CHAPTER III
OF THE REBUKE OF AMENEMHAT; OF THE PRAYER OF HARMACHIS;
AND OF THE SIGN GIVEN BY THE HOLY GODS
For a while as I, Harmachis, went, the juice of the green herbs which
the old wife, Atoua, had placed upon my wounds caused me much smart,
but presently the pain ceased. And, of a truth, I believe that there
was virtue in them, for within two days my flesh healed up, so that
after a time no marks remained. But I bethought me that I had
disobeyed the word of the old High Priest, Amenemhat, who was called
my father. For till this day I knew not that he was in truth my father
according to the flesh, having been taught that his own son was slain
as I have written; and that he had been pleased, with the sanction of
the Divine ones, to take me as an adopted son and rear me up, that I
might in due season fulfil an office about the Temple. Therefore I was
much troubled, for I feared the old man, who was very terrible in his
anger, and ever spoke with the cold voice of Wisdom. Nevertheless, I
determined to go in to him and confess my fault and bear such
punishment as he should be pleased to put upon me. So with the red
spear in my hand, and the red wounds on my breast, I passed through
the outer court of the great temple and came to the door of the place
where the High Priest dwelt. It is a great chamber, sculptured round
about with the images of the solemn Gods, and the sunlight comes to it
in the daytime by an opening cut through the stones of the massy roof.
But at night it was lit by a swinging lamp of bronze. I passed in
without noise, for the door was not altogether shut, and, pushing my
way through the heavy curtains that were beyond, I stood with a
beating heart within the chamber.
The lamp was lit, for the darkness had fallen, and by its light I saw
the old man seated in a chair of ivory and ebony at a table of stone
on which were spread mystic writings of the words of Life and Death.
But he read no more, for he slept, and his long white beard rested
upon the table like the beard of a dead man. The soft light from the
lamp fell on him, on the papyri and the gold ring upon his hand, where
were graven the symbols of the Invisible One, but all around was
shadow. It fell on the shaven head, on the white robe, on the cedar
staff of priesthood at his side, and on the ivory of the lion-footed
chair; it showed the mighty brow of power, the features cut in kingly
mould, the white eyebrows, and the dark hollows of the deep-set eyes.
I looked and trembled, for there was about him that which was more
than the dignity of man. He had lived so long with the Gods, and so
long kept company with them and with thoughts divine, he was so deeply
versed in all those mysteries which we do but faintly discern, here in
this upper air, that even now, before his time, he partook of the
nature of the Osiris, and was a thing to shake humanity with fear.
I stood and gazed, and as I stood he opened his dark eyes, but looked
not on me, nor turned his head; and yet he saw me and spoke.
"Why hast thou been disobedient to me, my son?" he said. "How came it
that thou wentest forth against the lion when I bade thee not?"
"How knowest thou, my father, that I went forth?" I asked in fear.
"How know I? Are there, then, no other ways of knowledge than by the
senses? Ah, ignorant child! was not my Spirit with thee when the lion
sprang upon thy companion? Did I not pray Those set about thee to
protect thee, to make sure thy thrust when thou didst drive the spear
into the lion's throat! How came it that thou wentest forth, my son?"
"The boaster taunted me," I answered, "and I went."
"Yes, I know it; and, because of the hot blood of youth, I forgive
thee, Harmachis. But now listen to me, and let my words sink into thy
heart like the waters of Sihor into the thirsty sand at the rising of
Sirius.[*] Listen to me. The boaster was sent to thee as a temptation,
he was sent as a trial of thy strength, and see! it has not been equal
to the burden. Therefore thy hour is put back. Hadst thou been strong
in this matter, the path had been made plain to thee even now. But
thou hast failed, and therefore thy hour is put back."
[*] The dog-star, whose appearance marked the commencement of the
overflow of the Nile.--Editor.
"I understand thee not, my father," I answered.
"What was it, then, my son, that the old wife, Atoua, said to thee
down by the bank of the canal?"
Then I told him all that the old wife had said.
"And thou believest, Harmachis, my son?"
"Nay," I answered; "how should I believe such tales? Surely she is
mad. All the people know her for mad."
Now for the first time he looked towards me, who was standing in the
shadow.
