VI
THE STORY OF MERIAMUN
Rei, the Priest of Amen, the Master Builder, began his story
unwillingly enough, and slowly, but soon he took pleasure in telling
it as old men do, and in sharing the burden of a secret.
"The Queen is fair," he said; "thou hast seen no fairer in all thy
voyagings?"
"She is fair indeed," answered the Wanderer. "I pray that she be well-
mated and happy on her throne?"
"That is what I will tell thee of, though my life may be the price of
the tale," said Rei. "But a lighter heart is well worth an old man's
cheap risk, and thou may'st help me and her, when thou knowest all.
Pharaoh Meneptah, her lord, the King, is the son of the divine
Rameses, the ever-living Pharaoh, child of the Sun, who dwelleth in
Osiris."
"Thou meanest that he is dead?" asked the Wanderer.
"He dwelleth with Osiris," said the Priest, "and the Queen Meriamun
was his daughter by another bed."
"A brother wed a sister!" exclaimed the Wanderer.
"It is the custom of our Royal House, from the days of the Timeless
Kings, the children of Horus. An old custom."
"The ways of his hosts are good in the eyes of a stranger," said the
Wanderer, courteously.
"It is an old custom, and a sacred," said Rei, "but women, the custom-
makers, are often custom-breakers. And of all women, Meriamun least
loves to be obedient, even to the dead. And yet she has obeyed, and it
came about thus. Her brother Meneptah--who now is Pharaoh--the Prince
of Kush while her divine father lived, had many half-sisters, but
Meriamun was the fairest of them all. She is beautiful, a Moon-child
the common people called her, and wise, and she does not know the face
of fear. And thus it chanced that she learned, what even our Royal
women rarely learn, all the ancient secret wisdom of this ancient
land. Except Queen Taia of old, no woman has known what Meriamun
knows, what I have taught her--I and another counsellor."
He paused here, and his mind seemed to turn on unhappy things.
"I have taught her from childhood," he went on--"would that I had been
her only familiar--and, after her divine father and mother, she loved
me more than any, for she loved few. But of all whom she did not love
she loved her Royal brother least. He is slow of speech, and she is
quick. She is fearless and he has no heart for war. From her childhood
she scorned him, mocked him, and mastered him with her tongue. She
even learned to excel him in the chariot races--therefore it was that
the King his father made him but a General of the Foot Soldiers--and
in guessing riddles, which our people love, she delighted to conquer
him. The victory was easy enough, for the divine Prince is heavy-
witted; but Meriamun was never tired of girding at him. Plainly, even
as a little child she grudged that he should come to wield the scourge
of power, and wear the double crown, while she should live in
idleness, and hunger for command."
"It is strange, then, that of all his sisters, if one must be Queen,
he should have chosen her," said the Wanderer.
"Strange, and it happened strangely. The Prince's father, the divine
Rameses, had willed the marriage. The Prince hated it no less than
Meriamun, but the will of a father is the will of the Gods. In one
sport the divine Prince excelled, in the Game of Pieces, an old game
in Khem. It is no pastime for women, but even at this Meriamun was
determined to master her brother. She bade me carve her a new set of
the pieces fashioned with the heads of cats, and shaped from the hard
wood of Azebi.[*] I carved them with my own hands, and night by night
she played with me, who have some name for skill at the sport.
[*] Cyprus.
"One sunset it chanced that her brother came in from hunting the lion
in the Libyan hills. He was in an evil humour, for he had found no
lions, and he caused the huntsmen to be stretched out, and beaten with
rods. Then he called for wine, and drank deep at the Palace gate, and
the deeper he drank the darker grew his humour.
"He was going to his own Court in the Palace, striking with a whip at
his hounds, when he chanced to turn and see Meriamun. She was sitting
where those three great palm-trees are, and was playing at pieces with
me in the cool of the day. There she sat in the shadow, clad in white
and purple, and with the red gold of the snake of royalty in the
blackness of her hair. There she sat as beautiful as the Hathor, the
Queen of Love; or as the Lady Isis when she played at pieces in Amenti
with the ancient King. Nay, an old man may say it, there never was but
one woman more fair than Meriamun, if a woman she be, she whom our
people call the /Strange Hathor/."
