Eine aegyptische königstochter. English
CHAPTER IV.
Five days after the evening we have just described at Rhodopis' house,an immense multitude was to be seen assembled at the harbor of Sais.
Egyptians of both sexes, and of every age and class were thronging tothe water's edge.
Soldiers and merchants, whose various ranks in society were betokened bythe length of their white garments, bordered with colored fringes,were interspersed among the crowd of half-naked, sinewy men, whose onlyclothing consisted of an apron, the costume of the lower classes. Nakedchildren crowded, pushed and fought to get the best places. Mothers inshort cloaks were holding their little ones up to see the sight, whichby this means they entirely lost themselves; and a troop of dogs andcats were playing and fighting at the feet of these eager sight-seers,who took the greatest pains not to tread on, or in any way injure thesacred animals.
[According to various pictures on the Egyptian monuments. The mothers are from Wilkinson III. 363. Isis and Hathor, with the child Horus in her lap or at her breast, are found in a thousand representations, dating both from more modern times and in the Greek style. The latter seem to have served as a model for the earliest pictures of the Madonna holding the infant Christ.]
The police kept order among this huge crowd with long staves, on themetal heads of which the king's name was inscribed. Their care wasespecially needed to prevent any of the people from being pushed intothe swollen Nile, an arm of which, in the season of the inundations,washes the walls of Sais.
On the broad flight of steps which led between two rows of sphinxes downto the landing-place of the royal boats, was a very different kind ofassembly.
The priests of the highest rank were seated there on stone benches.Many wore long, white robes, others were clad in aprons, broad jewelledcollars, and garments of panther skins. Some had fillets adorned withplumes that waved around brows, temples, and the stiff structures offalse curls that floated over their shoulders; others displayed theglistening bareness of their smoothly-shaven skulls. The supreme judgewas distinguished by the possession of the longest and handsomest plumein his head-dress, and a costly sapphire amulet, which, suspended by agold chain, hung on his breast.
The highest officers of the Egyptian army wore uniforms of gay colors,97and carried short swords in their girdles. On the right side of thesteps a division of the body-guard was stationed, armed with battleaxes,daggers, bows, and large shields; on the left, were the Greekmercenaries, armed in Ionian fashion. Their new leader, our friendAristomachus, stood with a few of his own officers apart from theEgyptians, by the colossal statues of Psamtik I., which had been erectedon the space above the steps, their faces towards the river.
In front of these statues, on a silver chair, sat Psamtik, the heir tothe throne: He wore a close-fitting garment of many colors, interwovenwith gold, and was surrounded by the most distinguished among the king'scourtiers, chamberlains, counsellors, and friends, all bearing staveswith ostrich feathers and lotus-flowers.
The multitude gave vent to their impatience by shouting, singing, andquarrelling; but the priests and magnates on the steps preserved adignified and solemn silence. Each, with his steady, unmoved gaze, hisstiffly-curled false wig and beard, and his solemn, deliberate manner,resembled the two huge statues, which, the one precisely similar to theother, stood also motionless in their respective places, gazing calmlyinto the stream.
At last silken sails, chequered with purple and blue, appeared in sight.
The crowd shouted with delight. Cries of, "They are coming! Here theyare!" "Take care, or you'll tread on that kitten," "Nurse, hold thechild higher that she may see something of the sight." "You are pushingme into the water, Sebak!" "Have a care Phoenician, the boys arethrowing burs into your long beard." "Now, now, you Greek fellow, don'tfancy that all Egypt belongs to you, because Amasis allows you to liveon the shores of the sacred river!" "Shameless set, these Greeks, downwith them!" shouted a priest, and the cry was at once echoed from manymouths. "Down with the eaters of swine's flesh and despisers of thegods!"
