CHAPTER V
Zaphnath, Ruler of the Kemi
Two hieroglyph-bearing columns of red sandstone, strong and broad enoughto have supported a Tower of Babel, formed the portals of the outer gateof the palace. A pair of Terror-birds, whose plumage was a pearly grey,stood sleepily on guard. Our soldier, who could scarcely have reached tothe backs of the birds, lifted up his cross-bow and tapped upon theirlong necks. Acting perfectly in concert, the animals each engaged withits beak a wooden ring suspended high in front of them, and then,bending down their necks, the hempen ropes, to which the rings werefastened, hauled up a ponderous portcullis, made of slabs of stone, andthus afforded us an entrance.
As this stone gate rumbled slowly down again, we saw that we were shutinto a vast courtyard, surrounded by a colonnade, whence cavernouspassages led circuitously to the various compartments of the palace.Within the courtyard were drawn up in expectant readiness four companiesof archers and three of slingers, in all, perhaps, seven hundred men,who gaped and stared at us.
The doctor touched my elbow, and whispered: "We should have landed inhere with the projectile, which would have given us a means of readyescape."
"Remember the saying of General Grant," I answered. "'When you arefrightened, don't forget that the enemy may be far more so.' Thesesoldiers have heard enough to make them believe us capable of anything.They would tear down the very walls, if we were to open fire on them.Besides, I could leap that courtyard wall and drag you with me."
Unsheathing our swords, as an object lesson to the soldiers, we followedour guide to the blind end of a long passage, which apparently gaveentrance only to a small stone chamber. Following the soldier andmuleteer, who were now carrying our shields and telescope, we crowdedinto this and waited. Presently the entire chamber, operated in someunseen manner, turned slowly half way round, so that its door now gaveentrance directly to a vast but gloomy and tomb-like audience chamber,where we were evidently expected.
Upon a massive throne of richly-chiselled stone a youth of scarcely morethan five-and-twenty years (if judged by earthly standards) satgorgeously arrayed in vestments of richly coloured feathers, wovenskilfully into the meshes of coarse cloth. Longer plumes of changeablecolours radiated from a wide collar which he wore, covering his breastand back, and extending over his shoulders. The peach-blow of his faircheeks was partly hidden by a heavy false beard, plaited into stubbybraids, which hung to an even line a little below the chin. His ownsoft, flaxen hair peeped meekly out from under a wig of tightly curledgrey strands, cropped all round to a level with the beard. His feet andarms were bare, except for thin ribbons of downy, purple feathers, whichcircled the wrists and ankles. No crown was on his head, but among thestringy wig-curls the sinuous body of an asp bent in and out, and thecurved neck and threatening head surmounted his clear brow.
To his right, round an oval table of highly polished stone, sat twelvewrinkled men, not one of whom but had seen three times his years. Theywore their own white beards, unplaited, and their feather clothing wasless elaborate and of simple grey, like the plumage of the Terror-bird.
Our soldier placed his right hand upon his cheek, and inclined his headslightly forward and to the right, as a salutation to the ruler, and,leaving the woman standing by me, he and the muleteer retired. Sheseemed neither surprised at, nor accustomed to, these surroundings. Shemade no salutation or obeisance to the ruler or to the old men, and theymade none to her. Withdrawing her hand from mine, she stretched ittoward them, as she had toward the commonest man outside. They paid herno attention, but the oldest of the men signalled to an attendant, wholed her back and placed her hand in mine again. That soldiers andcounsellors alike should consider this necessary or fitting seemedstrange to me. The doctor jokingly suggested that they wished to keep mepermanently hypnotized, lest I should become dangerous again.
Having laid off our rifles, swords, and outer coats, I lifted my cap andmade a low bow to the youth and to the old men, but the doctor tried thesalute of the right hand upon the cheek, as he had seen the soldier do.In answer the youth simply looked toward the twelve, waving his handtowards us in a way which seemed to say to them, "Gentlemen, behold theenigma!" Then, beginning with the eldest, the twelve jabbered at us inturn, apparently in different tongues, some sibilant, some guttural, andothers with the musical cadence of frequent vowel sounds. Needless tosay, each was equally incomprehensible to us, and we did not think itworth while to try German or English upon them. When they had finished,they looked much vexed, and slowly wagged their beards. Then the youthspoke something to them with a confident gesture toward himself. Hearose, and began addressing us. I suddenly stopped short in the middleof a sentence I was whispering to the doctor. It seemed as if the youthhad ceased making mere sounds, and had begun to speak a coherentlanguage, a tongue which has lived ages while others have languishedinto forgetfulness; a language whose words I understood, but yet thewords carried little clear meaning to me.
