

"That singing is in the underground temple," replied Pentuer. "But why are they praying at this night hour?"

"Ask rather why they pray at all, since no one hears them."

Pentuer took the direction at once and went toward the place of the singing. The prince found some stone for a support and sat down wearied. He put his hands behind him, leaned back, and looked into the immense face before him.

In spite of the lack of light, the superhuman features were clearly visible; just the shade added life and character. The more the prince gazed into that face, the more powerfully he felt that he had been prejudiced, that his dislike was unreasonable.

On the face of the Sphinx, there was no cruelty, but rather resignation. In its smile there was no jeering, but rather sadness. It did not feel the wretchedness and fleeting nature of mankind, for it did not see them. Its eyes, filled with expression, were fixed somewhere beyond the Nile, beyond the horizon, toward regions concealed from human sight beneath the vault of heaven. Was it watching the disturbing growth of the Assyrian monarchy? Or the impudent activity of Phoenicia? Or the birth of Greece, or events, perhaps, which were preparing on the Jordan? Who could answer?

The prince was sure of one thing, that it was gazing, thinking, waiting for something with a calm smile worthy of supernatural existence. And, moreover, it seemed to him that if that something appeared on the horizon, the Sphinx would rise up and go to meet it.

What was that to be, and when would it come? This was a mystery the significance of which was depicted expressly on the face of that creature which had existed for ages. But it would of necessity take place on a sudden, since the Sphinx had not closed its eyes for one instant during millenniums, and was gazing, gazing, always.

Meanwhile Pentuer found a window through which came from the underground temple pensive hymns of the priestly chorus:

Chorus I. "Rise, as radiant as Isis, rise as Sotis rises on the firmament in the morning at the beginning of the established year."

Chorus II. "The god Amon-Ra was on my right and on my left. He himself gave into my hands dominion over all the world, thus causing the downfall of my enemies."

Chorus I. "Thou wert still young, Thou wert wearing braided hair, but in Egypt naught was done save at thy command no corner-stone was laid for an edifice unless Thou wert present."

Chorus II. "I came to Thee, ruler of the gods, great god, lord of the sun. Turn promises that the sun will appear, and that I shall be like him, and the Nile; that I shall reach the throne of Osiris, and shall possess it forever."

Chorus I. "Thou hast returned in peace, respected by the gods, O ruler of both worlds, Ra-Mer-Amen-Ramses. I assure to thee unbroken rule; kings will come to thee to pay tribute."

Chorus II. "O thou, Thou Osiris-Ramses! ever-living son of heaven, born of the goddess Nut, may thy mother surround thee with the mystery of heaven, and permit that Thou become a god, O thou, O Osiris-Ramses." [Tomb inscriptions]

"So then the holy father is dead," said Pentuer to himself.

He left the window and approached the place where the heir was sitting, sunk in imaginings.

The priest knelt before him, fell on his face, and exclaimed:

"Be greeted, O pharaoh, ruler of the world!"

"What dost Thou say?" cried the prince, springing up.

"May the One, the All-Powerful, pour down on thee wisdom and strength, and happiness on thy people."

"Rise, Pentuer! Then I then I."

Suddenly he took the arm of the priest and turned toward the Sphinx.

"Look at it," said he.

But neither in the face nor in the posture of the colossus was there any change. One pharaoh had stepped over the threshold of eternity; another rose up like the sun, but the stone face of the god or the monster was the same precisely. On its lips was a gentle smile for earthly power and glory; in its glance there was a waiting for something which was to come, but when no one knew.

Soon the messengers returned from the ferry with information that boats would be waiting there.

Pentuer went among the palms, and cried,

"Wake! wake!"

The watchful Asiatics sprang up at once, and began to bridle their horses. Tutmosis also rose, and yawned with a grimace.

"Brr!" grumbled he, "what cold! Sleep is a good thing! I barely dozed a little, and now I am able to go even to the end of the world, even again to the Soda Lakes. Brr! I have forgotten the taste of wine, and it seems to me that my hands are becoming covered with hair, like the paws of a jackal. And it is two hours to 'the palace yet.

"Happy are common men! One ragged rogue sleeps after another and feels no need of washing: he will not go to work till his wife brings a barley cake; while I, a great lord, must wander about, like a thief in the night, through the desert, without a drop of water to put to my lips."

The horses were ready, and Ramses mounted his own. Pentuer approached, took the bridle of the ruler's steed, and led, going himself on foot.

"What is this?" inquired the astonished Tutmosis.

He bethought himself quickly, ran up, and took Ramses' horse by the bridle on the other side. And so all advanced in silence, astonished at the bearing of the priest, though they felt that something important had happened.

After a few hundred steps the desert ceased, and a highroad through the field lay before the travelers.

"Mount your horses," said Ramses; "we must hurry."

"His holiness commands you to sit on your horses," cried Pentuer.

All were amazed. But Tutmosis recovered quickly, and placed his hand on his sword-hilt.

"May he live through eternity, our all-powerful and gracious leader Ramses!" shouted the adjutant.

"May he live through eternity!" howled the Asiatics, shaking their weapons.

"I thank you, my faithful warriors," answered their lord.

A moment later the mounted party was hastening toward the river.