Uarda : a Romance of Ancient Egypt — Complete

by Georg Ebers

  CHAPTER XV.

  The afternoon shadows were already growing long, when a splendid chariotdrew up to the gates of the terrace-temple. Paaker, the chief pioneer,stood up in it, driving his handsome and fiery Syrian horses. Behind himstood an Ethiopian slave, and his big dog followed the swift team withhis tongue out.

  As he approached the temple he heard himself called, and checked thepace of his horses. A tiny man hurried up to him, and, as soon as he hadrecognized in him the dwarf Nemu, he cried angrily:

  "Is it for you, you rascal, that I stop my drive? What do you want?"

  "To crave," said the little man, bowing humbly, "that, when thy businessin the city of the dead is finished, thou wilt carry me back to Thebes."

  "You are Mena's dwarf?" asked the pioneer.

  "By no means," replied Nemu. "I belong to his neglected wife, the ladyNefert. I can only cover the road very slowly with my little legs, whilethe hoofs of your horses devour the way-as a crocodile does his prey."

  "Get up!" said Paaker. "Did you come here on foot?"

  "No, my lord," replied Nemu, "on an ass; but a demon entered into thebeast, and has struck it with sickness. I had to leave it on the road.The beasts of Anubis will have a better supper than we to-night."

  "Things are not done handsomely then at your mistress's house?" askedPaaker.

  "We still have bread," replied Nemu, "and the Nile is full of water.Much meat is not necessary for women and dwarfs, but our last cattletake a form which is too hard for human teeth."

  The pioneer did not understand the joke, and looked enquiringly at thedwarf.

  "The form of money," said the little man, "and that cannot be chewed;soon that will be gone too, and then the point will be to find a recipefor making nutritious cakes out of earth, water, and palm-leaves. Itmakes very little difference to me, a dwarf does not need much--but thepoor tender lady!"

  Paaker touched his horses with such a violent stroke of his whip thatthey reared high, and it took all his strength to control their spirit.

  "The horses' jaws will be broken," muttered the slave behind. "What ashame with such fine beasts!"

  "Have you to pay for them?" growled Paaker. Then he turned again to thedwarf, and asked:

  "Why does Mena let the ladies want?"

  "He no longer cares for his wife," replied the dwarf, casting his eyesdown sadly. "At the last division of the spoil he passed by the gold andsilver; and took a foreign woman into his tent. Evil demons have blindedhim, for where is there a woman fairer than Nefert?"

  "You love your mistress."

  "As my very eyes!"

  During this conversation they had arrived at the terrace-temple. Paakerthrew the reins to the slave, ordered him to wait with Nemu, and turnedto the gate-keeper to explain to him, with the help of a handful ofgold, his desire of being conducted to Pentaur, the chief of the temple.

  The gate-keeper, swinging a censer before him with a hasty action,admitted him into the sanctuary. "You will find him on the thirdterrace," he said, "but he is no longer our superior."

  "They said so in the temple of Seti, whence I have just come," repliedPaaker.

  The porter shrugged his shoulders with a sneer, and said: "The palm-treethat is quickly set up falls down more quickly still." Then he desired aservant to conduct the stranger to Pentaur.

  The poet recognized the Mohar at once, asked his will, and learned thathe was come to have a wonderful vision interpreted by him.

  Paaker explained before relating his dream, that he did not ask thisservice for nothing; and when the priest's countenance darkened headded:

  "I will send a fine beast for sacrifice to the Goddess if theinterpretation is favorable."

  "And in the opposite case?" asked Pentaur, who, in the House of Seti,never would have anything whatever to do with the payments of theworshippers or the offerings of the devout.

  "I will offer a sheep," replied Paaker, who did not perceive the subtleirony that lurked in Pentaur's words, and who was accustomed to pay forthe gifts of the Divinity in proportion to their value to himself.

  Pentaur thought of the verdict which Gagabu, only two evenings since,had passed on the Mohar, and it occurred to him that he would testhow far the man's superstition would lead him. So he asked, while hesuppressed a smile:

  "And if I can foretell nothing bad, but also nothing actually good?"--

  "An antelope, and four geese," answered Paaker promptly.

  "But if I were altogether disinclined to put myself at your service?"asked Pentaur. "If I thought it unworthy of a priest to let the Godsbe paid in proportion to their favors towards a particular person, likecorrupt officials; if I now showed you--you--and I have known you froma school-boy, that there are things that cannot be bought with inheritedwealth?"

  The pioneer drew back astonished and angry, but Pentaur continuedcalmly--

  "I stand here as the minister of the Divinity; and nevertheless, I seeby your countenance, that you were on the point of lowering yourself byshowing to me your violent and extortionate spirit.

