The Pharaoh and the Priest: An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt

  CHAPTER LIII

  So in the month Hator, after thirty-four years of rule, died thePharaoh Mer-Amen-Rameses XII., the ruler of two worlds, the lord ofeternity, the giver of life and every happiness.

  He died because he felt that his body was growing weak and useless. Hedied because he was yearning for his eternal home and he wished toconfide the cares of earthly rule to hands that were more youthful.Finally he died because he wished to die, for such was his will. Hisdivine spirit flew away, like a falcon which, circling for a timeabove the earth, vanishes at last in blue expanses.

  As his life had been the sojourn of an immortal in the region ofevanescence, his death was merely one among moments in the existenceof the superhuman.

  Rameses XII. woke about sunrise; leaning on two prophets, surroundedby a chorus of priests, he went to the chapel of Osiris. There, asusual, he resurrected the divinity, washed and dressed it, madeofferings, and raised his hands in prayer. Meanwhile the priests sang:

  _Chorus I._ "Honor to thee who raisest thyself on the horizon andcoursest across the sky."

  _Chorus II._ "The pathway of thy sacredness is the prosperity of thoseon whose faces thy rays fall."

  _Chorus I._ "Would that I might go as thou goest, O sun! withouthalting."

  _Chorus II._ "Mighty wanderer in space, thou who hast no lord, forthee hundreds of millions of years are merely the twinkle of an eye."

  _Chorus I._ "Thou goest down, but endurest. Thou multipliest hours,days, and nights, and remainest in solitude according to thy ownlaws."

  _Chorus II._ "Thou dost illumine the earth, offering thy own self withthy own hands, when under the form of Ra thou comest up on thehorizon."

  _Chorus I._ "O star, emerging great, through thy light, thou thyselfformest thy own limbs."

  _Chorus II._ "And, not begotten of any, thou givest birth to thyselfon the horizon."[26]

  [26] Authentic hymn.

  At this point the pharaoh spoke:

  "O thou radiant in the heavens! Permit that I enter eternity. Let mejoin the revered and perfect shadows of the upper land. Let me,together with them, behold thy rays in the morning, and in theevening, when thou joinest thy mother Nut. And when thou turnest thyface to the West let my hands join while praying in honor of life,which is going to sleep beyond the mountains."[27]

  [27] Authentic.

  Thus spoke the pharaoh with upraised hands, surrounded by a cloud ofincense. All at once he ceased, and dropped into the arms of thepriests behind him.

  He was no longer living.

  Intelligence of the pharaoh's death flew through the palace likelightning. Servants left their occupations, overseers ceased to watchover their slaves, the guard was roused; all entrances were occupied.

  In the main court a throng began to gather; cooks, cellarers,equerries, women of his holiness, and their children. Some inquired:"Is this true?" Others wondered that the sun shone in heaven, but allcried at once in heaven-piercing voices,--

  "O our lord! O our father! O beloved! Can it be that thou hast gonefrom us? Oh it is true, he is going to Abydos! To the West, to theWest, to the land of the just ones! The place which thou hast lovedgroans and weeps for thee!"[28]

  [28] Authentic.

  Terrible uproar was heard throughout all the courts, throughout thewhole park. It was echoed from the eastern hills, on the wings of thewind it flew across the Nile, and disturbed the city of Memphis.

  Meanwhile, the priests, amid prayers, placed the body of the deceasedin a rich closed litter. Eight stood at the poles of the litter; fourtook ostrich feather fans in their hands, others censers, and theyprepared to go forth.

  At this moment Queen Nikotris ran in, and, seeing the remains in thelitter, threw herself at the feet of the dead pharaoh.

  "O my husband! O my brother! O my beloved!" cried she, carried awaywith weeping. "O beloved, remain with us, remain in thy house,withdraw not from this place on earth in which thou art dwelling!"

  "In peace, in peace, to the West," sang the priests. "O mightysovereign, go in peace to the West."

  "Misfortune," said the queen, "thou art hastening to the ferry to passto the other shore! O priests, O prophets, hasten not, leave him; forye will return to your houses, but he will go to the land ofeternity."

  "In peace, in peace to the West," sang the priestly chorus. "If itplease the god, when the day of eternity comes, we shall see thee, Osovereign! For now thou art going to the land which brings all mentogether."[29]

  [29] Authentic.

  At a sign given by the worthy Herhor, the attendants drew the queenfrom the feet of the pharaoh, and led her by force to her chambers.

  The litter, borne by priests, moved on, and in it the sovereign,dressed and surrounded, as if living. On the right, and on the left,before and behind him, went generals, treasurers, judges, chiefscribes, the bearers of the mace and the bow, and above all a throngof priests of various dignities.