"My son! my son!" he cried; "thou art wrong. She is not mad. The woman
spoke the truth; she spoke not of herself, but of the voice within her
that cannot lie. For this Atoua is a prophetess and holy. Now learn
thou the destiny that the Gods of Egypt have given to thee to fulfil,
and woe be unto thee if by any weakness thou dost fail therein!
Listen: thou art no stranger adopted into my house and the worship of
the Temple; thou art my very son, saved to me by this same woman. But,
Harmachis, thou art more than this, for in thee and me alone yet flows
the Imperial blood of Egypt. Thou and I alone of men alive are
descended, without break or flaw, from that Pharaoh Nekt-nebf whom
Ochus the Persian drove from Egypt. The Persian came and the Persian
went, and after the Persian came the Macedonian, and now for nigh upon
three hundred years the Lagidæ have usurped the double crown, defiling
the land of Khem and corrupting the worship of its Gods. And mark thou
this: but now, two weeks since, Ptolemy Neus Dionysus, Ptolemy Aulêtes
the Piper, who would have slain thee, is dead; and but now hath the
Eunuch Pothinus, that very eunuch who came hither, years ago, to cut
thee off, set at naught the will of his master, the dead Aulêtes, and
placed the boy Ptolemy upon the throne. And therefore his sister
Cleopatra, that fierce and beautiful girl, has fled into Syria; and
there, if I err not, she will gather her armies and make war upon her
brother Ptolemy: for by her father's will she was left joint-sovereign
with him. And, meanwhile, mark thou this, my son: the Roman eagle
hangs on high, waiting with ready talons till such time as he may fall
upon the fat wether Egypt and rend him. And mark again: the people of
Egypt are weary of the foreign yoke, they hate the memory of the
Persians, and they are sick at heart of being named "Men of Macedonia"
in the markets of Alexandria. The whole land mutters and murmurs
beneath the yoke of the Greek and the shadow of the Roman.
"Have we not been oppressed? Have not our children been butchered and
our gains wrung from us to fill the bottomless greed and lust of the
Lagidæ? Have not the temples been forsaken?--ay, have not the
majesties of the Eternal Gods been set at naught by these Grecian
babblers, who have dared to meddle with the immortal truths, and name
the Most High by another name--by the name of Serapis--confounding the
substance of the Invisible? Does not Egypt cry aloud for freedom?--and
shall she cry in vain? Nay, nay, for thou, my son, art the appointed
way of deliverance. To thee, being sunk in eld, I have decreed my
rights. Already thy name is whispered in many a sanctuary, from Abu to
Athu; already priests and people swear allegiance, even by the sacred
symbols, unto him who shall be declared to them. Still, the time is
not yet; thou art too green a sapling to bear the weight of such a
storm. But to-day thou wast tried and found wanting.
"He who would serve the Gods, Harmachis, must put aside the failings
of the flesh. Taunts must not move him, nor any lusts of man. Thine is
a high mission, but this thou must learn. If thou learn it not, thou
shalt fail therein; and then, my curse be on thee! and the curse of
Egypt, and the curse of Egypt's broken Gods! For know thou this, that
even the Gods, who are immortal, may, in the interwoven scheme of
things, lean upon the man who is their instrument, as a warrior on his
sword. And woe be to the sword that snaps in the hour of battle, for
it shall be thrown aside to rust or perchance be melted with fire!
Therefore, make thy heart pure and high and strong; for thine is no
common lot, and thine no mortal meed. Triumph, Harmachis, and in glory
thou shalt go--in glory here and hereafter! Fail, and woe--woe be on
thee!"
He paused and bowed his head, and then went on:
"Of these matters thou shalt hear more hereafter. Meanwhile, thou hast
much to learn. To-morrow I will give thee letters, and thou shalt
journey down the Nile, past white-walled Memphis to Annu. There thou
shalt sojourn certain years, and learn more of our ancient wisdom
beneath the shadow of those secret pyramids of which thou, too, art
the Hereditary High Priest that is to be. And meanwhile, I will sit
here and watch, for my hour is not yet, and, by the help of the Gods,
spin the web of Death wherein thou shalt catch and hold the wasp of
Macedonia.
"Come hither, my son; come hither and kiss me on the brow, for thou
art my hope, and all the hope of Egypt. Be but true, soar to the eagle
crest of destiny, and thou shalt be glorious here and hereafter. Be
false, fail, and I will spit upon thee, and thou shalt be accursed,
and thy soul shall remain in bondage till that hour when, in the slow
flight of time, the evil shall once more grow to good and Egypt shall
again be free."