  "The Immortals send us dreams, not to give us a foretaste of joy orcaution us against danger, but to remind us so to prepare our soulsthat we may submit quietly to suffer evil, and with heartfelt gratitudeaccept the good; and so gain from each profit for the inner life. I willnot interpret your dream! Come without gifts, but with a humble heart,and with longing for inward purification, and I will pray to the Godsthat they may enlighten me, and give you such interpretation of evenevil dreams that they may be fruitful in blessing.

  "Leave me, and quit the temple!"

  Paaker ground his teeth with rage; but he controlled himself, and onlysaid as he slowly withdrew:

  "If your office had not already been taken from you, the insolence withwhich you have dismissed me might have cost you your place. We shallmeet again, and then you shall learn that inherited wealth in the righthand is worth more than you will like."

  "Another enemy!" thought the poet, when he found himself alone and stooderect in the glad consciousness of having done right.

  During Paaker's interview with the poet, the dwarf Nemu had chatted tothe porter, and had learned from him all that had previously occurred.

  Paaker mounted his chariot pale with rage, and whipped on his horsesbefore the dwarf had clambered up the step; but the slave seized thelittle man, and set him carefully on his feet behind his master.

  "The villian, the scoundrel! he shall repent it--Pentaur is he called!the hound!" muttered the pioneer to himself.

  The dwarf lost none of his words, and when he caught the name of Pentaurhe called to the pioneer, and said--

  "They have appointed a scoundrel to be the superior of this temple;his name is Pentaur. He was expelled from the temple of Seti for hisimmorality, and now he has stirred up the younger scholars to rebellion,and invited unclean women into the temple. My lips hardly dare repeatit, but the gate-keeper swore it was true--that the chief haruspex fromthe House of Seti found him in conference with Bent-Anat, the king'sdaughter, and at once deprived him of his office."

  "With Bent-Anat?" replied the pioneer, and muttered, before the dwarfcould find time to answer, "Indeed, with Bent-Anat!" and he recalled theday before yesterday, when the princess had remained so long with thepriest in the hovel of the paraschites, while he had talked to Nefertand visited the old witch.

  "I should not care to be in the priest's skin," observed Nemu, "forthough Rameses is far away, the Regent Ani is near enough. He is agentleman who seldom pounces, but even the dove won't allow itself to beattacked in is own nest."

  Paaker looked enquiringly at Nemu.

  "I know," said the dwarf "Ani has asked Rameses' consent to marry hisdaughter."

  "He has already asked it," continued the dwarf as Paaker smiledincredulously, "and the king is not disinclined to give it. He likesmaking marriages--as thou must know pretty well."

  "I?" said Paaker, surprised.

  "He forced Katuti to give her daughter as wife to the charioteer. That
Iknow from herself. She can prove it to thee."

  Paaker shook his head in denial, but the dwarf continued eagerly, "Yes,yes! Katuti would have had thee for her son-in-law, and it was the king,not she, who broke off the betrothal. Thou must at the same time havebeen inscribed in the black books of the high gate, for Rameses usedmany hard names for thee. One of us is like a mouse behind the curtain,which knows a good deal."

  Paaker suddenly brought his horses to a stand-still, threw the reins tothe slave, sprang from the chariot, called the dwarf to his side, andsaid:

  "We will walk from here to the river, and you shall tell me all youknow; but if an untrue word passes your lips I will have you eaten by mydogs."

  "I know thou canst keep thy word," gasped the little man. "But go alittle slower if thou wilt, for I am quite out of breath. Let Katutiherself tell thee how it all came about. Rameses compelled her to giveher daughter to the charioteer. I do not know what he said of thee, butit was not complimentary. My poor mistress! she let herself be caughtby the dandy, the ladies' man-and now she may weep and wail. When I passthe great gates of thy house with Katuti, she often sighs and complainsbitterly. And with good reason, for it soon will be all over with ournoble estate, and we must seek an asylum far away among the Amu in thelow lands; for the nobles will soon avoid us as outcasts. Thou mayst beglad that thou hast not linked thy fate to ours; but I have a faithfulheart, and will share my mistress's trouble."

  "You speak riddles," said Paaker, "what have they to fear?"

  The dwarf now related how Nefert's brother had gambled away the mummy ofhis father, how enormous was the sum he had lost, and that degradationmust overtake Katuti, and her daughter with her.

  "Who can save them," he whimpered. "Her shameless husband squanders hisinheritance and his prize-money. Katuti is poor, and the little words'Give me!' scare away friends as the cry of a hawk scares the chickens.My poor mistress!"

  "It is a large sum," muttered Paaker to himself. "It is enormous!"sighed the dwarf, "and where is it to be found in these hard times? Itwould have been different with us, if--ah if--. And it would be a formof madness which I do not believe in, that Nefert should still care forher braggart husband. She thinks as much of thee as of him."