[The Egyptians, like the Jews, were forbidden to eat swine's flesh. This prohibition is mentioned in the Ritual of the Dead, found in a grave in Abd-el-Qurnah, and also in other places. Porphyr de Abstin. IV. The swine was considered an especially unclean animal pertaining to Typhon (Egyptian, Set) as the boar to Ares, and swineherds were an especially despised race. Animals with bristles were only sacrificed at the feasts of Osiris and Eileithyia. Herod. I. 2. 47. It is probable that Moses borrowed his prohibition of swine's flesh from the Egyptian laws with regard to unclean animals.]
From words they were proceeding to deeds, but the police were not to betrifled with, and by a vigorous use of their staves, the tumult wassoon stilled. The large, gay sails, easily to be distinguished amongthe brown, white and blue ones of the smaller Nile-boats which swarmedaround them, came nearer and nearer to the expectant throng. Then atlast the crown-prince and the dignitaries arose from their seats. Theroyal band of trumpeters blew a shrill and piercing blast of welcome,and the first of the expected boats stopped at the landing-place.
It was a rather long, richly-gilded vessel, and bore a silversparrow-hawk as figure-head. In its midst rose a golden canopy with apurple covering, beneath which cushions were conveniently arranged. Oneach deck in the forepart of the ship sat twelve rowers, their apronsattached by costly fastenings.
[Splendid Nile-boats were possessed, in greater or less numbers, by all the men of high rank. Even in the tomb of Ti at Sakkara, which dates from the time of the Pyramids, we meet with a chief overseer of the vessels belonging to a wealthy Egyptian.]
Beneath the canopy lay six fine-looking men in glorious apparel; andbefore the ship had touched the shore the youngest of these, a beautifulfair-haired youth, sprang on to the steps.
Many an Egyptian girl's mouth uttered a lengthened "Ah" at this glorioussight, and even the grave faces of some of the dignitaries brightenedinto a friendly smile.
The name of this much-admired youth was Bartja.
[This Bartja is better known under the name of Smerdis, but on what account the Greeks gave him this name is not clear. In the cuneiform inscriptions of Bisitun or Behistun, he is called Bartja, or, according to Spiegel, Bardiya. We have chosen, for the sake of the easy pronunciation, the former, which is Rawlinson's simplified reading of the name.]
He was the son of the late, and brother of the reigning king of Persia,and had been endowed by nature with every gift that a youth of twentyyears could desire for himself.
Around his tiara was wound a blue and white turban, beneath which hungfair, golden curls of beautiful, abundant hair; his blue eyes sparkledwith life and joy, kindness and high spirits, almost with sauciness;his noble features, around which the down of a manly beard was alreadyvisible, were worthy of a Grecian sculptor's chisel, and his slenderbut muscular figure told of strength and activity. The splendor of hisapparel was proportioned to his personal beauty. A brilliant star ofdiamonds and turquoises glittered in the front of his tiara. An uppergarment of rich white and gold brocade reaching just below the knees,was fastened round the waist with a girdle of blue and white, the royalcolors of Persia. In this girdle gleamed a short, golden sword, its hiltand scabbard thickly studded with opals and sky-blue turquoises. Thetrousers were of the same rich material as the robe, fitting closelyat the ankle, and ending within a pair of short boots of light-blueleather.
The long, wide sleeves of his robe displayed a pair of vigorous arms,adorned with many costly bracelets of gold and jewels; round his slenderneck and on his broad chest lay a golden chain.
Such was the youth who first sprang on shore. He was followed by Darius,the son of Hystaspes, a young Persian of the blood royal, similar inperson to Bartja, and scarcely less gorgeously apparelled than he. Thethird to disembark was an aged man with snow-white hair, in whoseface the gentle and kind expression of childhood was united, with theintellect of a man, and the experience of old age. His dress cons
istedof a long purple robe with sleeves, and the yellow boots worn by theLydians;--his whole appearance produced an impression of the greatestmodesty and a total absence of pretension.
[On account of these boots, which are constantly mentioned, Croesus was named by the oracle "soft-footed."]
Yet this simple old man had been, but a few years before, the mostenvied of his race and age; and even in our day at two thousand years'interval, his name is used as a synonyme for the highest point ofworldly riches attainable by mankind. The old man to whom we are nowintroduced is no other than Croesus, the dethroned king of Lydia, whowas then living at the court of Cambyses, as his friend and counsellor,and had accompanied the young Bartja to Egypt, in the capacity ofMentor.
