The Pharaoh And The Priest Part 122

_Chorus II._ "The pathway of thy sacredness is the prosperity of those on whose faces thy rays fall."

_Chorus I._ "Would that I might go as thou goest, O sun! without halting."

_Chorus II._ "Mighty wanderer in s.p.a.ce, thou who hast no lord, for thee hundreds of millions of years are merely the twinkle of an eye."

_Chorus I._ "Thou goest down, but endurest. Thou multipliest hours, days, and nights, and remainest in solitude according to thy own laws."

_Chorus II._ "Thou dost illumine the earth, offering thy own self with thy own hands, when under the form of Ra thou comest up on the horizon."

_Chorus I._ "O star, emerging great, through thy light, thou thyself formest thy own limbs."

_Chorus II._ "And, not begotten of any, thou givest birth to thyself on the horizon."[26]

[26] Authentic hymn.

At this point the pharaoh spoke:

"O thou radiant in the heavens! Permit that I enter eternity. Let me join the revered and perfect shadows of the upper land. Let me, together with them, behold thy rays in the morning, and in the evening, when thou joinest thy mother Nut. And when thou turnest thy face to the West let my hands join while praying in honor of life, which is going to sleep beyond the mountains."[27]

[27] Authentic.

Thus spoke the pharaoh with upraised hands, surrounded by a cloud of incense. All at once he ceased, and dropped into the arms of the priests behind him.

He was no longer living.

Intelligence of the pharaoh's death flew through the palace like lightning. Servants left their occupations, overseers ceased to watch over their slaves, the guard was roused; all entrances were occupied.

In the main court a throng began to gather; cooks, cellarers, equerries, women of his holiness, and their children. Some inquired: "Is this true?" Others wondered that the sun shone in heaven, but all cried at once in heaven-piercing voices,--

"O our lord! O our father! O beloved! Can it be that thou hast gone from us? Oh it is true, he is going to Abydos! To the West, to the West, to the land of the just ones! The place which thou hast loved groans and weeps for thee!"[28]

[28] Authentic.

Terrible uproar was heard throughout all the courts, throughout the whole park. It was echoed from the eastern hills, on the wings of the wind it flew across the Nile, and disturbed the city of Memphis.

Meanwhile, the priests, amid prayers, placed the body of the deceased in a rich closed litter. Eight stood at the poles of the litter; four took ostrich feather fans in their hands, others censers, and they prepared to go forth.

At this moment Queen Nikotris ran in, and, seeing the remains in the litter, threw herself at the feet of the dead pharaoh.

"O my husband! O my brother! O my beloved!" cried she, carried away with weeping. "O beloved, remain with us, remain in thy house, withdraw not from this place on earth in which thou art dwelling!"

"In peace, in peace, to the West," sang the priests. "O mighty sovereign, go in peace to the West."

"Misfortune," said the queen, "thou art hastening to the ferry to pa.s.s to the other sh.o.r.e! O priests, O prophets, hasten not, leave him; for ye will return to your houses, but he will go to the land of eternity."

"In peace, in peace to the West," sang the priestly chorus. "If it please the G.o.d, when the day of eternity comes, we shall see thee, O sovereign! For now thou art going to the land which brings all men together."[29]

[29] Authentic.

At a sign given by the worthy Herhor, the attendants drew the queen from the feet of the pharaoh, and led her by force to her chambers.

The litter, borne by priests, moved on, and in it the sovereign, dressed and surrounded, as if living. On the right, and on the left, before and behind him, went generals, treasurers, judges, chief scribes, the bearers of the mace and the bow, and above all a throng of priests of various dignities.

In the courtyard, the servants fell on their faces, groaning and weeping, but the troops presented arms and the trumpets sounded, as if to greet a living pharaoh.

Between Memphis and the "Tableland of Mummies," lay a peculiar division of the city. All its buildings were devoted to the dead, and it was inhabited only by dissectors and embalmers.

This division was the forecourt as it were, of the cemetery proper, the bridge which joined living society with the city of endless rest.

To this place were brought corpses, and mummies were made of them; here families stipulated with priests, touching the cost of funerals.

Here were prepared sacred books and bandages, coffins, implements, vessels, and statues for the departed.

This district was a couple of thousand yards from Memphis. It was surrounded by a long wall provided with gates here and there.

The retinue bearing the remains of the pharaoh halted before the richest gate, and one of the priests knocked at it.

"Who is there?" inquired those within.

"Osiris-Mer-Amen-Rameses, the lord of two worlds, has come and desires that ye prepare him for his eternal journey," replied the priests.

"Is it possible that he, the sun of Egypt, is quenched? That he is dead who himself was breath and life?"

"Such was his will," answered a priest. "Receive, then, the lord with due honor and render all service to him, as is befitting, lest punishments meet you in this and the coming life."

"We will do as ye say," said a voice from within.

The priests left the litter, and went away hurriedly, so that the evil odor of remains acc.u.mulated in that place should not fall on them.

Only civil officials under the lead of the supreme judge and treasurer remained there.

After they had waited a considerable time, the gate opened, and from ten to twenty persons showed themselves. They wore priestly garments and their faces were covered.

"We give you," said the judges, on seeing them, "the body of our lord and yours. Do with it what the rules of religion enjoin, and omit nothing, so that the great deceased may not experience unquiet in that world through your fault."

The treasurer added,--

"Use gold, silver, malachite, jasper, emerald, turquoise, and the most rare kinds of incenses for this lord, so that nothing be lacking that he may have whatever is best. I, the treasurer, say this to you. And if the wretch should be found who, instead of n.o.ble metals, gives counterfeit, and instead of genuine stones, gives Phnician gla.s.s, let him remember that his hands will be cut off and his eyes dug out."

"It will be as ye wish," replied one of the veiled priests.

Others raised the litter and bore it to the interior of the district of the dead.

"Thou art going in peace to Abydos! Mayst thou go in peace to the Theban West. To the West, to the West, to the land of the just ones!"

The gate closed, the supreme judge, the treasurer, and the officials accompanying them returned to the palace.

The hooded priests bore the litter to an immense building where only the remains of pharaohs were embalmed, or those of high dignitaries who had gained the exceptional favor of a pharaoh.

The priests stopped in the antechamber, where stood the golden boat on wheels, and took the corpse from the litter.