by Georg Ebers
CHAPTER XXVI.
Notwithstanding the advanced hour, hundreds of people were crossing overto the Necropolis at the same time as the baker. They were permittedto linger late on into the evening, under the inspection of the watch,because it was the eve of the great feast, and they had to set out theircounters and awnings, to pitch their tents, and to spread out theirwares; for as soon as the sun rose next day all business traffic wouldbe stopped, none but festal barges might cross from Thebes, or suchboats as ferried over pilgrims--men, women, and children whether nativesor foreigners, who were to take part in the great procession.
In the halls and work-rooms of the House of Seti there was unusual stir.The great miracle of the wonderful heart had left but a short time forthe preparations for the festival. Here a chorus was being practised,there on the sacred lake a scenic representation was being rehearsed;here the statues of the Gods were being cleaned and dressed,
[The dressing and undressing of the holy images was conducted in strict accordance with a prescribed ritual. The inscriptions in the seven sanctuaries of Abydos, published by Alariette, are full of instruction as to these ordinances, which were significant in every detail.]
and the colors of the sacred emblems were being revived, there thepanther-skins and other parts of the ceremonial vestments of thepriests were being aired and set out; here sceptres, censers and othermetal-vessels were being cleaned, and there the sacred bark which was tobe carried in the procession was being decorated. In the sacred grovesof the temple the school-boys, under the direction of the gardeners,wove garlands and wreaths to decorate the landing-places, the sphinxes,the temple, and the statues of the Gods. Flags were hoisted on thebrass-tipped masts in front of the pylon, and purple sails were spreadto give shadow to the court.
The inspector of sacrifices was already receiving at a side-door thecattle, corn and fruit, offerings which were brought as tribute tothe House of Seti, by citizens from all parts of the country, on theoccasion of the festival of the Valley, and he was assisted by scribes,who kept an account of all that was brought in by the able-bodiedtemple-servants and laboring serfs.
Ameni was everywhere: now with the singers, now with the magicians,who were to effect wonderful transformations before the astonishedmultitude; now with the workmen, who were erecting thrones for theRegent, the emissaries from other collegiate foundations--even from sofar as the Delta--and the prophets from Thebes; now with the priests,who were preparing the incense, now with the servants, who were trimmingthe thousand lamps for the illumination at night--in short everywhere;here inciting, there praising. When he had convinced himself that allwas going on well he desired one of the priests to call Pentaur.
After the departure of the exiled prince Rameri, the young priest hadgone to the work-room of his friend Nebsecht.
The leech went uneasily from his phials to his cages, and from his cagesback to his flasks. While he told Pentaur of the state he had found hisroom in on his return home, he wandered about in feverish excitement,unable to keep still, now kicking over a bundle of plants, now thumpingdown his fist on the table; his favorite birds were starved to death,his snakes had escaped, and his ape had followed their example,apparently in his fear of them.
"The brute, the monster!" cried Nebsecht in a rage. "He has thrown overthe jars with the beetles in them, opened the chest of meal that I feedthe birds and insects upon, and rolled about in it; he has thrown myknives, prickers, and forceps, my pins, compasses, and reed pens all outof window; and when I came in he was sitting on the cupboard up there,looking just like a black slave that works night and day in a corn-mill;he had got hold of the roll which contained all my observations on thestructure of animals--the result of years of study-and was looking at itgravely with his head on one side. I wanted to take the book from him,but he fled with the roll, sprang out of window, let himself down tothe edge of the well, and tore and rubbed the manuscript to pieces in arage. I leaped out after him, but he jumped into the bucket, took holdof the chain, and let himself down, grinning at me in mockery, and whenI drew him up again he jumped into the water with the remains of thebook."
"And the poor wretch is drowned?" asked Pentaur.
"I fished him up with the bucket, and laid him to dry in the sun; buthe had been tasting all sorts of medicines, and he died at noon. Myobservations are gone! Some of them certainly are still left; however,I must begin again at the beginning. You see apes object as much to mylabors as sages; there lies the beast on the shelf."