Croesus was followed by Prexaspes, the king's Ambassador, Zopyrus, theson of Megabyzus, a Persian noble, the friend of Bartja and Darius; and,lastly, by his own son, the slender, pale Gyges, who after having becomedumb in his fourth year through the fearful anguish he had sufferedon his father's account at the taking of Sardis, had now recovered thepower of speech.
Psamtik descended the steps to welcome the strangers. His austere,sallow face endeavored to assume a smile. The high officials in histrain bowed down nearly to the ground, allowing their arms to hangloosely at their sides. The Persians, crossing their hands on theirbreasts, cast themselves on the earth before the heir to the Egyptianthrone. When the first formalities were over, Bartja, according to thecustom of his native country, but greatly to the astonishment of thepopulace, who were totally unaccustomed to such a sight, kissed thesallow cheek of the Egyptian prince; who shuddered at the touch of astranger's unclean lips, then took his way to the litters waiting toconvey him and his escort to the dwelling designed for them by the king,in the palace at Sais.
A portion of the crowd streamed after the strangers, but the largernumber remained at their places, knowing that many a new and wonderfulsight yet awaited them.
"Are you going to run after those dressed-up monkeys and children ofTyphon, too?" asked an angry priest of his neighbor, a respectabletailor of Sais. "I tell you, Puhor, and the high-priest says so too,that these strangers can bring no good to the black land! I am for thegood old times, when no one who cared for his life dared set foot onEgyptian soil. Now our streets are literally swarming with cheatingHebrews, and above all with those insolent Greeks whom may the godsdestroy!
[The Jews were called Hebrews (Apuriu) by the Egyptians; as brought to light by Chabas. See Ebers, Aegypten I. p. 316. H. Brugsch opposes this opinion.]
"Only look, there is the third boat full of strangers! And do you knowwhat kind of people these Persians are? The high-priest says that in thewhole of their kingdom, which is as large as half the world, thereis not a single temple to the gods; and that instead of giving decentburial to the dead, they leave them to be torn in pieces by dogs andvultures."
[These statements are correct, as the Persians, at the time of the dynasty of the Achaemenidae, had no temples, but used fire-altars and exposed their dead to the dogs and vultures. An impure corpse was not permitted to defile the pure earth by its decay; nor might it be committed to the fire or water for destruction, as their purity would be equally polluted by such an act. But as it was impossible to cause the dead bodies to vanish, Dakhmas or burying- places were laid out, which had to be covered with pavement and cement not less than four inches thick, and surrounded by cords to denote that the whole structure was as it were suspended in the air, and did not come in contact with the pure earth. Spiegel, Avesta II.]
"The tailor's indignation at hearing this was even greater than hisastonishment, and pointing to the landing-steps, he cried:
"It is really too bad; see, there is the sixth boat full of theseforeigners!"
"Yes, it is hard indeed!" sighed the priest, "one might fancy a wholearmy arriving. Amasis will go on in this manner until the strangersdrive him from his throne and country, and plunder and make slaves ofus poor creatures, as the evil Hyksos, those scourges of Egypt, and theblack Ethiopians did, in the days of old."
"The seventh boat!" shouted the tailor.
"May my protectress Neith, the great goddess of Sais, destroy me, if Ican understand the king," complained the priest. "He sent three barks toNaukratis, that poisonous nest hated of the gods, to fetch the servantsand baggage of these Persians; but instead of three, eight had to beprocured, for these despisers of the gods and profaners of dead bodieshave not only brought kitchen utensils, dogs, horses, carriages, chests,baskets and bales, but have dragged with them, thousands of miles, awhole host of servants. They tell me that some of them have no otherwork than twining of garlands and preparing ointments. Their prieststoo, whom they call Magi, are here with them. I should like to know whatthey are for? of what use is a priest where there is no temple?"
