Uarda : a Romance of Ancient Egypt — Complete

by Georg Ebers

  CHAPTER II.

  The temple where, in the fore-court, Paaker was waiting, and wherethe priest had disappeared to call the leech, was called the "House ofSeti"--[It is still standing and known as the temple of Qurnah.]--andwas one of the largest in the City of the Dead. Only that magnificentbuilding of the time of the deposed royal race of the reigning king'sgrandfather--that temple which had been founded by Thotmes III.,and whose gate-way Amenophis III. had adorned with immense colossalstatues--[That which stands to the north is the famous musical statue,or Pillar of Memmon]--exceeded it in the extent of its plan; in everyother respect it held the pre-eminence among the sanctuaries of theNecropolis. Rameses I. had founded it shortly after he succeeded inseizing the Egyptian throne; and his yet greater son Seti carried on theerection, in which the service of the dead for the Manes of the membersof the new royal family was conducted, and the high festivals held inhonor of the Gods of the under-world. Great sums had been expendedfor its establishment, for the maintenance of the priesthood of itssanctuary, and the support of the institutions connected with it. Thesewere intended to be equal to the great original foundations of priestlylearning at Heliopolis and Memphis; they were regulated on the samepattern, and with the object of raising the new royal residence of UpperEgypt, namely Thebes, above the capitals of Lower Egypt in regard tophilosophical distinction.

  One of the most important of these foundations was a very celebratedschool of learning.

  [Every detail of this description of an Egyptian school is derived from sources dating from the reign of Rameses II. and his successor, Merneptah.]

  First there was the high-school, in which priests, physicians, judges,mathematicians, astronomers, grammarians, and other learned men, notonly had the benefit of instruction, but, subsequently, when they hadwon admission to the highest ranks of learning, and attained the dignityof "Scribes," were maintained at the cost of the king, and enabled topursue their philosophical speculations and researches, in freedomfrom all care, and in the society of fellow-workers of equal birth andidentical interests.

  An extensive library, in which thousands of papyrus-rolls werepreserved, and to which a manufactory of papyrus was attached, was atthe disposal of the learned; and some of them were intrusted withthe education of the younger disciples, who had been prepared inthe elementary school, which was also dependent on the House--oruniversity--of Seti. The lower school was open to every son of a freecitizen, and was often frequented by several hundred boys, who alsofound night-quarters there. The parents were of course required eitherto pay for their maintenance, or to send due supplies of provisions forthe keep of their children at school.

  In a separate building lived the temple-boarders, a few sons of thenoblest families, who were brought up by the priests at a great expenseto their parents.

  Seti I., the founder of this establishment, had had his own sons, notexcepting Rameses, his successor, educated here.

  The elementary schools were strictly ruled, and the rod played solarge a part in them, that a pedagogue could record this saying: "Thescholar's ears are at his back: when he is flogged then he hears."

  Those youths who wished to pass up from the lower to the high-schoolhad to undergo an examination. The student, when he had passed it,could choose a master from among the learned of the higher grades,who undertook to be his philosophical guide, and to whom he remainedattached all his life through, as a client to his patron. He couldobtain the degree of "Scribe" and qualify for public office by a secondexamination.

  Near to these schools of learning there stood also a school of art, inwhich instruction was given to students who desired to devote themselvesto architecture, sculpture, or painting; in these also the learner mightchoose his master.

  Every teacher in these institutions belonged to the priesthood of theHouse of Seti. It consisted of more than eight hundred members, dividedinto five classes, and conducted by three so-called Prophets.

  The first prophet was the high-priest of the House of Seti, and at thesame time the superior of all the thousands of upper and under servantsof the divinities which belonged to the City of the Dead of Thebes.

  The temple of Seti proper was a massive structure of limestone. A rowof Sphinxes led from the Nile to the surrounding wall, and to thefirst vast pro-pylon, which formed the entrance to a broad fore-court,enclosed on the two sides by colonnades, and beyond which stood a secondgate-way. When he had passed through this door, which stood between twotowers, in shape like truncated pyramids, the stranger came to a secondcourt resembling the first, closed at the farther end by a noble row ofpillars, which formed part of the central temple itself.

  The innermost and last was dimly lighted by a few lamps.

  Behind the temple of Seti stood large square structures of brick of theNile mud, which however had a handsome and decorative effect, as thehumble material of which they were constructed was plastered withlime, and that again was painted with colored pictures and hieroglyphicinscriptions.

  The internal arrangement of all these houses was the same. In the midstwas an open court, on to which opened the doors of the rooms of thepriests and philosophers. On each side of the court was a shady, coveredcolonnade of wood, and in the midst a tank with ornamental plants. Inthe upper story were the apartments for the scholars, and instructionwas usually given in the paved courtyard strewn with mats.

