Uarda : a Romance of Ancient Egypt — Complete
Page 9
CHAPTER VII.
An hour later, Bent-Anat and her train of followers stood before thegate of the House of Seti.
Swift as a ball thrown from a man's hand, a runner had sprung forwardand hurried on to announce the approach of the princess to thechief priest. She stood alone in her chariot, in advance of all hercompanions, for Pentaur had found a place with Paaker. At the gate ofthe temple they were met by the head of the haruspices.
The great doors of the pylon were wide open, and afforded a view intothe forecourt of the sanctuary, paved with polished squares ofstone, and surrounded on three sides with colonnades. The walls andarchitraves, the pillars and the fluted cornice, which slightly curvedin over the court, were gorgeous with many colored figures and painteddecorations. In the middle stood a great sacrificial altar, on whichburned logs of cedar wood, whilst fragrant balls of Kyphi
[Kyphi was a celebrated Egyptian incense. Recipes for its preparation have been preserved in the papyrus of Ebers, in the laboratories of the temples, and elsewhere. Parthey had three different varieties prepared by the chemist, L. Voigt, in Berlin. Kyphi after the formula of Dioskorides was the best. It consisted of rosin, wine, rad, galangae, juniper berries, the root of the aromatic rush, asphalte, mastic, myrrh, Burgundy grapes, and honey.]
were consumed by the flames, filling the wide space with their heavyperfume. Around, in semi-circular array, stood more than a hundredwhite-robed priests, who all turned to face the approaching princess,and sang heart-rending songs of lamentation.
Many of the inhabitants of the Necropolis had collected on either sideof the lines of sphinxes, between which the princess drove up to theSanctuary. But none asked what these songs of lamentation might signify,for about this sacred place lamentation and mystery for ever lingered."Hail to the child of Rameses!"--"All hail to the daughter of the Sun!"rang from a thousand throats; and the assembled multitude bowed almostto the earth at the approach of the royal maiden.
At the pylon, the princess descended from her chariot, and preceded bythe chief of the haruspices, who had gravely and silently greeted her,passed on to the door of the temple. But as she prepared to cross theforecourt, suddenly, without warning, the priests' chant swelled to aterrible, almost thundering loudness, the clear, shrill voice of theTemple scholars rising in passionate lament, supported by the deep andthreatening roll of the basses.
Bent-Anat started and checked her steps. Then she walked on again.
But on the threshold of the door, Ameni, in full pontifical robes, stoodbefore her in the way, his crozier extended as though to forbid herentrance.
"The advent of the daughter of Rameses in her purity," he cried in loudand passionate tones, "augurs blessing to this sanctuary; but thisabode of the Gods closes its portals on the unclean, be they slaves orprinces. In the name of the Immortals, from whom thou art descended, Iask thee, Bent-Anat, art thou clean, or hast thou, through the touch ofthe unclean, defiled thyself and contaminated thy royal hand?"
Deep scarlet flushed the maiden's cheeks, there was a rushing sound inher ears as of a stormy sea surging close beside her, and her bosom roseand fell in passionate emotion. The kingly blood in her veins boiledwildly; she felt that an unworthy part had been assigned to her ina carefully-premeditated scene; she forgot her resolution to accuseherself of uncleanness, and already her lips were parted in vehementprotest against the priestly assumption that so deeply stirred herto rebellion, when Ameni, who placed himself directly in front of thePrincess, raised his eyes, and turned them full upon her with all thedepths of their indwelling earnestness.
The words died away, and Bent-Anat stood silent, but she endured thegaze, and returned it proudly and defiantly.
The blue veins started in Ameni's forehead; yet he repressed theresentment which was gathering like thunder clouds in his soul, andsaid, with a voice that gradually deviated more and more from its usualmoderation:
"For the second time the Gods demand through me, their representative:Hast thou entered this holy place in order that the Celestials may purgethee of the defilement that stains thy body and soul?"
"My father will communicate the answer to thee," replied Bent-Anatshortly and proudly.