I drew near, trembling, and kissed him on the brow. "May all these
things come upon me, and more," I said, "if I fail thee, my father!"
"Nay!" he cried, "not me, not me; but rather those whose will I do.
And now go, my son, and ponder in thy heart, and in thy secret heart
digest my words; mark what thou shalt see, and gather up the dew of
wisdom, making thee ready for the battle. Fear not for thyself, thou
art protected from all ill. No harm may touch thee from without;
thyself alone can be thine own enemy. I have said."
Then I went forth with a full heart. The night was very still, and
none were stirring in the temple courts. I hurried through them, and
reached the entrance to the pylon that is at the outer gate. Then,
seeking solitude, and, as it were, to draw near to heaven, I climbed
the pylon's two hundred steps, until at length I reached the massive
roof. Here I leaned my breast against the parapet, and looked forth.
As I looked, the red edge of the full moon floated up over the Arabian
hills, and her rays fell upon the pylon where I stood and the temple
walls beyond, lighting the visages of the carven Gods. Then the cold
light struck the stretch of well-tilled lands, now whitening to the
harvest, and as the heavenly lamp of Isis passed up to the sky, her
rays crept slowly down to the valley, where Sihor, father of the land
of Khem, rolls on toward the sea.
Now the bright beams kissed the water that smiled an answer back, and
now mountain and valley, river, temple, town, and plain were flooded
with white light, for Mother Isis was arisen, and threw her gleaming
robe across the bosom of the earth. It was beautiful, with the beauty
of a dream, and solemn as the hour after death. Mightily, indeed, the
temples towered up against the face of night. Never had they seemed so
grand to me as in that hour--those eternal shrines, before whose walls
Time himself shall wither. And it was to be mine to rule this moonlit
land; mine to preserve those sacred shrines, and cherish the honour of
their Gods; mine to cast out the Ptolemy and free Egypt from the
foreign yoke! In my veins ran the blood of those great Kings who await
the day of Resurrection, sleeping in the tombs of the valley of
Thebes. My spirit swelled within me as I dreamed upon this glorious
destiny, I closed my hands, and there, upon the pylon, I prayed as I
had never prayed before to the Godhead, who is called by many names,
and in many forms made manifest.
"O Amen," I prayed, "God of Gods, who hast been from the beginning;
Lord of Truth, who art, and of whom all are, who givest out thy
Godhead and gatherest it up again; in the circle of whom the Divine
ones move and are, who wast from all time the Self-begot, and who
shalt be till time--hearken unto me.[*]
[*] For a somewhat similar definition of the Godhead see the funeral
papyrus of Nesikhonsu, a Princess of the Twenty-first Dynasty.--
Editor.
"O Amen--Osiris, the sacrifice by whom we are justified, Lord of the
Region of the Winds, Ruler of the Ages, Dweller in the West, the
Supreme in Amenti, hearken unto me.
"O Isis, great Mother Goddess, mother of the Horus--mysterious Mother,
Sister, Spouse, hearken unto me. If, indeed, I am the chosen of the
Gods to carry out the purpose of the Gods, let a sign be given me,
even now, to seal my life to the life above. Stretch out your arms
towards me, O ye Gods, and uncover the glory of your countenance.
Hear! ah, hear me!" And I cast myself upon my knees and lifted up my
eyes to heaven.
And as I knelt, a cloud grew upon the face of the moon covering it up,
so that the night became dark, and the silence deepened all around--
even the dogs far below in the city ceased to howl, while the silence
grew and grew till it was heavy as death. I felt my spirit lifted up
within me, and my hair rose upon my head. Then of a sudden the mighty
pylon seemed to rock beneath my feet, a great wind beat about my brows
and a voice spoke within my heart:
"Behold a sign! Possess thyself in patience, O Harmachis!"
And as the voice spoke, a cold hand touched my hand, and left somewhat
within it. Then the cloud rolled from the face of the moon, the wind
passed, the pylon ceased to tremble, and the night was as the night
had been.
As the light came back, I gazed upon that which had been left within
my hand. It was a bud of the holy lotus new breaking into bloom, and
from it came a most sweet scent.
And while I gazed behold! the lotus passed from my grasp and was gone,
leaving me astonished.