  In the courtyard, the servants fell on their faces, groaning andweeping, but the troops presented arms and the trumpets sounded, as ifto greet a living pharaoh.

  Between Memphis and the "Tableland of Mummies," lay a peculiardivision of the city. All its buildings were devoted to the dead, andit was inhabited only by dissectors and embalmers.

  This division was the forecourt as it were, of the cemetery proper,the bridge which joined living society with the city of endless rest.To this place were brought corpses, and mummies were made of them;here families stipulated with priests, touching the cost of funerals.Here were prepared sacred books and bandages, coffins, implements,vessels, and statues for the departed.

  This district was a couple of thousand yards from Memphis. It wassurrounded by a long wall provided with gates here and there.

  The retinue bearing the remains of the pharaoh halted before therichest gate, and one of the priests knocked at it.

  "Who is there?" inquired those within.

  "Osiris-Mer-Amen-Rameses, the lord of two worlds, has come and desiresthat ye prepare him for his eternal journey," replied the priests.

  "Is it possible that he, the sun of Egypt, is quenched? That he isdead who himself was breath and life?"

  "Such was his will," answered a priest. "Receive, then, the lord withdue honor and render all service to him, as is befitting, lestpunishments meet you in this and the coming life."

  "We will do as ye say," said a voice from within.

  The priests left the litter, and went away hurriedly, so that the evilodor of remains accumulated in that place should not fall on them.Only civil officials under the lead of the supreme judge and treasurerremained there.

  After they had waited a considerable time, the gate opened, and fromten to twenty persons showed themselves. They wore priestly garmentsand their faces were covered.

  "We give you," said the judges, on seeing them, "the body of our lordand yours. Do with it what the rules of religion enjoin, and omitnothing, so that the great deceased may not experience unquiet in thatworld through your fault."

  The treasurer added,--

  "Use gold, silver, malachite, jasper, emerald, turquoise, and the mostrare kinds of incenses for this lord, so that nothing be lacking thathe may have whatever is best. I, the treasurer, say this to you. Andif the wretch should be found who, instead of noble metals, givescounterfeit, and instead of genuine stones, gives Phoenician glass,let him remember that his hands will be cut off and his eyes dug out."

  "It will be as ye wish," replied one of the veiled priests.

  Others raised the litter and bore it to the interior of the districtof the dead.

  "Thou art going in peace to Abydos! Mayst thou go in peace to theTheban West. To the West, to the West, to the land of the just ones!"

  The gate closed, the supreme judge, the treasurer, and the officialsaccompanying them returned to the palace.

  The hooded priests bore the litter to an immense building where onlythe remains of pharaohs were embalmed, or those of high dignitarieswho had gained the exceptional
favor of a pharaoh.

  The priests stopped in the antechamber, where stood the golden boat onwheels, and took the corpse from the litter.

  "Look ye!" cried one of the cowled priests, "are they not criminals?The pharaoh died in the chapel of Osiris, so he must have been inceremonial costume, while here--oh!--instead of gold ornaments--bronze;the chain is bronze, too, and on his breast false jewels!"

  "True," said another. "I am curious to know who fitted him out thus:priests, or scribes?"

  "Surely priests. Oh, would that your hands withered, ye scoundrels!And some wretch--they are all such--dared command us to give thedeceased what was best."

  "It was not they, but the treasurer."

  "They are all rogues."

  Thus discoursing, the embalmers took from the deceased his garments ofa pharaoh, put on him a gown of cloth of gold and bore the remains tothe boat.

  "Thanks to the gods," said one of the cowled men, "we have a newpharaoh. He will bring the priests to order. What they have taken withtheir hands they will bring back with their mouths."

  "Uuu!--they say that he will be a shrewd ruler," put in another. "Heis friendly with the Phoenicians; he passes time willingly withPentuer, who is not of priestly family, but of such poor people as we.But the army, they say the army would let itself be burnt and drownedfor the new pharaoh."

  "Besides, he conquered the Libyans most gloriously a few days ago."

  "Where is he now, that new pharaoh?" asked another. "In the desert? Iam afraid that misfortune may meet him before he comes back to us."

  "What will any one do to him when he has an army behind him? May Inot live to an honest burial if the young lord will not treat thepriests as a buffalo treats growing wheat."

  "O thou fool!" interrupted an embalmer who had been silent till thatmoment. "The pharaoh conquer the priests!"

  "Why not?"

  "But hast thou ever seen that a lion tore down a pyramid?"

  "Nonsense!"

  "Or that a buffalo tossed it apart?"

