Eine aegyptische königstochter. English

  CHAPTER VII.

  Prexaspes, the king's messenger, and one of the highest officials atcourt, had brought Gaumata, Mandane's lover, whose likeness to Bartjawas really most wonderful, to Babylon, sick and wounded as he was. Hewas now awaiting his sentence in a dungeon, while Boges, the man whohad led him into crime, was nowhere to be found, notwithstanding allthe efforts of the police. His escape had been rendered possible by thetrap-door in the hanging-gardens, and greatly assisted by the enormouscrowds assembled in the streets.

  Immense treasures were found in his house. Chests of gold and jewels,which his position had enabled him to obtain with great ease, wererestored to the royal treasury. Cambyses, however, would gladly havegiven ten times as much treasure to secure possession of the traitor.

  To Phaedime's despair the king ordered all the inhabitants of the harem,except his mother, Atossa and the dying Nitetis, to be removed to Susa,two days after the accused had been declared innocent. Several eunuchsof rank were deposed from their offices. The entire caste was to sufferfor the sins of him who had escaped punishment.

  Oropastes, who had already entered on his duties as regent of thekingdom, and had clearly proved his non-participation in the crime ofwhich his brother had been proved guilty, bestowed the vacant placesexclusively on the Magi. The demonstration made by the people in favorof Bartja did not come to the king's ears until the crowd had longdispersed. Still, occupied as he was, almost entirely, by his anxietyfor Nitetis, he caused exact information of this illegal manifestationto be furnished him, and ordered the ringleaders to be severelypunished. He fancied it was a proof that Bartja had been trying togain favor with the people, and Cambyses would perhaps have shown hisdispleasure by some open act, if a better impulse had not told him thathe, not Bartja, was the brother who stood in need of forgiveness. Inspite of this, however, he could not get rid of the feeling that Bartja,had been, though innocent, the cause of the sad events which had justhappened, nor of his wish to get him out of the way as far as might be;and he therefore gave a ready consent to his brother's wish to start atonce for Naukratis.

  Bartja took a tender farewell of his mother and sister, and started twodays after his liberation. He was accompanied by Gyges, Zopyrus, anda numerous retinue charged with splendid presents from Cambyses forSappho. Darius remained behind, kept back by his love for Atossa. Theday too was not far distant, when, by his father's wish, he was to marryArtystone, the daughter of Gobryas.

  Bartja parted from his friend with a heavy heart, advising him to bevery prudent with regard to Atossa. The secret had been confided toKassandane, and she had promised to take Darius' part with the king.

  If any one might venture to raise his eyes to the daughter of Cyrus,assuredly it was the son of Hystaspes; he was closely connectedby marriage with the royal family, belonged like Cambyses to thePasargadae, and his family was a younger branch of the reigning dynasty.His father called himself the highest noble in the realm, and as such,governed the province of Persia proper, the mother-country, to whichthis enormous world-empire and its ruler owed their origin. Should thefamily of Cyrus become extinct, the descendants of Hystaspes would havea well-grounded right to the Persian throne. Darius therefore, apartfrom his personal advantages, was a fitting claimant for Atossa's hand.And yet no one dared to ask the king's consent. In the gloomy state ofmind into which he had been brought by the late events, it was likelythat he might refuse it, and such an answer would have to be regarded asirrevocable. So Bartja was obliged to leave Persia in anxiety about thefuture of these two who were very dear to him.

  Croesus promised to act as mediator in this case also, and before Bartjaleft, made him acquainted with Phanes.

  The youth had heard such a pleasant account of the Athenian from Sappho,that he met him with great cordiality, and soon won the fancy of theolder and more experienced man, who gave him many a useful hint, and aletter to Theopompus, the Milesian, at Naukratis. Phanes concluded byasking for a private interview.