The old King Amasis received the Persian embassy shortly after theirarrival with all the amiability and kindness peculiar to him.
Four days later, after having attended to the affairs of state, a dutypunctually fulfilled by him every morning without exception, he wentforth to walk with Croesus in the royal gardens. The remaining membersof the embassy, accompanied by the crown-prince, were engaged in anexcursion up the Nile to the city of Memphis.
The palace-gardens, of a royal magnificence, yet similar in theirarrangement to those of Rhodopis, lay in the north-west part of Sais,near the royal citadel.
Here, under the shadow of a spreading plane-tree, and near a giganticbasin of red granite, into which an abundance of clear water flowedperpetually through the jaws of black basalt crocodiles, the two old menseated themselves.
The dethroned king, though in reality some years the elder of the two,looked far fresher and more vigorous than the powerful monarch at hisside. Amasis was tall, but his neck was bent; his corpulent body wassupported by weak and slender legs: and his face, though well-formed,was lined and furrowed. But a vigorous spirit sparkled in the small,flashing eyes, and an expression of raillery, sly banter, and at times,even of irony, played around his remarkably full lips. The low, broadbrow, the large and beautifully-arched head bespoke great mental power,and in the changing color of his eyes one seemed to read that neitherwit nor passion were wanting in the man, who, from his simple placeas soldier in the ranks, had worked his way up to the throne of thePharaohs. His voice was sharp and hard, and his movements, in comparisonwith the deliberation of the other members of the Egyptian court,appeared almost morbidly active.
The attitude and bearing of his neighbor Croesus were graceful, and inevery way worthy of a king. His whole manner showed that he had livedin frequent intercourse with the highest and noblest minds of Greece.Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes of Miletus, Bias of Priene, Solon ofAthens, Pittakus of Lesbos, the most celebrated Hellenic philosophers,had in former and happier days been guests at the court of Croesus inSardis. His full clear voice sounded like pure song when compared withthe shrill tones of Amasis.
[Bias, a philosopher of Ionian origin, flourished about 560 B. C. and was especially celebrated for his wise maxims on morals and law. After his death, which took place during his defence of a friend in the public court, a temple was erected to him by his countrymen. Laert. Diog. I. 88.]
"Now tell me openly," began king Pharaoh--[In English "great house," thehigh gate or "sublime porte."]--in tolerably fluent Greek, "what opinionhast thou formed of Egypt? Thy judgment possesses for me more worth thanthat of any other man, for three reasons: thou art better acquaintedwith most of the countries and nations of this earth; the gods have notonly allowed thee to ascend the ladder of fortune to its utmost summit,but also to descend it, and thirdly, thou hast long been the firstcounsellor to the mightiest of kings. Would that my kingdom might pleasethee so well that thou wouldst remain here and become to me a brother.Verily, Croesus, my friend hast thou long been, though my eyes beheldthee yesterday for the first time!"
"And thou mine," interrupted the Lydian. "I admire the courage withwhich thou hast a
ccomplished that which seemed right and good in thineeyes, in spite of opposition near and around thee. I am thankful for thefavor shown to the Hellenes, my friends, and I regard thee as related tome by fortune, for hast thou not also passed through all the extremes ofgood and evil that this life can offer?"
"With this difference," said Amasis smiling, "that we started fromopposite points; in thy lot the good came first, the evil later; whereasin my own this order has been reversed. In saying this, however," headded, "I am supposing that my present fortune is a good for me, andthat I enjoy it."
"And I, in that case," answered Croesus, "must be assuming that I amunhappy in what men call my present ill-fortune."
"How can it possibly be otherwise after the loss of such enormouspossessions?"
"Does happiness consist then in possession?" asked Croesus. "Ishappiness itself a thing to be possessed? Nay, by no means! It isnothing but a feeling, a sensation, which the envious gods vouchsafemore often to the needy than to the mighty. The clear sight of thelatter becomes dazzled by the glittering treasure, and they cannot butsuffer continual humiliation, because, conscious of possessing power toobtain much, they wage an eager war for all, and therein are continuallydefeated."