  "Of course he cannot toss it."

  "Or that a tempest overturned it."

  "What has this man begun at to-day?"

  "Well, I tell thee that sooner will a lion, a buffalo, or a tempestoverturn the great pyramid than the pharaoh put an end to thepriesthood. Even if that pharaoh were a lion, a buffalo, and a tempestin one person."

  "Hei ye, there!" cried men from above. "Is the corpse ready?"

  "Yes, yes; but its jaw has fallen," answered they at the entrance.

  "All one--give it up here, for Isis must go to the city an hour fromnow."

  After a while the golden boat with the dead pharaoh was raised bymeans of ropes to an internal balcony.

  From the entrance it went into a great hall, painted in the color ofthe sky, and ornamented with golden stars. Through the whole length ofthe hall, from one wall to the other, was fixed a balcony in the formof an arch the ends of which were one story high and the centre astory and a half.

  The hall represented the dome of heaven, the balcony the road of thesun in the sky. The late pharaoh was to represent Osiris, or the sun,which passes from the east to the west.

  On the pavement of the hall stood a throng of priests and priestesseswho, while waiting for the solemnity, conversed about indifferentsubjects.

  "Ready!" cried they from the balcony.

  Conversation ceased. Above was heard the sound of a metal plate beatenthrice--and on the balcony appeared the golden boat of the sun inwhich the late pharaoh was advancing.

  Below sounded the hymn in honor of the sun:

  "Behold he appears in a cloud to separate the sky from the earth, andlater to connect them.

  "Hidden unceasingly in all things, he alone lives, in him all thingsexist through eternity."

  The boat moved gradually upward on the balcony; finally it halted atthe highest point.

  Then at the lower end of the arch appeared a priestess, arrayed as thegoddess Isis, with her son Horus, and with equal slowness she began toascend. That was an image of the moon, which follows the sun.

  Now the boat from the top of the arch began to go toward the west, andthe chorus below sang again:

  "The god incarnate in all things, the spirit of Shu in all gods. He isthe body of a living person, the creator of the tree which bearsfruit, the causer of fertilizing overflows. Without him nothing livesin the earthly circle."[30]

  [30] Authentic hymn.

  The boat vanished at the western termination of the balcony, Isis andHorus stopped at the summit of the arch. A crowd of priests ran to theboat, took out the corpse of the pharaoh and placed it on a marbletable, as Osiris to rest after his toils of the day.

  Now to the dead man came the dissector, dressed as the god Typhon. Onhis head were a horrid mask and a red tangled wig, on his shouldersthe skin of a wild boar, and in his hand an Ethiopian stone knife.

  With this knife he began quickly to cut off the soles of the deadpharaoh's sandals.

  "What art thou doing, O Typhon, to thy sleeping brother?" asked Isisfrom the balcony.

  "I am scraping the feet of my brother Osiris, so that he may notbefoul heaven with earthly dust," replied the dissector dressed asTyphon.

  When he had cut off the soles, the dissector took a bent wire, thrustit into the nostrils of the deceased and began to extract his brains.Next he made an opening in his body, and through that opening drew outquickly the heart, lungs, and viscera.

  During this time the assistants of Typhon brought four great urnsadorned with the heads of the gods Hape, Emset, Duamut and Quebhsneuf,and in each of those urns he placed some internal organ of thedeceased pharaoh.

  "But what art thou doing, O brother Typhon?" inquired Isis a secondtime.

  "I am purifying my brother Osiris of earthly things, so that he maybecome more beautiful," replied the dissector.

  At the side of the marble table was a vat of water with soda insolution. The dissectors, when they had cleaned the body, put it intothe vat where it was to soak seventy days.

  Meanwhile Isis, when she had passed over the entire vault, approachedthe chamber where the dissectors had cleaned the pharaoh's body. Shelooked at the marble table, and, seeing that it was empty, inquired interror,--

  "Where is my brother? Where is my divine consort?"

  Thereupon thunder roared, trumpets and bronze plates sounded; thedissector disguised as Typhon burst into laughter, and cried,--

  "O beautiful Isis, who in company with the stars delightest the night,thy consort exists not. Never again will the radiant Osiris sit in thegolden boat, never again will that sun appear on the firmament. I havedone this, I, Set, and I have hidden him so deeply that none of thegods, nor all the gods together will find him."

  At these words the goddess rent her garments, she groaned and tore herhair. Again sounded trumpets, thunder, and plates; among the priestsand priestesses an uproar began, then shouting and curses. Suddenlyall rushed at Typhon crying,--

  "Cursed spirit of darkness! Thou rousest the whirlwinds of the desert,thou rousest the sea, darkenest the light of day! Mayst thou fall intothe pit from which the father of the gods himself could not free thee.Cursed! Cursed Set! May thy name be a disgust and a terror!"