  Bartja returned to his friends looking grave and thoughtful; soon,however, he forgot his cause of anxiety and joked merrily with them overa farewell cup. Before he mounted his horse the next morning, Nebenchariasked to be allowed an audience. He was admitted, and begged Bartja totake the charge of a large written roll for king Amasis. It contained adetailed account of Nitetis' sufferings, ending with these words: "Thusthe unhappy victim of your ambitious plans will end her life in a fewhours by poison, to the use of which she was driven by despair. Thearbitrary caprices of the mighty can efface all happiness from the lifeof a human creature, just as we wipe a picture from the tablet with asponge. Your servant Nebenchari is pining in a foreign land, deprived ofhome and property, and the wretched daughter of a king of Egypt dies amiserable and lingering death by her own hand. Her body will be torn topieces by dogs and vultures, after the manner of the Persians. Woeunto them who rob the innocent of happiness here and of rest beyond thegrave!"

  Bartja had not been told the contents of this letter, but promised totake it with him; he then, amid the joyful shouts of the people, setup outside the city-gate the stones which, according to a Persiansuperstition, were to secure him a prosperous journey, and left Babylon.

  Nebenchari, meanwhile, prepared to return to his post by Nitetis'dying-bed.

  Just as he reached the brazen gates between the harem-gardens and thecourts of the large palace, an old man in white robes came up to him.The sight seemed to fill Nebenchari with terror; he started as if thegaunt old man had been a ghost. Seeing, however, a friendly and familiarsmile on the face of the other, he quickened his steps, and, holding outhis hand with a heartiness for which none of his Persian acquaintanceswould have given him credit, exclaimed in Egyptian: "Can I believe myeyes? You in Persia, old Hib? I should as soon have expected the sky tofall as to have the pleasure of seeing you on the Euphrates. But now, inthe name of Osiris, tell me what can have induced you, you old ibis,to leave your warm nest on the Nile and set out on such a long journeyeastward."

  While Nebenchari was speaking, the old man listened in a bowing posture,with his arms hanging down by his side, and when he had finished,looked up into his face with indescribable joy, touched his breast withtrembling fingers, and then, falling on the right knee, laying one handon his heart and raising the other to heaven, cried: "Thanks be untothee, great Isis, for protecting the wanderer and permitting him to seehis master once more in health and safety. Ah, child, how anxious I havebeen! I expected to find you as wasted and thin as a convict from thequarries; I thought you would have been grieving and unhappy, and hereyou are as well, and handsome and portly as ever. If poor old Hib hadbeen in your place he would have been dead long ago."

  "Yes, I don't doubt that, old fellow. I did not leave home of my ownwill either, nor without many a heartache. These foreigners are all thechildren of Seth. The good and gracious gods are only to be found inEgypt on the shores of the sacred, blessed Nile."

  "I don't know much about its being so blessed," muttered the old man.

  "You frighten me, father Hib. What has happened then?"

  "Happened! Things have come to a pretty pass there, and you'll hear ofit soon enough. Do you think I should have left house and grandchildrenat my age,--going on for eighty,--like any Greek or Phoenician vagabond,and come out among these godless foreigners (the gods blast and destroythem!), if I could possibly have staid on in Egypt?"

  "But tell me what it's all about."

  "Some other time, some other time. Now you must take me to your ownhouse, and I won't stir out of it as long as we are in this land ofTyphon."

  The old man said this with so much emphasis, that Nebenchiari could nothelp smiling and saying: "Have they treated you so very badly then, oldman?"

  "Pestilence and Khamsin!" blustered the old man.

  [The south-west wind, which does so much injury to the crops in the Nile valley. It is known to us as the Simoom, the wind so perilous to travellers in the desert.]

  "There's not a more good-for-nothing Typhon
's brood on the face of theearth than these Persians. I only wonder they're not all red-haired andleprous. Ah, child, two whole days I have been in this hell already, andall that time I was obliged to live among these blasphemers. They saidno one could see you; you were never allowed to leave Nitetis' sick-bed.Poor child! I always said this marriage with a foreigner would come tono good, and it serves Amasis right if his children give him trouble.His conduct to you alone deserves that."