  Paaker looked at the dwarf half incredulous and half threatening.

  "Ay--of thee," repeated Nemu. "Since our excursion to the Necropolisthe day before yesterday it was--she speaks only of thee, praising thyability, and thy strong manly spirit. It is as if some charm obliged herto think of thee."

  The pioneer began to walk so fast that his small companion once more hadto ask him to moderate his steps.

  They gained the shore in silence, where Paaker's boat was waiting, whichalso conveyed his chariot. He lay down in the little cabin, called thedwarf to him, and said:

  "I am Katuti's nearest relative; we are now reconciled; why does she notturn to me in her difficulty?"

  "Because she is proud, and thy blood flows in her veins. Sooner wouldshe die with her child--she said so--than ask thee, against whom shesinned, for an 'alms'."

  "She did think of me then?"

  "At once; nor did she doubt thy generosity. She esteems thee highly--Irepeat it; and if an arrow from a Cheta's bow or a visitation of theGods attained Mena, she would joyfully place her child in thine arms,and Nefert believe me has not forgotten her playfellow. The day beforeyesterday, when she came home from the Necropolis, and before the letterhad come from the camp, she was full of thee--

  ["To be full (meh) of any one" is used in the Egyptian language for "to be in love with any one."]

  nay called to thee in her dreams; I know it from Kandake, her blackmaid." The pioneer looked down and said:

  "How extraordinary! and the same night I had a vision in which yourmistress appeared to me; the insolent priest in the temple of Hathorshould have interpreted it to me."

  "And he refused? the fool! but other folks understand dreams, and Iam not the worst of them--Ask thy servant. Ninety-nine times out of ahundred my interpretations come true. How was the vision?"

  "I stood by the Nile," said Paaker, casting down his eyes and drawinglines with his whip through the wool of the cabin rug. "The water wasstill, and I saw Nefert standing on the farther bank, and beckoning tome. I called to her, and she stepped on the water, which bore her up asif it were this carpet. She went over the water dry-foot as if it werethe stony wilderness. A wonderful sight! She came nearer to me, andnearer, and already I had tried to take her hand, when she ducked underlike a swan. I went into the water to seize her, and when she cameup again I clasped her in my arms; but then the strangest thinghappened--she flowed away, she dissolved like the snow on the Syrianhills, when you take it in your hand, and yet it was not the same, forher hair turned to water-lilies, and her eyes to blue fishes that swamaway merrily, and her lips to twigs of coral that sank at once, andfrom her body grew a crocodile, with a head like Mena, that laughedand gnashed its teeth at me. Then I was seized with blind fury; I threwmyself upon him with a drawn sword, he fastened his teeth in my flesh, Ipierced his throat with my weapon; the Nile was dark with our streamingblood, and so we fought and fought--it lasted an eternity--till Iawoke."

  Paaker drew a deep breath as he ceased speaking; as if his wild dreamtormented him again.

  The dwarf had listened with eager attention, but several minutes passedbefore he spoke.

  "A strange dream," he said, "but the interpretation as to the futureis not hard to find. Nefert is striving to reach thee, she longs to bethine, but if thou dost fancy that she is already in thy grasp she willelude thee; thy hopes will melt like ice, slip away like sand, if thoudost not know how to put the crocodile out of the way."

  At this moment the boat struck the landing-place. The pioneer startedup, and cried, "We have reached the end!"

  "We have reached the end," echoed the little man with meaning. "There isonly a narrow bridge to step over."

  When they both stood on the shore, the dwarf said,

  "I have to thank thee for thy hospitality, and when I can serve theecommand me."

  "Come here," cried the pioneer, and drew Nemu away with him under theshade of a sycamore veiled in the half light of the departing sun.

  "What do you mean by a bridge which we must step over? I do notunderstand the flowers of speech, and desire plain language."

  The dwarf reflected for a moment; and then asked, "Shall I say nakedlyand openly what I mean, and will you not be angry?"

  "Speak!"

  "Mena is the crocodile. Put him out of the world, and you will havepassed the bridge; then Nefert will be thine--if thou wilt listen tome."

  "What shall I do?"

  "Put the charioteer out of the world."

  Paaker's gesture seemed to convey that that was a thing that had longbeen decided on, and he turned his face, for a good omen, so that therising moon should be on his right hand.

  The dwarf went on.

  "Secure Nefert, so that she may not vanish like her image in the dream,before you reach the goal; that is to say, ransom the honor of yourfuture mother and wife, for how could you take an outcast into yourhouse?"

  Paaker looked thoughtfully at the ground.

  "May I inform my mistress that thou wilt save her?" asked Nemu. "Imay?--Then all will be well, for he who will devote a fortune to lovewill not hesitate to devote a reed lance with a brass point to it to hislove and his hatred together."