"Not to me," returned Ameni, "but to the Gods, in whose name I nowcommand thee to quit this sanctuary, which is defiled by thy presence."
Bent-Anat's whole form quivered. "I will go," she said with sullendignity.
She turned to recross the gateway of the Pylon. At the first step herglance met the eye of the poet. As one to whom it is vouchsafed to standand gaze at some great prodigy, so Pentaur had stood opposite the royalmaiden, uneasy and yet fascinated, agitated, yet with secretly upliftedsoul. Her deed seemed to him of boundless audacity, and yet one suitedto her true and noble nature. By her side, Ameni, his revered andadmired master, sank into insignificance; and when she turned to leavethe temple, his hand was raised indeed to hold her back, but as hisglance met hers, his hand refused its office, and sought instead tostill the throbbing of his overflowing heart.
The experienced priest, meanwhile, read the features of these twoguileless beings like an open book. A quickly-formed tie, he felt,linked their souls, and the look which he saw them exchange startledhim. The rebellious princess had glanced at the poet as though claimingapprobation for her triumph, and Pentaur's eyes had responded to theappeal.
One instant Ameni paused. Then he cried: "Bent-Anat!"
The princess turned to the priest, and looked at him gravely andenquiringly.
Ameni took a step forward, and stood between her and the poet.
"Thou wouldst challenge the Gods to combat," he said sternly. "That isbold; but such daring it seems to me has grown up in thee because thoucanst count on an ally, who stands scarcely farther from the Immortalsthan I myself. Hear this:--to thee, the misguided child, much may beforgiven. But a servant of the Divinity," and with these words he turneda threatening glance on Pentaur--"a priest, who in the war of free-willagainst law becomes a deserter, who forgets his duty and his oath--hewill not long stand beside thee to support thee, for he--even thoughevery God had blessed him with the richest gifts--he is damned. We drivehim from among us, we curse him, we--"
At these words Bent-Anat looked now at Ameni, trembling with excitement,now at Pentaur standing opposite to her. Her face was red and whiteby turns, as light and shade chase each other on the ground when atnoon-day a palm-grove is stirred by a storm.
The poet took a step towards her.
She felt that if he spoke it would be to defend all that she had done,and to ruin himself. A deep sympathy, a nameless anguish seized hersoul, and before Pentaur could open his lips, she had sunk slowly downbefore Ameni, saying in low tones:
"I have sinned and defiled myself; thou hast said it--as Pentaur said itby the hut of the paraschites. Restore me to cleanness, Ameni, for I amunclean."
Like a flame that is crushed out by a hand, so the fire in thehigh-priest's eye was extinguished. Graciously, almost lovingly, helooked down on the princess, blessed her and conducted her before theholy of holies, there had clouds of incense wafted round her, anointedher with the nine holy oils, and commanded her to return to the royalcastle.
Yet, said he, her guilt was not expiated; she should shortly learn bywhat prayers and exercises she might attain once more to perfect puritybefore the Gods, of whom he purposed to enquire in the holy place.
During all these ceremonies the priests stationed in the forecourtcontinued their lamentations.
The people standing before the temple listened to the priest's chant,and interrupted it from time to time with ringing cries of wailing, foralready a dark rumor of what was going on within had spread among themultitude.
The sun was going down. The visitors to the Necropolis must soon beleaving it, and Bent-Anat, for whose appearance the people impatientlywaited, would not show herself. One and another said the princess hadbeen cursed, because she had taken remedies to the fair and injuredUarda, who was known to many of them.
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Among the curious who had flocked together were many embalmers,laborers, and humble folk, who lived in the Necropolis. The mutinous andrefractory temper of the Egyptians, which brought such heavy sufferingon them under their later foreign rulers, was aroused, and risingwith every minute. They reviled the pride of the priests, and theirsenseless, worthless, institutions. A drunken soldier, who soon reeledback into the tavern which he had but just left, distinguished himselfas ringleader, and was the first to pick up a heavy stone to fling atthe huge brass-plated temple gates. A few boys followed his examplewith shouts, and law-abiding men even, urged by the clamor of fanaticalwomen, let themselves be led away to stone-flinging and words of abuse.