  "For shame, old man!"

  "Nonsense, one must speak one's mind sometimes. I hate a king, who comesfrom nobody knows where. Why, when he was a poor boy he used to stealyour father's nuts, and wrench the name-plates off the house-doors. Isaw he was a good-for-nothing fellow then. It's a shame that such peopleshould be allowed to...."

  "Gently, gently, old man. We are not all made of the same stuff, and ifthere was such a little difference between you and Amasis as boys, it,is your own fault that, now you are old men, he has outstripped you sofar.

  "My father and grandfather were both servants in the temple, and ofcourse I followed in their footsteps."

  "Quite right; it is the law of caste, and by that rule, Amasis oughtnever to have become anything higher than a poor army-captain at most."

  "It is not every one who's got such an easy conscience as this upstartfellow."

  "There you are again! For shame, Hib! As long as I can remember, andthat is nearly half a century, every other word with you has been anabusive one. When I was a child your ill-temper was vented on me, andnow the king has the benefit of it."

  "Serves him right! All, if you only knew all! It's now seven monthssince ..."

  "I can't stop to listen to you now. At the rising of the seven stars Iwill send a slave to take you to my rooms. Till then you must stay inyour present lodging, for I must go to my patient."

  "You must?--Very well,--then go and leave poor old Hib here to die. Ican't possibly live another hour among these creatures."

  "What would you have me do then?"

  "Let me live with you as long as we are in Persia."

  "Have they treated you so very roughly?"

  "I should think they had indeed. It is loathsome to think of. Theyforced me to eat out of the same pot with them and cut my bread with thesame knife. An infamous Persian, who had lived many years in Egypt,and travelled here with us, had given them a list of all the things andactions, which we consider unclean. They took away my knife when Iwas going to shave myself. A good-for-nothing wench kissed me on theforehead, before I could prevent it. There, you needn't laugh; it willbe a month at least before I can get purified from all these pollutions.I took an emetic, and when that at last began to take effect, they allmocked and sneered at me. But that was not all. A cursed cook-boynearly beat a sacred kitten to death before my very eyes. Then anointment-mixer, who had heard that I was your servant, made that godlessBubares ask me whether I could cure diseases of the eye too. I said yes,because you know in sixty years it's rather hard if one can't pick upsomething from one's master. Bubares was interpreter between us, and theshameful fellow told him to say that he was very much disturbed abouta dreadful disease in his eyes. I asked what it was, and received foranswer that he could not tell one thing from another in the dark!"

  "You should have told him that the best remedy for that was to light acandle."

  "Oh, I hate the rascals! Another hour among them will be the death ofme!"

  "I am sure you behaved oddly enough among these foreigners," saidNebenchiari smiling, "you must have made them laugh at you, for thePersians are generally very polite, well-behaved people. Try them again,only once. I shall be very glad to take you in this evening, but I can'tpossibly do it before."

  "It is as I thought! He's altered too, like everybody else! Osiris isdead and Seth rules the world again."

  "Farewell! When the seven stars rise, our old Ethiopian slave, Nebununf,will wait for you here."

  "Nebununf, that old rogue? I never want to see him again."

  "Yes, the very same."

  "Him--well it's a good thing, when people stay as they were. To be sureI know some people who can't say so much of themselves, and who insteadof minding their own business, pretend to heal inward diseases, and whena faithful old servant..."

  "Hold your tongue, and wait patiently till evening." These last wordswere spoken seriously, and produced the desired impression. The old manmade another obeisance, and before his master left him, said: "I camehere under the protection of Phanes, the former commander of the Greekmercenaries. He wishes very much to speak with you."

  "That is his concern. He can come to me."

  "You never leave that sick girl, whose eyes are as sound as..."

  "Hib!"

  "For all I care she may have a cataract in both. May Phanes come to youthis evening?"

  "I wished to be alone with you."

  "So did I; but the Greek seems to be in a great hurry, and he knowsnearly everything that I have to tell you."

  "Have you been gossiping then?"

