Uarda : a Romance of Ancient Egypt — Complete

by Georg Ebers

  CHAPTER IV.

  Pentaur knew where to seek Gagabu, for he himself had been invited tothe banquet which the prophet had prepared in honor of two sages who hadlately come to the House of Seti from the university of Chennu.

  [Chennu was situated on a bend of the Nile, not far from the Nubian frontier; it is now called Gebel Silsilch; it was in very ancient times the seat of a celebrated seminary.]

  In an open court, surrounded by gaily-painted wooden pillars, andlighted by many lamps, sat the feasting priests in two long rows oncomfortable armchairs. Before each stood a little table, and servantswere occupied in supplying them with the dishes and drinks, which werelaid out on a splendid table in the middle of the court. Joints ofgazelle,

  [Gazelles were tamed for domestic animals: we find them in the representations of the herds of the wealthy Egyptians and as slaughtered for food. The banquet is described from the pictures of feasts which have been found in the tombs.]

  roast geese and ducks, meat pasties, artichokes, asparagus and othervegetables, and various cakes and sweetmeats were carried to the guests,and their beakers well-filled with the choice wines of which there wasnever any lack in the lofts of the House of Seti.

  [Cellars maintain the mean temperature of the climate, and in Egypt are hot Wine was best preserved in shady and airy lofts.]

  In the spaces between the guests stood servants with metal bowls, inwhich they might wash their hands, and towels of fine linen.

  When their hunger was appeased, the wine flowed more freely, and eachguest was decked with sweetly-smelling flowers, whose odor was supposedto add to the vivacity of the conversation.

  Many of the sharers in this feast wore long, snowwhite garments, andwere of the class of the Initiated into the mysteries of the faith, aswell as chiefs of the different orders of priests of the House of Seti.

  The second prophet, Gagabu, who was to-day charged with the conduct ofthe feast by Ameni--who on such occasions only showed himself for a fewminutes--was a short, stout man with a bald and almost spherical head.His features were those of a man of advancing years, but well-formed,and his smoothly-shaven, plump cheeks were well-rounded. His grey eyeslooked out cheerfully and observantly, but had a vivid sparkle when hewas excited and began to twitch his thick, sensual mouth.

  Close by him stood the vacant, highly-ornamented chair of thehigh-priest, and next to him sat the priests arrived from Chennu, twotall, dark-colored old men. The remainder of the company was arranged inthe order of precedency, which they held in the priests' colleges, andwhich bore no relation to their respective ages.

  But strictly as the guests were divided with reference to their rank,they mixed without distinction in the conversation.

  "We know how to value our call to Thebes," said the elder of thestrangers from Chennu, Tuauf, whose essays were frequently used in theschools,--[Some of them are still in existence]--"for while, on onehand, it brings us into the neighborhood of the Pharaoh, where life,happiness, and safety flourish, on the other it procures us the honorof counting ourselves among your number; for, though the university ofChennu in former times was so happy as to bring up many great men, whomshe could call her own, she can no longer compare with the House ofSeti. Even Heliopolis and Memphis are behind you; and if I, my humbleself, nevertheless venture boldly among you, it is because I ascribeyour success as much to the active influence of the Divinity in yourtemple, which may promote my acquirements and achievements, as to yourgreat gifts and your industry, in which I will not be behind you. I havealready seen your high-priest Ameni--what a man! And who does not knowthy name, Gagabu, or thine, Meriapu?"

  "And which of you," asked the other new-comer, "may we greet as theauthor of the most beautiful hymn to Amon, which was ever sung in theland of the Sycamore? Which of you is Pentaur?"

  "The empty chair yonder," answered Gagabu, pointing to a seat at thelower end of the table, "is his. He is the youngest of us all, but agreat future awaits him."

  "And his songs," added the elder of the strangers. "Without doubt,"replied the chief of the haruspices,--[One of the orders of priests inthe Egyptian hierarchy]--an old man with a large grey curly head, thatseemed too heavy for his thin neck, which stretched forward--perhapsfrom the habit of constantly watching for signs--while his prominenteyes glowed with a fanatical gleam. "Without doubt the Gods have grantedgreat gifts to our young friend, but it remains to be proved how he willuse them. I perceive a certain freedom of thought in the youth, whichpains me deeply. Although in his poems his flexible style certainlyfollows the prescribed forms, his ideas transcend all tradition; andeven in the hymns intended for the ears of the people I find turns ofthought, which might well be called treason to the mysteries which onlya few months ago he swore to keep secret. For instance he says--and wesing--and the laity hear--

  "One only art Thou, Thou Creator of beings; And Thou only makest all that is created.