Within the House of Seti the priests' chant went on uninterruptedly;but at last, when the noise of the crowd grew louder, the great gate wasthrown open, and with a solemn step Ameni, in full robes, and followedby twenty pastophori--[An order of priests]--who bore images of the Godsand holy symbols on their shoulders--Ameni walked into the midst of thecrowd.
All were silent.
"Wherefore do you disturb our worship?" he asked loudly and calmly.
A roar of confused cries answered him, in which the frequently repeatedname of Bent-Anat could alone be distinguished.
Ameni preserved his immoveable composure, and, raising his crozier, hecried--
"Make way for the daughter of Rameses, who sought and has foundpurification from the Gods, who behold the guilt of the highest asof the lowest among you. They reward the pious, but they punish theoffender. Kneel down and let us pray that they may forgive you, andbless both you and your children."
Ameni took the holy Sistrum
[A rattling metal instrument used by the Egyptians in the service of the Gods. Many specimens are extant in Museums. Plutarch describes it correctly, thus: "The Sistrum is rounded above, and the loop holds the four bars which are shaken." On the bend of the Sistrum they often set the head of a cat with a human face.]
from one of the attendant pastophori, and held it on high; the priestsbehind him raised a solemn hymn, and the crowd sank on their knees; nordid they move till the chant ceased and the high-priest again cried out:
"The Immortals bless you by me their servant. Leave this spot and makeway for the daughter of Rameses."
With these words he withdrew into the temple, and the patrol, withoutmeeting with any opposition, cleared the road guarded by Sphinxes whichled to the Nile.
As Bent-Anat mounted her chariot Ameni said "Thou art the child ofkings. The house of thy father rests on the shoulders of the people.Loosen the old laws which hold them subject, and the people will conductthemselves like these fools."
Ameni retired. Bent-Anat slowly arranged the reins in her hand, her eyesresting the while on the poet, who, leaning against a door-post, gazedat her in beatitude. She let her whip fall to the ground, that he mightpick it up and restore it to her, but he did not observe it. A runnersprang forward and handed it to the princess, whose horses started off,tossing themselves and neighing.
Pentaur remained as if spell-bound, standing by the pillar, till therattle of the departing wheels on the flag-way of the Avenue of Sphinxeshad altogether died away, and the reflection of the glowing sunsetpainted the eastern hills with soft and rosy hues.
The far-sounding clang of a brass gong roused the poet from his ecstasy.It was the tomtom calling him to duty, to the lecture on rhetoric whichat this hour he had to deliver to the young priests. He laid his lefthand to his heart, and pressed his right hand to his forehead, as ifto collect in its grasp his wandering thoughts; then silently andmechanically he went towards the open court in which his disciplesawaited him. But instead of, as usual, considering on the way thesubject he was to treat, his spirit and heart were occupied with theoccurrences of the last few hours. One image reigned supreme in hisimagination, filling it with delight--it was that of the fairest woman,who, radiant in her royal dignity and trembling with pride, had thrownherself in the dust for his sake. He felt as if her action had investedher whole being with a new and princely worth, as if her glance hadbrought light to his inmost soul, he seemed to breathe a freer air, tobe borne onward on winged feet.
In such a mood he appeared before his hearers. When he found himselfconfronting all the the well-known faces, he remembered what it washe was called upon to do. He supported himself against the wall of thecourt, and opened the papyrus-roll handed to him by his favorite pupil,the young Anana. It was the book which twenty-four hours ago he hadpromised to begin upon. He looked now upon the characters that coveredit, and felt that he was unable to read a word.
With a powerful effort he collected himself, and looking upwards triedto find the thread he had cut at the end of yesterday's lecture, andintended to resume to-day; but between yesterday and to-day, as itseemed to him, lay a vast sea whose roaring surges stunned his memoryand powers of thought.