  The most imposing was the house of the chief prophets; it wasdistinguished by its waving standards and stood about a hundred pacesbehind the temple of Seti, between a well kept grove and a clearlake--the sacred tank of the temple; but they only occupied it whilefulfilling their office, while the splendid houses which they lived inwith their wives and children, lay on the other side of the river, inThebes proper.

  The untimely visit to the temple could not remain unobserved by thecolony of sages. Just as ants when a hand breaks in on their dwelling,hurry restlessly hither and thither, so an unwonted stir had agitated,not the school-boys only, but the teachers and the priests. Theycollected in groups near the outer walls, asking questions and hazardingguesses. A messenger from the king had arrived--the princess Bent-Anathad been attacked by the Kolchytes--and a wag among the school-boys whohad got out, declared that Paaker, the king's pioneer, had been broughtinto the temple by force to be made to learn to write better. As thesubject of the joke had formerly been a pupil of the House of Seti, andmany delectable stories of his errors in penmanship still survived inthe memory of the later generation of scholars, this information wasreceived with joyful applause; and it seemed to have a glimmer ofprobability, in spite of the apparent contradiction that Paaker filledone of the highest offices near the king, when a grave young priestdeclared that he had seen the pioneer in the forecourt of the temple.

  The lively discussion, the laughter and shouting of the boys at such anunwonted hour, was not unobserved by the chief priest.

  This remarkable prelate, Ameni the son of Nebket, a scion of an oldand noble family, was far more than merely the independent head ofthe temple-brotherhood, among whom he was prominent for his power andwisdom; for all the priesthood in the length and breadth of the landacknowledged his supremacy, asked his advice in difficult cases, andnever resisted the decisions in spiritual matters which emanated fromthe House of Seti--that is to say, from Ameni. He was the embodimentof the priestly idea; and if at times he made heavy--nayextraordinary--demands on individual fraternities, they were submittedto, for it was known by experience that the indirect roads which heordered them to follow all converged on one goal, namely the exaltationof the power and dignity of the hierarchy. The king appreciated thisremarkable man, and had long endeavored to attach him to the court, askeeper of the royal seal; but Ameni was not to be induced to give uphis apparently modest position; for he contemned all outward showand ostentatious titles; he ventured sometimes to oppose a decidedresistance to the measures of the Pharaoh,

  [Pharaoh is the Hebrew form of the Egyptian Peraa--or Phrah. "The great house," "sublime house," or "high gat
e" is the literal meaning.]

  and was not minded to give up his unlimited control of the priests forthe sake of a limited dominion over what seemed to him petty externalconcerns, in the service of a king who was only too independent and hardto influence.

  He regularly arranged his mode and habits of life in an exceptional way.

  Eight days out of ten he remained in the temple entrusted to his charge;two he devoted to his family, who lived on the other bank of the Nile;but he let no one, not even those nearest to him, know what portion ofthe ten days he gave up to recreation. He required only four hours ofsleep. This he usually took in a dark room which no sound could reach,and in the middle of the day; never at night, when the coolness andquiet seemed to add to his powers of work, and when from time to time hecould give himself up to the study of the starry heavens.

  All the ceremonials that his position required of him, the cleansing,purification, shaving, and fasting he fulfilled with painful exactitude,and the outer bespoke the inner man.

  Ameni was entering on his fiftieth year; his figure was tall, and hadescaped altogether the stoutness to which at that age the Oriental isliable. The shape of his smoothly-shaven head was symmetrical and of along oval; his forehead was neither broad nor high, but his profile wasunusually delicate, and his face striking; his lips were thin and dry,and his large and piercing eyes, though neither fiery nor brilliant, andusually cast down to the ground under his thick eyebrows, were raisedwith a full, clear, dispassionate gaze when it was necessary to see andto examine.

  The poet of the House of Seti, the young Pentaur, who knew these eyes,had celebrated them in song, and had likened them to a well-disciplinedarmy which the general allows to rest before and after the battle, sothat they may march in full strength to victory in the fight.

  The refined deliberateness of his nature had in it much that was royalas well as priestly; it was partly intrinsic and born with him, partlythe result of his own mental self-control. He had many enemies, butcalumny seldom dared to attack the high character of Amemi.

  The high-priest looked up in astonishment, as the disturbance in thecourt of the temple broke in on his studies.

