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

  CHAPTER IV

  Rameses and his comrade ran about a quarter of an hour along the rockyridge of the hill, drawing ever nearer to the trumpets, which soundedmore and more urgently. At last they reached a point where they tookin at a glance the whole region. Toward the left stretched thehighway; beyond that were seen clearly the city of Pi-Bailos, theregiments of the heir drawn up behind it, and an immense cloud of dustwhich rose above his opponent hastening forward from the east.

  On the right yawned a broad ravine, along the middle of which theGreek regiment was dragging military engines. Not far from the roadthe ravine was lost in another and a broader one which began in thedepth of the desert.

  At this point something uncommon was happening. The Greeks stoodunoccupied not far from the junction of the two ravines; but at thejuncture itself, and between the highway and the staff of Rameses,marched out four dense lines of some other army, like four fences,bristling with glittering darts.

  In spite of the steep road the prince rushed down at full speed to hisdivision, to the place where the minister of war stood surrounded byofficers.

  "What is happening?" called he, threateningly. "Why sound an alarminstead of marching?"

  "We are cut off," said Herhor.

  "By whom?"

  "Our division by three regiments of Nitager, who has marched out ofthe desert."

  "Then the enemy is there, near the highway?"

  "Yes, the invincible Nitager himself."

  It seemed in that moment that the heir to the throne had gone mad.His lips were contorted, his eyes were starting out of their sockets.He drew his sword, rushed to the Greeks, and cried,--

  "Follow me against those who bar the road to us."

  "O heir, live forever!" cried Patrokles, who drew his sword also."Forward, descendants of Achilles!" said he, turning to his men. "Wewill teach those Egyptian cowkeepers not to stop us!"

  Trumpets sounded the attack. Four short but erect Greek columns rushedforward, a cloud of dust rose, and a shout in honor of Rameses.

  After a couple of minutes the Greeks found themselves in the presenceof the Egyptian regiments, and hesitated.

  "Forward!" cried the heir, rushing on, sword in hand.

  The Greeks lowered their spears. On the opposing side there was amovement, a murmur flew along the ranks, and spears also were lowered.

  "Who are ye, madmen?" asked a mighty voice.

  "The heir to the throne!" shouted Patrokles.

  A moment of silence.

  "Open ranks!" commanded the same voice, mighty as before.

  The regiments of the eastern army opened slowly, like heavyfolding-doors, and the Greek division passed between them.

  Then a gray-haired warrior in golden helmet and armor approachedPrince Rameses and said with a low obeisance,--

  "Erpatr,[2] thou hast conquered. Only a great warrior could freehimself from difficulty in that way."

  [2] Heir.

  "Thou art Nitager, the bravest of the brave!" cried the prince.

  At that moment Herhor approached. He had heard the conversation, andsaid abruptly,--

  "Had there been on your side such an awkward leader as the erpatr, howcould we have finished the manoeuvres?"

  "Let the young warrior alone!" answered Nitager. "Is it not enough forthee that he has shown the iron claws, as was proper for a son of thepharaoh?"

  Tutmosis, noting the turn which the conversation had taken, askedNitager,--

  "Whence hast thou come, that thy main forces are in front of ourarmy?"

  "I knew how incompetently the division was marching from Memphis, whenthe heir was concentrating his regiments near Pi-Bailos, and for sportI wished to capture you young lords. To my misfortune the heir washere and spoiled my plans. Act that way always, Rameses, of course inpresence of real enemies."

  "But if, as to-day, he meets a force three times superior?" inquiredHerhor.

  "Daring keenness means more than strength," replied the old leader."An elephant is fifty times stronger than a man; still he yields tohim, or dies at his hands."

  Herhor listened in silence.

  The manoeuvres were declared finished. Prince Rameses with theminister and commanders went to the army near Pi-Bailos. There hegreeted Nitager's veterans, took farewell of his own regiments,commanded them to march eastward, and wished success to them.