"Listen, Doctor! The boy is speaking Hebrew! Ancient and archaic inform, but yet Hebrew which I understand!" And this is what he had said:
"Oh ye, who speak among yourselves, but understand only those who speaknot at all, I, Zaphnath, revealer of God's hidden things, will addressye in my native tongue, which none but me in all the land of Kem hathany knowledge of."
"There be two of us in Kem, O Zaphnath, who understand that tongue.Speak on!" I cried.
But the boy stripped off his wig and beard, and, leaving the throne,hastened toward me and laid his soft right cheek against my own withgentle pressure.
"Comest thou, then, from the land of my father, a stranger wanderinginto Kem, even as I came?" he asked.
"Nay, gentle youth, we came a vastly farther way, from another world, sodistant that thou seest it from here only as a twinkling star in thenight. But if, indeed, thou camest a wandering stranger into Kem, artthou then the king?" He had resumed his wig and beard, and his proudseat upon the throne, and after he had translated my words for thetwelve old men, he answered me,--
"I am Zaphnath, ruler over all the land of Kem, without whom thePharaoh doeth not, nor sayeth anything. These are his twelve wise men,who do not believe what thou hast said, for there is no other worldlarge enough for the abode of two men, except the Day-Giver, whence theythink ye have come. The Pharaoh may believe them, but I will believewhat ye tell me. He hath given me full power to treat with you, and hathtaken refuge with all his women in his tomb, and will not come forthuntil ye be appeased. Tell me in truth, then, are ye men, or gods? Yelook not half so warlike as all the soldiers have described you."
I translated this to the doctor, but replied without waiting to consultwith him,--
"We know but one God, who hath made all the stars, and all who dwellupon them. We are men to whom it hath been given to travel the infinitedistances which reach from one of His stars to another, and we are cometo this one, not to make war but to find peace. We would have soughtthee peacefully as friends, had not thine armies made war upon us on theplateau yonder. But our means of warfare proved far more terrible anddreadful here than on our proper star. Thus have we unwittingly slaintwo of thy soldiers and frightened all the army. We have with us themeans to kill them all, but we seek a peaceable life here for a brieftime, that we may learn your ways and test your wisdom, when we shall begone again."
"The Pharaoh could have better spared a thousand men than the birdwhich thy lightning hath killed. For are not his slaves as the plenteousgrain of a rich harvest, while his birds are but as the fingers of hishands. If ye came but to learn, 'tis well ye know these wise men,though, since I came to Kem, their profession hath fallen somewhat intodisrepute. I doubt not but they could learn far more from thee than thoufrom them, but they will not do it. Whatever they do not know is nottrue in Kem, but what they know continues true long after common menknow better. Now, wilt thou explain to me the mysteries the soldiershave reported to us? But first tell us which of all the stars it is thoucomest from."
"Know then, O Zaphnath
, that we call our star the Earth, and in herwanderings she hath now approached so near to the great Orb of Day thather rays are paled by his brighter light; she sets with him, and shinesno more by night. But yet a few days now, and she shall triumph evenover him, and, entering on his glowing disc, she shall be seen atmid-day, obscuring his light and travelling as a spot across his glory."
The old men wagged their beards as the boy translated, but he sprang tohis feet with no little excitement, and exclaimed,--
"Meanest thou that blue star with its attendant speck of white, whichbut a little while ago shone with great brightness as a Twilight Star?"
"That is the Earth, O Zaphnath, the world from whence we came," Iexclaimed; and the youth again threw off his wig and beard, and rushingtoward me, pressed first his right cheek and then his left cheek againstmine, and then against the doctor's.
"Then ye are most welcome to the land of Kem, and we shall be friendsfor ever. For ye should know that my mother was barren all the years ofher life until this same Blue Star came to shine wondrously, even in thepresence of the Day-Giver, before his setting. It was then, under thebeneficent influence of this star, that she gave birth to me. And whenthe star paled and wandered again I tarried not in the land of myfather, but came strangely hither, to be ruler in a great land which mypeople had never known."
When he had resumed his seat again, I said, "All that I have told theeshalt thou see come to pass, and through this Larger Eye, which we havemade to pierce the deep of space, thou shalt see more clearly that theBlue Star is indeed a great orb, where many men may dwell, and after shehath passed the Day-Giver, she will appear as a bright morning staragain to announce his coming."