Now the Wanderer bethought him of the tale of the pilot, but he said
nothing, and Rei went on.
"The Prince saw her, and his anger sought for something new to break
itself on. Up he came, and I rose before him, and bowed myself. But
Meriamun fell indolently back in her chair of ivory, and with a sweep
of her slim hand she disordered the pieces, and bade her waiting
woman, the lady Hataska, gather up the board, and carry all away. But
Hataska's eyes were secretly watching the Prince.
"'Greeting, Princess, our Royal sister,' said Meneptah. 'What art
thou doing with these?' and he pointed with his chariot whip at the
cat-headed pieces. 'This is no woman's game, these pieces are not soft
hearts of men to be moved on the board by love. This game needs wit!
Get thee to thy broidery, for there thou may'st excel.'
"'Greeting, Prince, our Royal brother,' said Meriamun. 'I laugh to
hear thee speak of a game that needs wit. Thy hunting has not
prospered, so get thee to the banquet board, for there, I hear, the
Gods have granted thee to excel.'
"'It is little to say,' answered the Prince, throwing himself into a
chair whence I had risen, 'it is little to say, but at the game of
pieces I have enough wit to give thee a temple, a priest and five
bowmen, and yet win,'--for these, O Wanderer, are the names of some of
the pieces.
"'I take the challenge,' cried Meriamun, for now she had brought him
where she wanted; 'but I will take no odds. Here is my wager. I will
play thee three games, and stake the sacred circlet upon my brow,
against the Royal uraeus on thine, and the winner shall wear both.'
"'Nay, nay, Lady,' I was bold to say, 'this were too high a stake.'
"'High or low, I accept the wager,' answered the Prince. 'This sister
of mine has mocked me too long. She shall find that her woman's wit
cannot match me at my own game, and that my father's son, the Royal
Prince of Kush and the Pharaoh who shall be, is more than the equal of
a girl. I hold thy wage, Meriamun!'
"'Go then, Prince,' she cried, 'and after sunset meet me in my
antechamber. Bring a scribe to score the games; Rei shall be the
judge, and hold the stakes. But beware of the golden Cup of Pasht!
Drain it not to-night, lest I win a love-game, though we do not play
for love!'
"The Prince went scowling away, and Meriamun laughed, but I foresaw
mischief. The stakes were too high, the match was too strange, but
Meriamun would not listen to me, for she was very wilful.
"The sun fell, and two hours after the Royal Prince of Kush came with
his scribe, and found Meriamun with the board of squares before her,
in her antechamber.
"He sat down without a word, then he asked, who should first take the
field.
"'Wait,' she said, 'first let us set the stakes,' and lifting from her
brow the golden snake of royalty, she shook her soft hair loose, and
gave the coronet to me. 'If I lose,' she said, 'never may I wear the
uraeus crown.'
"'That shalt thou never while I draw breath,' answered the Prince, as
he too lifted the symbol of his royalty from his head and gave it to
me. There was a difference between the circlets, the coronet of
Meriamun was crowned with one crested snake, that of the divine Prince
was crowned with twain.
"'Ay, Meneptah,' she said, 'but perchance Osiris, God of the Dead,
waits thee, for surely he loves those too great and good for earth.
Take thou the field and to the play.' At her words of evil omen, he
frowned. But he took the field and readily, for he knew the game well.
"She moved in answer heedlessly enough, and afterwards she played at
random and carelessly, pushing the pieces about with little skill. And
so he won this first game quickly, and crying, '/Pharaoh is dead/,'
swept the pieces from the board. 'See how I better thee,' he went on
in mockery. 'Thine is a woman's game; all attack and no defence.'
"'Boast not yet, Meneptah,' she said. 'There are still two sets to
play. See, the board is set and I take the field.'
"This time the game went differently, for the Prince could scarce make
a prisoner of a single piece save of one temple and two bowmen only,
and presently it was the turn of Meriamun to cry '/Pharaoh is dead/,'
and to sweep the pieces from the board. This time Meneptah did not
boast but scowled, while I set the board and the scribe wrote down the
game upon his tablets. Now it was the Prince's turn to take the field.
