Chapter 60

MEANWHILE Pentuer made ready to revisit Lower Egypt and find on the one hand thirteen delegates from among land-tillers and artisans for the pharaoh, and on the other to encourage the working population to demand the relief which the new sovereign had promised, for according to his conviction the greatest question for Egypt was to abolish the injustice and the abuses to which the toiling people were subject.

Still, Pentuer was a priest, and not only did he not desire the fall of his order, but he did not even wish to break the bonds which connected him with it. Hence to emphasize his loyalty he went to take farewell of Herhor.

The once mighty dignitary received him with a smile.

"A rare guest a rare guest!" exclaimed he. "Since Thou hadst the desire to become the counselor of his holiness Thou dost not show thyself before me. True, Thou art not the only one! But whatever happens, I shall not forget thy services, wert Thou even to avoid me still more than at present."

"Worthiness, I am not a counselor of our lord, nor do I avoid thee to whose favor I am indebted for what I am today."

"I know, I know!" answered Herhor. "Thou hast refused the high dignity so as not to work to the destruction of the temples. I know, I know! though perhaps it is to be regretted that Thou hast not become the adviser of that giddy milksop, who, as it were, governs us. To a certainty Thou wouldst not have suffered him to surround himself with those traitors who are ruining him."

Pentuer, not wishing to speak of such ticklish subjects, told Herhor why he was going to Lower Egypt.

"Very well," answered Herhor, "let Ramses XIII call an assembly of all the orders. He has a right to call it."

"But," he added suddenly, "I am sorry that Thou art involved in such labor. Great changes have taken place in thee. Thou rememberest thy words to my adjutant during those maneuvers in Pi-Bailos? I will remind thee: Thou didst tell him that it was necessary to limit the abuses and license of the pharaohs. But today Thou art supporting the childish pretensions of the greatest profligate ever known to Egypt."

"Ramses XIII," said Pentuer, interrupting, "wishes to improve the lot of common people. I should be stupid and mean, therefore, were I, the son of earth-tillers, not to serve him in this question."

"But Thou dost not ask whether that would not injure us, the priesthood."

Pentuer was astonished.

"But Thou thyself givest great relief to common men belonging to the temple," said he. "I have, besides, thy permission."

"What? Which?" inquired Herhor.

"Recall, worthiness, that night when we greeted Beroes. Mefres declared at that time that Egypt had fallen because the priestly order was lowered, while I asserted that the misery of the people was the cause of the suffering of the State, to which thou, so far as I remember, didst answer: Let Mefres occupy himself with bettering the priesthood, Pentuer in improving the lot of common people, while I will avoid destructive war between Egypt and Assyria."

"Well, dost Thou see," interrupted the high priest, "it is thy duty to act with us, not with Ramses."

"Does he wish war with Assyria," replied Pentuer, energetically, "or does he hinder priests from acquiring wisdom? He wishes to give the people every seventh day for rest, and later to give each family of earth-workers a small bit of land for subsistence. Do not tell me, worthiness, that the pharaoh wishes evil, for it has been verified on temple ground that a free man who has his own patch of earth labors incomparably better than one without freedom."

"I am not opposed to relieving common people," said Herhor, "but I am convinced that Ramses will do nothing for them."

"Surely not if you refuse him money."

"Even were we to give him a pyramid of gold and silver, and another of precious stones, he would do nothing that is a mad stripling whom the Assyrian ambassador, Sargon, never mentioned otherwise than as a frivolous youngster."

"The pharaoh has great capabilities."

"But he has no knowledge, and no skill," replied Herhor. "He barely visited the high school a little and left it at the earliest. Hence, today, in affairs of state he is like a blind person; he is like a child which puts out pieces boldly on a board, but has no idea how to play at draughts."

"Still he governs."

"Oh, Pentuer, what is his government?" interrupted the high priest, with laughter. "He has opened new military schools, he has increased the number of regiments, he is arming the whole people, he has promised holidays to working men. But how will he carry out his projects? Thou keepest far from him, hence knowest nothing; but I assure thee that he, when issuing orders, never stops to ask: Who will carry out this? What are the means? What will follow? It seems to thee that he governs. It is I who govern, I govern all the time, I, whom he dismissed. I am the cause that today fewer taxes come to the treasury, but I also prevent the rebellion of laborers; because of me they do not leave work on the canals, dams, and roadways. To sum up, I have twice restrained Assyria from declaring war on us, war which that madman was calling out by his military dispositions.

