The Pharaoh And The Priest Part 142

By the light of brilliant torches the walls of all the rooms appeared covered with prayers, and also with pictures which represented every occupation and amus.e.m.e.nt of the departed: hunting, the building of temples, the cutting of ca.n.a.ls, triumphal entries, solemnities in honor of the G.o.ds, battles of troops with their enemies, the labors of people.

And those were not sufficient: the chambers were not only fitted with furniture, vessels, chariots, weapons, flowers, meat, bread, and wine, but they were furnished also with a mult.i.tude of statues. There were various portraits of Rameses XII., his priests, ministers, women, warriors, and slaves; for the sovereign could not dispense in the other world any more than in this with costly vessels, exquisite food and faithful servants.

When the funeral car halted at the entrance the priests drew forth from its sarcophagus the mummy of the pharaoh, and placed it on the earth resting against the cliff with its shoulder. Then Rameses XIII.

burned incense before the remains of his father, while Queen Nikotris embraced the mummy by the neck, and said with weeping,--

"I am thy sister, Nikotris, thy wife; do not desert me, thou great one! Dost thou desire really, my good father, that I should go? But if I go thou wilt be alone, and will any one be with thee?"

Now the high priest Herhor burned incense before the mummy, and Mefres poured out wine, saying,--

"To thy second self we offer this, O Osiris-Mer-Amen-Rameses, sovereign of Upper and Lower Egypt, whose voice in the presence of the great G.o.d is truthful."

Then the wailers and the chorus of priests were heard:

_Chorus I._ "Complain, complain, weep, weep, weep, without ceasing, as loudly as ever ye are able."

_Wailers._ "O worthy traveller, who turnest thy steps to the land of eternity, how quickly they are tearing thee from us."

_Chorus II._ "How beautiful is that which is happening to him! Since Khonsu of Thebes was loved by him greatly, the G.o.d has permitted the sovereign to reach that west, the world of the generations of his servants."

_Wailers._ "O thou who hast been attended by so many servitors, thou art now in the land ruled by loneliness. Thou who hadst splendid robes and didst love spotless linen art lying now in the garments of yesterday!"

_Chorus I._ "In peace, in peace, to the West, O our lord, go thou in peace. We shall see thee again when the day of eternity comes, for thou art going to the land which brings all men together."[41]

[41] Authentic.

The final ceremony began.

They brought a bull and an antelope which it was the duty of Rameses XIII. to slay, but they were slain by his subst.i.tute before the G.o.ds, Sem, the high priest. The inferior priests dressed the beasts quickly, after which Herhor and Mefres, taking the hind legs, placed them in turn at the mouth of the mummy. But the mummy had no wish to eat, for it was not brought to life yet, and its lips were closed.

To remove that obstacle Mefres washed it with holy water and incensed it with perfumes and alum, saying,--

"Here stands thy father; here stands Osiris-Mer-Amen-Rameses. I am thy son; I am Horus; I come to purify thee and make thee alive. I put thy bones again in order; I join that which was severed, for I am Horus, the avenger of my father. Thou wilt sit on the throne of Ra who proceeds from Nut, who gives birth to Re every morning, who gives birth to Mer-Amen-Rameses daily, just as Re."

Thus speaking, the high priest touched with amulets the mouth, the b.r.e.a.s.t.s, the hands, and the feet of the mummy.

Now the choruses were heard again,--

_Chorus I._ "Henceforth Osiris-Mer-Amen-Rameses will eat and drink all things which the G.o.ds eat and drink. He will sit in their place, like them; he is healthy and powerful."

_Chorus II._ "He has power in every limb; it is hateful to him to be hungry and unable to eat, thirsty and unable to drink."

_Chorus I._ "O G.o.ds, give to Osiris-Mer-Amen-Rameses thousands of thousands of pitchers of wine, thousands of garments, thousands of loaves and of bullocks!"

_Chorus II._ "O ye who are living on the earth, when ye pa.s.s this way, if life be dear to you and death be repulsive, if ye desire that your dignities pa.s.s to your descendants, repeat this prayer for the heaven-dweller who is placed here."

_Mefres._ "O ye great ones, ye prophets, ye princes, scribes, and pharaohs, O ye other people who are to come a million years after me, if any of you put his name on the place of my name the G.o.d will punish him by destroying his person on earth!"[42]

[42] Authentic.

After this curse the priests lighted the torches, took the royal mummy, placed it again in its casket, and the casket in the stone sarcophagus which had the human form in its general outlines. Then, in spite of the shrieks, the despair, and the resistance of wailers, they bore that immense weight toward the tomb chamber.