"Why now, if this be true, then every one of these old men must die. ForPharaoh's laws provide that whatsoever wise man faileth to predict suchan appearance, or predicteth one which doth not occur, must lose hislife. These grey-beards, always jealous of me, have said that the BlueStar, which beareth my destiny, hath disappeared, never to be seenagain. Now, when they are slain, Pharaoh shall appoint you to sit intheir places. Ye shall reign jointly with Zaphnath if it pleaseth you,and ye may choose what seemeth good to you of everything that is in theland of Kem and in all the countries which pay tribute unto Pharaoh. Andhe will give you as wives all the women ye saw in Long Breath Park, andan equal part of all the slaves and women taken in war will he give youalso. For hath he not bidden me treat generously with you, even to histributary countries and half his women?"
"We come from a star, O Zaphnath, where men desire many things and arenever satisfied. But of all the things thou offerest us, we wish notone. We make no peace unless these old men be left alive. We do not knowthis country or its people, wherefore we are most unfit to rule them. Wewish no slaves, but will pay a hire to one or two good men, who may doour daily tasks. And as for women, we never choose but one, and thenonly when we know her well and find her equally willing."
"Then are ye come from a most strange star indeed! But I must tell theethat the laws of the Kemi forbid even to the Pharaoh, who hath the firstclaim upon all women, to take to wife a woman such as her whose handthou clingest to so warmly. What findest thou in her whose dumb tonguecould never tell thy praises, and if 'twere loosened, her mind wouldstill be dumb and silent?"
"Who is this woman, then, whom thou sentest out to meet us? She alonehath had no fear, and hath greeted us in a friendly and a welcomemanner. Had it not been for her, we might still have been loosening ourthunder among your soldiers, or flashing this lightning in thy face!" Isaid, half drawing my long sword as I spoke.
"She is Thenocris, a poor, unfortunate maiden, dumb of tongue and mind,"he answered. "In my country we would call her mute and senseless, buthere among the Kemi they revere such ill-starred creatures, thinkingthat because they act strangely, and look not upon the world as othersdo, their souls must be turned within to the contemplation of hidden andspiritual things. They think such creatures know the secrets of thegods, and that the gods have made them mute, or speaking only sillythings, lest those secrets be revealed. The people, therefore, give themalms, and suppose that they are effectual in intercessions with thegods. This girl went out at noon, as was her custom, to stand by thegate and ask alms. A soldier saw thee seize her hand and hold itstrangely long, and he reported this to us. Whereupon these wise menwith one accord decided that ye must have come for women, and we setabout preparing a peace-offering of two thousand maidens for you in thePark. Afterwards there came another soldier later to say that ye hadlanded in the Park, pleased with our offering of the women. Then roseyon grey-beard and argued most wisely thus: That ye, being such strangecreatures, had understood best what we understand the least; that thouhadst learned the hidden thought of this dumb woman by long holding ofher hand; that, as ye had been friendly to her, she might be able tolead you unto us; and lastly, that it would be no breach of our laws ifthou tookest this woman to thine own land and madest her thy wife; thatif we could thus save our city, and the lives of the people, it would bewisdom to give her to thee, together with all the women in the Park.Then another grey-beard, wishing to share the credit for a wise idea,arose and insisted that it would be ill in us to keep the strange whiteanimal, which one of the men found upon the plateau. We knew that yemust have brought this, for in all our land we have no four-footed thingsmaller than the useful burden-carrying asses ye have seen. Wherefore,the wisdom of the grey-beards being now complete, we sent the dumb girland the white animal out with the soldier, and they have brought youhither."
"So you have been falling in love with a queen of your own making, whois no more than a dumb idiot!" chuckled the doctor.
"Silence!" I shouted hotly, for I was unspeakably sorry for the poorgirl. "There are softer, kinder words than those by which to call apoor blank soul that's born awry. The Kemi are quite right, for thisgirl, having no sense, has yet been wiser to-day than both of us and allthese wise men." Then turning, I addressed the ruler in Hebrew:
"Thou shouldst know that in our land the seizing of the right hand is asalutation of friendship and welcome, much the same as the pressure ofthe cheek is here. We had vainly tried to signal to your soldiers thatwe were friendly, and when this woman stretched out her pretty hand Iwas pleased to seize it warmly. Call thou a soldier now and send hersafely home. Let the white rabbit belong henceforth to her. She hathunwittingly been God's messenger in bringing us together. Mayhap shehath saved the lives of many of the people. Wherefore let them rememberher, and henceforth treat her kindly. And as for those other women inthe Park, bid them all return to their homes, and let it generally beknown that there will be peace, and no further war. The terms of trucewe will arrange with thee and with the Pharaoh somewhat later. We wishno gifts or offerings of peace. No more do we desire than that thePharaoh shall entertain us for a season until we learn your ways, andthen permit us to live quietly in this, your city, obedient to yourlaws, and pursuing such careers as our abilities may fit us for."