Pentaur had laughed at his friend's story, and then lamented his loss;but now he said anxiously:
"He is lying there on the shelf? But you forget that he ought to havebeen kept in the little oratory of Toth near the library. He belongs tothe sacred dogfaced apes,
[The dog faced baboon, Kynokephalos, was sacred to Toth as the Moongod. Mummies of these apes have been found at Thebes and Hermopolis, and they are often represented as reading with much gravity. Statues of them have been found to great quantities, and there is a particularly life-like picture of a Kynokephalos in relief on the left wall of the library of the temple of Isis at Philoe.]
and all the sacred marks were found upon him. The librarian gave himinto your charge to have his bad eye cured."
"That was quite well," answered Nebsecht carelessly.
"But they will require the uninjured corpse of you, to embalm it," saidPentaur.
"Will they?" muttered Nebsecht; and he looked at his friend like a boywho is asked for an apple that has long been eaten.
"And you have already been doing something with it," said Pentaur, in atone of friendly vexation.
The leech nodded. "I have opened him, and examined his heart.'
"You are as much set on hearts as a coquette!" said Pentaur. "What isbecome of the human heart that the old paraschites was to get for you?"
Nebsecht related without reserve what the old man had done for him, andsaid that he had investigated the human heart, and had found nothing init different from what he had discovered in the heart of beasts.
"But I must see it in connection with the other organs of the humanbody," cried he; "and my decision is made. I shall leave the Houseof Seti, and ask the kolchytes to take me into their guild. If it isnecessary I will first perform the duties of the lowest paraschites."
Pentaur pointed out to the leech what a bad exchange he would be making,and at last exclaimed, when Nebsecht eagerly contradicted him, "Thisdissecting of the heart does not please me. You say yourself that youlearned nothing by it. Do you still think it a right thing, a finething--or even useful?"
"I do not trouble myself about it," replied Nebsecht. "Whether myobservations seem good or evil, right or heinous, useful or useless, Iwant to know how things are, nothing more."
"And so for mere curiosity," cried Pentaur, "you would endanger theblissful future of thousands of your fellow-men, take upon yourself themost abject duties, and leave this noble scene of your labors, where weall strive for enlightenment, for inward knowledge and truth."
The naturalist laughed scornfully; the veins swelled angrily inPentaur's forehead, and his voice took a threatening tone as he asked:
"And do you believe that your finger and your eyes have lighted on thetruth, when the noblest souls have striven in vain for thousandsof years to find it out? You descend beneath the level of humanunderstanding by madly wallowing in the mire; and the more clearly youare convinced that you have seized the truth, the more utterly you areinvolved in the toils of a miserable delusion."
"If I believed I knew the truth should I so eagerly seek it?" askedNebsecht. "The more I observe and learn, the more deeply I feel my wantof knowledge and power."
"That sounds modest enough," said the poet, "but I know the arrogance towhich your labors are leading you. Everything that you see with your owneyes and touch with your own hand, you think infallible, and everythingthat escapes your observation you secretly regard as untrue, and passby with a smile of superiority. But you cannot carry
your experimentsbeyond the external world, and you forget that there are things whichlie in a different realm."
"I know nothing of those things," answered Nebsecht quietly.
"But we--the Initiated," cried Pentaur, "turn our attention to themalso. Thoughts--traditions--as to their conditions and agency haveexisted among us for a thousand years; hundreds of generations of menhave examined these traditions, have approved them, and have handedthem down to us. All our knowledge, it is true, is defective, and yetprophets have been favored with the gift of looking into the future,magic powers have been vouchsafed to mortals. All this is contrary tothe laws of the external world, which are all that you recognize, andyet it can easily be explained if we accept the idea of a higher orderof things. The spirit of the Divinity dwells in each of us, as innature. The natural man can only attain to such knowledge as is commonto all; but it is the divine capacity for serene discernment--whichis omniscience--that works in the seer; it is the divine and unlimitedpower--which is omnipotence--that from time to time enables the magicianto produce supernatural effects!"