  "No--not exactly--but..."

  "I always thought you were a man to be trusted."

  "So I was. But this Greek knows already a great deal of what I know, andthe rest..."

  "Well?"

  "The rest he got out of me, I hardly know how myself. If I did not wearthis amulet against an evil eye, I should have been obliged..."

  "Yes, yes, I know the Athenian--I can forgive you. I should like himto come with you this evening. But I see the sun is already high inthe heavens. I have no time to lose. Tell me in a few words what hashappened."

  "I thought this evening..."

  "No, I must have at least a general idea of what has happened before Isee the Athenian. Be brief."

  "You have been robbed!"

  "Is that all?"

  "Is not that enough?"

  "Answer me. Is that all?"

  "Yes!"

  "Then farewell."

  "But Nebenchari!"

  The physician did not even hear this exclamation; the gates of the haremhad already closed behind him.

  When the Pleiades had risen, Nebenchari was to be found seated alone inone of the magnificent rooms assigned to his use on the eastern sideof the palace, near to Kassandane's apartments. The friendly manner inwhich he had welcomed his old servant had given place to the seriousexpression which his face usually wore, and which had led the cheerfulPersians to call him a morose and gloomy man.

  Nebenchari was an Egyptian priest through and through; a member of thatcaste which never indulged in a jest, and never for a moment forgotto be dignified and solemn before the public; but when among theirrelations and their colleagues completely threw off this self-imposedrestraint, and gave way at times even to exuberant mirth.

  Though he had known Phanes in Sais, he received him with coldpoliteness, and, after the first greeting was ended, told Hib to leavethem alone.

  "I have come to you," said the Athenian, "to speak about some veryimportant affairs."

  "With which I am already acquainted," was the Egyptian's curt reply.

  "I am inclined to doubt that," said Phanes with an incredulous smile.

  "You have been driven out of Egypt, persecuted and insulted by Psamtik,and you have come to Persia to enlist Cambyses as an instrument ofrevenge against my country."

  "You are mistaken. I have nothing against your country, but all the moreagainst Amasis and his house. In Egypt the state and the king are one,as you very well know."

  "On the contrary, my own observations have led me to think that thepriests considered themselves one with the state."

  "In that case you are better informed than I, who have always looked onthe kings of Egypt as absolute. So they are; but only in proportionas they know how to emancipate themselves from the influence of yourcaste.--Amasis himself submits to the priests now."

  "Strange intelligence!"

  "With which, however, you have already long been made acquainted."

  "Is that your opinion?"

  "Certainly it
is. And I know with still greater certainty that once--youhear me--once, he succeeded in bending the will of these rulers of histo his own."

  "I very seldom hear news from home, and do not understand what you arespeaking of."

  "There I believe you, for if you knew what I meant and could stand therequietly without clenching your fist, you would be no better than a dogwho only whimpers when he's kicked and licks the hand that tormentshim."

  The physician turned pale. "I know that Amasis has injured and insultedme," he said, "but at the same time I must tell you that revenge is fartoo sweet a morsel to be shared with a stranger."

  "Well said! As to my own revenge, however, I can only compare it to avineyard where the grapes are so plentiful, that I am not able to gatherthem all myself."

  "And you have come hither to hire good laborers."

  "Quite right, and I do not even yet give up the hope of securing you totake a share in my vintage."

  "You are mistaken. My work is already done. The gods themselves havetaken it in hand. Amasis has been severely enough punished for banishingme from country, friends and pupils into this unclean land."

  "You mean by his blindness perhaps?"

  "Possibly."

  "Then you have not heard that Petammon, one of your colleagues, hassucceeded in cutting the skin, which covered the pupil of the eye and sorestoring Amasis' sight?"

  The Egyptian started and ground his teeth; recovered his presence ofmind, however, in a moment, and answered: "Then the gods have punishedthe father through the children."

  "In what way? Psamtik suits his father's present mood very well. It istrue that Tachot is ill, but she prays and sacrifices with her fatherall the more for that; and as to Nitetis, you and I both know that herdeath will not touch him very closely."