"'In the name of holy Thoth,' he cried, 'to whom I vow great gifts of
victory.'
"'In the name of holy Pasht,' she made answer, 'to whom I make daily
prayer.' For, being a maid, she swore by the Goddess of Chastity, and
being Meriamun, by the Goddess of Vengeance.
"''Tis fitting thou should'st vow by her of the Cat's Head,' he said,
sneering.
"'Yes; very fitting,' she answered, 'for perchance she'll lend me her
claws. Play thou, Prince Meneptah.'
"And he played, and so well that for a while the game went against
her. But at length, when they had struggled long, and Meriamun had
lost the most of her pieces, a light came into her face as though she
had found what she sought. And while the Prince called for wine and
drank, she lay back in her chair and looked upon the board. Then she
moved so shrewdly and upon so deep a plan that he fell into the trap
that she had laid for him, and could never escape. In vain he vowed
gifts to the holy Thoth, and promised such a temple as there was none
in Khem.
"'Thoth hears thee not; he is the God of lettered men,' said Meriamun,
mocking him. Then he cursed and drank more wine.
"'Fools seek wit in wine, but only wise men find it,' quoth she again.
'Behold, Royal brother, /Pharaoh is dead/, and I have won the match,
and beaten thee at thine own game. Rei, my servant, give me that
circlet; nay, not my own, the double one, which the divine Prince
wagered. So set it on my brow, for it is mine, Meneptah. In this, as
in all things else, I have conquered thee.'
"And she rose, and standing full in the light of the lamps, the Royal
uraeus on her brow, she mocked him, bidding him come do homage to her
who had won his crown, and stretching forth her small hand for him to
kiss it. And so wondrous was her beauty that the divine Prince of Kush
ceased to call upon the evil Gods because of his ill fortune, and
stood gazing on her.
"'By Ptah, but thou art fair,' he cried, 'and I pardon my father at
last for willing thee to be my Queen!'
"'But I will never pardon him,' said Meriamun.
"Now the Prince had drunk much wine.
"'Thou shalt be my Queen,' he said, 'and for earnest I will kiss thee.
This, at the least, being the strongest, I can do.' And ere she could
escape him, he passed his arm about her and seized her by the girdle,
and kissed her on the lips and let her go.
"Meriamun grew white as the dead. By her side there hung a dagger.
Swiftly she drew it, and swiftly struck at his heart, so that had he
not shrunk from the steel surely he had been slain; and she cried as
she struck, 'Thus, Prince, I pay thy kisses back.'
"But as it chanced, she only pierced his arm, and before she could
strike again I had seized her by the hand.
"'Thou serpent,' said the Prince, pale with rage and fear. 'I tell
thee I will kiss thee yet, whether thou wilt or not, and thou shalt
pay for this.'
"But she laughed softly now that her anger was spent, and I led him
forth to seek a physician, who should bind up his wound. And when he
was gone, I returned, and spoke to her, wringing my hands.
"'Oh, Royal Lady, what hast thou done? Thou knowest well that thy
divine father destines thee to wed the Prince of Kush whom but now
thou didst smite so fiercely.'
"'Nay, Rei, I will none of him--the dull clod, who is called the son
of Pharaoh. Moreover, he is my half-brother, and it is not meet that I
should wed my brother. For nature cries aloud against the custom of
the land.'
"'Nevertheless, Lady, it /is/ the custom of thy Royal house, and thy
father's will. Thus the Gods, thine ancestors, were wed; Isis to
Osiris. Thus great Thothmes and Amenemhat did and decreed, and all
their forefathers and all their seed. Oh, bethink thee--I speak it for
thine ear, for I love thee as mine own daughter--bethink thee, for
thou canst not escape, that Pharaoh's bed is the step to Pharaoh's
throne. Thou lovest power; here is the gate of power, and mayhap upon
a time the master of the gate shall be gone and thou shalt sit in the
gate alone.'