  While cursing in this way they all attacked Typhon with fists andclubs; the red-haired god fled, and rushed at last out of thebuilding.

  Again the bronze plates sounded thrice, and the solemnity was ended.

  "Well, that is enough!" cried the senior priest to the assembly whichhad begun to fight in earnest. "Thou, Isis, mayest return to the city,but the rest of us must go to other departed ones who are waiting forour services. We must not neglect the ordinary dead, for it is unknownhow much they will pay us for this one."

  "Not much indeed!" interrupted the embalmer. "People say that there isnothing in the treasury, while the Phoenicians threaten to ceaselending unless new rights are given them."

  "May death destroy all those Phoenicians! Soon a man will be forced tobeg a barley cake of the
m; even now they have snatched awayeverything."

  "But unless they lend the pharaoh money we shall get nothing for thefuneral."

  Conversation ceased gradually, and those present left the heavenlyhall. Only at the vat where the body of the pharaoh lay steeping was aguard left.

  All this solemnity, representing the legend of the slaying of Osiris(the sun) by Typhon (the god of night and crime), served to open andclean the body of the pharaoh, and in this way prepare it for theembalming proper.

  During seventy days the departed must lie in a solution of soda, inmemory, it seems, of this, that the wicked Typhon had sunk the body ofhis brother in the Soda Lakes. During all these days a priestess,dressed as Isis, came to the heavenly hall, morning and evening.There, groaning and tearing her hair, she inquired of all presentwhether any one had seen her divine consort and brother.

  At the expiration of that time of mourning, Horus, the son and heir ofOsiris, with his suite appeared in the hall, and they were the firstto see the vat with the solution.

  "Might we look here for the remains of my father and brother?" askedHorus.

  So they searched and found; amid the immense delight of the priests,with sounds of music, they removed the body of the pharaoh from thestrengthening bath.

  The body was put into a stone cylinder through which passed a hotbreeze for a number of days, and, when the body was dried they gave itto the embalmers.

  Now began the most important ceremonies, which were performed by thesupreme priests of the court of the dead:

  The body of the departed, turned head southward, they washed withconsecrated water and the interior with palm wine. On the pavement,which was sprinkled with ashes, sat wailing women who tore their hairand scratched their faces; they bewailed the late pharaoh. Around thecouch where the body lay were assembled priests dressed as gods. Thesewere Isis naked with a crown of the pharaohs, the youthful Horus,Anubis with a jackal head, bird-headed Tot with tablets in his hands,and many others.

  Under the inspection of this worthy assembly, specialists began tofill the body with strongly odorous plants and sawdust, they evenpoured in odorous resin, all amid prayers. Then in his eye-socketsthey inserted glass eyes set in bronze. After that the whole body wassprinkled with powdered soda.

  Another priest appeared now who explained to those present that thebody of the departed was the body of Osiris, that his qualities werethe qualities of Osiris. "The magic qualities of his left temple arethe qualities of the god Tum and his right eye is the eye of the godTum, whose rays pierce through darkness. His left eye is the eye ofHorus, which dazzles every living creature; the upper lip that ofIsis, and the lower that of Nefthys. The neck of the departed is thegoddess, his hands are divine spirits, his fingers the heavenlyserpents, sons of the goddess Setkit. His sides are the two feathersof Amon, his back the backbone of Sib, his belly is the good Nue."[31]

  [31] Maspero.

  Another priest spoke,--

  "A mouth was given me for speaking, feet for walking, hands tooverturn my enemies. I rise from the dead, I exist, I open heaven; Ido what has been commanded me in Memphis."[32]

  [32] Authentic.

  Meanwhile on the neck of the departed they hung a scarab made of aprecious stone, on which was this inscription: "O my heart, heartwhich I received from my mother, which I had when I was on earth, Oheart do not rise against me and do not give evil witness in the dayof judgment."[33]

  [33] Authentic.

  Next priests wound around each arm and foot, each finger and toe ofthe dead, strips on which were written prayers and spells. Thosestrips they fastened with gum and balsam. On the breast and on theneck they placed complete manuscripts of the _Book of the Dead_ withthe following meditations which the priests read aloud over thebody,--

  "I am he before whom no god puts an obstacle.

  "Who is that?

  "He is Tum on his shield, he is Ra on his shield, which rises in theeast of heaven.

  "I am Yesterday and I know To-morrow.

  "Who is he?