  Then, surrounded by a great suite, he returned by the highway toMemphis amid crowds from the land of Goshen, who with green garlandsand in holiday robes congratulated the conqueror.

  When the highway turned toward the desert, the crowd became thinner,and when they approached the place where the staff of the heir hadentered the ravine because of the scarabs, there was no one.

  Rameses nodded to Tutmosis, and pointing to the naked hill,whispered,--

  "Thou wilt go to Sarah--"

  "I understand."

  "Tell her father that I will give him land outside Memphis."

  "I understand. Thou wilt have her to-morrow."

  After this conversation Tutmosis withdrew to the troops marchingbehind the suite, and vanished.

  Almost opposite the ravine along which the army had passed in themorning, some tens of steps from the road, stood a tamarind-treewhich, though old, was not large. At this point a halt was made by theguard which had preceded the suite.

  "Shall we meet scarabs again?" asked Rameses, with a laugh.

  "We shall see," answered Herhor.

  They looked; on the slender tree a naked man was hanging.

  "What does this mean?" asked the heir, with emotion.

  Adjutants ran to the tree, and saw that the hanging man was that oldslave whose canal they had closed in the morning.

  "He did right to hang himself!" cried Eunana among the officers."Could ye believe it, that wretch dared to seize the feet of hisholiness the minister!"

  On hearing this, Rameses reined in his horse, dismounted, and walkedup to the ominous tree.

  The slave was hanging with his head stretched forward; his mouth wasopened widely, his hands turned toward the spectators, and terror wasin his eyes. He looked like a man who had wished to say something, butwhose voice had failed him.

  "The unfortunate!" sighed Rameses, with compassion.

  On returning to the retinue he gave command to relate to him thehistory of the man, and then he rode a long time in silence.

  Before his eyes was the picture of the suicide, and in his heart wasthe feeling that a great wrong had been done,--such a wrong that evenhe, the son and the heir of the pharaoh, might halt in face of it.

  The heat was unendurable, the dust dried up the water and pierced theeyes of man and beast. The division was detained for a short rest, andmeanwhile Nitager finished his conversation with the minister.

  "My officers," said the old commander, "never look under their feet,but always straight forward."

  "That is the reason, perhaps, why no enemy has ever surprised me."

  "Your worthiness reminds me, by these words, that I am to pay certaindebts," remarked Herhor; and he commanded the officers and soldierswho were near by to assemble.

  "And now," said the minister, "summon for me Eunana."

  The officer covered with amulets was found as quickly as if he hadbeen waiting for this summons a long time. On his countenance wasdepicted delight, which he restrained through humility, but witheffort.

  Herhor, seeing Eunana before him, began,--

  "By the will of his holiness, supreme command of the army comes intomy hands again with the ending of the manoeuvres."

  Those present bowed their heads.

  "It is my duty to use this power first of all in meting out justice."

  The officers looked at one another.

  "Eunana," said the minister, "I know that thou hast always been one ofthe most diligent officers."

  "Truth speaks through thy lips, worthy lord," replied Eunana. "As apalm waits for dew, so do I for the commands of superiors. And when Ido not receive them, I am like an orphan in th
e desert when lookingfor a pathway."

  Nitager's scar-covered officers listened with astonishment to theready speech of Eunana, and thought, "He will be raised above others!"

  "Eunana," said the minister, "thou art not only diligent, but pious;not only pious, but watchful as an ibis over water. The gods havepoured out on thee every virtue: they have given thee serpent cunning,with the eye of a falcon."

  "Pure truth flows from thy lips, worthiness," added Eunana. "Were itnot for my wonderful sight, I should not have seen the two scarabs."

  "Yes, and thou wouldst not have saved our camp from sacrilege. Forthis deed, worthy of the most pious Egyptian, I give thee--"

  Here the minister took a gold ring from his finger.

