Historical Miniatures Part 2

"There is no doubt of that. Therefore all superfluous mouths should be stopped."

"What!"

Phater saw that he had made a slip of the tongue.

"I mean," he said, "Pharaoh must consider how to get corn."

"He would find a Joseph useful just now."

"Why?" broke in Phater more vehemently than he intended. "Don't you know that Joseph the son of Jacob brought the Egyptians to be Pharaoh's bond-slaves. Your chronicles and ours relate that he made the peasants mortgage their land in return for help during the seven lean years, and that, by his doing so, Pharaoh became sole possessor of all the land of Egypt."

"You are not Reuben; you are Phater the Egyptian, for if you were an Israelite, you would not have spoken thus. Our ways part. I go to my work."

Amram laid his hand on the door, and Phater glided into the shadow of the columns and vanished. But Amram saw by his bent back that he had evil designs.

When Amram came home in the evening, he found that his wife had borne a son. He was like other healthy children, but did not cry; after the bath he was wrapped in linen and laid in the darkest corner of the cottage.

The next day before sunrise Amram went again to his work in the Temple of the Sun, and was again led into the chamber with his eyes bandaged.

There he was left alone without receiving any counsel or advice regarding what he was to do. This carelessness seemed to him like indifference, and indicated a general laxness in the temple servants.

Therefore he again entered the columned hall. He looked uneasily at the Nilometer, in which the water had sunk. There was no hope of the fifteen ells of water which the earth needed for the harvest of the year.

He stepped out on the terrace, which looked towards the east, and entered an open colonnade. But before he went farther, he took the precaution of dropping small pieces of papyrus to show him the way back.

He went through narrow courtyards, but took care not to climb steps; his experience of yesterday had warned him. At last he found himself in a forest of pillars whose tops were crowned with lotus-buds, and, as he listened, he heard what seemed a faint song of children's voices from the roof. He laid his ear to a pillar, and heard it more clearly, like the ringing music of zither and harp. He knew that this was caused by the sun, which had already warmed the stones of the roof, and was about to ascend the sky.

He went forward, and suddenly saw a terrace upon which stood a sacrificial altar. From the terrace, a flight of stairs flanked with sphinxes descended to the river. Thence there sloped a valley, bounded on the east by the mountains of the Red Sea. At the altar there stood a priest in a white linen robe with a purple border. He had raised his arms towards heaven, and stood motionless. His hands were quite white, since the blood had sunk into his arms, and the face of the old man seemed astrain with the strength he had invoked from above. Sometimes his body shuddered as though streams of fire ran through it. He was silent, and gazed towards the East. Then the shining edge of the sun's disk rose above the mountain-ridge, and the white hands of the priest became transparently crimson like his face. And he opened his mouth and said: "Sun-G.o.d: Lord of the splendour of rays, be Thou extolled in the morning when Thou risest, and in the evening when Thou descendest. I cry to Thee, Lord of Eternity, Thou Sun of both horizons, Thou Creator who hast created Thyself. All the G.o.ds shout aloud when they behold Thee, O King of heaven; my youth is renewed when I see thy beauty. Hail to Thee, as Thou pa.s.sest from land to land, Thou Father of the G.o.ds!"

He stopped speaking and remained standing, his arms outstretched towards the sun, as though he absorbed warmth from it.

Then in the forest of pillars a rattle of arms was heard, which ceased immediately, and forthwith a stately beardless man appeared, clothed in purple and gold. His walk was as noiseless as that of a panther's, and he seemed to glide over the floor which reflected his image, a bright shadow which followed him as he went. When he came out on the terrace the sun cast behind him a gigantic dark shadow which lay there like a carpet.

"Already at prayer, thou wisest of the wise!" was Pharaoh's greeting to the Chief Priest.

"My lord has called me, thy servant has obeyed. My lord has returned to his land after long and victorious campaigns in far and foreign countries. Thy servant greets Pharaoh to his face."

Pharaoh sat down on a chair of state, his face turned towards the rising sun, and began to speak like one who wishes to set his thoughts in order. "My chariots have rolled over the red soil of Syria, my horses have trampled the highways of Babylon and Nineveh; I have crossed the Euphrates and Tigris, and marched through the region between the two rivers; I have come to the land of the Five Rivers, and seen the Seven in the distance, where the Land of Silk begins, that stretches towards the sunrise. I have returned on my traces and gone northward towards Scythia and Colchis. Wherever I went I heard murmurs and saw movements.

