The Pharaoh And The Priest Part 55

When there was silence, Pentuer commanded to take the torches to the other side of the court, and thither he conducted his hearers. There were no tableaux there, but a kind of industrial exhibition.

"Be pleased to look," said he. "During the nineteenth dynasty foreigners sent us these things: we received perfumes from Punt; gold, iron weapons, and chariots of war came from Syria. That is all.

"But Egypt manufactured in those days. Look at these immense pitchers,--how many forms, and what a variety of colors.

"Or the furniture: that armchair was made of ten thousand pieces of gold, mother-of-pearl, and woods of various hues. Look at the robes of that period: what embroidery, what delicacy of material, how many colors! And the bronze swords, the brooches, bracelets, earrings and implements of tillage and crafts of various descriptions. All these were made in this country during the nineteenth dynasty."

He pa.s.sed to the next group of objects.

"But to-day, look: the pitchers are small and almost without ornament, the furniture is simple, the stuffs coa.r.s.e and devoid of variety. Not one thing made to-day can we compare as to shape, durability, or beauty with those of former ages. Why has this happened?"

He advanced a number of steps again, surrounded by torches.

"Here is a great number of things," said he, "which the Phnicians bring us from various regions. Some tens of kinds of incense, colored gla.s.s, furniture, vessels, woven stuffs, chariots, ornaments,--all these come from Asia and are bought by us.

"Do ye understand now, worthy fathers, why the Phnicians tear away grain, fruit, and cattle from the scribes and the pharaoh? In pay for those foreign goods which have destroyed our artisans as locusts destroy vegetation.

"Among things obtained through Phnicians for his holiness, the nomarchs, and the scribes, gold has the first place.

"This kind of commerce is the most accurate picture of calamities inflicted on Egypt by Asia.

"When a man borrows gold to the amount of one talent, he is obliged in three years to return two talents. But most frequently the Phnicians, under pretext of decreasing trouble for the debtor, a.s.sure payment in their own way: that is, debtors for each talent borrowed give them as tenants for three years two measures of land and thirty-two people.

"See there, worthy fathers," said he, pointing to a part of the court which was better lighted. "That square of land one hundred and ten yards in length and as wide signifies two measures; the men, women, and children of that crowd mean eight families. All that together: people and land pa.s.s for three years into dreadful captivity. During that time their owner, the pharaoh or a nomarch, has no profit at all from them; at the end of that term he receives the land back exhausted, and of the people, twenty in number at the very highest, the rest have died under torture!"

Those present shuddered with horror.

"I have said that the Phnician takes two measures of land and thirty-two people for three years in exchange for one talent. See what a s.p.a.ce of land and what a crowd of people; look now at my hand.

"This piece of gold which I grasp here, this lump, less than a hen's egg in size, is a talent.

"Can you estimate the complete insignificance of the Phnicians in this commerce? This small lump of gold has no real value: it is yellow, it is heavy, a man cannot eat it,--and that is the end of the matter. A man does not clothe himself with gold and he cannot stop his hunger or thirst with it. If he had a lump of gold as big as the pyramid, he would be as poor at the foot of it as a Libyan wandering through the western desert where there is neither a date nor a drop of water.

"And see, for a piece of this barren metal a Phnician takes a piece of land which suffices to feed and clothe thirty-two people, and besides that he takes the people. For three years he exercises power over beings who know how to cultivate land, gather in grain, make flour and beer, weave garments, build houses, and make furniture.

"At the same time the pharaoh or the nomarch is deprived for three years of the services of those people. They pay him no tribute, they carry no burdens for the army, but they toil to give income to the greedy Phnician.

"Ye know, worthy fathers, that at present there is not a year during which in this or that province an insurrection does not break out among laborers exhausted by hunger, borne down by toil, or beaten with sticks. And some of those men perish, others are sent to the quarries, while the country is depopulated more and more for this reason only, that the Phnician gave a lump of gold to some landowner! Is it possible to imagine greater misery? And is Egypt not to lose land and people yearly under such conditions? Victorious wars undermined Egypt, but Phnician gold-dealers are finishing it."

On the faces of the priests satisfaction was depicted; they were more willing to hear of the guile of Phnicians than the excesses of scribes throughout Egypt.

Pentuer rested awhile, then he turned to the viceroy.

"For some months," said he, "Rameses, O servant of the G.o.ds, thou hast been inquiring why the income of his holiness is diminished. The wisdom of the G.o.ds has shown thee that not only the treasure has decreased but also the army, and that both those sources of royal power will decrease still further. And the end will be utter ruin for this country, unless heaven sends down a ruler who will stop the inundation of misery which for some hundreds of years is overwhelming Egypt.

"The treasury of the pharaohs was full when we had more land and people. We must win back from the desert the fertile lands which it has swallowed, and remove from the people those burdens which weaken and kill them."

The priests were alarmed again, lest Pentuer might mention scribes for the second time.