Amasis sighed, and answered: "I would I could prove thee in the wrong;but in looking back on my past life I am fain to confess that itscares began with that very hour which brought me what men call my goodfortune."--"And I," interrupted Croesus, "can assure thee that I amthankful thou delayedst to come to my help, inasmuch as the hour of myoverthrow was the beginning of true, unsullied happiness. When I beheldthe first Persians scale the walls of Sardis, I execrated myself and thegods, life appeared odious to me, existence a curse. Fighting on, but inheart despairing, I and my people were forced to yield. A Persian raisedhis sword to cleave my skull--in an instant my poor dumb son had thrownhimself between his father and the murderer, and for the first timeafter long years of silence, I heard him speak. Terror had loosened histongue; in that dreadful hour Gyges learnt once more to speak, and I,who but the moment before had been cursing the gods, bowed down beforetheir power. I had commanded a slave to kill me the moment I should betaken prisoner by the Persians, but now I deprived him of his sword. Iwas a changed man, and by degrees learnt ever more and more to subduethe rage and indignation which yet from time to time would boil up againwithin my soul, rebellious against my fate and my noble enemies. Thouknowest that at last I became the friend of Cyrus, and that my son grewup at his court, a free man at my side, having entirely regained the useof his speech. Everything beautiful and good that I had heard, seenor thought during my long life I treasured up now for him; he was mykingdom, my crown, my treasure. Cyrus's days of care, his nights so reftof sleep, reminded me with horror of my own former greatness, and fromday to day it became more evident to me that happiness has nothing todo with our outward circumstances. Each man possesses the hidden germ inhis own heart. A contented, patient mind, rejoicing much in all thatis great and beautiful and yet despising not the day of small things;bearing sorrow without a murmur and sweetening it by calling toremembrance former joy; moderation in all things; a firm trust in thefavor of the gods and a conviction that, all things being subject tochange, so with us too the worst must pass in due season; all this helpsto mature the germ of happiness, and gives us power to smile, where theman undisciplined by fate might yield to despair and fear."
Amasis listened attentively, drawing figures the while in the sand withthe golden flower on his staff. At last he spoke:
"Verily, Croesus, I the great god, the 'sun of righteousness,' 'the sonof Neith,' 'the lord of warlike glory,' as the Egyptians call me, amtempted to envy thee, dethroned and plundered as thou art. I have beenas happy as thou art now. Once I was known through all Egypt, thoughonly the poor son of a captain, for my light heart, happy temper, funand high spirits. The common soldiers would do anything for me, mysuperior officers could have found much fault, but in the mad Amasis,as they called me, all was overlooked, and among my equals, (the otherunder-officers) there could be no fun or merry-making unless I took ashare in it. My predecessor king Hophra sent us against Cyrene. Seizedwith thirst in the desert, we refused to go on; and a suspicion that theking intended to sacrifice us to the Greek mercenaries drove the army toopen mutiny. In my usual joking manner I called out to my friends: 'Youcan never get on without a king, take me for your ruler; a merrier youwill never find!' The soldiers caught the words. 'Amasis will be ourking,' ran through the ranks from man to man, and, in a few hours more,they came to me with shouts, and acclamations of 'The good, jovialAmasis for our King!' One of my boon companions set a field-marshal'shelmet on my head: I made the joke earnest, and we defeated Hophra atMomempliis. The people joined in the conspiracy, I ascended the throne,and men pronounced me fortunate. Up to that time I had been everyEgyptian's friend, and now I was the enemy of the best men in thenation.
"The priests swore allegiance to me, and accepted me as a member oftheir caste, but only in the hope of guiding me at their will. My formersuperiors in command either envied me, or wished to remain on the sameterms of intercourse as formerly. But this would have been inconsistentwith my new position, and have undermined my authority. One day,therefore, when the officers of the host were at one of my banquets andattempting, as usual, to maintain their old convivial footing, I showedthem the golden basin in which their feet had been washed before sittingdown to meat; five days later, as they were again drinking at one of myrevels, I caused a golden image of the great god Ra be placed upon therichly-ornamented banqueting-table.
