by Georg Ebers
CHAPTER XI.
As soon as Bent-Anat had quitted Mena's domain, the dwarf Nemu enteredthe garden with a letter, and briefly related his adventures; but insuch a comical fashion that both the ladies laughed, and Katuti, with alively gaiety, which was usually foreign to her, while she warned him,at the same time praised his acuteness. She looked at the seal of theletter and said:
"This is a lucky day; it has brought us great things, and the promiseof greater things in the future." Nefert came close up to her and saidimploringly: "Open the letter, and see if there is nothing in it fromhim."
Katuti unfastened the wax, looked through the letter with a hastyglance, stroked the cheek of her child, and said:
"Perhaps your brother has written for him; I see no line in hishandwriting."
Nefert on her side glanced at the letter, but not to read it, only toseek some trace of the well-known handwriting of her husband.
Like all the Egyptian women of good family she could read, and duringthe first two years of her married life she had often--very often--hadthe opportunity of puzzling, and yet rejoicing, over the feeble signswhich the iron hand of the charioteer had scrawled on the papyrus forher whose slender fingers could guide the reed pen with firmness anddecision.
She examined the letter, and at last said, with tears in her eyes:
"Nothing! I will go to my room, mother."
Katuti kissed her and said, "Hear first what your brother writes."
But Nefert shook her head, turned away in silence, and disappeared intothe house.
Katuti was not very friendly to her son-in-law, but her heart clungto her handsome, reckless son, the very image of her lost husband,the favorite of women, and the gayest youth among the young nobles whocomposed the chariot-guard of the king.
How fully he had written to-day--he who weilded the reed-pen solaboriously.
This really was a letter; while, usually, he only asked in the fewestwords for fresh funds for the gratification of his extravagant tastes.
This time she might look for thanks, for not long since he must havereceived a considerable supply, which she had abstracted from the incomeof the possessions entrusted to her by her son-in-law.
She began to read.
The cheerfulness, with which she had met the dwarf, was insincere, andhad resembled the brilliant colors of the rainbow, which gleam overthe stagnant waters of a bog. A stone falls into the pool, the colorsvanish, dim mists rise up, and it becomes foul and clouded.
The news which her son's letter contained fell, indeed, like a block ofstone on Katuti's soul.
Our deepest sorrows always flow from the same source as might havefilled us with joy, and those wounds burn the fiercest which areinflicted by a hand we love.
The farther Katuti went in the lamentably incorrect epistle--which shecould only decipher with difficulty--which her darling had written toher, the paler grew her face, which she several times covered with hertrembling hands, from which the letter dropped.
Nemu squatted on the earth near her, and followed all her movements.
When she sprang forward with a heart-piercing scream, and pressed herforehead to a rough palmtrunk, he crept up to her, kissed her feet, andexclaimed with a depth of feeling that overcame even Katuti, who wasaccustomed to hear only gay or bitter speeches from the lips of herjester--
"Mistress! lady! what has happened?"
Katuti collected herself, turned to him, and tried to speak; but herpale lips remained closed, and her eyes gazed dimly into vacancy asthough a catalepsy had seized her.
"Mistress! Mistress!" cried the dwarf again, with growing agitation."What is the matter? shall I call thy daughter?"
Katuti made a sign with her hand, and cried feebly: "The wretches! thereprobates!"
Her breath began to come quickly, the blood mounted to her cheeksand her flashing eyes; she trod upon the letter, and wept so loud andpassionately, that the dwarf, who had never before seen tears in hereyes, raised himself timidly, and said in mild reproach: "Katuti!"
She laughed bitterly, and said with a trembling voice:
"Why do you call my name so loud! it is disgraced and degraded. Howthe nobles and the ladies will rejoice! Now envy can point at us withspiteful joy--and a minute ago I was praising this day! They say oneshould exhibit one's happiness in the streets, and conceal one's misery;on the contrary, on the contrary! Even the Gods should not know of one'shopes and joys, for they too are envious and spiteful!"