  And again--

  He is one only, Alone, without equal; Dwelling alone in the holiest of holies."

  [Hymn to Amon preserved in a papyrus roll at Bulaq, and deciphered by Grehaut and L. Stern.]

  Such passages as these ought not to be sung in public, at least in timeslike ours, when new ideas come in upon us from abroad, like the swarmsof locusts from the East."

  "Spoken to my very soul!" cried the treasurer of the temple, "Ameniinitiated this boy too early into the mysteries."

  "In my opinion, and I am his teacher," said Gagabu, "our brotherhood maybe proud of a member who adds so brilliantly to the fame of our temple.The people hear the hymns without looking closely at the meaning of thewords. I never saw the congregation more devout, than when the beautifuland deeply-felt song of praise was sung at the feast of the stairs."

  [A particularly solemn festival in honor of Amon-Chem, held in the temple of Medinet-Abu.]

  "Pentaur was always thy favorite," said the former speaker. "Thouwouldst not permit in any one else many things that are allowed tohim. His hymns are nevertheless to me and to many others a dangerousperformance; and canst thou dispute the fact that we have grounds forgrave anxiety, and that things happen and circumstances grow up aroundus which hinder us, and at last may perhaps crush us, if we do not,while there is yet time, inflexibly oppose them?"

  "Thou bringest sand to the desert, and sugar to sprinkle over honey,"exclaimed Gagabu, and his lips began to twitch. "Nothing is now as itought to be, and there will be a hard battle to fight; not with thesword, but with this--and this." And the impatient man touched hisforehead and his lips. "And who is there more competent than mydisciple? There is the champion of our cause, a second cap of Hor, thatoverthrew the evil one with winged sunbeams, and you come and wouldclip his wings and blunt his claws! Alas, alas, my lords! will younever understand that a lion roars louder than a cat, and the sun shinesbrighter than an oil-lamp? Let Pentuar alone, I say; or you will do asthe man did, who, for fear of the toothache, had his sound teeth drawn.Alas, alas, in the years to come we shall have to bite deep intothe flesh, till the blood flows, if we wish to escape being eaten upourselves!"

  "The enemy is not unknown to us also," said the elder priest fromChennu, "although we, on the remote southern frontier of the kingdom,have escaped many evils that in the north have eaten into our body likea cancer. Here foreigners are now hardly looked upon at all asunclean and devilish."--["Typhonisch," belonging to Typhon orSeth.--Translator.]

  "Hardly?" exclaimed the chief of the haruspices; "they are invited,caressed, and honored. Like dust, when the simoon blows through thechinks of a wooden house, they crowd into the houses and temples, taintour manners and language;

  [At no period Egyptian writers use more Semitic words than during the reigns of Rameses II. and his son Mernephtah.]

  nay, on the throne of the successors of Ra sits a descendant--"

  "Presumptuous man!" cried the voice of the high-priest, who at thisinstant entered the hall, "Hold your tongue, and be not so bold ast
o wag it against him who is our king, and wields the sceptre in thiskingdom as the Vicar of Ra."

  The speaker bowed and was silent, then he and all the company rose togreet Ameni, who bowed to them all with polite dignity, took his seat,and turning to Gagabu asked him carelessly:

  "I find you all in most unpriestly excitement; what has disturbed yourequanimity?"

  "We were discussing the overwhelming influx of foreigners into Egypt,and the necessity of opposing some resistance to them."

  "You will find me one of the foremost in the attempt," replied Ameni."We have endured much already, and news has arrived from the north,which grieves me deeply."

  "Have our troops sustained a defeat?"