His scholars, squatting cross-legged on reed mats before him, gazed inastonishment on their silent master who was usually so ready of speech,and looked enquiringly at each other. A young priest whispered to hisneighbor, "He is praying--" and Anana noticed with silent anxiety thestrong hand of his teacher clutching the manuscript so tightly that theslight material of which it consisted threatened to split.
At last Pentaur looked down; he had found a subject. While he waslooking upwards his gaze fell on the opposite wall, and the paintedname of the king with the accompanying title "the good God" met his eye.Starting from these words he put this question to his hearers, "How dowe apprehend the Goodness of the Divinity?"
He challenged one priest after another to treat this subject as if hewere standing before his future congregation.
Several disciples rose, and spoke with more or less truth and feeling.At last it came to Anana's turn, who, in well-chosen words, praisedthe purpose-full beauty of animate and inanimate creation, in which thegoodness of Amon
[Amon, that is to say, "the hidden one." He was the God of Thebes, which was under his aegis, and after the Hykssos were expelled from the Nile-valley, he was united with Ra of Heliopolis and endowed with the attributes of all the remaining Gods. His nature was more and more spiritualized, till in the esoteric philosophy of the time of the Rameses he is compared to the All filling and All guiding intelligence. He is "the husband of his mother, his own father, and his own son," As the living Osiris, he is the soul and spirit of all creation.]
of Ra,
[Ra, originally the Sun-God; later his name was introduced into the pantheistic mystic philosophy for that of the God who is the Universe.]
and Ptah,
[Ptah is the Greek Henhaistas, the oldest of the Gods, the great maker of the material for the creation, the "first beginner," by whose side the seven Chnemu stand, as architects, to help him, and who was named "the lord of truth," because the laws and conditions of being proceeded from him. He created also the germ of light, he stood therefore at the head of the solar Gods, and was called the creator of ice, from which, when he had cleft it, the sun and the moan came forth. Hence his name "the opener."]
as well as of the other Gods, finds expression.
Pentaur listened to the youth with folded arms, now looking at himenquiringly, now adding approbation. Then taking up the thread of thediscourse when it was ended, he began himself to speak.
Like obedient falcons at the call of the falconer, thoughts rushed downinto his mind, and the divine passion awakened in his breast glowed andshone through his inspired language that soared every moment on freerand stronger wings. Melting into pathos, exulting in rapture, he praisedthe splendor of nature; and the words flowed from his lips like a limpidcrystal-clear stream as he glorified the eternal order of things, andthe incomprehensible wisdom and care of the Creator--the One, who is onealone, and great and without equal.
"So incomparable," he said in conclusion, "is the home which God hasgiven us. All that He--the One--has created is penetrated with His ownessence, and bears witne
ss to His Goodness. He who knows how to find Himsees Him everywhere, and lives at every instant in the enjoyment of Hisglory. Seek Him, and when ye have found Him fall down and sing praisesbefore Him. But praise the Highest, not only in gratitude for thesplendor of that which he has created, but for having given us thecapacity for delight in his work. Ascend the mountain peaks and look onthe distant country, worship when the sunset glows with rubies, and thedawn with roses, go out in the nighttime, and look at the stars as theytravel in eternal, unerring, immeasurable, and endless circles on silverbarks through the blue vault of heaven, stand by the cradle of thechild, by the buds of the flowers, and see how the mother bends overthe one, and the bright dew-drops fall on the other. But would you knowwhere the stream of divine goodness is most freely poured out, where thegrace of the Creator bestows the richest gifts, and where His holiestaltars are prepared? In your own heart; so long as it is pure and fullof love. In such a heart, nature is reflected as in a magic mirror, onwhose surface the Beautiful shines in three-fold beauty. There the eyecan reach far away over stream, and meadow, and hill, and take in thewhole circle of the earth; there the morning and evening-red shine,not like roses and rubies, but like the very cheeks of the Goddess ofBeauty; there the stars circle on, not in silence, but with the mightyvoices of the pure eternal harmonies of heaven; there the child smileslike an infant-god, and the bud unfolds to magic flowers; finally,there thankfulness grows broader and devotion grows deeper, and we throwourselves into the arms of a God, who--as I imagine his glory--is aGod to whom the sublime nine great Gods pray as miserable and helplesssuppliants."