Again she leaned her head against the palm-tree. "Thou speakest ofshame, and not of death," said Nemu, "and I learned from thee that oneshould give nothing up for lost excepting the dead."
These words had a powerful effect on the agitated woman. Quickly andvehemently she turned upon the dwarf saying.
"You are clever, and faithful too, so listen! but if you were Amonhimself there is nothing to be done--"
"We must try," said Nemu, and his sharp eyes met those of his mistress.
"Speak," he said, "and trust me. Perhaps I can be of no use; but that Ican be silent thou knowest."
"Before long the children in the streets will talk of what this tellsme," said Katuti, laughing with bitterness, "only Nefert must knownothing of what has happened--nothing, mind; what is that? the Regentcoming! quick, fly; tell him I am suddenly taken ill, very ill; I cannotsee him, not now! No one is to be admitted--no one, do you hear?"
The dwarf went.
When he came back after he had fulfilled his errand, he found hismistress still in a fever of excitement.
"Listen," she said; "first the smaller matter, then the frightful, theunspeakable. Rameses loads Mena with marks of his favor. It came to adivision of the spoils of war for the year; a great heap of treasure layready for each of his followers, and the charioteer had to choose beforeall the others."
"Well?" said the dwarf.
"Well!" echoed Katuti. "Well! how did the worthy householder care forhis belongings at home, how did he seek to relieve his indebted estate?It is disgraceful, hideous! He passed by the silver, the gold, thejewels, with a laugh; and took the captive daughter of the Danaidprinces, and led her into his tent."
"Shameful!" muttered the dwarf.
"Poor, poor Nefert!" cried Katuti, covering her face with her hands.
"And what more?" asked Nemu hastily.
"That," said Katuti, "that is--but I will keep calm--quite calm andquiet. You know my son. He is heedless, but he loves me and his sistermore than anything in the world. I, fool as I was, to persuade himto economy, had vividly described our evil plight, and after thatdisgraceful conduct of Mena he thought of us and of our anxieties. Hisshare of the booty was small, and could not help us. His comrades threwdice for the shares they had obtained--he staked his to win more for us.He lost--all--all--and at last against an enormous sum, still thinkingof us, and only of us, he staked the mummy of his dead father.
[It was a king of the fourth dynasty, named Asychis by Herodotus, who it is admitted was the first to pledge the mummies of his ancestors. "He who stakes this pledge and fails to redeem the debt shall, after his death, rest neither in his father's tomb nor in any other, and sepulture shall be denied to his descendants." Herod. 11. 136.]
He lost. If he does not redeem the pledge before the expiration of thethird month, he will fall into infamy, the mummy will belong to thewinner, and disgrace and ignominy will be my lot and his."
Katuti pressed her hands on her face, the dwarf muttered to himself,"The gambler and hypocrite!" When his mistress had grown calmer, hesaid:
"It is horrible, yet all is not lost. How much is the debt?"
It sounded like a heavy curse, when Katuti replied, "Thirty Babyloniantalents."--[L7000 sterling in 1881.]
The dwarf cried out, as if an asp had stung him. "Who dared to bidagainst such a mad stake?"
"The Lady Hathor's son, Antef," answered Katuti, "who has alreadygambled away the inheritance of his fathers, in Thebes."
"He will not remit one grain of wheat of his cla
im," cried the dwarf."And Mena?"
"How could my son turn to him after what had happened? The poor childimplores me to ask the assistance of the Regent."
"Of the Regent?" said the dwarf, shaking his big head. "Impossible!"
"I know, as matters now stand; but his place, his name."
"Mistress," said the dwarf, and deep purpose rang in the words, "do notspoil the future for the sake of the present. If thy son loses his honorunder King Rameses, the future King, Ani, may restore it to him. If theRegent now renders you all an important service, he will regard you asamply paid when our efforts have succeeded, and he sits on the throne.He lets himself be led by thee now because thou hast no need of hishelp, and dost seem to work only for his sake, and for his elevation.As soon as thou hast appealed to him, and he has assisted thee, all thyconfidence and freedom will be gone, and the more difficult he findsit to raise so large a sum of money at once, the angrier he will be tothink that thou art making use of him. Thou knowest his circumstances."