"Thou hast seen, prince, with thy own eyes and before witnesses, that in the epoch when people were well nourished, stalwart, and satisfied, the treasury of the pharaoh was full. But when people began to look wretched, when they were forced to plough with their wives and children, when lotus seed took the place of wheat and flesh, the treasury grew needy. If thou wish therefore to bring the state to that power which it had before the wars of the nineteenth dynasty, if thou desire that the pharaoh, his scribes, and his army should live in plenty, a.s.sure long peace to the land and prosperity to the people.

Let grown persons eat flesh again and dress in embroidered garments, and let children, instead of groaning and dying under blows, play, or go to school.

"Remember, finally, that Egypt bears within its bosom a deadly serpent."

Those present listened with fear and curiosity.

"That serpent which is sucking at the blood of the people, the property of the nomarchs, and the power of the pharaoh is the Phnician!"

"Away with the Phnicians!" cried the priests. "Blot out all debts to them. Admit not their ships and merchants."

Silence was enforced by the high priest Mefres, who with tears in his eyes turned to Pentuer.

"I doubt not," said he, "that the holy Hator is speaking through thy lips to us. Not only because no man could be so wise and all-knowing as thou art, but besides I have seen two flames, as horns, above thy forehead. I thank thee for the great words with which thou hast dispelled our ignorance. I bless thee, and I pray the G.o.ds when I am summoned before them to make thee my advocate."

An unbroken shout from the rest of the a.s.sembly supported the blessing of the highest dignitary. The priests were the better satisfied, since alarm had hung over them lest Pentuer might refer to the scribes a second time. But the sage knew how to restrain himself: he indicated the internal wound of the state, but he did not inflame it, and therefore his triumph was perfect.

Prince Rameses did not thank Pentuer, he only dropped his head to his own bosom. No one doubted, however, that the discourse of the prophet had shaken the soul of the heir, and that it was a seed from which prosperity and glory might spring up for Egypt.

Next morning Pentuer, without taking farewell of any, left the temple at sunrise and journeyed away in the direction of Memphis.

For a number of days Prince Rameses held converse with no man, he meditated; he sat in his cell, or walked up and down the shady corridors. Work in his soul was progressing.

In reality Pentuer had declared no new truth; all had been complaining of the decrease of land and people in Egypt, of the misery of workmen, the abuses of scribes, and the extortion of Phnicians. But the discourse of the prophet had given them tangible forms, and ill.u.s.trated facts very clearly.

The Phnicians terrified the prince; he had not estimated till that time the enormity of the misfortunes brought on people of Egypt by those merchants. His horror was all the more vivid, since he had rented out his own subjects to Dagon, and was himself witness of the way in which the banker collected his dues from them.

But his entanglement in the business of Phnicians produced strange results in Rameses. He did not wish to think of Phnicians, and whenever anger flamed up in his mind against those strangers the feeling of shame was destroyed in him. He was in a certain sense their confederate. Meanwhile he understood perfectly how serious the decrease was in land and in people, and on this he placed the main emphasis in his lonely meditation.

"If we had," said he to himself, "those two millions of people lost by Egypt, we might through help from them win back those fertile lands from the desert, we might even extend those lands. And then in spite of Phnicians our laborers would be in a better condition, and there would be also increase in the income of Egypt. But where can we find men?"

Chance gave the answer.

On a certain evening the prince, while walking through the gardens of the temple, met a crowd of captives whom Nitager had seized on the eastern boundary and sent to the G.o.ddess Hator. Those people were perfectly built, they did more work than Egyptians, and they did it because they were properly nourished, hence even satisfied with their position.

When he saw them, his mind was cleared as if by a lightning flash. He almost lost presence of mind from emotion. The country needs men, many men,--hundreds of thousands, even a million, two millions. And here are men! The only need was to turn to Asia, seize all whom they might meet on the road, and send them to Egypt. War must continue till so many were taken that every earth-tiller from the cataract to the sea might have his own bondman.

Thus rose a plan, colossal and simple, thanks to which Egypt would find population, the earth-tillers aid in their labor, and the treasury of the pharaoh an endless source of income.

The prince was enchanted, though next day a new doubt sprang up in him.

Pentuer had announced with great emphasis, while Herhor had a.s.serted still earlier, that victorious wars were the source of misfortune for the country. From this it resulted that to raise Egypt by a new war was impossible.

"Pentuer is a great sage, and so is Herhor," thought Rameses. "If they consider war harmful, if the high priest Mefres and other priests judge in the same way, then perhaps war is in fact dangerous. It must be dangerous, if so many holy and wise men insist thus."

Rameses was deeply disappointed. He had thought out a simple method of elevating Egypt, but the priests maintained that that was the true way to ruin it. The priests are most holy, and they are wise men.

But something happened which cooled the faith of the prince somewhat in the truthful speech of the priests, or rather it roused his previous distrust of them.

Once he was going with a certain leech to the library. The way lay through a dark and narrow corridor from which the heir drew back with repulsion.