The tomtom which announced the end of the hour interrupted him.
Pentaur ceased speaking with a deep sigh, and for a minute not a scholarmoved.
At last the poet laid the papyrus roll out of his hand, wiped the sweatfrom his hot brow, and walked slowly towards the gate of the court,which led into the sacred grove of the temple. He had hardly crossed thethreshold when he felt a hand laid upon his shoulder.
He looked round. Behind him stood Ameni. "You fascinated your hearers,my friend," said the high-priest, coldly; "it is a pity that only theHarp was wanting."
Ameni's words fell on the agitated spirit of the poet like ice on thebreast of a man in fever. He knew this tone in his master's voice, forthus he was accustomed to reprove bad scholars and erring priests; butto him he had never yet so spoken.
"It certainly would seem," continued the high-priest, bitterly, "as ifin your intoxication you had forgotten what it becomes the teacher toutter in the lecture-hall. Only a few weeks since you swore on my handsto guard the mysteries, and this day you have offered the great secretof the Unnameable one, the most sacred possession of the initiated, likesome cheap ware in the open market."
"Thou cuttest with knives," said Pentaur.
"May they prove sharp, and extirpate the undeveloped canker, the rankweed from your soul," cried the high-priest. "You are young, too young;not like the tender fruit-tree that lets itself be trained aright, andbrought to perfection, but like the green fruit on the ground, whichwill turn to poison for the children who pick it up--yea even though itfall from a sacred tree. Gagabu and I received you among us, againstthe opinion of the majority of the initiated. We gainsaid all thosewho doubted your ripeness because of your youth; and you swore to me,gratefully and enthusiastically, to guard the mysteries and the law.To-day for the first time I set you on the battle-field of life beyondthe peaceful shelter of the schools. And how have you defended thestandard that it was incumbent on you to uphold and maintain?"
"I did that which seemed to me to be right and true," answered Pentaurdeeply moved.
"Right is the same for you as for us--what the law prescribes; and whatis truth?"
"None has lifted her veil," said Pentaur, "but my soul is the offspringof the soul-filled body of the All; a portion of the infallible spiritof the Divinity stirs in my breast, and if it shows itself potent inme--"
"How easily we may mistake the flattering voice of self-love for that ofthe Divinity!"
"Cannot the Divinity which works and speaks in me--as in thee--as ineach of us--recognize himself and his own voice?"
"If the crowd were to hear you," Ameni interrupted him, "each would sethimself on his little throne, would proclaim the voice of the god withinhim as his guide, tear the law to shreds, and let the fragments fly tothe desert on the east wind."
"I am one of the elect whom thou thyself hast taught to seek and tofind the One. The light which I gaze on and am blest, would strike thecrowd--I do not deny it--with blindness--"
"And nevertheless you blind our disciples with the dangerous glare-"
"I am educating them for future sages."
"And that with the hot overflow of a heart intoxicated with love!"
"Ameni!"
"I stand before you, uninvited, as your teacher, who reproves you out ofthe law, which always and everywhere is wiser than the individual, whosedefender the king--among his highest titles--boasts of being, and towhich the sage bows as much as the common man whom we bring up to blindbelief--I stand before you as your father, who has loved you from achild, and expected from none of his disciples more than from you; andwho will therefore neither lose you nor abandon the hope he has set uponyou--
"Make ready to leave our quiet house early tomorrow morning. You haveforfeited your office of teacher. You shall now go into the school oflife, and make yourself fit for the honored rank of the initiated which,by my error, was bestowed on you too soon. You must leave your scholarswithout any leave-taking, however hard it may appear to you. After thestar of Sothis
[The holy star of Isis, Sirius or the dog star, whose course in the time of the Pharaohs coincided with the exact Solar year, and served at a very early date as a foundation for the reckoning of time among the Egyptians.]
has risen come for your instructions. You must in these next months tryto lead the priesthood in the temple of Hatasu, and in that post to winback my confidence which you have thrown away. No remonstrance; to-nightyou will receive my blessing, and our authority--you must greet therising sun from the terrace of the new scene of your labors. May theUnnameable stamp the law upon your soul!"