"Ramses govern! He merely rouses disorder. Thou hadst trial of his management in Lower Egypt: he drank, frolicked, brought in woman after woman, and pretended to occupy himself with administration of the province, but he understood nothing, absolutely nothing. What is worst of all, he became intimate with Phoenicians, with bankrupt nobles, and traitors of various kinds, who are urging him to ruin."

"But the victory of the Soda Lakes?" inquired Pentuer.

"I recognize energy in him, and a knowledge of military art," added Herhor. "That is the one thing that he knows. But say thyself would he have won the battle at the Soda Lakes were it not for aid from thee and others of the priestly order? I know that ye informed him of every movement of the Libyan band. And now think, could Ramses, even with help from you, win a battle against Nitager, for example? Nitager is a master, Ramses is a mere apprentice."

"Then what will be the end of this hatred between him and you?" inquired Pentuer.

"Hatred!" repeated Herhor. "Could I hate a frivolous fellow, who, moreover, is surrounded, like a deer in a ravine by hunters! But I must confess that his rule is so full of danger that if Ramses had a brother, or if Nitager were younger, we should set aside the present pharaoh."

"And thou, worthiness, would become his heir!" burst out Pentuer.

Herhor was by no means offended.

"Pentuer Thou hast grown marvelously dull since thy entry into politics on thy own account," replied he, shrugging his shoulders. "Of course, if the country were without a pharaoh, it would be my duty to become one by virtue of my office of high priest of Amon, and chief of the supreme council. But what is the office to me? Have I not had more power for a number of years than the pharaoh? Or do I not today, though I am a minister of war in disgrace, carry out in this state whatever I think needful?

"Those same high priests, treasurers, judges, nomarchs, and even generals who avoid me at present, must carry out every secret order of the council furnished with my seal. Is there a man in Egypt who would dare refuse obedience to those orders? Wouldst thou, for instance, dare oppose them?"

Pentuer hung his head.

If in spite of the death of Ramses XII the supreme privy council of priests had maintained itself, Ramses XIII must either yield or fight a life-and-death battle.

The pharaoh had on his side all the people, all the army, many priests, and the majority of the civil dignitaries. The council could reckon on hardly two thousand adherents, on its treasures and on its incomparably wise organization. The forces were utterly unequal, but the issue of the battle was very doubtful.

"Then ye have determined to destroy the pharaoh?" asked Pentuer.

"Not at all. We only wish to save the state." "In that case what should Ramses XIII do?" "What he will do I know not. But I know what his father did," answered Herhor. "Ramses XII began to govern in the same impetuous and tyrannical fashion, but when money failed him, and his most zealous adherents began to despise him, he turned to the gods. He surrounded himself with priests, he learned from them, nay, he even married a daughter of the high priest Amenhotep. And, after a few years, he went so far that he became himself not only a pious, but a very learned high priest."

"But if the pharaoh will not follow that example?" "Then we shall dispense with him," said Herhor. "Listen to me Pentuer," continued he, after a while. "I know not only the acts, but even the thoughts of that pharaoh of thine, who, moreover, has not been solemnly crowned yet, hence for us he is nothing. I know that he wants to make the priests his servants, and himself sole lord of Egypt.

"But such a plan is stupid, it is even treasonable. Not the pharaohs, as Thou knowest well, but the gods and the priests created Egypt. It is not the pharaohs who mark the rise and fall of the Nile and regulate its overflows; it is not the pharaohs who teach the people to sow, to gather fruits and rear cattle. It is not the pharaohs who cure diseases and watch over the safety of the state against foreign enemies.

"What would happen, tell me that, were our order to yield Egypt to the mercy of the pharaohs? The wisest pharaohs have behind them the experience of a few years at the longest, but the priestly order has investigated and taught during tens of thousands of years. The mightiest ruler has two eyes and two hands, while we possess thousands of eyes and thousands of hands in all provinces at home, and in all foreign countries.

"Can the activity of a pharaoh equal ours; and when opinions differ who should yield, we or the pharaoh?"