  "They continue to be victorious, but thousands of our countrymen havefallen victims in the fight or on the march. Rameses demands freshreinforcements. The pioneer, Paaker, has brought me a letter from ourbrethren who accompany the king, and delivered a document from himto the Regent, which contains the order to send to him fifty thousandfighting men: and as the whole of the soldier-caste and all theauxiliaries are already under arms, the bondmen of the temple, who tillour acres, are to be levied, and sent into Asia."

  A murmur of disapproval arose at these words. The chief of theharuspices stamped his foot, and Gagabu asked:

  "What do you mean to do?"

  "To prepare to obey the commands of the king," answered Ameni, "and tocall the heads of the temples of the city of Anion here without delay tohold a council. Each must first in his holy of holies seek good counselof the Celestials. When we have come to a conclusion, we must next winthe Viceroy over to our side. Who yesterday assisted at his prayers?"

  "It was my turn," said the chief of the haruspices.

  "Follow me to my abode, when the meal is over." commanded Ameni. "Butwhy is our poet missing from our circle?"

  At this moment Pentaur came into the hall, and while he bowed easily andwith dignity to the company and low before Ameni, he prayed him to grantthat the pastophorus Teta should accompany the leech Nebsecht to visitthe daughter of the paraschites.

  Ameni nodded consent and exclaimed: "They must make haste. Paaker waitsfor them at the great gate, and will accompany them in my chariot."

  As soon as Pentaur had left the party of feasters, the old priest fromChennu exclaimed, as he turned to Ameni:

  "Indeed, holy father, just such a one and no other had I pictured yourpoet. He is like the Sun-god, and his demeanor is that of a prince. Heis no doubt of noble birth."

  "His father is a homely gardener," said the highpriest, "who indeedtills the land apportioned to him with industry and prudence, but isof humble birth and rough exterior. He sent Pentaur to the school at anearly age, and we have brought up the wonderfully gifted boy to be whathe now is."

  "What office does he fill here in the temple?"

  "He instructs the elder pupils of the high-school in grammar andeloquence; he is also an excellent observer of the starry heavens, anda most skilled interpreter of dreams," replied Gagabu. "But here he isagain. To whom is Paaker conducting our stammering physician and hisassistant?"

  "To the daughter of the paraschites, who has been run over," answeredPentaur. "But what a rough fellow this pioneer is. His voice hurts myears, and he spoke to our leeches as if they had been his slaves."

  "He was vexed with the commission the princess had devolved on him,"said the high-priest benevolently, "and his unamiable disposition ishardly mitigated by his real piety."

  "And yet," said an old priest, "his brother, who left us some yearsago, and who had chosen me for his guide and teacher, was a particularlyloveable and docile youth."

  "And his father," said Ameni, "was one of the most superior energetic,and withal subtle-minded of men."

  "Then he has derived his bad peculiarities from his mother?"

  "By no means. She is a timid, amiable, soft-hearted woman."

  "But must the child always resemble its parents?" asked Pentaur. "Amongthe sons of the sacred bull, sometimes not one bears the distinguishingmark of his father."

  "And if Paaker's father were indeed an Apis," Gagabu laughing,"according to your view the pioneer himself belongs, alas! to thepeasant's stable."

  Pentaur did not contradict him, but said with a smile:

  "Since he left the school bench, where his school-fellows called him thewild ass on account of his unruliness, he has remained always the same.He was stronger than most of them, and yet they knew no greater pleasurethan putting him in a rage."

  "Children are so cruel!" said Ameni. "They judge only by appearances,and never enquire into the causes of them. The deficient are as guiltyin their eyes as the idle, and Paaker could put forward small claimsto their indulgence. I encourage freedom and merriment," he continuedturning to the priests from Cheraw, "among our disciples, for infettering the fresh enjoyment of youth we lame our best assistant. Theexcrescences on the natural growth of boys cannot be more surely orpainlessly extirpated than in their wild games. The school-boy is theschool-boy's best tutor."

  "But Paaker," said the priest Meriapu, "was not improved by theprovocations of his companions. Constant contests with them increasedthat roughness which now makes him the terror of his subordinates andalienates all affection."