Ameni returned to his room.
He walked restlessly to and fro.
On a little table lay a mirror; he looked into the clear metal pane,and laid it back in its place again, as if he had seen some strange anddispleasing countenance.
The events of the last few hours had moved him deeply, and shaken hisconfidence in his unerring judgment of men and things.
The priests on the other bank of the Nile were Bent-Anat's counsellors,and he had heard the princess spoken of as a devout and gifted maiden.Her incautious breach of the sacred institutions had seemed to himto offer a welcome opportunity for humiliating--a member of the royalfamily.
Now he told himself that he had undervalued this young creature that hehad behaved clumsily, perhaps foolishly, to her; for he did not for amoment conceal from himself that her sudden change of demeanor resultedmuch more from the warm flow of her sympathy, or perhaps of her,affection, than from any recognition of her guilt, and he could notutilize her transgression with safety to himself, unless she feltherself guilty.
Nor was he of so great a nature as to be wholly free from vanity, andhis vanity had been deeply wounded by the haughty resistance of theprincess.
When he commanded Pentaur to meet the princess with words of reproof, hehad hoped to awaken his ambition through the proud sense of power overthe mighty ones of the earth.
And now?
How had his gifted admirer, the most hopeful of all his disciples, stoodthe test.
The one ideal of his life, the unlimited dominion of the priestly ideaover the minds of men, and of the priesthood over the king himself, hadhitherto remained unintelligible to this singular young man.
He must learn to understand it.
"Here, as the least among a hundred who are his superiors, all thepowers of resista
nce of his soaring soul have been roused," said Amenito himself. "In the temple of Hatasu he will have to rule over theinferior orders of slaughterers of victims and incense-burners; and,by requiring obedience, will learn to estimate the necessity of it. Therebel, to whom a throne devolves, becomes a tyrant!"
"Pentuar's poet soul," so he continued to reflect "has quickly yieldeditself a prisoner to the charm of Bent-Anat; and what woman could resistthis highly favored being, who is radiant in beauty as Ra-Harmachis, andfrom whose lips flows speech as sweet as Techuti's. They ought never tomeet again, for no tie must bind him to the house of Rameses."
Again he paced to and fro, and murmured:
"How is this? Two of my disciples have towered above their fellows, ingenius and gifts, like palm trees above their undergrowth. I broughtthem up to succeed me, to inherit my labors and my hopes.
"Mesu fell away;
[Mesu is the Egyptian name of Moses, whom we may consider as a contemporary of Rameses, under whose successor the exodus of the Jews from Egypt took place.]
and Pentaur may follow him. Must my aim be an unworthy one because itdoes not attract the noblest? Not so. Each feels himself made of betterstuff than his companions in destiny, constitutes his own law, and fearsto see the great expended in trifles; but I think otherwise; like abrook of ferruginous water from Lebanon, I mix with the great stream,and tinge it with my color."
Thinking thus Ameni stood still.
Then he called to one of the so-called "holy fathers," his privatesecretary, and said:
"Draw up at once a document, to be sent to all the priests'-colleges inthe land. Inform them that the daughter of Rameses has lapsed seriouslyfrom the law, and defiled herself, and direct that public--you hear mepublic--prayers shall be put up for her purification in every temple.Lay the letter before me to be signed within in hour. But no! Give meyour reed and palette; I will myself draw up the instructions."
The "holy father" gave him writing materials, and retired into thebackground. Ameni muttered: "The King will do us some unheard-ofviolence! Well, this writing may be the first arrow in opposition to hislance."