  The room in which he was sitting was spacious and cool; the lower partof the walls was lined with earthenware tiles, the upper half plasteredand painted. But little was visible of the masterpieces of the artistsof the establishment, for almost everywhere they were concealed bywooden closets and shelves, in which were papyrus-rolls and wax-tablets.A large table, a couch covered with a panther's skin, a footstool infront of it, and on it a crescent-shaped support for the head, made ofivory,

  [A support of crescent form on which the Egyptians rested their heads. Many specimens were found in the catacombs, and similar objects are still used in Nubia]

  several seats, a stand with beakers and jugs, and another with flasks ofall sizes, saucers, and boxes, composed the furniture of the room,which was lighted by three lamps, shaped like birds and filled with kikioil.--[Castor oil, which was used in the lamps.]

  Ameni wore a fine pleated robe of snow-white linen, which reached to hisankles, round his hips was a scarf adorned with fringes, which in frontformed an apron, with broad, stiffened ends which fell to his knees; awide belt of white and silver brocade confined the drapery of his robe.Round his throat and far down on his bare breast hung a necklace morethan a span deep, composed of pearls and agates, and his upper arm wascovered with broad gold bracelets. He rose from the ebony seat withlion's feet, on which he sat, and beckoned to a servant who squatted byone of the walls of the sitting-room. He rose and without any wordof command from his master, he silently and carefully placed on thehigh-priest's bare head a long and thick curled wig,

  [Egyptians belonging to the higher classes wore wigs on their shaven heads. Several are preserved in museums.]

  and threw a leopard-skin, with its head and claws overlaid withgold-leaf, over his shoulders. A second servant held a metal mirrorbefore Ameni, in which he cast a look as he settled the panther-skin andhead-gear.

  A third servant was handing him the crosier, the insignia of his dignityas a prelate, when a priest entered and announced the scribe Pentaur.

  Ameni nodded, and the young priest who had talked with the princessBent-Anat at the temple-gate came into the room.

  Pentaur knelt and kissed the hand of the prelate, who gave him hisblessing, and in a clear sweet voice, and rather formal and unfamiliarlanguage--as if he were reading rather than speaking, said:

  "Rise, my son; your visit will save me a walk at this untimely hour,since you can inform me of what disturbs the disciples in our temple.Speak."

  "Little of consequence has occurred, holy father," replied Pentaur. "Norwould I have disturbed thee at this hour, but that a quite unnecessarytumult has been raised by the youths; and that the princess Bent-Anatappeared in person to request the aid of a physician. The unusual hourand the retinue that followed her--"

  "Is the daughter of Pharaoh sick?" asked the prelate.

  "No, father. She is well--even to wantonness, since--wishing toprove the swiftness of her horses--she ran over the daughter of theparaschites Pinem. Noble-hearted as she is, she herself carried thesorely-wounded girl to her house."

  "She entered the dwelling of the unclean."

  "Thou hast said."

  "And she now asks to be purified?"

  "I thought I might venture to absolve her, father, for the puresthumanity led her to the act, which was no doubt a breach of discipline,but--"

  "But," asked the high-priest in a grave voice and he raised his eyeswhich he had hitherto on the ground.

  "But," said the young priest, and now his eyes fell, "which can surelybe no crime. When Ra--[The Egyptian Sun-god.]--in his golden bark sailsacross the heavens, his light falls as freely and as bountifully on thehut of the despised poor as on the Palace of the Pharaohs; and shall thetender human heart withhold its pure light--which is benevolence--fromthe wretched, only because they are base?"

  "It is the poet Pentaur that speaks," said the prelate, "and not thepriest to whom the privilege was given to be initiated into the highestgrade of the sages, and whom I call my brother and my equal. I have noadvantage over you, young man, but perishable learning, which the pasthas won for you as much as for me--nothing but certain perceptions andexperiences that offer nothing new, to the world, but teach us, indeed,that it is our part to maintain all that is ancient in living efficacyand practice. That which you promised a few weeks since, I many yearsago vowed to the Gods; to guard knowledge as the exclusive possessionof the initiated. Like fire, it serves those who know its uses to thenoblest ends, but in the hands of children--and the people, the mob,can never ripen into manhood--it is a destroying brand, raging andunextinguishable, devouring all around it, and destroying all that hasbeen built and beautified by the past. And how can we remain the Sagesand continue to develop and absorb all learning within the shelterof our temples, not only without endangering the weak, but for theirbenefit? You know and have sworn to act after that knowledge. To bindthe crowd to the faith and the institutions of the fathers is yourduty--is the duty of every priest. Times have changed, my son; under theold kings the fire, of which I spoke figuratively to you--the poet--wasenclosed in brazen walls which the people passed stupidly by. Now I seebreaches in the old fortifications; the eyes of the uninitiated havebeen sharpened, and one tells the other what he fancies he has spied,though half-blinded, through the glowing rifts."