"He is in debt," said Katuti. "I know that."
"Thou should'st know it," cried the dwarf, "for thou thyself hast forcedhim to enormous expenses. He has won the people of Thebes with dazzlingfestive displays; as guardian of Apis
[When Apis (the sacred bull) died under Ptolemy I. Soter, his keepers spent not only the money which they had received for his maintenance, in his obsequies but borrowed 50 talents of silver from the king. In the time of Diodurus 100 talents were spent for the same purpose.]
he gave a large donation to Memphis; he bestowed thousands on theleaders of the troops sent into Ethiopia, which were equipped by him;what his spies cost him at, the camp of the king, thou knowest. He hasborrowed sums of money from most of the rich men in the country, andthat is well, for so many creditors are so many allies. The Regent is abad debtor; but the king Ani, they reckon, will be a grateful payer."
Katuti looked at the dwarf in astonishment. "You know men!" she said.
"To my sorrow!" replied Nemu. "Do not apply to the Regent, and beforethou dost sacrifice the labor of years, and thy future greatness, andthat of those near to thee, sacrifice thy son's honor."
"And my husband's, and my own?" exclaimed Katuti. "How can you know whatthat is! Honor is a word that the slave may utter, but whose meaning hecan never comprehend; you rub the weals that are raised on you by blows;to me every finger pointed at me in scorn makes a wound like an ashwoodlance with a poisoned tip of brass. Oh ye holy Gods! who can help us?"
The miserable woman pressed her hands over her eyes, as if to shut outthe sight of her own disgrace. The dwarf looked at her compassionately,and said in a changed tone:
"Dost thou remember the diamond which fell out of Nefert's handsomestring? We hunted for it, and could not find it. Next day, as I was goingthrough the room, I trod on something hard; I stooped down and found thestone. What the noble organ of sight, the eye, overlooked, the callousdespised sole of the foot found; and perhaps the small slave, Nemu, whoknows nothing of honor, may succeed in finding a mode of escape which isnot revealed to the lofty soul of his mistress!"
"What are you thinking of?" asked Katuti.
"Escape," answered the dwarf. "Is it true that thy sister Setchem hasvisited thee, and that you are reconciled?"
"She offered me her hand, and I took it?"
"Then go to her. Men are never more helpful than after a reconciliation.The enmity they have driven out, seems to leave as it were afreshly-healed wound which must be touched with caution; and Setchem isof thy own blood, and kind-hearted."
"She is not rich," replied Katuti. "Every palm in her garden comes fromher husband, and belongs to her children."
"Paaker, too, was with you?"
"Certainly only by the entreaty of his mother--he hates my son-in-law."
"I know it," muttered the dwarf, "but if Nefert would ask him?"
The widow drew herself up indignantly. She felt that she had allowed thedwarf too much freedom, and ordered him to leave her alone.
Nemu kissed her robe and asked timidly:
"Shall I forget that thou hast trusted me, or am I permitted to considerfurther as to thy son's safety?" Katuti stood for a moment undecided,then she said:
"You were clever enough to find what I carelessly dropped; perhaps someGod may show you what I ought to do. Now leave me."
"Wilt thou want me early to-morrow?"
"No."
"Then I will go to the Necropolis, and offer a sacrifice."
"Go!" said Katuti, and went towards the house with the fatal letter inher hand.
Nemu stayed behind alone; he looked thoughtfully at the ground,murmuring to himself.
"She must not lose her honor; not at present, or indeed all will belost. What is this honor? We all come into the world without it, andmost of us go to the grave without knowing it, and very good folksnotwithstanding. Only a few who are rich and idle weave it in with thehomely stuff of their souls, as the Kuschites do their hair with greaseand oils, till it forms a cap of which, though it disfigures them, theyare so proud that they would rather have their ears cut off than themonstrous thing. I see, I see--but before I open my mouth I will go tomy mother. She knows more than twenty prophets."