"Well, what am I to do now?" inquired Pentuer.

"Do what that stripling commands if Thou betray not holy secrets. And leave the rest to time. I wish most sincerely that the youth called Ramses XIII might come to his senses, and I suppose that he would were it not that he has attached himself to disgusting traitors over whom the hands of the gods are now suspended."

Pentuer took farewell of the high priest. He was filled with dark forebodings, but he did not fail in spirit, since he knew that whatever he might gain in improving the condition of the common man would remain, even were the pharaoh to bend before the power of the priestly order.

"In the worst case," thought he, "we must do what we can, and what pertains to us. When conditions improve, what is sown today will give fruit hereafter."

But still he determined to renounce agitation among the people. He was even ready to calm the impatient, so as not to increase trouble for the pharaoh.

A couple of weeks later Pentuer entered the boundaries of Lower Egypt, looking about on the way for the wisest of common men and artisans from whom it would be possible to select delegates to the assembly summoned by the pharaoh.

Everywhere on the way he found signs of the greatest excitement. Earth- tillers, as well as artisans, were trying to have the seventh day for rest and receive pay for all public works, as was the case in former ages. And it was only through remonstrances from priests of various temples, that a general uprising was averted, or at least that work was continued.

At the same time Pentuer was struck by certain new phenomena which he had not observed a month earlier! first of all the people had divided into two parties. Some were partisans of the pharaoh and enemies of the priests; others were active against Phoenicians. Some proved that the priests ought to give the treasures of the labyrinth to the pharaoh; others whispered that the pharaoh afforded foreigners too much protection.

But strangest of all was a report of unknown origin that

Ramses XIII showed signs of insanity, like his elder brother, who for this cause had been excluded from succession. Priests, scribes, even common men discussed this report of insanity.

"Who told thee such a lie?" inquired Pentuer of an engineer.

"It is no lie," replied the engineer, "it is sad reality. In the Theban palaces they saw the pharaoh running naked through the gardens. One night he climbed a tree under the window of his mother's chamber, and spoke to her."

Pentuer assured the man that no longer than two weeks before he had seen Ramses in the best of health. He observed at once, however, that the engineer did not believe him.

"This is Herhor's work!" thought he. "Priests alone could have news from Thebes so promptly."

For the moment he lost desire to busy himself in finding delegates, but he regained energy at the thought that what the people received today they would not lose to-morrow, unless something uncommon should happen.

Beyond Memphis to the north of the pyramids and the sphinx, on the boundary of the desert, was a small temple of the goddess Nut. An old priest Menes lived in that temple. This sage had more knowledge of the stars than any man in Egypt; he was an engineer in addition.

When a great public edifice was to be built or a new canal made, Menes went to the place and gave directions. Apart from such tasks he lived in solitude and poverty in his temple; at night he investigated the stars, in the daytime he worked over curious instruments.

For some years Pentuer had not been in that place; hence he was struck by neglect in it, and poverty. The brick wall was falling, in the garden the trees were withering, in the yard a lean goat moved around and a few hens were scratching.

There was no one near the temple. Only after Pentuer had called out did an old man come down from a pylon. His feet were bare, on his head was a soiled cap like that of a laborer, around his waist was a ragged girdle, and on his shoulder a panther skin from which the hair had fallen. Still, his bearing was dignified, and his face full of wisdom. He looked quickly at the guest and said,

"Either I am mistaken, or Thou art Pentuer?"

"I am he," answered the newly arrived, and he embraced the old man with heartiness.

"Ho! ho!" exclaimed Menes, for it was he; "I see that Thou hast changed for official reasons. Thou hast a smoother face, whiter hands, and a gold chain on thy neck. Mother Nut of the heavenly ocean would have to wait long for such ornaments."

Pentuer wished to remove the chain, but Menes stopped him with a smile.

"Do not. If Thou knew what jewels we have in the heavens Thou wouldst not hasten with an offering of gold. Well, hast Thou come to stay with us?"

Pentuer shook his head.

"No," replied he, "I have come only to bow down before thee, divine teacher."

"And again to court?" laughed the old man. "Oh ye, ye courtiers! If ye knew what ye lose by deserting wisdom for palaces ye would be the saddest of mankind."

"Art Thou alone, O my teacher?"