"Away with prophets and marvels!" cried Nebsecht.
"I should have thought," said Pentaur, "that even the laws of naturewhich you recognize presented the greatest marvels daily to your eyes;nay the Supreme One does not disdain sometimes to break through thecommon order of things, in order to reveal to that portion ofHimself which we call our soul, the sublime Whole of which we formpart--Himself. Only today you have seen how the heart of the sacredram--"
"Man, man!" Nebsecht interrupted, "the sacred heart is the heart of ahapless sheep that a sot of a soldier sold for a trifle to a hagglinggrazier, and that was slaughtered in a common herd. A proscribedparaschites put it into the body of Rui, and--and--" he opened thecupboard, threw the carcase of the ape and some clothes on to the floor,and took out an alabaster bowl which he held before the poet--"themuscles you see here in brine, this machine, once beat in the breastof the prophet Rui. My sheep's heart wilt be carried to-morrow in theprocession! I would have told you all about it if I had not promised theold man to hold my tongue, and then--But what ails you, man?" Pentaurhad turned away from his friend, and covered his face with his hands,and he groaned as if he were suffering some frightful physical pain.Nebsecht divined what was passing in the mind of his friend. Like achild that has to ask forgiveness of its mother for some misdeed, hewent close up to Pentaur, but stood trembling behind him not daring tospeak to him.
Several minutes passed. Suddenly Pentaur raised his head, lifted hishands to heaven, and cried:
"O Thou! the One!--though stars may fall from the heavens in summernights, still Thy eternal and immutable laws guide the never-restingplanets in their paths. Thou pure and all-prevading Spirit, thatdwellest in me, as I know by my horror of a lie, manifest Thyself inme--as light when I think, as mercy when I act, and when I speak, astruth--always as truth!"
The poet spoke these words with absorbed fervor, and Nebsecht heard themas if they were speech from some distant and beautiful world. He wentaffectionately up to his friend, and eagerly held out his hand. Pentaurgrasped it, pressed it warmly, and said:
"That was a fearful moment! You do not know what Ameni has been to me,and now, now!"
He hardly had ceased speaking when steps were heard approaching thephysician's room, and a young priest requested the friends to appear atonce in the meeting-room of the Initiated. In a few moments they bothentered the great hall, which was brilliantly lighted.
Not one of the chiefs of the House of Seti was absent.
Ameni sat on a raised seat at a long table; on his right hand was oldGagabu, on his left the third Prophet of the temple. The principals ofthe different orders of priests had also found places at the table, andamong them the chief of the haruspices, while the rest of the priests,all in snow-white linen robes, sat, with much dignity, in a largesemicircle, two rows deep. In the midst stood a statue of the Goddess oftruth and justice.
Behind Ameni's throne was the many-colored image of the ibis-headedToth, who presided over the measure and method of things, who counselledthe Gods as well as men, and presided over learning and the arts. In aniche at the farther end of the hall were painted the divine Triadof Thebes, with Rameses I. and his son Seti, who approached them withofferings. The priests were placed with strict regard to their rank, andthe order of initiation. Pentaur's was the lowest place of all.
No discussion of any importance had as yet taken place, for Ameniwas making enquiries, receiving information, and giving orders withreference to the next day's festival. All seemed to be well arranged,and promised a magnificent solemnity; although the scribes complained ofthe scarce influx of beasts from the peasants, who were so heavilytaxed for the war, and although that feature would be wanting in theprocession which was wont to give it the greatest splendor--the presenceof the king and the royal family.
This circumstance aroused the disapprobation of some of the priests, whowere of opinion that it would be hazardous to exclude the two childrenof Rameses, who remained in Thebes, from any share in the solemnities ofthe feast.
Ameni then rose.