After they had pa.s.sed by the light of torches through a number of corridors and chambers they halted in that one where the well was.

They lowered the sarcophagus in that opening, went down themselves, and put away the sarcophagus in a lower subterranean s.p.a.ce, then walled up the pa.s.sage to this s.p.a.ce quickly and in such a manner that the most trained eye could not have discovered it; then they went up and closed the entrance to the well with equal effectiveness.

The priests did all this without witnesses; and they did the work so accurately that the mummy of Rameses XII. remains to this day in its secret abode, as safe from thieves as from modern curiosity. During twenty-nine centuries many tombs of pharaohs have been ravaged, but that one is inviolate.

While some priests were hiding the remains of the pious pharaoh, others illuminated the underground chambers and invited the living to a feast in that dwelling.

Rameses XIII., Queen Nikotris, and Sem, with some civil and military dignitaries entered the dining-hall. In the middle of the chamber stood a table covered with food, wine, and flowers, and at the wall sat a statue of the late sovereign carved out of porphyry. He seemed to gaze at those present, smile pensively, and beg them to eat in his presence.

The feast began with a sacred dance, which was accompanied by a hymn sung by one of the highest priestesses.

"Enjoy days of happiness, for life lasts but one instant. Enjoy happiness, for when ye enter the tomb ye will rest there the whole length of each day during ages."

After the priestess came a prophet, and to the accompaniment of harps he chanted,--

"The world is endless change and endless renewal. That arrangement of fate is wise; the decision of Osiris deserves admiration; for as a body which belongs to past time decays and perishes, other bodies rise behind it.

"The pharaohs, those G.o.ds who were before us, rest in their pyramids; their mummies and their second selves remain, though the palaces which they built are no longer on their sites, and no longer in existence.

"Despair not, but give thyself to thy desires and thy happiness, and wear not thy heart out till for thee the day comes when thou wilt implore, while Osiris, the G.o.d whose heart beats no longer, will not hear thy pet.i.tions.

"The mourning of a world will not restore happiness to a man who is lying in the tomb; use, then, thy days of happiness and in delight be no laggard. There is no man, indeed, who can take his goods to the other world with him; there is none who can go to that world and come back to this one."[43]

[43] Authentic.

The feast ended; the worthy a.s.sembly incensed the statue of the deceased once again and made ready to return to Thebes. In the mortuary temple only priests remained to make regular offerings to the deceased and a guard watching the tomb against sacrilegious attempts of robbers.

Thenceforth Rameses XII. was alone in that mysterious chamber. Through a small secret opening in the rock a gloomy light barely broke in to him; instead of the rustle of ostrich plumes was the rustle of enormous bat wings; instead of music was heard, during night hours, complaining howls of hyenas, and at times the mighty voice of a lion, which greeted from the desert the pharaoh in his resting-place.

CHAPTER LIX

After the funeral of the pharaoh, Egypt returned to its usual life, and Rameses XIII. to affairs of state.

The new ruler in the month Epifi visited the cities of the Nile above Thebes. Hence he went to Sni, a city greatly devoted to trade and commerce. In Sni was the temple of Keph, or the "Soul of the World." He visited Edfu, whose temple had pylons a hundred and fifty feet high, and which possessed an immense library of papyruses, and on the walls of which were written and depicted, as it were, an encyclopedia of the geography, astronomy, and theology of that period.

He visited the quarries in Chennu, in Nubia, or Kom-Ombo; he made offerings to Horus, the G.o.d of light, and to Sebak, the spirit of darkness. He was on the island Ab, which among dark cliffs seemed an emerald, produced the best dates, and was called the Capital of Elephants, Elephantina, for on that island the ivory trade was concentrated. He visited finally the city of Sunnu, situated at the first cataract of the Nile, and visited the immense quarries, granite and sienite, where rocks were split off with wooden wedges on which the quarrymen poured water which swelled them, and thus obelisks one hundred and thirty feet high were detached from the face of the quarry.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Tomb of a Pharaoh in the Libyan Hills]

Wherever the new lord of Egypt appeared his subjects greeted him wildly. Even criminals, toiling in the quarries--men whose bodies were covered with never-healing wounds--experienced happiness since the pharaoh commanded to release them for the s.p.a.ce of three days from their labor.

Rameses XIII. might feel proud and well satisfied, for no pharaoh in time of triumph was received as he on his peaceful journey. So, nomarchs, scribes, and high priests, seeing this boundless attachment of the people, bent before the pharaoh and whispered,--