[Ra, with the masculine article Phra, must be regarded as the central point of the sun-worship of the Egyptians, which we consider to have been the foundation of their entire religion. He was more especially worshipped at Heliopolis. Plato, Eudoxus, and probably Pythagoras also, profited by the teaching of his priests. The obelisks, serving also as memorial monuments on which the names and deeds of great kings were recorded, were sacred to him, and Pliny remarks of them that they represented the rays of the sun. He was regarded as the god of light, the director of the entire visible creation, over which he reigned, as Osiris over the world of spirits.]
"On perceiving it, they fell down to worship. As they rose fromtheir knees, I took the sceptre, and holding it up on high with muchsolemnity, exclaimed: 'In five days an artificer has transformed thedespised vessel into which ye spat and in which men washed your feet,into this divine image. Such a vessel was I, but the Deity, which canfashion better and more quickly than a goldsmith, has made me your king.Bow down then before me and worship. He who henceforth refuses to obey,or is unmindful of the reverence due to the king, is guilty of death!'
"They fell down before me, every one, and I saved my authority, but lostmy friends. As I now stood in need of some other prop, I fixed on theHellenes, knowing that in all military qualifications one Greek is worthmore than five Egyptians, and that with this assistance I should be ableto carry out those measures which I thought beneficial.
"I kept the Greek mercenaries always round me, I learnt their language,and it was they who brought to me the noblest human being I ever met,Pythagoras. I endeavored to introduce Greek art and manners amongourselves, seeing what folly lay in a self-willed adherence to thatwhich has been handed down to us, when it is in itself bad and unworthy,while the good seed lay on our Egyptian soil, only waiting to be sown.
"I portioned out the whole land to suit my purposes, appointed the bestpolice in the world, and accomplished much; but my highest aim, namely:to infuse into this country, at once so gay and so gloomy, the spiritand intellect of the Greeks, their sense of beauty in form, their loveof life and joy in it, this all was shivered on the same rock whichthreatens me with overthrow and ruin whenever I attempt to accomplishanything new. The priests are my opponents, my masters, they hang like adead weight upon me. Clinging with superstitious awe to all that is oldand traditionary, abominating everything foreign, and regarding everystranger as the natural enemy of thei
r authority and their teaching,they can lead the most devout and religious of all nations with a powerthat has scarcely any limits. For this I am forced to sacrifice all myplans, for this I see my life passing away in bondage to their severeordinances, this will rob my death-bed of peace, and I cannot be securethat this host of proud mediators between god and man will allow me torest even in my grave!"
"By Zeus our saviour, with all thy good fortune, thou art to be pitied!"interrupted Croesus sympathetically, "I understand thy misery; forthough I have met with many an individual who passed through life darklyand gloomily, I could not have believed that an entire race of humanbeings existed, to whom a gloomy, sullen heart was as natural as apoisonous tooth to the serpent. Yet it is true, that on my journeyhither and during my residence at this court I have seen none but moroseand gloomy countenances among the priesthood. Even the youths, thyimmediate attendants, are never seen to smile; though cheerfulness,that sweet gift of the gods, usually belongs to the young, as flowers tospring."
"Thou errest," answered Amasis, "in believing this gloom to be auniversal characteristic of the Egyptians. It is true that our religionrequires much serious thought. There are few nations, however, who haveso largely the gift of bantering fun and joke: or who on the occasionof a festival, can so entirely forget themselves and everything else butthe enjoyments of the moment; but the very sight of a stranger is odiousto the priests, and the moroseness which thou observest is intended asretaliation on me for my alliance with the strangers. Those very boys,of whom thou spakest, are the greatest torment of my life. They performfor me the service of slaves, and obey my slightest nod. One mightimagine that the parents who devote their children to this service,and who are the highest in rank among the priesthood, would be the mostobedient and reverential servants of the king whom they profess to honoras divine; but believe me, Croesus, just in this very act of devotion,which no ruler can refuse to accept without giving offence, lies themost crafty, scandalous calculation. Each of these youths is my keeper,my spy. They watch my smallest actions and report them at once to thepriests."