"We have sent the boy Rameri," he said, "away from this house. Bent-Anatmust be purged of her uncleanness, and if the weak superior of thetemple of Anion absolves her, she may pass for purified over there,where they live for this world only, but not here, where it is our dutyto prepare the soul for death. The Regent, a descendant of the greatdeposed race of kings, will appear in the procession with all thesplendor of his rank. I see you are surprised, my friends. Only he! Aye!Great things are stirring, and it may happen that soon the mild sun ofpeace may rise upon our war-ridden people."
"Miracles are happening," he continued, "and in a dream I saw a gentleand pious man on the throne of the earthly vicar of Ra. He listened toour counsel, he gave us our due, and led back to our fields our serfsthat had been sent to the war; he overthrew the altars of the strangegods, and drove the unclean stranger out from this holy land."
"The Regent Ani!" exclaimed Septah.
An eager movement stirred the assembly, but Ameni went on:
"Perhaps it was not unlike him, but he certainly was the One; he had thefeatures of the true and legitimate descendants of Ra, to whom Rui wasfaithful, in whose breast the heart of the sacred ram found a refuge.To-morrow this pledge of the divine grace shall be shown to the people,and another mercy will also be announced to them. Hear and praise thedispensations of the Most High! An hour ago I received the news thata new Apis, with all the sacred marks upon him, has been found in theherds of Ani at Hermonthis."
Fresh excitement was shown by the listening conclave. Ameni let theirastonishment express itself freely, but at last he exclaimed:
"And now to settle the last question. The priest Pentaur, who is nowpresent, has been appointed speaker at the festival to-morrow. He haserred greatly, yet I think we need not judge him till after the holyday, and, in consideration of his former innocence, need not deprive himof the honorable office. Do you share my wishes? Is there no dissentientvoice? Then come forward, you, the youngest of us all, who are so highlytrusted by this holy assembly."
Pentaur rose and placed himself opposite to Ameni, in order to give,as he was required to do, a broad outline of the speech he proposed todeliver next day to the nobles and the people.
The whole assembly, even his opponents, listened to him withapprobation. Ameni, too, praised him, but added:
"I miss only one thing on which you must dwell at greater length, andtreat with warmer feeling--I mean the miracle which has stirred oursouls to-day. We must show that the Gods brought the sacred heart--"
"Allow me," said Pentaur, interrupting the high-priest, and lookingearnestly into those eyes which long since he had sung of--"Allow me toentreat you not to select me to declare this new marvel to the people."
Astonishment was stamped on the face of every member of the assembly.Each looked at his neighbor, then at Pentaur, and at last enquiringly atAmeni. The superior knew Pentaur, and saw
that no mere whimsical fancy,but some serious motive had given rise to this refusal. Horror, almostaversion, had rung in his tone as he said the words 'new marvel.' Hedoubted the genuineness of this divine manifestation!
Ameni gazed long and enquiringly into Pentaur's eyes, and then said:"You are right, my friend. Before judgment has been passed on you,before you are reinstated in your old position, your lips are not worthyto announce this divine wonder to the multitude. Look into your ownsoul, and teach the devout a horror of sin, and show them the way, whichyou must now tread, of purification of the heart. I myself will announcethe miracle."
The white-robed audience hailed this decision of their master withsatisfaction. Ameni enjoined this thing on one, on another, that; and onall, perfect silence as to the dream which he had related to them, andthen he dissolved the meeting. He begged only Gagabu and Pentaur toremain.
As soon as they were alone Ameni asked the poet "Why did you refuse toannounce to the people the miracle, which has filled all the priests ofthe Necropolis with joy?"
"Because thou hast taught me," replied Pentaur, "that truth is thehighest aim we can have, and that there is nothing higher."
"I tell you so again now," said Ameni. "And as you recognize thisdoctrine, I ask you, in the name of the fair daughter of Ra. Do youdoubt the genuineness of the miracle that took place under our veryeyes?"
"I doubt it," replied Pentaur.