  "Yesterday is Osiris, To-morrow is Ra on the day when he annihilatesthe enemies of the Lord who is above all and when he consecrates hisson Horus. In other words, in the day when his father Ra meets thecoffin of Osiris. He conquers the gods at command of Osiris, the lordof the mountain Amenti.

  "What is that?

  "Amenti is a creation of the soul of the gods, at command of Osiris,the lord of the mountain.

  "In other words, Amenti is that impulse roused by Ra. Every god whoarrives there carries on a battle. I know the great god who dwellsthere.

  "I am from my country, I come from my city, I destroy evil, I setaside that which is not good, I remove uncleanness from myself, Ibetake myself to the country of dwellers in heaven, I enter throughthe mighty gate.

  "O ye comrades, give me a hand, for I shall be one of you."[34]

  [34] "Book of the Dead."

  When every member of the departed was covered with prayer bandages,and furnished with amulets, when he had a sufficient supply ofmeditations to find the way in the region of the gods, it was properto think of a document which would open the gate of that region. Forbetween the tomb and heaven forty-two terrible judges were waiting forthe dead man; these, under presidency of Osiris, examined his earthlylife. Only when the heart of the departed, weighed in the scales ofjustice, appeared equal to the goddess of truth, when the god Dutes,who writes on his tablets the deeds of the dead, considered it just,only then did Horus take the soul by the hand and lead it before thethrone of Osiris.

  So that the dead might be able to justify himself before the court itwas necessary to wrap the mummy in a papyrus on which was written ageneral confession. While they were winding him in this document thepriest spoke clearly and with emphasis, so that the dead might notforget:

  "Lords of truth, I bring thee truth itself. I have not done evil toany man treacherously. I have not made any one near me unfortunate. Ihave not permitted myself any lewdness or abusive word in the house ofveracity. I have had no intimacy with evil. I have committed nothingbad. As a superior I have not commanded my subordinates to work beyondtheir strength. No one through my fault has become afraid, poor,suffering, or unhappy. I have done nothing of any kind which the godswould despise. I have not tormented a slave. I have not killed himwith hunger. I have not forced tears from him. I have not slain. Ihave not commanded to kill a slave treacherously. I have not lied, Ihave not plundered the property of temples. I have not decreasedincomes devoted to the gods. I have not taken away the bread or thebandages of mummies. I have not committed sin with the priest of mydistrict. I have not taken from him or decreased his property. I havenot used false weights. I have not snatched away an infant from thebreast of its nurse. I have never committed anything bestial. I havenot caught in nets birds devoted to the gods. I have not hindered theinundation of water. I have not turned away the course of canals. Ihave not quenched fire at a time that was improper, I have not stolenfrom the gods offerings which they had chosen. I am pure--I am pure--Iam pure."[35]

  [35] "Book of the Dead." This is one of the loftiest documents left us by antiquity.

  When the departed was able, thanks to the _Book of the Dead_ to helphimself in the region of eternity, and above all when he knew how tojustify himself before the court of the forty-two gods, the priestsfurnished him still further with an introduction to this book, andexplained to him orally its immense importance. In view of this theembalmers who surrounded the fresh mummy of the pharaoh withdrew anda high priest of that quarter came and whispered into the ear of thedeparted:

  "Know that through the possession of this book thou shalt belong tothe living and attain to great significance among gods. Know that,thanks to it, no one will dare to oppose thee. The gods themselveswill approach thee and embrace thee, for thou wilt belong to theircompany.

  "Know that this book informs thee of what was at the beginning. No manhas uttered it, no eye has seen it, no ear has heard it. This book istruth itself, but no o
ne has ever known it. Let it be seen onlythrough thee and through him who will behold thee in it. Add to it nocommentary which thy memory or imagination might suggest to thee. Itis written entirely in the hall where the departed are embalmed. It isa great secret which no common man knows, not one in the world.

  "This book will be thy nourishment in the lower region of spirits, itwill give thy soul means of sojourn on the earth, it will give it lifeeternal, and effect this, that no one will have power over thee."[36]

  [36] "Book of the Dead."

  The remains of the pharaoh were arrayed in costly garments, with agold mask on the face, with bracelets on the wrists, and with rings onthe hands, which were crossed on the breast. Under the head was put asupport of ivory, such as Egyptians were accustomed to sleep on.Finally the body was inclosed in three coffins: one of paper coveredwith inscriptions, one of cedar which was gilt, and one of marble. Theform of the first two corresponded accurately to the form of the body;even the sculptured face was like the original, though smiling.

  After a stay of three months in the quarter of the dead the mummy ofthe pharaoh was ready for a solemn funeral; therefore it was takenback to the palace.