"But how canst thou endure such an existence? Why not banish these spiesand select servants from the military caste, for instance? They would bequite as useful as the priests."
"Ah! if I only could, if I dared!" exclaimed Amasis loudly. And then,as if frightened at his own rashness, he continued in a low voice, "Ibelieve that even here I am being watched. To-morrow I will have thatgrove of fig-trees yonder uprooted. The young priest there, who seemsso fond of gardening, has other fruit in his mind besides the half-ripefigs that he is so slowly dropping into his basket. While his hand isplucking the figs, his ear gathers the words that fall from the mouth ofhis king."
"But, by our father Zeus, and by Apollo--"
"Yes, I understand thy indignation and I share it; but every positionhas its duties, and as a king of a people who venerate tradition as thehighest divinity, I must submit, at least in the main, to the ceremonieshanded down through thousands of years. Were I to burst these fetters,I know positively that at my death my body would remain unburied; for,know that the priests sit in judgment over every corpse, and deprive thecondemned of rest, even in the grave."
[This well-known custom among the ancient Egyptians is confirmed, not only by many Greek narrators, but by the laboriously erased inscriptions discovered in the chambers of some tombs.]
"Why care about the grave?" cried Croesus, becoming angry. "We live forlife, not for death!"
"Say rather," answered Amasis rising from his seat, "we, with our Greekminds, believe a beautiful life to be the highest good. But Croesus, Iwas begotten and nursed by Egyptian parents, nourished on Egyptian food,and though I have accepted much that is Greek, am still, in my innermostbeing, an Egyptian. What has been sung to us in our childhood, andpraised as sacred in our youth, lingers on in the heart until the daywhich sees us embalmed as mummies. I am an old man and have but a shortspan yet to run, before I reach the landmark which separates us fromthat farther country. For the sake of life's few remaining days, shallI willingly mar Death's thousands of years? No, my friend, in this pointat least I have remained an Egyptian, in believing, like the rest ofmy countrymen, that the happiness of a future life in the kingdom ofOsiris, depends on the preservation of my body, the habitation of thesoul.
[Each human soul was considered as a part of the world-soul Osiris, was united to him after the death of the body, and thenceforth took the name of Osiris. The Egyptian Cosmos consisted of the three great realms, the Heavens, the Earth and the Depths. Over the vast ocean which girdles the vault of heaven, the sun moves in a boat or car drawn by the planets and fixed stars. On this ocean too the great constellations circle in their ships, and there is the kingdom of the blissful gods, who sit enthroned above this heavenly ocean under a canopy of stars. The mouth of this great stream is in the East, where the sun-god rises from the mists and is born again as a child every morning. The surface of the earth is inhabited by human beings having a share in the three great cosmic kingdoms. They receive their soul from the heights of heaven, the seat and source of light; their material body is of the earth; and the appearance or outward form by which one human being is distinguished from another at sight--his phantom or shadow--belongs to the depths. At death, soul, body, and shadow separate from one another. The soul to return to the place from whence it came, to Heaven, for it is a part of God (of Osiris); the body, to be committed to the earth from which it was formed in the image of its creator; the phantom or shadow, to descend into the depths, the kingdom of shadows. The gate to this kingdom was placed in the West among the sunset hills, where the sun goes down daily,--where he dies. Thence arise the changeful and corresponding conceptions connected with rising and setting, arriving and departing, being born and dying. The careful preservation of the body after death from destruction, not only through the process of inward decay, but also through violence or accident, was in the religion of ancient Egypt a principal condition (perhaps introduced by the priests on sanitary grounds) on which depended the speedy deliverance of the soul, and with this her early, appointed union with the source of Light and Good, which two properties were, in idea, one and indivisible. In the Egyptian conceptions the soul was supposed to remain, in a certain sense, connected with the body during a long cycle of solar years. She could, however, quit the body from time to time at will, and could appear to mortals in various forms and places; these appearances differed according to the hour, and were prescribed in exact words and delineations.]