  "I really do not understand you."

  "Of course not, so long as you fancy that I believe your beautifulpatient to be Amasis' daughter."

  The Egyptian started again, but Phanes went on without appearing tonotice his emotion: "I know more than you suppose. Nitetis is thedaughter of Hophra, Amasis' dethroned predecessor. Amasis brought herup as his own child-first, in order to make the Egyptians believe thatHophra had died childless; secondly, in order to deprive her of herrights to the throne; for you know women are allowed to govern on theNile."

  "These are mere suppositions."

  "For which, however, I can bring irrefragable proofs. Among the paperswhich your old servant Hib brought with him in a small box, there mustbe some letters from a certain Sonnophre, a celebrated accoucheur, yourown father, which..."

  [To judge from the pictures on the monuments and from the 1st Chap. of Exodus, it would seem that in ancient, as in modern Egypt, midwives were usually called in to assist at the birth of children; but it is also certain, that in difficult cases physicians were employed also. In the hieratic medical papyrus in Berlin, women are often spoken of as assisting at such times. In the medical Papyrus Ebers certain portions are devoted to diseases peculiar to women. "There were special rooms set aside in private houses for the birth of children, as symbolical ones were reserved in the temples. These chambers were called meschen, and from them was derived the name given to midwives, to meschennu.]

  "If that be the case, those letters are my property, and I have not theslightest intention of giving them up; besides which you might searchPersia from one end to the other without finding any one who coulddecipher my father's writing."

  "Pardon me, if I point out one or two errors into which you have fallen.First, this box is at present in my hands, and though I am generallyaccustomed to respect the rights of property, I must assure you that, inthe present instance, I shall not return the box until its contents haveserved my purpose. Secondly, the gods have so ordained, that just atthis moment there is a man in Babylon who can read every kind of writingknown to the Egyptian priests. Do you perhaps happen to know the name ofOnuphis?"

  For the third time the Egyptian turned pale. "Are you certain," he said,"that this man is still among the living?"

  "I spoke to him myself yesterday. He was formerly, you know, high-priestat Heliopolis, and was initiated into all your mysteries there. My wisecountryman, Pythagoras of Samos, came to Egypt, and after submitting tosome of your ceremonies, was allowed to attend the lessons given in theschools for priests. His remarkable talents won the love of the greatOnuphis and he taught him all the Egyptian mysteries, which Pythagorasafterwards turned to account for the benefit of mankind. My delightfulfriend Rhodopis and I are proud of having been his pupils. When the restof your caste heard that Onuphis had betrayed the sacred mysteries, theecclesiastical judges determined on his death. This was to be caused bya poison extracted from peach-kernels. The condemned man, however, heardof their machinations, and fled to Naukratis, where he found a safeasylum in the house of Rhodopis, whom he had heard highly praised byPythagoras, and whose dwelling was rendered inviolable by the king'sletter. Here he met Antimenidas the brother of the poet Alcarus ofLesbos, who, having been banished by Pittakus, the wise ruler ofMitylene, had gone to Babylon, and there taken service in the army ofNebuchadnezzar, the King of Assyria. Antimenidas gave him letters to theChaldians. Onuphis travelled to the Euphrates, settled there, and wasobliged to seek for some means of earning his daily bread, as he hadleft Egypt a poor man. He is now supporting himself in his old age, bythe assistance which his superior knowledge enables him to render theChaldoeans in their astronomical observations from the tower of Bel.Onuphis is nearly eighty, but his mind is as clear as ever, and when Isaw him yesterday and asked him to help me, his eyes brightened as hepromised to do so. Your father was one of his judges, but he bears youno malice and sends you a greeting."

  Nebenchari's eyes were fixed thoughtfully on the ground during thistale. When Phanes had finished, he gave him a penetrating look and said:"Where are my papers?"

  "They are in Onuphis' hands. He is looking among them for the document Iwant."