"Remain on the high stand-point of veracity," continued Ameni, "andtell us further, that we may learn, what are the scruples that shake thyfaith?"
"I know," replied the poet with a dark expression, "that the heart whichthe crowd will approach and bow to, before which even the Initiatedprostrate themselves as if it had been the incarnation of Ra, was tornfrom the bleeding carcass of a common sheep, and smuggled into thekanopus which contained the entrails of Rui."
Ameni drew back a step, and Gagabu cried out "Who says so? Who can proveit? As I grow older I hear more and more frightful things!"
"I know it," said Pentaur decidedly. "But I can, not reveal the name ofhim from whom I learned it."
"Then we may believe that you are mistaken, and that some impostor isfooling you. We will enquire who has devised such a trick, and he shallbe punished! To scorn the voice of the Divinity is a sin, and he wholends his ear to a lie is far from the truth. Sacred and thrice sacredis the heart, blind fool, that I purpose to-morrow to show to thepeople, and before which you yourself--if not with good will, then bycompulsion--shall fall, prostrate in the dust.
"Go now, and reflect on the words with which you will stir the souls ofthe people to-morrow morning; but know one thing--Truth has many forms,and her aspects are as manifold as those of the Godhead. As the sun doesnot travel over a level plain or by a straight path--as the stars followa circuitous course, which we compare with the windings of the snakeMehen,--so the elect, who look out over time and space, and on whom theconduct of human life devolves, are not only permitted, but commanded,to follow indirect ways in order to reach the highest aims, ways thatyou do not understand, and which you may fancy deviate widely from thepath of truth. You look only at to-day, we look forward to the morrow,and what we announce as truth you must needs believe. And mark my words:A lie stains the soul, but doubt eats into it."
Ameni had spoken with strong excitement; when Pentaur had left the room,and he was alone with Gagabu, he exclaimed:
"What things are these? Who is ruining the innocent child-like spirit ofthis highly favored youth?"
"He is ruining it himself," replied Gagabu. "He is putting aside the oldlaw, for he feels a new one growing up in his own breast."
"But the laws," exclaimed Ameni, "grow and spread like shadowy woods;they are made by no one. I loved the poet, yet I must restrain him, elsehe will break down all barriers, like the Nile when it swells too high.And what he says of the miracle--"
"Did you devise it?"
"By the Holy One--no!" cried Ameni.
"And yet Pentaur is sincere, and inclined to faith," said the old mandoubtfully.
"I know it," returned Ameni. "It happened as he said. But who did it,and who told him of the shameful deed?"
Both the priests stood thoughtfully gazing at the floor.
Ameni first broke the silence.
"Pentaur came in with Nebsecht," he exclaimed, "and they are intimatefriends. Where was the leech while I was staying in Thebes?"
"He was taking care of the child hurt by Bent-Anat--the child of theparaschites Pinem, and he stayed there three days," replied Gagabu.
"And it was Pinem," said Ameni, "that opened the body of Rui! Now I knowwho has dimmed Pentaur's faith. It was that inquisitive stutterer,and he shall be made to repent of it. For the present let us think ofto-morrow's feast, but the day after I will examine that nice couple,and will act with iron severity."
"First let us examine the naturalist in private," said Gagabu. "He isan ornament to the temple, for he has investigated many matters, and hisdexterity is wonderful."
"All that may be considered Ameni said, interrupting the old enough tothink of at present."
"And even more to consider later," retorted Gagabu. "We have entered ona dangerous path. You know very well I am still hot-headed, though I amold in years, and alas! timidity was never my weakness; but Rameses is apowerful man, and duty compels me to ask you: Is it mere hatred for theking that has led you to take these hasty and imprudent steps?"
