BOOK I
THE PREPARATION OF HARMACHIS
CHAPTER I
OF THE BIRTH OF HARMACHIS; THE PROPHECY OF THE HATHORS;
AND THE SLAYING OF THE INNOCENT CHILD
By Osiris who sleeps at Abouthis, I write the truth.
I, Harmachis, Hereditary Priest of the Temple, reared by the divine
Sethi, aforetime a Pharaoh of Egypt, and now justified in Osiris and
ruling in Amenti. I, Harmachis, by right Divine and by true descent of
blood King of the Double Crown, and Pharaoh of the Upper and Lower
Land. I, Harmachis, who cast aside the opening flower of our hope, who
turned from the glorious path, who forgot the voice of God in
hearkening to the voice of woman. I, Harmachis, the fallen, in whom
are gathered up all woes as waters are gathered in a desert well, who
have tasted of every shame, who through betrayal have betrayed, who in
losing the glory that is here have lost the glory which is to be, who
am utterly undone--I write, and, by Him who sleeps at Abouthis, I
write the truth.
O Egypt!--dear land of Khem, whose black soil nourished up my mortal
part--land that I have betrayed--O Osiris!--Isis!--Horus!--ye Gods of
Egypt whom I have betrayed!--O ye temples whose pylons strike the sky,
whose faith I have betrayed!--O Royal blood of the Pharaohs of eld,
that yet runs within these withered veins--whose virtue I have
betrayed!--O Invisible Essence of all Good! and O Fate, whose balance
rested on my hand--hear me; and, to the day of utter doom, bear me
witness that I write the truth.
Even while I write, beyond the fertile fields, the Nile is running
red, as though with blood. Before me the sunlight beats upon the far
Arabian hills, and falls upon the piles of Abouthis. Still the priests
make orison within the temples at Abouthis that know me no more; still
the sacrifice is offered, and the stony roofs echo back the people's
prayers. Still from this lone cell within my prison-tower, I, the Word
of Shame, watch thy fluttering banners, Abouthis, flaunting from thy
pylon walls, and hear the chants as the long procession winds from
sanctuary to sanctuary.
Abouthis, lost Abouthis! my heart goes out toward thee! For the day
comes when the desert sands shall fill thy secret places! Thy Gods are
doomed, O Abouthis! New Faiths shall make a mock of all thy Holies,
and Centurion shall call upon Centurion across thy fortress-walls. I
weep--I weep tears of blood: for mine is the sin that brought about
these evils and mine for ever is their shame.
Behold, it is written hereafter.
Here in Abouthis I was born, I, Harmachis, and my father, the
justified in Osiris, was High Priest of the Temple of Sethi. And on
that same day of my birth Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt, was born
also. I passed my youth in yonder fields watching the baser people at
their labours and going in and out at will among the great courts of
the temples. Of my mother I knew naught, for she died when I yet hung
at the breast. But before she died in the reign of Ptolemy Aulêtes,
who is named the Piper, so did the old wife, Atoua, told me, my mother
took a golden uræus, the snake symbol of our Royalty of Egypt, from a
coffer of ivory and laid it on my brow. And those who saw her do this
believed that she was distraught of the Divinity, and in her madness
foreshadowed that the day of the Macedonian Lagidæ was ended, and that
Egypt's sceptre should pass again to the hand of Egypt's true and
Royal race. But when my father, the old High Priest Amenemhat, whose
only child I was, she who was his wife before my mother having been,
for what crime I know not, cursed with barrenness by Sekhet: I say
when my father came in and saw what the dying woman had done, he
lifted up his hands towards the vault of heaven and adored the
Invisible, because of the sign that had been sent. And as he adored,
the Hathors[*] filled my dying mother with the Spirit of Prophecy, and
she rose in strength from the couch and prostrated herself thrice
before the cradle where I lay asleep, the Royal asp upon my brow,
crying aloud:
[*] The Egyptian /Parcæ/ or /Fates/.--Editor.
"Hail to thee, fruit of my womb! Hail to thee, Royal child! Hail to
thee, Pharaoh that shalt be! Hail to thee, God that shalt purge the
land, Divine seed of Nekt-nebf, the descended from Isis. Keep thee
pure, and thou shalt rule and deliver Egypt and not be broken. But if
thou dost fail in thy hour of trial, then may the curse of all the
Gods of Egypt rest upon thee, and the curse of thy Royal forefathers,
the justified, who ruled the land before thee from the age of Horus.
Then in life mayst thou be wretched, and after death may Osiris refuse
thee, and the judges of Amenti give judgment against thee, and Set and
Sekhet torment thee, till such time as thy sin is purged, and the Gods
of Egypt, called by strange names, are once more worshipped in the
Temples of Egypt, and the staff of the Oppressor is broken, and the
footsteps of the Foreigner are swept clean, and the thing is
accomplished as thou in thy weakness shalt cause it to be done."
When she had spoken thus, the Spirit of Prophecy went out of her, and
she fell dead across the cradle where I slept, so that I awoke with a
cry.
But my father, Amenemhat, the High Priest, trembled, and was very
fearful, both because of the words which had been said by the Spirit
of the Hathors through the mouth of my mother, and because what had
been uttered was treason against Ptolemy. For he knew that, if the
matter should come to the ears of Ptolemy, Pharaoh would send his
guards to destroy the life of the child concerning whom such things
were prophesied. Therefore, my father shut the doors, and caused all
those who stood by to swear upon the holy symbol of his office, and by
the name of the Divine Three, and by the Soul of her who lay dead upon
the stones beside them, that nothing of what they had seen and heard
should pass their lips.