  "I expected to hear that. Be so good as to tell me what the box is like,which Hib thought proper to bring over to Persia?"

  "It is a small ebony trunk, with an exquisitely-carved lid. In thecentre is a winged beetle, and on the four corners..."

  "That contains nothing but a few of my father's notices andmemorandums," said Nebenchari, drawing a deep breath of relief.

  "They will very likely be sufficient for my purpose. I do not knowwhether you have heard, that I stand as high as possible in Cambyses'favor."

  "So much the better for you. I can assure you, however, that the paper.which would have been most useful to you have all been left behind inEgypt."

  "They were in a large chest made of sycamore-wood and painted incolors."

  "How do you know that?"

  "Because--now listen well to what I am going to say, Nebenchari--becauseI can tell you (I do not swear, for our great master Pythagoras forbadeoaths), that this very chest, with all it contained, was burnt in thegrove of the temple of Neith, in Sais, by order of the king."

  Phanes spoke slowly, emphasizing every syllable, and the words seemedto strike the Egyptian like so many flashes of lightning. His quietcoolness and deliberation gave way to violent emotion; his cheeks glowedand his eyes flashed. But only for one single minute; then the strongemotion seemed to freeze, his burning cheeks grew pale. "You are tryingto make me hate my friends, in order to gain me as your ally," he said,coldly and calmly. "I know you Greeks very well. You are so intriguingand artful, that there is no lie, no fraud, too base, if it will onlyhelp to gain your purpose."

  "You judge me and my countrymen in true Egyptian fashion; that is,they are foreigners, and therefore must be bad men. But this time yoursuspicions happen to be misplaced. Send for old Hib; he will tell youwhether I am right or not."

  Nebenchari's face darkened, as Hib came into the room.

  "Come nearer," said he in a commanding tone to the old man.

  Hib obeyed with a shrug of the shoulders.

  "Tell me, have you ta
ken a bribe from this man? Yes or no? I must knowthe truth; it can influence my future for good or evil. You are an oldand faithful servant, to whom I owe a great deal, and so I will forgiveyou if you were taken in by his artifices, but I must know the truth. Iconjure you to tell me by the souls of your fathers gone to Osiris!"

  The old man's sallow face turned ashy pale as he heard these words.He gulped and wheezed some time before he could find an answer, and atlast, after choking down the tears which had forced their way to hiseyes, said, in a half-angry, half-whining tone: "Didn't I say so?they've bewitched him, they've ruined him in this wicked land. Whatevera man would do himself, he thinks others are capable of. Aye, you maylook as angry as you like; it matters but little to me. What can itmatter indeed to an old man, who has served the same family faithfullyand honestly for sixty years, if they call him at last a rogue, a knave,a traitor, nay even a murderer, if it should take their fancy."

  And the scalding tears flowed down over the old man's cheeks, sorelyagainst his will.

  The easily-moved Phanes clapped him on the shoulder and said, turningto Nebenchari: "Hib is a faithful fellow. I give you leave to call me arascal, if he has taken one single obolus from me."

  The physician did not need Phanes' assurance; he had known his oldservant too well and too long not to be able to read his simple, openfeatures, on which his innocence was written as clearly as in the pagesof an open book. "I did not mean to reproach you, old Hib," he saidkindly, coming up to him. "How can any one be so angry at a simplequestion?"

  "Perhaps you expect me to be pleased at such a shameful suspicion?"

  "No, not that; but at all events now you can tell me what has happenedat our house since I left."

  "A pretty story that is! Why only to think of it makes my mouth asbitter, as if I were chewing wormwood."

  "You said I had been robbed."

  "Yes indeed: no one was ever so robbed before. There would have beensome comfort if the knaves had belonged to the thieves' caste, for thenwe should have got the best part of our property back again, and shouldnot after all have been worse off than many another; but when..."