The people have awaked; in the temples they prophesied the return of the G.o.ds; for men had been left alone to manage their affairs and to guide their destinies, but had done both badly. Justice had become injustice, and truth, falsehood; the whole earth groaned for deliverance. At last their prayers reached the throne of the All-merciful. And now the wise, the gentle, the saintly proclaim in all tongues the joyful message, 'The G.o.ds return again. They return in order to put right what the children of men have thrown in confusion, to give laws and to protect justice.'

This message I bring home as a spoil of victory, and thou, wisest of the wise, shalt receive it first from thy lord."

"Thou hearest, my Lord Pharaoh, what is spoken over the whole circle of the earth; thine eyes see farther than the stars of heaven and the eye of the sun!"

"And yet only my ear has heard, but my intelligence has not grasped what the G.o.ds have revealed to me in a dream. Interpret it for me."

"Tell it, my lord."

"I saw nothing, but I heard a voice, when sleep had quenched the light of my eyes. The voice spoke in the darkness, and said, 'The red earth will spread over all lands, but the black shall be dispersed like the sand.'"

"The dream, my lord is not hard to interpret, but it forebodes nothing good."

"Interpret it."

"Very well; the red earth is Syria, as thou knowest, my lord, where live the wretched Hitt.i.tes, that is the hereditary land of the Hebrew, Canaan. The black earth is that of the Nile, thy land, my lord."

"Again the Hebrews, always the Hebrews! Centuries have pa.s.sed since this people wandered into our land. They have increased without disturbing us. I neither love nor hate them; but now I fear them. They have had to toil, of late more severely than ever, but they do not murmur; they are patient as though they expected something to happen."

"Let them go, my lord."

"No! for then they will go, and found a new kingdom."

"Let them go."

"No, I will destroy them."

"Let them go."

"Certainly I will destroy them."

"But thy dream, my lord."

"I interpret that as a warning and exhortation."

"Touch not that people, my lord, for their G.o.d is stronger than ours."

"Their G.o.d is that of the Chaldaeans. Let our G.o.ds fight. I have spoken; thou hast heard; I add nothing and retract nothing."

"My Lord, thou seest one sun in the sky, and believest that it shines over all nations: do you not believe that there is one Lord of the heaven who rules the destinies of all nations?"

"It should be so, but the Lord of heaven has made me ruler over this land, and now I rule it."

"Thou rulest it, my lord, but thou rulest not wind and weather; thou canst not raise the water of the Nile by one inch, and thou canst not prevent the crops failing again this year."

"Failing? What does the Nilometer say?"

"My lord, the sun has entered the sign of the Balance, and the water is sinking already. It means famine."

"Then I will destroy all superfluous and strange mouths which take the bread from the children of the country. I will annihilate the Hebrews."

"Let them go free, my lord."

"I will summon the midwives, and have every boy that is born of a Hebrew woman destroyed. I have spoken; now I act." Pharaoh rose from his chair, and departed more quickly than he had come. Amram sought to find his way back, but could only discover one piece of papyrus. Then he remained standing and feared much, for he could not find his way.

The sun had risen, and there was no more music in the forest of pillars, but silence. But as Amram listened he began to be aware of that compressed stillness which emanates from a listener, or from children who do something forbidden and do not wish to be discovered. He felt that someone was near who wished to be concealed, but who still kept his thoughts directed towards him. In order to satisfy himself Amram went in the direction where the silence seemed to be densest. And lo! behind a pillar stood Phater. He did not show a sign of embarra.s.sment, but only held out his open hand, in which lay all the pieces of papyrus, which Amram had strewed as he went.

"You must not strew pieces of papyrus on the ground," said Phater with an inscrutable smile. "Yes--I am not angry, I only wish you well. For now you will follow me, and not return to your work, which was only a trap set for your life. You must return to your house, and take care that your new-born child is not killed. You see that Reuben-Phater is a true Israelite, although you would not believe him."

Amram followed him out of the temple, and went home.