  "I give thee this ring with the name of the goddess Mut, whose favorand prudence will accompany thee to the end of thy worldly wandering,if thou deserve it."

  His worthiness delivered the ring to Eunana, and those present uttereda great shout in honor of the pharaoh, and rattled their weapons.

  As Herhor did not move, Eunana stood and looked him in the eyes, likea faithful dog which having received one morsel from his master iswagging his tail and waiting.

  "And now," continued the minister, "confess, Eunana, why thou didstnot tell whither the heir to the throne went when the army wasmarching along the ravine with such difficulty. Thou didst an evildeed, for we had to sound the alarm in the neighborhood of the enemy."

  "The gods are my witnesses that I know nothing of the most worthyprince," replied the astonished Eunana.

  Herhor shook his head.

  "It cannot be that a man gifted with such sight, a man who at sometens of yards away sees sacred scarabs in the sand, should not see sogreat a personage as the heir to the throne is."

  "Indeed I did not see him!" explained Eunana, beating his breast."Moreover no one commanded me to watch Rameses."

  "Did I not free thee from leading the vanguard? Did I assign to theean office?" asked the minister. "Thou wert entirely free, just like aman who is called to important deeds. And didst thou accomplish thytask? For such an error in time of war thou shouldst suffer deathsurely."

  The ill-fated officer was pallid.

  "But I have a paternal heart for thee, Eunana," said Herhor, "and,remembering the great service which thou hast rendered by discoveringthe scarabs, I, not as a stern minister, but as a mild priest, appointto thee a very small punishment. Thou wilt receive fifty blows of astick on thy body."

  "Worthiness!"

  "Eunana, thou hast known how to be fortunate, now be manful andreceive this slight remembrance as becomes an officer in the army ofhis holiness."

  Barely had the worthy Herhor finished when the officers oldest in rankplaced Eunana in a commodious position at the side of the highroad.After that one of them sat on his neck, another on his feet, while athird and a fourth counted out fifty blows of pliant reeds on hisnaked body.

  The unterrified warrior uttered no groan; on the contrary, he hummed asoldier song, and at the end of the ceremony wished to rise. But hisstiffened legs refused obedience, so he fell face downward on thesand; they had to take him to Memphis on a two-wheeled vehicle. Whilelying on this cart and smiling at the soldiers, Eunana considered thatthe wind does not change so quickly in Lower Egypt as fortune in thelife of an inferior officer.

  When, after the brief halt, the retinue of the heir to the thronemoved on its farther journey, Herhor mounted his horse and riding atthe side of Nitager, spoke in an undertone about Asiatic nations and,above all, about the awakening of Assyria.

  Then two servants of the minister, the adjutant carrying his fan andthe secretary Pentuer, began a conversation also.

  "What dost thou think of Eunana's adventure?" asked the adjutant.

  "And what thinkest thou of the slave who hanged himself?"

  "It seems to me that this was his best day, and the rope around hisneck the softest thing that has touched him in life. I think, too,that Eunana from this time on will watch the heir to the throne veryclosely."

  "Thou art mistaken," answered Pentuer. "Eunana from this time on willnever see a scarab, even though it were as large as a bullock. As tothat slave, dost thou not think that in every case it must have beenvery evil for him--very evil in this sacred land of Egypt?"

  "Thou knowest not slaves, hence speakest thus--"

  "But who knows them better?" asked Pentuer, gloomily. "Have I notgrown up among them? Have I not seen my father watering land, clearingcanals, sowing, harvesting, and, above all, paying tribute? Oh, thouknowest not the lot of slaves in Egypt."

  "But if I do not, I know the lot of the foreigner. Mygreat-grandfather or great-great-grandfather was famous among theHyksos, but he remained here, for he grew attached to this country.And what wilt thou say? Not only was his property taken from him, butthe stain of my origin rests on me at present. Thou thyself knowestwhat I bear frequently from Egyptians by race, though I have aconsiderable position. How, then, can I take pity on the Egyptianearth-worker, who, seeing my yellow complexion, mutters frequently,'Pagan! foreigner!' The earth-worker is neither a pagan nor aforeigner."