"As a palm in a desert, especially today when my deaf and dumb servant has gone with a basket to Memphis to beg something for the mother of Ra and her chaplain."

"And is it not disagreeable here?"

"For me! "'exclaimed Menes. "Since I saw thee last I have snatched from the gods some secrets which I would not give for the two crowns of Egypt."

"Are they secrets between thee and me?" inquired Pentuer.

"How, secrets? A year ago I completed all measures and calculations touching the size of the earth."

"What does that mean?"

Menes looked around and lowered his voice,

"Of course it is known to thee that the earth is not flat like a table, but is an immense ball on the surface of which seas, countries, and cities are situated?"

"That is known," said Pentuer.

"Not to all," answered Menes. "And it was not known to any one how great that globe might be."

"But dost Thou know?" inquired Pentuer, almost frightened.

"I know. Our infantry marches about thirteen Egyptian miles [Three geographical miles] daily. The globe of the earth is so great that our armies would require five whole years to march around it."

"O gods!" exclaimed Pentuer. "Does it not frighten thee, father, to think of such subjects?"

Menes shrugged his shoulders.

"To measure size, what is there terrible in that? To measure the size of a pyramid, or the earth is the same kind of problem. I did a more difficult thing. I measured the distance of our temple from the palace of the pharaoh without crossing the river."

"Terror!" exclaimed Pentuer.

"What terror? I have discovered a thing which beyond doubt ye will all fear. But tell this to no one: in the month Paoni (June, July) there will be an eclipse of the sun; night will come in the daytime. And may I die a hunger death, if I have failed even three minutes in the reckoning."

Pentuer touched the amulet which he wore on his breast, and uttered a prayer.

"I have read," said he, "in sacred books that more than once to the suffering of people it became night at midday. But what is that? I do not understand."

"Dost Thou see the pyramid?" asked Menes on a sudden, pointing toward the desert.

"I see it."

"Now put thy hand before thy eyes. Dost Thou see the pyramid? Thou dost not. Well, the eclipse of the sun is the same kind of thing; the moon passes between the sun and us, hides the father of light and makes night in the daytime."

"And will that happen here?" inquired Pentuer.

"In the mouth Paoni. I have written about this to the pharaoh, thinking that in return he would make some offering to the temple. But on reading the letter he laughed at me, and commanded my messenger to take the news to Herhor."

"Well, what did Herhor do?"

"Herhor gave us thirty measures of barley. He is the only man in Egypt who reveres science, but the young pharaoh is frivolous."

"Do not be severe on him, father," interrupted Pentuer. "Ramses XIII wishes to improve the lot of laborers and artisans, and give them every seventh day to rest; he forbids to beat them without trial, and perhaps he will find land for them."

"But I tell thee that he is light-minded," said the irritated Menes. "Two months ago I sent him a great plan for lessening the toil of laborers, and he laughed at me. He is conceited and ignorant!"

"Thou art prejudiced, father. But tell me thy plan and perhaps I may assist in applying it."

"Plan?" repeated the old man. "It is not a plan, it is a great fact."

He rose from the bench and went then with Pentuer to a pond in the garden, at which was an arbor concealed altogether by plant growth. In this structure was a large wheel in perpendicular position with a number of buckets on the outer rim of it. Menes went into the centre and began to move his feet; the wheel turned and the buckets took water from the pond and poured it into a trough which stood somewhat higher.

"A curious instrument!" said Pentuer.

"But dost Thou divine what it may do for the people of Egypt?"

"No."

"Then imagine this wheel to be five or ten times greater than it is, and that instead of a man a pair of bullocks are moving it."

"Something something appears to me," said Pentuer, "but still I do not understand clearly."

"It is very simple," said Menes. "By means of this wheel oxen and horses might raise water from the Nile and pour it into higher channels. In that way half a million of men might have rest instead of working at buckets. Now Thou seest that wisdom does more for the welfare of mankind than pharaohs."

Pentuer shook his head.

"How much timber would be needed for that change! How many oxen, how much pasture. It seems to me, father, that thy wheel would not take the place of the seventh day for rest."

"I see that office has not benefited thee," replied Menes, shrugging his shoulders. "But though Thou hast lost that alertness which I admired in thee, I will show still another thing. Perhaps when Thou hast returned to wisdom, and I am dead, Thou wilt work at improving and spreading my inventions."