"All this that ye desire, and more, most gladly shall be done, and agrand festival shall be appointed for this night to celebrate the peace.The Pharaoh will entertain you and his royal friends with feasting andwith dancing, and the terms of the compact between us shall then beratified."
At this point a grey-beard interrupted the young ruler, and a spiritedconversation took place between them, after which the youth asked,--
"Tell me now, are there not many more such men as ye upon the Blue Star,who may come to wage a further war with us?"
"Have no fear for that," I answered. "The vessel in which we came is thesole means of bridging that vast space, and no more can come, unlessindeed we bring them. But all of them shall keep the covenant we makewith thee."
Then Zaphnath held a long consultation with the wise men, which ended bythe summoning of three soldiers--one to take the woman home, another tocarry the news of peace to the Park and to the people, and the third, asI supposed, to convey a message to the Pharaoh; but before the last wasdespatched, Zaphnath said to me,--
"Our messengers reported a third curious person with you, having a muchlarger body and long moving horns. What have ye done with him? Is heleft in charge of your travelling house?"
Then I explained this circumstance to them, as well as the incident ofmy smoking, which I promised to repeat at the banquet in the evening.After hearing this they dispatched the third messenger.
"We have heard, not only that ye breathed smoke and carried flames inyour limbs, but that your flesh was of iron, invulnerable to arrows;that ye were stronger than birds, and carried the thunder and lightningsof the gods with which to kill; and that ye were able to walk throughthe air as well as on the ground."
"'Tis true we are stronger than any birds upon our proper star, and thatwe kill with a thunder and a lightning. Our flesh is tougher and moresolid than thine, yet 'tis not of iron. But tell me, what knowest thouof iron?"
"'Tis a rare, precious metal which we coin for money, but I see thoucarriest much of it. Thy thunderers are made of it."
"And hast thou no metal, bright and yellow, such as this?" I asked,exhibiting my gold watch.
"In truth, the Pharaoh alone is able to possess such riches, and in allthe land of Kem there is no such huge lump of it as that!" he exclaimedin wonder, while the sleepy wise men opened their big eyes.
"We have within our belts many coins of this, which we may barter withthe Pharaoh for things more plenteous here."
"Are ye travelling traders then, or what were your occupations on theBlue Star? Were ye warriors, rulers, wise men, or owners of the soil?"
"My good friend here hath been a wise man, as thou must know from hisgrey beard," I answered, smiling at the doctor. "He hath been a teacherof knowledge to the people, and it was his superior wisdom whichcontrived the house in which we travelled hither."
"But hath it not been a folly to teach wisdom to the people? When theyhave learned, the wise man turneth fool! Wisdom groweth ripe by beingbottled, but whoso poureth it out for every thirsty drinker wasteth goodwine upon gross beasts!"
"In its youth our star held to these opinions, but now it teachethwisdom to every child, and in this manner we have made progress intomany things not even dreamed of here. As for my own profession, I havebeen a dealer in wheat, the bread-grain of our star. Hast thou here sucha small grain growing at the bearded end of a tall straw?"
"In truth, the land of Kem raiseth so large a store of such a grain asto feed all the surrounding countries! Our greatest traffic is in thiswheat. Hast thou not seen the green fields of it lining the banks of theNasr-Nil, until the sight tires following it? This season there comethsuch a crop as Kem hath never seen before, and for six years we havebeen blest with its plenty----"
Here he was interrupted by the hurried return of the third messenger,who addressed him in excited tones. As the Kemi use no gestures, andbut little facial expression in their conversation, I could not guessthe import of his message. Therefore when it was translated by the youthit was all the more surprising.
"The soldier saith that a certain curious man of Kem, anxious to explorethy travelling house, ventured within it, when presently it rose andsailed away with him far out of the city, and was lost from sight in thered distance!"
This was an unforeseen, stupefying development. I left the doctor toguard our things, and rushing out I leaped the courtyard wall and ranwith all haste to the Park. The projectile was gone! No sign or trace ofit was anywhere to be seen. Willingly or not, we were henceforth chainedto Mars!