"'Ah, Rei, now thou speakest like the counsellor of those who would be
kings. Oh, did I not hate him with this hatred! And yet can I rule
him. Why, 'twas no chance game that we played this night: the future
lay upon the board. See, his diadem is upon my brow! At first he won,
for I chose that he should win. Well, so mayhap it shall be; mayhap I
shall give myself to him--hating him the while. And then the next
game; that shall be for life and love and all things dear, and I shall
win it, and mine shall be the uraeus crest, and mine shall be the
double crown of ancient Khem, and I shall rule like Hatshepu, the
great Queen of old, for I am strong, and to the strong is victory.'
"'Yes,' I made answer, 'but, Lady, see thou that the Gods turn not thy
strength to weakness; thou art too passionate to be all strength, and
in a woman's heart passion is the door by which King Folly enters.
To-day thou hatest, beware, lest to-morrow thou should'st love.'
"'Love,' she said, gazing scornfully; 'Meriamun loves not till she
find a man worthy of her love.'
"'Ay, and then----?'
"'And then she loves to all destruction, and woe to them who cross her
path. Rei, farewell.'
"Then suddenly she spoke to me in another tongue, that few know save
her and me, and that none can read save her and me, a dead tongue of a
dead people, the people of that ancient City of the Rock, whence all
our fathers came.[*]
[*] Probably the mysterious and indecipherable ancient books, which
were occasionally excavated in old Egypt, were written in this
dead language of a more ancient and now forgotten people. Such was
the book discovered at Coptos, in the sanctuary there, by a priest
of the Goddess. "The whole earth was dark, but the moon shone all
about the Book." A scribe of the period of the Ramessids mentions
another indecipherable ancient writing. "Thou tellest me thou
understandest no word of it, good or bad. There is, as it were, a
wall about it that none may climb. Thou art instructed, yet thou
knowest it not; this makes me afraid." Birch, /Zeitschrift/, 1871,
pp. 61-64. /Papyrus Anastasi/ I, pl. X. 1. 8, pl. X. 1. 4.
Maspero, /Hist. Anc./, pp. 66-67.
"'I go,' she said, and I trembled as she spoke, for no man speaks in
this language when he has any good thought in his heart. 'I go to seek
the counsel of That thou knowest,' and she touched the golden snake
which she had won.
"Then I threw myself on the earth at her feet, and clasped her knees,
crying, 'My daughter, my daughter, sin not this great sin. Nay, for
all the kingdom of the world, wake not That which sleepeth, nor warm
again into life That which is a-cold.'
"But she only nodded, and put me from her,"--and the old man's face
grew pale as he spoke.
"What meant she?" said the Wanderer.
"Nay, wake not /thou/ That which sleepeth, Wanderer," he said, at
length. "My tongue is sealed. I tell thee more that I would tell
another. Do not ask,--but hark! They come again! Now may Ra and Pasht
and Amen curse them; may the red swine's mouth of Set gnaw upon them
in Amenti; may the Fish of Sebek flesh his teeth of stone in them for
ever, and feed and feed again!"
"Why dost thou curse thus, Rei, and who are they that go by?" said the
Wanderer. "I hear their tramping and their song."
Indeed there came a light noise of many shuffling feet, pattering
outside the Palace wall, and the words of a song rang out
triumphantly:
The Lord our God He doth sign and wonder,
Tokens He shows in the land of Khem,
He hath shattered the pride of the Kings asunder
And casteth His shoe o'er the Gods of them!
He hath brought forth frogs in their holy places,
He hath sprinkled the dust upon crown and hem,
He hath hated their kings and hath darkened their faces;
Wonders He works in the land of Khem.
"These are the accursed blaspheming conjurors and slaves, the Apura,"
said Rei, as the music and the tramping died away. "Their magic is
greater than the lore even of us who are instructed, for their leader
was one of ourselves, a shaven priest, and knows our wisdom. Never do
they march and sing thus but evil comes of it. Ere day dawn we shall
have news of them. May the Gods destroy them, they are gone for the
hour. It were well if Meriamun the Queen would let them go for ever,
as they desire, to their death in the desert, but she hardens the
King's heart."