  A slight emotion had given energy to the tones of the speaker, and whilehe held the poet spell-bound with his piercing glance he continued:

  "We curse and expel any one of the initiated who enlarges thesebreaches; we punish even the friend who idly neglects to repair andclose them with beaten brass!"

  "My father!" cried Pentaur, raising his head in astonishment while theblood mounted to his cheeks. The high-priest went up to him and laidboth hands on his shoulders.

  They were of equal height and of equally symmetrical build; even
theoutline of their features was similar. Nevertheless no one would havetaken them to be even distantly related; their countenances were soinfinitely unlike in expression.

  On the face of one were stamped a strong will and the power of firmlyguiding his life and commanding himself; on the other, an amiable desireto overlook the faults and defects of the world, and to contemplate lifeas it painted itself in the transfiguring magic-mirror of his poet'ssoul. Frankness and enjoyment spoke in his sparkling eye, but the subtlesmile on his lips when he was engaged in a discussion, or when his soulwas stirred, betrayed that Pentaur, far from childlike carelessness, hadfought many a severe mental battle, and had tasted the dark waters ofdoubt.

  At this moment mingled feelings were struggling in his soul. He felt asif he must withstand the speaker; and yet the powerful presence of theother exercised so strong an influence over his mind, long trained tosubmission, that he was silent, and a pious thrill passed through himwhen Ameni's hands were laid on his shoulders.

  "I blame you," said the high-priest, while he firmly held the young man,"nay, to my sorrow I must chastise you; and yet," he said, stepping backand taking his right hand, "I rejoice in the necessity, for I love youand honor you, as one whom the Unnameable has blessed with high giftsand destined to great things. Man leaves a weed to grow unheeded orroots it up but you are a noble tree, and I am like the gardener whohas forgotten to provide it with a prop, and who is now thankful tohave detected a bend that reminds him of his neglect. You look at meenquiringly, and I can see in your eyes that I seem to you a severejudge. Of what are you accused? You have suffered an institution ofthe past to be set aside. It does not matter--so the short-sighted andheedless think; but I say to you, you have doubly transgressed, becausethe wrong-doer was the king's daughter, whom all look up to, great andsmall, and whose actions may serve as an example to the people. On whomthen must a breach of the ancient institutions lie with the darkeststain if not on the highest in rank? In a few days it will be said theparaschites are men even as we are, and the old law to avoid them asunclean is folly. And will the reflections of the people, think you, endthere, when it is so easy for them to say that he who errs in one pointmay as well fail in all? In questions of faith, my son, nothing isinsignificant. If we open one tower to the enemy he is master of thewhole fortress. In these unsettled times our sacred lore is like achariot on the declivity of a precipice, and under the wheels thereof astone. A child takes away the stone, and the chariot rolls down into theabyss and is dashed to pieces. Imagine the princess to be that child,and the stone a loaf that she would fain give to feed a beggar. Wouldyou then give it to her if your father and your mother and all that isdear and precious to you were in the chariot? Answer not! the princesswill visit the paraschites again to-morrow. You must await her in theman's hut, and there inform her that she has transgressed and must craveto be purified by us. For this time you are excused from any furtherpunishment.

  "Heaven has bestowed on you a gifted soul. Strive for that which iswanting to you--the strength to subdue, to crush for One--and you knowthat One--all things else--even the misguiding voice of your heart, thetreacherous voice of your judgment.--But stay! send leeches to the houseof the paraschites, and desire them to treat the injured girl as thoughshe were the queen herself. Who knows where the man dwells?"

  "The princess," replied Pentaur, "has left Paaker, the king's pioneer,behind in the temple to conduct the leeches to the house of Pinem."

  The grave high-priest smiled and said. "Paaker! to attend the daughterof a paraschites."

  Pentaur half beseechingly and half in fun raised his eyes which he hadkept cast down. "And Pentaur," he murmured, "the gardener's son! who isto refuse absolution to the king's daughter!"

  "Pentaur, the minister of the Gods--Pentaur, the priest--has not to dowith the daughter of the king, but with the transgressor of the sacredinstitutions," replied Ameni gravely. "Let Paaker know I wish to speakwith him."

  The poet bowed low and quitted the room, the high priest muttered tohimself: "He is not yet what he should be, and speech is of no effectwith him."

  For a while he was silent, walking to and fro in meditation; then hesaid half aloud, "And the boy is destined to great things. What gifts ofthe Gods doth he lack? He has the faculty of learning--of thinking--offeeling--of winning all hearts, even mine. He keeps himself undefiledand separate--" suddenly the prelate paused and struck his hand on theback of a chair that stood by him. "I have it; he has not yet felt thefire of ambition. We will light it for his profit and our own."