  "He is the most unhappy of all the many youths, who were intrusted to mycare," said Ameni, "and I believe I know why,--he never had a childlikedisposition, even when in years he was still a child, and the Gods haddenied him the heavenly gift of good humor. Youth should be modest, andhe was assertive from his childhood. He took the sport of his companionsfor earnest, and his father, who was unwise only as a tutor, encouragedhim to resistance instead of to forbearance, in the idea that he thuswould be steeled to the hard life of a Mohar."

  [The severe duties of the Mohar are well known from the papyrus of Anastasi I. in the Brit. Mus., which has been ably treated by F. Chabas, Voyage d'un Egyptien.]

  "I have often heard the deeds of the Mohar spoken of," said the oldpriest from Chennu, "yet I do not exactly know what his office requiresof him."

  "He has to wander among the ignorant and insolent people of hostileprovinces, and to inform himself of the kind and number of thepopulation, to investigate the direction of the mountains, valleys, andrivers, to set forth his observations, and to deliver them to the houseof war,

  [Corresponding to our minister of war. A person of the highest importance even in the earliest times.]

  so that the march of the troops may be guided by them."

  "The Mohar then must be equally skilled as a warrior and as a Scribe."

  "As thou sayest; and Paaker's father was not a hero only, but at thesame time a writer, whose close and clear information depicted thecountry through which he had travelled as plainly as if it were seenfrom a mountain height. He was the first who took the title of Mohar.The king held him in such high esteem, that he was inferior to no onebut the king himself, and the minister of the house of war."

  "Was he of noble race?"

  "Of one of the oldest and noblest in the country. His father was thenoble warrior Assa," answered the haruspex, "and he therefore, after hehimself had attained the highest consideration and vast wealth, escortedhome the niece of the King Hor-em-lieb, who would have had a claim tothe throne, as well as the Regent, if the grandfather of the presentRameses had not seized it from the old family by violence."

  "Be careful of your words," said Ameni, interrupting the rash old man."Rameses I. was and is the grandfather of our sovereign, and in theking's veins, from his mother's side, flows the blood of the legitimatedescendants of the Sun-god."

  "But fuller and purer in those of the Regent the haruspex ventured toretort.

  "But Rameses wears the crown," cried Ameni, "and will continue to wearit so long as it pleases the Gods. Reflect--your hairs are grey, andseditious words are like sparks, which are borne by the wind, but which,if they fall, may set our home in a blaze. Continue your feasting, mylords; but I would request you to speak no more this eveni
ng of the kingand his new decree. You, Pentaur, fulfil my orders to-morrow morningwith energy and prudence."

  The high-priest bowed and left the feast.

  As soon as the door was shut behind him, the old priest from Chennuspoke.

  "What we have learned concerning the pioneer of the king, a man whoholds so high an office, surprises me. Does he distinguish himself by aspecial acuteness?"

  "He was a steady learner, but of moderate ability."

  "Is the rank of Mohar then as high as that of a prince of the empire?"

  "By no means."

  "How then is it--?"

  "It is, as it is," interrupted Gagabu. "The son of the vine-dresser hashis mouth full of grapes, and the child of the door-keeper opens thelock with words."

  "Never mind," said an old priest who had hitherto kept silence. "Paakerearned for himself the post of Mohar, and possesses many praiseworthyqualities. He is indefatigable and faithful, quails before no danger,and has always been earnestly devout from his boyhood. When theother scholars carried their pocket-money to the fruit-sellers andconfectioners at the temple-gates, he would buy geese, and, when hismother sent him a handsome sum, young gazelles, to offer to the Gods onthe altars. No noble in the land owns a greater treasure of charms andimages of the Gods than he. To the present time he is the most pious ofmen, and the offerings for the dead, which he brings in the name of hislate father, may be said to be positively kingly."

  "We owe him gratitude for these gifts," said the treasurer, "and thehigh honor he pays his father, even after his death, is exceptional andfar-famed."

  "He emulates him in every respect," sneered Gagabu; "and though hedoes not resemble him in any feature, grows more and more like him.But unfortunately, it is as the goose resembles the swan, or the owlresembles the eagle. For his father's noble pride he has overbearinghaughtiness; for kindly severity, rude harshness; for dignity, conceit;for perseverance, obstinacy. Devout he is, and we profit by his gifts.The treasurer may rejoice over them, and the dates off a crooked treetaste as well as those off a straight one. But if I were the Divinity Ishould prize them no higher than a hoopoe's crest; for He, who sees intothe heart of the giver-alas! what does he see! Storms and darknessare of the dominion of Seth, and in there--in there--" and the old manstruck his broad breast "all is wrath and tumult, and there is not agleam of the calm blue heaven of Ra, that shines soft and pure in thesoul of the pious; no, not a spot as large as this wheaten-cake."