  "Only a slave," added Pentuer,--"a slave whom they marry, divorce,beat, sell, slay sometimes, and command always to work, with a promisebesides that in the world to come he will be a slave also."

  "Thou art a strange man, though so wise!" said the adjutant,shrugging his shoulders. "Dost thou not see that each man of usoccupies some position, low, less low, or very low, in which he mustlabor? But dost thou suffer because thou art not pharaoh, and thy tombwill not be a pyramid? Thou dost not ponder at all over this, for thouknowest it to be the world's condition. Each creature does its ownduty: the ox ploughs, the ass bears the traveller, I cool hisworthiness, thou rememberest and thinkest for him, while theearth-worker tills land and pays tribute. What is it to us that somebull is born Apis, to whom all render homage, and some man a pharaohor a nomarch?"

  "The ten years' toil of that man was destroyed," whispered Pentuer.

  "And does not the minister destroy thy toil?" asked the adjutant. "Whoknows that thou art the manager of the state, not the worthy Herhor?"

  "Thou art mistaken. He manages really. He has power and will; I haveonly knowledge. Moreover, they do not beat thee, nor me, like thatslave."

  "But they have beaten Eunana, and they may beat us also. Hence thereis need to be brave and make use of the position assigned us; all themore since, as is known to thee, our spirit, the immortal _Ka_, inproportion as it is purified rises to a higher plane, so that afterthousands or millions of years, in company with spirits of pharaohsand slaves, in company with gods even, it will be merged into thenameless and all-mighty father of existence."

  "Thou speakest like a priest," answered Pentuer, with bitterness. "Iought rather to have this calm! But instead of it I have pain in mysoul, for I feel the wretchedness of millions--"

  "Who tells it to thee?"

  "My eyes and my heart. My heart is like a valley between mountainswhich never can be silent, when it hears a cry, but must answer withan echo."

  "I say to thee, Pentuer, that thou thinkest too much over dangeroussubjects. It is impossible to walk safely along precipices of theeastern mountains, for thou mayst fall at any moment; or to wanderthrough the western desert, where hungry lions are prowling, and wherethe raging simoom springs up unexpectedly."

  Meanwhile the valiant Eunana moved on in the vehicle, which only addedto his pain. But to show that he was valiant he requested food anddrink; and when he had eaten a dry cake rubbed with garlic and haddrunk sour beer from a thick-bellied pot, he begged the driver to takea branch and drive the flies from his wounded body.

  Thus lying on the bags and packs in that squeaking car, with his facetoward the earth, the unfortunate Eunana sang with a groaning voicethe grievous lot of the inferior officer,--

  "Why dost thou say that the scribe's lot is worse than the officer's?Come and see my blue stripes and swollen body; meanwhile I will tellthee the tale of a downtrodden offi
cer.

  "I was a boy when they brought me to the barracks. For breakfast I hadblows of fists in the belly, till I fainted; for dinner fists in theeyes, till my mouth gaped; and for supper I had a head covered withwounds and almost split open.

  "Go on! let me tell how I made the campaign to Syria. Food and drink Ihad to carry on my back, I was bent down with weight as an ass isbent. My neck became stiff, like an ass's neck, and the joints of myback swelled. I drank rotten water, I was like a captive bird in theface of the enemy.

  "I returned to Egypt, but here I am like a tree into which a worm isboring always. For any trifle they put me on the ground and beat metill I am breaking. I am sick and must lie at full length; they carryme in a car, meanwhile serving-men steal my mantle and escape with it.

  "So change thy mind, O scribe, about the happiness of officers."[3]

  [3] Authentic.

  Thus sang the brave Eunana; and his tearful song has outlived theEgyptian kingdom.