"But enough of these matters; thou wilt find it difficult to enter intosuch thoughts. Tell me rather what thou thinkest of our temples andpyramids."
Croesus, after reflecting a moment, answered with a smile: "Those hugepyramidal masses of stone seem to me creations of the boundless desert,the gaily painted temple colonnades to be the children of the Spring;but though the sphinxes lead up to your temple gates, and seem to pointthe way into the very shrines themselves, the sloping fortress-likewalls of the Pylons, those huge isolated portals, appear as if placedthere to repel entrance. Your many-colored hieroglyphics likewiseattract the gaze, but baffle the inquiring spirit by the mystery thatlies within their characters. The images of your manifold gods areeverywhere to be seen; they crowd on our gaze, and yet who knows notthat their real is not their apparent significance? that they are mereoutward images of thoughts accessible only to the few, and, as I haveheard, almost incomprehensible in their depth? My curiosity is excitedeverywhere, and my interest awakened, but my warm love of the beautifulfeels itself in no way attracted. My intellect might strain to penetratethe secrets of your sages, but my heart and mind can never be at home ina creed which views life as a short pilgrimage to the grave, and deathas the only true life!"
"And yet," said Amasis, "Death has for us too his terrors, and we do allin our power to evade his grasp. Our physicians would not be celebratedand esteemed as they are, if we did not beli
eve that their skill couldprolong our earthly existence. This reminds me of the oculist Nebenchariwhom I sent to Susa, to the king. Does he maintain his reputation? isthe king content with him?"
"Very much so," answered Croesus. "He has been of use to many of theblind; but the king's mother is alas! still sightless. It was Nebenchariwho first spoke to Cambyses of the charms of thy daughter Tachot. But wedeplore that he understands diseases of the eye alone. When the PrincessAtossa lay ill of fever, he was not to be induced to bestow a word ofcounsel."
"That is very natural; our physicians are only permitted to treat onepart of the body. We have aurists, dentists and oculists, surgeons forfractures of the bone, and others for internal diseases. By the ancientpriestly law a dentist is not allowed to treat a deaf man, nor a surgeonfor broken bones a patient who is suffering from a disease of thebowels, even though he should have a first rate knowledge of internalcomplaints. This law aims at securing a great degree of real andthorough knowledge; an aim indeed, pursued by the priests (to whosecaste the physicians belong) with a most praiseworthy earnestness in allbranches of science. Yonder lies the house of the high-priest Neithotep,whose knowledge of astronomy and geometry was so highly praised, evenby Pythagoras. It lies next to the porch leading into the temple ofthe goddess Neith, the protectress of Sais. Would I could show thee thesacred grove with its magnificent trees, the splendid pillars of thetemple with capitals modelled from the lotus-flower, and the colossalchapel which I caused to be wrought from a single piece of granite, asan offering to the goddess; but alas! entrance is strictly refused tostrangers by the priests. Come, let us seek my wife and daughter; theyhave conceived an affection for thee, and indeed it is my wish that thoushouldst gain a friendly feeling towards this poor maiden before shegoes forth with thee to the strange land, and to the strange nationwhose princess she is to become. Wilt thou not adopt and take her underthy care?"
"On that thou may'st with fullest confidence rely," replied Croesuswith warmth, returning the pressure of Amasis' hand. "I will protectthy Nitetis as if I were her father; and she will need my help, for theapartments of the women in the Persian palaces are dangerous ground. Butshe will meet with great consideration. Cambyses may be contented withhis choice, and will be highly gratified that thou hast entrusted himwith thy fairest child. Nebenchari had only spoken of Tachot, thy seconddaughter."
"Nevertheless I will send my beautiful Nitetis. Tachot is so tender,that she could scarcely endure the fatigues of the journey and the painof separation. Indeed were I to follow the dictates of my own heart,Nitetis should never leave us for Persia. But Egypt stands in need ofpeace, and I was a king before I became a father!"