  "Hast thou then sounded to the depths of his soul?" asked the haruspex.

  "As this beaker!" exclaimed Gagabu, and he touched the rim of an emptydrinking-vessel. "For fifteen years without ceasing. The man has been ofservice to us, is so still, and will continue to be. Our leeches extractsalves from bitter gall and deadly poisons; and folks like these--"

  "Hatred speaks in thee," said the haruspex, interrupting the indignantold man.

  "Hatred!" he retorted, and his lips quivered. "Hatred?" and he struckhis breast with his clenched hand. "It is true, it is no stranger tothis old heart. But open thine ears, O haruspex, and all you others tooshall hear. I recognize two sorts of hatred. The one is between manand man; that I have gagged, smothered, killed, annihilated--withwhat efforts, the Gods know. In past years I have certainly tasted itsbitterness, and served it like a wasp, which, though it knows that instinging it must die, yet uses its sting. But now I am old in years,that is in knowledge, and I know that of all the powerful impulseswhich stir our hearts, one only comes solely from Seth, one onlybelongs wholly to the Evil one and that is hatred between man and man.Covetousness may lead to industry, sensual appetites may beget noblefruit, but hatred is a devastator, and in the soul that it occupies allthat is noble grows not upwards and towards the light, but downwards tothe earth and to darkness. Everything may be forgiven by the Gods, saveonly hatred between man and man. But there is another sort of hatredthat is pleasing to the Gods, and which you must cherish if you wouldnot miss their presence in your souls; that is, hatred for all thathinders the growth of light and goodness and purity--the hatred of Horusfor Seth. The Gods would punish me if I hated Paaker whose father wasdear to me; but the spirits of darkness would possess the old heartin my breast if it were devoid of horror for the covetous and sordiddevotee, who would fain buy earthly joys of the Gods with gifts ofbeasts and wine, as men exchange an ass for a robe, in whose soulseethe dark promptings. Paaker's gifts can no more be pleasing to theCelestials than a cask of attar of roses would please thee, haruspex, inwhich scorpions, centipedes, and venomous snakes were swimming. I havelong led this man's prayers, and never have I heard him crave for noblegifts, but a thousand times for the injury of the men he hates."

  "In the holiest prayers that come down to us from the past," said theharuspex, "the Gods are entreated to throw our enemies under our feet;and, besides, I have often heard Paaker pray fervently for the bliss ofhis parents."

  "You are a priest and one of the initiated," cried Gagabu, "and you knownot--or will not seem to know--that by the enemies for whose overthrowwe pray, are meant only the demons of darkness and the outlandishpeoples by whom Egypt is endangered! Paaker prayed for his parents? Ay,and so will he for his children, for they will be his future as his forefathers are his past. If he had a wife, his offerings would be for hertoo, for she would be the half of his own present."

  "In spite of all this," said the haruspex Septah, "you are too hard inyour judgment of Paaker, for although he was born under a lucky sign,the Hathors denied him all that makes youth happy. The enemy for whosedestruction he prays is Mena, the king's charioteer, and, indeed, hemust have been of superhuman magnanimity or of unmanly feebleness, if hecould have wished well to the man who robbed him of the beautiful wifewho was destined for him."

  "How could that happen?" asked the priest from Chennu. "A betrothal issacred."

  [In the demotic papyrus preserved at Bulaq (novel by Setnau) first treated by H. Brugsch, the following words occur: "Is it not the law, which unites one to another?" Betrothed brides are mentioned, for instance on the sarcophagus of Unnefer at Bulaq.]