"I have no hatred for Rameses," answered Ameni gravely. "If he did notwear the crown I could love him; I know him too, as well as if I werehis brother, and value all that is great in him; nay I will admit thathe is disfigured by no littleness. If I did not know how strong theenemy is, we might try to overthrow him with smaller means. You know aswell as I do that he is our enemy. Not yours, nor mine, nor the enemy ofthe Gods; but the enemy of the old and reverend ordinances by which thispeople and this country must be governed, and above all of those whoare required to protect the wisdom of the fathers, and to point out theright way to the sovereign--I mean the priesthood, whom it is my duty tolead, and for whose rights I will fight with every weapon of the spirit.In this contest, as you know, all that otherwise would be falsehood,treachery, and cunning, puts on the bright aspect of light and truth.As the physician needs the knife and fire to heal the sick, we must dofearful things to save the community when it is in danger. Now you willsee me fight with every weapon, for if we remain idle, we shall sooncease to be the leaders of the state, and become the slaves of theking."
Gagabu nodded assent, but Ameni went on with increasing warmth, and inthat rhythmical accent in which, when he came out of the holy of holies,he was accustomed to declare the will of the Divinity, "You were myteacher, and I value you, and so you now shall be told everything thatstirred my soul, and made me first resolve upon this fearful struggle.I was, as you know, brought up in this temple with Rameses--and it wasvery wise of Seti to let his son grow up here with other boys. At workand at play the heir to the throne and I won every prize. He was quitemy superior in swift apprehension--in keen perception--but I had greatercaution, and deeper purpose. Often he laughed at my laborious efforts,but his brilliant powers appeared to me a vain delusion. I became one ofthe initiated, he ruled the state in partnership with his father, and,when Seti died, by himself. We both grew older, but the foundationof our characters remained the same. He rushed to splendid victories,overthrew nations, and raised the glory of the Egyptian name to a giddyheight, though stained with the blood of his people; I passed my lifein industry and labor, in teaching the young, and in guarding thelaws which regulate the intercourse of men and bind the people to theDivinity. I compared the present with the past: What were the priests?How had they come to be what they are? What would Egypt be without them?There is not an art, not a science, not a faculty that is not thoughtout, constructed, and practised by us. We crown the kings, we named theGods, and taught the people to honor them as divine--for the crowd needsa hand to lead it, and under which it shall tremble as under the mighty
hand of Fate. We are the willing ministers of the divine representativeof Ra on the throne, so long as he rules in accordance with ourinstitutions--as the One God reigns, subject to eternal laws. He used tochoose his counsellors from among us; we told him what would benefit thecountry, he heard us willingly, and executed our plans. The old kingswere the hands, but we, the priests, were the head. And now, my father,what has become of us? We are made use of to keep the people in thefaith, for if they cease to honor the Gods how will they submit tokings? Seti ventured much, his son risks still more, and thereforeboth have required much succor from the Immortals. Rameses is pious,he sacrifices frequently, and loves prayer: we are necessary to him, towaft incense, to slaughter hecatombs, to offer prayers, and to interpretdreams--but we are no longer his advisers. My father, now in Osiris, aworthier high-priest than I, was charged by the Prophets to entreat hisfather to give up the guilty project of connecting the north sea by anavigable channel with the unclean waters of the Red Sea.
[The harbors of the Red Sea were in the hands of the Phoenicians, who sailed from thence southwards to enrich themselves with the produce of Arabia and Ophir. Pharaoh Necho also projected a Suez canal, but does not appear to have carried it out, as the oracle declared that the utility of the undertaking would be greatest to foreigners.]
"Such things can only benefit the Asiatics. But Seti would not listento our counsel. We desired to preserve the old division of the land, butRameses introduced the new to the disadvantage of the priests; we warnedhim against fresh wars, and the king again and again has taken thefield; we had the ancient sacred documents which exempted our peasantryfrom military service, and, as you know, he outrageously defies them.From the most ancient times no one has been permitted to raise templesin this land to strange Gods, and Rameses favors the son of thestranger, and, not only in the north country, but in the reverend cityof Memphis and here in Thebes, he has raised altars and magnificentsanctuaries, in the strangers' quarter, to the sanguinary false Gods ofthe East."