  [The cunning son of the architect, who robbed the treasure-house of Rhampsinitus was, according to Herodotus, (II. 120), severely punished; but in Diod. I. 80. we see that when thieves acknowledged themselves to the authorities to be such, they were not punished, though a strict watch was set over them. According to Diodorus, there was a president of the thieves' caste, from whom the stolen goods could be reclaimed on relinquishment of a fourth part of the same. This strange rule possibly owed its rise to the law, which compelled every Egyptian to appear once in each year before the authorities of his district and give an account of his means of subsistence. Those who made false statements were punished with death. Diod. I. 77. Thus no one who valued his life could escape the watchful eye of the police, and the thief sacrificed the best part of his gains in order to save his life.]

  "Keep to the point, for my time is limited."

  "You need not tell me that; I see old Hib can't do anything right herein Persia. Well, be it so, you're master; you must give orders; I amonly the servant, I must obey. I won't forget it. Well, as I was saying,it was just at the time when the great Persian embassy came over toSais to fetch Nitetis, and made everybody stare at them as if they weremonsters or prodigies, that this shameful thing happened. I was sittingon the mosquito-tower just as the sun was setting, playing with mylittle grandson, my Baner's eldest boy--he's a fine strapping littlelad now, wonderfully sharp and strong for his age. The rogue was justtelling me how his father, the Egyptians do that when their wives leavethe children too much alone--had hidden his mother's shoes, and I waslaughing heartily, because my Baner won't let any of the little oneslive with me, she always says I spoil them, and so I was glad she shouldhave the trick played her--when all of a sudden there was such a loudknocking at the house-door, that I thought there must be a fire and letthe child drop off my lap. Down the stairs I ran, three steps at a time,as fast as my long legs would carry me, and unbarred the door. Before Ihad time to ask them what they wanted, a whole crowd of temple-servantsand policemen--there must have been at least fifteen of them--forcedtheir way into the house. Pichi,--you know, that impudent fellow fromthe temple of Neith,--pushed me back, barred the door inside and toldthe police to put me in fetters if I refused to obey him. Of course Igot angry and did not use very civil words to them--you know that's myway when I'm put out--and what does that bit of a fellow do--by our godThoth, the protector of knowledge who must know all, I'm speaking thetruth--but order them to bind my hands, forbid me--me, old Hib--tospeak, and then tell me that he had been told by the high-priest toorder me five-and-twenty strokes, if I refused to do his bidding. Heshowed me the high-priest's ring, and so I knew there was nothing for itbut to obey the villain, whether I would or no. And what was his modestdemand? Why, nothing less than to give him all the written papers youhad left behind. But old Hib is not quite so stupid as to let himselfbe caught in that way, though some people, who ought to know better, dofancy he can be bribed and is no better than the son of an ass. What didI do then? I pretended to be quite crushed into submission by the sightof the signet-ring, begged Pichi as politely as I could to unfasten myhands, and told him I would fetch the keys. They loosened the cords,I flew up the stairs five steps at a time, burst open the door of yoursleeping-room, pushed my little grandson, who was standing by it, intothe room and barred it within. Thanks to my long legs, the others wereso far behind that I had time to get hold of the black box which you hadtold me to take so much care of, put it into the child's arms, lift himthrough the window on to the balcony which runs round the house towardsthe inner court, and tell him to put it at once into the pigeon-house.Then I opened the door as if nothing had happened, told Pichi the childhad had a knife in his mouth, and that that was the reason I had runupstairs in such a hurry, and had put him out on the balcony to punishhim. That brother of a hippopotamus was easily taken in, and thenhe made me show him over the house. First they found the greatsycamore-chest which you had told me to take great care of too, thenthe papyrus-rolls on your writing-table, and so by degrees every writtenpaper in the house. They made no distinction, but put all togetherinto the great chest and carried it downstairs; the little black box,however, lay safe enough in the pigeon-house. My grandchild is thesharpest boy in all Sais!