They went back to the pylon, and Menes put some fuel under a brass kettle. He blew the flame and soon the water was boiling. On the kettle was a perpendicular spout covered with a heavy stone. When the kettle began to hiss, Menes said,

"Stand in this niche and look."

He touched a crank fastened to the spout; in one moment the heavy stone flew through the air and hot steam filled the chamber.

"Wonderful!" cried Pentuer. But soon he calmed himself and asked,

"Well, but how will that stone improve the condition of people in Egypt?"

"The stone in no way. But," said the sage, now impatient, "I will say this to thee, and do Thou remember it: the time will come when horses and oxen will take the place of people in labor, and also when boiling water will take the place of horses and oxen."

"But what good will that do the people?" insisted Pentuer.

"Woe is me!" exclaimed Menes, seizing his head. "I know not whether it is because Thou hast grown old, or dull; 'the people' have hidden the whole world from thee and darkened thy mind. If sages had only the people in mind they would be forced to throw away their books and calculations and become shepherds."

"But everything must be of some use," said Pentuer, now grown timid.

"Ye court people," replied Menes with vexation, "use two measures frequently. When a Phoenician brings a ruby or a sapphire ye do not inquire what its use is; ye buy the jewel and shut it up in a casket. But if a sage comes to you with an invention which might change the face of the world, ye ask straightway: 'What is the use of this?' It is clear that ye are frightened lest the investigator might ask a handful of barley for a thing the sense of which your mind does not fathom."

"Art Thou angry, father? Have I wished to offend thee?"

"I am not angry, but I am pained. Twenty years ago there were five men in this temple working over the discovery of new secrets. Today I am alone. And, by the gods, I am unable to find not merely a successor, but even a man who is able to understand me."

"Beyond doubt I would remain here till death so as to learn thy god- like thoughts," said Pentuer. "But tell me, can I shut myself up today in a temple when the fate of the kingdom and the future of the people are wavering in the balance, and when my assistance."

"May influence the fate of the kingdom and of some millions of people!" interrupted Menes, jeeringly. "O ye grownup children in the miters and chains of office. Because ye are free to draw water from the Nile it seems to you that ye may stop the rise or the fall of the river. Not otherwise, surely, thinks the sheep, which following the herd imagines that she is directing it."

"But think, the young pharaoh has a heart full of nobleness; he wishes to give the seventh day for rest, just courts, and even land."

"All those things are vanishing," said Menes, shaking his head. "The young pharaoh will grow old, while the people, well, the people have had the seventh day for rest more than one time, and they have had land but afterward they lost both! Ah, if that were all that changed! During three thousand years how many dynasties have passed over Egypt, and priests, how many cities and temples have fallen into ruins; nay more! how many new strata of earth have overlaid the country. Everything has changed except this, that two and two are four, that a triangle is half a quadrangle, that the moon may hide the sun, and boiling water hurl a stone through the air.

"In this 'transitory world wisdom alone is enduring and permanent. And woe to him who deserts the eternal for things as fleeting as clouds are. His heart will never know peace, and his mind will dance like a boat in a whirlwind."

"The gods speak through thy lips," replied Pentuer, after some thought, "but barely one man in millions may serve them directly. And well that it is so, for what would happen if laborers gazed for whole nights at the firmament, if warriors made reckonings, and officials and the pharaoh, instead of ruling the people, hurled stones by means of boiling water? Before the moon could go once round the earth all would die of hunger. No wheel or cattle would defend the laud from barbarians, or give justice to those who were injured by wrong-doers.

"Hence," ended Pentuer, "though wisdom is like the sun, blood and breath, we cannot all be sages."

To these words Menes made no answer.

Pentuer passed some days in the temple of the divine Nut; he admired at one time the view of the sandy ocean, at another the fertile valley of the Nile. In company with Menes he looked at the stars, examined the wheel for raising water, and walked at times toward the pyramids. He admired the poverty and the genius of his teacher, but said in spirit,

"Menes is a god in human form, surely, and hence he has no care for common matters. His wheel to raise water will not be accepted in Egypt, for first we lack timber, and second to move such wheels one hundred thousand oxen would be needed. Where is there pasture for them even in Upper Egypt?"