[Human sacrifices, which had been introduced into Egypt by the Phoenicians, were very early abolished.]
"You speak like a Seer," cried old Gagabu, "and what you say isperfectly true. We are still called priests, but alas! our counsel islittle asked. 'You have to prepare men for a happy lot in the otherworld,' Rameses once said; 'I alone can guide their destinies in this.'"
"He did say so," answered Ameni, "and if he had said no more than thathe would have been doomed. He and his house are the enemies of ourrights and of our noble country. Need I tell you from whom the race ofthe Pharaoh is descended? Formerly the hosts who came from the east, andfell on our land like swarms of locusts, robbing and destroying it, werespoken of as 'a curse' and a 'pest.' Rameses' father was of that race.When Ani's ancestors expelled the Hyksos, the bold chief, whose childrennow govern Egypt, obtained the favor of being allowed to remain onthe banks of the Nile; they served in the armies, they distinguishedthemselves, and, at last, the first Rameses succeeded in gaining thetroops over to himself, and in pushing the old race of the legitimatesons of Ra, weakened as they were by heresy, from the throne. I mustconfess, however unwillingly, that some priests of the true faith--amongthem your grandfather, and mine--supported the daring usurper who clungfaithfully to the old traditions. Not less than a hundred generationsof my ancestors, and of yours, and of many other priestly families, havelived and died here by the banks of the Nile--of Rameses race we haveseen ten, and only know of them that they descend from strangers, fromthe caste of Amu! He is like all the Semitic race; they love towander, they call us ploughmen,--[The word Fellah (pl. Fellahin) meansploughman]--and laugh to scorn the sober regularity with which we,tilling the dark soil, live through our lives to a tardy death, inhonest labor both of mind and body. They sweep round on forayingexcursions, ride the salt waves in ships, and know no loved and fixedhome; they settle down wherever they are tempted by rapine, and whenthere is nothing more to be got they build a house in another spot. Suchwas Seti, such is Rameses! For a year he will stop in Thebes, then hemust set out for wars in strange lands. He does not know how to yieldpiously, or to take advice of wise counsellors, and he will not learn.And such as the father is, so are the children! Think of the criminalbehavior of Bent-Anat!"
"I said the kings liked foreigners. Have you duly considered theimportance of that to us? We strive for high and noble aims, and havewrenched off the shackles of the flesh in order to guard our souls. Thepoorest man lives secure under the shelter of the law, and through usparticipates in the gifts of the spirit; to the rich are offered thepriceless treasures of art and learning. Now look abroad: east and westwandering tribes roam over the desert with wretched tents; in the southa debased populace prays to feathers, and to abject idols, who arebeaten if the worshipper is not satisfied. In the north certainly thereare well regulated states, but the best part of the arts and scienceswhich they possess they owe to us, and their altars still reek with theloathsome sacrifice of human blood. Only backsliding from the right ispossible under the stranger, and therefore it is prudent to withdrawfrom him; therefore he is hateful to our Gods. And Rameses, the king,is a stranger, by blood and by nature, in his affections, and in hisappearance; his thoughts are always abroad--this country is too smallfor him--and he will never perceive what is really best for him, clearas his intellect is. He will listen to no guidance, he does mischief toEgypt, and therefore I say: Down with him from the throne!"
"Down with him!"--Gagabu eagerly echoed the words. Ameni gave the oldman his hand, which trembled with excitement, and went on more calmly.
"The Regent Ani is a legitimate child of the soil, by his father andmother both. I know him well, and I am sure that though he is cunningindeed, he is full of true veneration, and will righteously establishus in the rights which we have inherited. The choice is easy: I havechosen, and I always carry through what I have once begun! Now you knowall, and you will second me."
"With body and soul!" cried Gagabu.
"Strengthen the hearts of the brethren," said Ameni, preparing to go."The initiated may all guess what is going on, but it must never bespoken of."