Now among the company was the old wife, Atoua, who had been the nurse
of my mother, and loved her well; and in these days, though I know not
how it had been in the past, nor how it shall be in the future, there
is no oath that can bind a woman's tongue. And so it came about that
by-and-by, when the matter had become homely in her mind, and her fear
had fallen from her, she spoke of the prophecy to her daughter, who
nursed me at the breast now that my mother was dead. She did this as
they walked together in the desert carrying food to the husband of the
daughter, who was a sculptor, and shaped effigies of the holy Gods in
the tombs that are fashioned in the rock--telling the daughter, my
nurse, how great must be her care and love toward the child that
should one day be Pharaoh, and drive the Ptolemies from Egypt. But the
daughter, my nurse, was so filled with wonder at what she heard that
she could not keep the tale locked within her breast, and in the night
she awoke her husband, and, in her turn, whispered it to him, and
thereby compassed her own destruction, and the destruction of her
child, my foster-brother. For the man told his friend, and the friend
was a spy of Ptolemy's, and thus the tale came to Pharaoh's ears.
Now, Pharaoh was much troubled thereat, for though when he was full of
wine he would make a mock of the God of the Egyptians, and swear that
the Roman Senate was the only God to whom he bowed the knee, yet in
his heart he was terribly afraid, as I have learned from one who was
his physician. For when he was alone at night he would scream and cry
aloud to the great Serapis, who indeed is no true God, and to other
Gods, fearing lest he should be murdered and his soul handed over to
the tormentors. Also, when he felt his throne tremble under him, he
would send large presents to the temples, asking a message from the
oracles, and more especially from the oracle that is at Philæ.
Therefore, when it came to his ears that the wife of the High Priest
of the great and ancient Temple of Abouthis had been filled with the
Spirit of Prophecy before she died, and foretold that her son should
be Pharaoh, he was much afraid, and summoning some trusty guards--who,
being Greeks, did not fear to do sacrilege--he despatched them by boat
up the Nile, with orders to come to Abouthis and cut off the head of
the child of the High Priest and bring it to him in a basket.
But, as it chanced, the boat in which the guards came was of deep
draught, and, the time of their coming being at the lowest ebb of the
river, it struck and remained fast upon a bank of mud that is opposite
the mouth of the road running across the plains to Abouthis, and, as
the north wind was blowing very fiercely, it was like to sink. Thereon
the guards of Pharaoh called out to the common people, who laboured at
lifting water along the banks of the river, to come with boats and
take them off; but, seeing that they were Greeks of Alexandria, the
people would not, for the Egyptians do not love the Greeks. Then the
guards cried that they were on Pharaoh's business, and still the
people would not, asking what was their business. Whereon a eunuch
among them who had made himself drunk in his fear, told them that they
came to slay the child of Amenemhat, the High Priest, of whom it was
prophesied that he should be Pharaoh and sweep the Greeks from Egypt.
And then the people feared to stand longer in doubt, but brought
boats, not knowing what might be meant by the man's words. But there
was one amongst them--a farmer and an overseer of canals--who was a
kinsman of my mother's and had been present when she prophesied; and
he turned and ran swiftly for three parts of an hour, till he came to
where I lay in the house that is without the north wall of the great
Temple. Now, as it chanced, my father was away in that part of the
Place of Tombs which is to the left of the large fortress, and
Pharaoh's guards, mounted on asses, were hard upon us. Then the
messenger cried to the old wife, Atoua, whose tongue had brought about
the evil, and told how the soldiers drew near to slay me. And they
looked at each other, not knowing what to do; for, had they hid me,
the guards would not have stayed their search till I was found. But
the man, gazing through the doorway, saw a little child at play:
"Woman," he said, "whose is that child?"
"It is my grandchild," she answered, "the foster-brother of the Prince
Harmachis; the child to whose mother we owe this evil case."
"Woman," he said, "thou knowest thy duty, do it!" and he again pointed
at the child. "I command thee, by the Holy Name!"
Atoua trembled exceedingly, because the child was of her own blood;
but, nevertheless, she took the boy and washed him and set a robe of
silk upon him, and laid him on my cradle. And me she took and smeared
with mud to make my fair skin darker, and, drawing my garment from me,
set me to play in the dirt of the yard, which I did right gladly.
Then the man hid himself, and presently the soldiers rode up and asked
of the old wife if this were the dwelling of the High Priest
Amenemhat? And she told them yea, and, bidding them enter, offered
them honey and milk, for they were thirsty.
When they had drunk, the eunuch who was with them asked if that were
the son of Amenemhat who lay in the cradle; and she said "Yea--yea,"
and began to tell the guards how he would be great, for it had been
prophesied of him that he should one day rule them all.
But the Greek guards laughed, and one of them, seizing the child,
smote off his head with a sword; and the eunuch drew forth the signet
of Pharaoh as warrant for the deed and showed it to the old wife,
Atoua, bidding her tell the High Priest that his son should be King
without a head.
And as they went one of their number saw me playing in the dirt and
called out that there was more breeding in yonder brat than in the
Prince Harmachis; and for a moment they wavered, thinking to slay me
also, but in the end they passed on, bearing the head of my foster-
brother, for they loved not to murder little children.
After a while, the mother of the dead child returned from the market-
place, and when she found what had been done, she and her husband
would have killed Atoua the old wife, her mother, and given me up to
the soldiers of Pharaoh. But my father came in also and learned the
truth, and he caused the man and his wife to be seized by night and
hidden away in the dark places of the temple, so that none saw them
more.
But I would to-day that it had been the will of the Gods that I had
been slain of the soldiers and not the innocent child.
Thereafter it was given out that the High Priest Amenemhat had taken
me to be as a son to him in the place of that Harmachis who was slain
of Pharaoh.