  "When I saw them really carrying the chest downstairs, all the anger I'dbeen trying so hard to keep down burst out again. I told the impudentfellows I would accuse them before the magistrates, nay, even before theking if necessary, and if those confounded Persians, who were having thecity shown them, had not come up just then and made everybody stare atthem, I could have roused the crowd to take my side. The same eveningI went to my son-in-law-he is employed in the temple of Neith too, youknow,--and begged him to make every effort to find out what had becomeof the papers. The good fellow has never forgotten the handsome dowryyou gave my Baner when he married her, and in three days he came andtold me he had seen your beautiful chest and all the rolls it containedburnt to ashes. I was so angry that I fell ill of the jaundice, butthat did not hinder me from sending in a written accusation to themagistrates. The wretches,--I suppose only because they were prieststoo,--refused to take any notice of me or my complaint. Then I sent ina petition to the king, and was turned away there too with the shamefulthreat, that I should be considered guilty of high treason if Imentioned the papers again. I valued my tongue too much to take anyfurther steps, but the ground burnt under my feet; I could not stay inEgypt, I wanted to see you, tell you what they had done to you, andcall on you, who are more powerful than your poor servant, to revengeyourself. And besides, I wanted to see the black box safe in your hands,lest they should take that from me too. And so, old man as I am, witha sad heart I left my home and my grandchildren to go forth into thisforeign Typhon's land. Ah, the little lad was too sharp! As I waskissing him, he said: 'Stay with us, grandfather. If the foreigners
makeyou unclean, they won't let me kiss you any more.' Baner sends you ahearty greeting, and my son-in-law told me to say he had found out thatPsamtik, the crown-prince, and your rival, Petammon, had been the solecauses of this execrable deed. I could not make up my mind to trustmyself on that Typhon's sea, so I travelled with an Arabian tradingcaravan as far as Tadmor,--[Palmyra]--the Phoenician palm-tree stationin the wilderness, and then on to Carchemish, on the Euphrates, withmerchants from Sidon. The roads from Sardis and from Phoenicia meetthere, and, as I was sitting very weary in the little wood before thestation, a traveller arrived with the royal post-horses, and I saw atonce that it was the former commander of the Greek mercenaries."

  "And I," interrupted Phanes, "recognized just as soon in you, thelongest and most quarrelsome old fellow that had ever come across mypath. Oh, how often I've laughed to see you scolding the children,as they ran after you in the street whenever you appeared behind yourmaster with the medicine-chest. The minute I saw you too I remembered ajoke which the king once made in his own way, as you were both passingby. 'The old man,' he said, reminds me of a fierce old owl followed bya flight of small teasing birds, and Nebenchari looks as if he had ascolding wife, who will some day or other reward him for healing otherpeople's eyes by scratching out his own!'"

  "Shameful!" said the old man, and burst into a flood of execrations.

  Nebenchari had been listening to his servant's tale in silence andthought. He had changed color from time to time and on hearing that thepapers which had cost him so many nights of hard work had been burnt,his fists clenched and he shivered as if seized by biting frost. Not oneof his movements escaped the Athenian. He understood human nature; heknew that a jest is often much harder to bear than a grave affront, andtherefore seized this opportunity to repeat the inconsiderate joke whichAmasis had, it is true, allowed himself to make in one of his merrymoods. Phanes had calculated rightly, and had the pleasure of seeing,that as he uttered the last words Nebenchari pressed his hand on a rosewhich lay on the table before him, and crushed it to pieces. The Greeksuppressed a smile of satisfaction, and did not even raise his eyesfrom the ground, but continued speaking: "Well, now we must bring thetravelling adventures of good old Hib to a close. I invited him to sharemy carriage. At first he refused to sit on the same cushion with sucha godless foreigner, as I am, gave in, however, at last, had a goodopportunity at the last station of showing the world how many cleverprocesses of manipulation he had learnt from you and your father, in histreatment of Oropastes' wounded brother; he reached Babylon at last safeand sound, and there, as we could not get sight of you, owing to themelancholy poisoning of your country-woman, I succeeded in obtaining hima lodging in the royal palace itself. The rest you knew already."