  "Paaker," replied Septah, "was attached with all the strength of hisungoverned but passionate and faithful heart to his cousin Nefert, thesweetest maid in Thebes, the daughter of Katuti, his mother'ssister; and she was promised to him to wife. Then his father, whom heaccompanied on his marches, was mortally wounded in Syria. The kingstood by his death-bed, and granting his last request, invested his sonwith his rank and office: Paaker brought the mummy of his father hometo Thebes, gave him princely interment, and then before the timeof mourning was over, hastened back to Syria, where, while the kingreturned to Egypt, it was his duty to reconnoitre the new possessions.At last he could quit the scene of war with the hope of marrying Nefert.He rode his horse to death the sooner to reach the goal of his desires;but when he reached Tanis, the city of Rameses, the news met him thathis affianced cousin had been given to another, the handsomest andbravest man in Thebes--the noble Mena. The more precious a thing is thatwe hope to possess, the more we are justified in complaining of him whocontests our claim, and can win it from us. Paaker's blood must havebeen as cold as a frog's if he could have forgiven Mena instead ofhating him, and the cattle he has offered to the Gods to bring downtheir wrath on the head of the traitor may be counted by hundreds."

  "And if you accept them, knowing why they are offered, you do unwiselyand wrongly," exclaimed Gagabu. "If I were a layman, I would take goodcare not to worship a Divinity who condescends to serve the foulesthuman fiends for a reward. But the omniscient Spirit, that rulesthe world in accordance with eternal laws, knows nothing of thesesacrifices, which only tickle the nostrils of the evil one. Thetreasurer rejoices when a beautiful spotless heifer is driven in amongour herds. But Seth rubs his red hands

  [Red was the color of Seth and Typhon. The evil one is named the Red, as for instance in the papyrus of fibers. Red-haired men were typhonic.]

  with delight that he accepts it. My friends, I have heard the vows w
hichPaaker has poured out over our pure altars, like hogwash that men setbefore swine. Pestilence and boils has he called down on Mena, andbarrenness and heartache on the poor sweet woman; and I really cannotblame her for preferring a battle-horse to a hippopotamus--a Mena to aPaaker."

  "Yet the Immortals must have thought his remonstrances lessunjustifiable, and have stricter views as to the inviolable nature of abetrothal than you," said the treasurer, "for Nefert, during four yearsof married life, has passed only a few weeks with her wandering husband,and remains childless. It is hard to me to understand how you, Gagabu,who so often absolve where we condemn, can so relentlessly judge sogreat a benefactor to our temple."

  "And I fail to comprehend," exclaimed the old man, "how you--you who sowillingly condemn, can so weakly excuse this--this--call him what youwill."

  "He is indispensable to us at this time," said the haruspex.

  "Granted," said Gagabu, lowering his tone. "And I think still to makeuse of him, as the high-priest has done in past years with the besteffect when dangers have threatened us; and a dirty road serves when itmakes for the goal. The Gods themselves often permit safety to come fromwhat is evil, but shall we therefore call evil good--or say the hideousis beautiful? Make use of the king's pioneer as you will, but donot, because you are indebted to him for gifts, neglect to judge himaccording to his imaginings and deeds if you would deserve your titleof the Initiated and the Enlightened. Let him bring his cattle into ourtemple and pour his gold into our treasury, but do not defile your soulswith the thought that the offerings of such a heart and such a hand arepleasing to the Divinity. Above all," and the voice of the old man hada heart-felt impressiveness, "Above all, do not flatter the erringman--and this is what you do, with the idea that he is walking inthe right way; for your, for our first duty, O my friends, is alwaysthis--to guide the souls of those who trust in us to goodness andtruth."

  "Oh, my master!" cried Pentaur, "how tender is thy severity."

  "I have shown the hideous sores of this man's soul," said the old man,as he rose to quit the hall. "Your praise will aggravate them, yourblame will tend to heal them. Nay, if you are not content to do yourduty, old Gagabu will come some day with his knife, and will throw thesick man down and cut out the canker."

  During this speech the haruspex had frequently shrugged his shoulders.Now he said, turning to the priests from Chennu--

  "Gagabu is a foolish, hot-headed old man, and you have heard from hislips just such a sermon as the young scribes keep by them when theyenter on the duties of the care of souls. His sentiments are excellent,but he easily overlooks small things for the sake of great ones. Ameniwould tell you that ten souls, no, nor a hundred, do not matter when thesafety of the whole is in question."