Chapter III: Prologue (2)

“It was draped with white carpets of silk embroidered in silver with images of the assessors of Amentet. And a carpet was hanged between every pair of pillars, veiling the cloister from the hall.”

“Yet the hall will serve our purpose as well without its hangings?”

“Doubtless. But still it seems that some malignant sprite might lurk in the shadow of those columns, watching, with intent to interrupt our sacred rites.”

And hardly had the Tanitic priest uttered the last word, when a blameless shape (very loathesome and ferocious, shewing nothing but the accentuation of a tattered pendulous head and the thick rictus of parts of a face), emerged from those very shadows, and rushed upon us with mouth-foamings and hiccoughs and eye-rollings, hideously screeching.

Amenemhat withered away with terror; and his mind wilted as he fell swooning on the steps. But I, strongly bounding, leaped to the altar; and, having seized my magic staff, and having made the terrible _Sign of the Godlike Rulers_, then indeed I proclaimed the _Spell Which Binds_.

The Shape stood, held by the mighty inchantment, a ridiculous and cruel personage, gross and ceruminous, with an incomplete head dandling on a tendinous neck. But I descended to recover my familiar. And, having further bound the Shape with the _Word of Fear_, I drew back the mind of Amenemhat to his body, fattening it with comfortable words. And anon I required the Shape to decline to me his generalities, telling who and what he was.

But he responded very obediently, saying: “I am Sanes, priest of Osiris, warden of yonder purple altar, and long it is since I have formed mortal speech with these remnants of my tongue.”

I then demanded, “Why, O hideous and excessive prelate, didst thou rush out so menacingly upon us?”

“Because,” he said, “having seen no man since I know not when, I was fearful that ye had evil designs. But, seeing that thou hast the _Sign_ and the _Spell_ and the _Word_, I must believe thee to be present with the sanction of the gods. Yet, seeing that I (in my lifetime) was the warden of this place, seeing that no man hath deposed me, seeing also that (after my accidental but lamentable death) I was not properly embalmed but did myself fulfil the cavities of the holy crocodiles who ate me, I still must deem myself its warden.”

Thus having spoken, he wept fragmentarily. And I will say that I rarely have seen anything more frightful than the tears of a shape which (some centuries before) had been an eaten clergyman. Wherefore, having required him to make his Mark with his finger (as it were) on the stainless floor, and having counted the angles of the same, I said: “Poor faithful Senior, thou shalt be relieved of thy wardenship and speeded whither thou shouldst have gone ages ago.”

And I removed _Spell_ and _Word_. But, intoning the _Speeding Hymn_, I bade the Shape to begone in peace to the dull region of Amentet, giving him the _Word of Entrance_, and praying the Assessors to deal leniently with him. For surely so dreary and so patient a watch and ward as his should suffice to smooth many wrinkles from his sphere of gold.

And, with a joyful cry, the Shape collected his parts; and, leaping, he evanesced. But we turned to the matter which engrossed us, having dismissed the long-delayed ghost to his rest.

In this manner, I began to use my magic art in the secret hall of Thebes.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] The tonsure is, of course, not pentagonal but circular. The bishop who confers it does, however, ceremonially dip the clerk’s hair in five places, _e.g._ front, back, right, left, and crown, while teaching the tonsured to twitter: “_Dominus pars--haereditatis meae--et calicis meis--Tu es Qui restitues--haereditatem meam mihi._” Hence, perhaps, the epithet “five-pointed.” A.H.

[6] I surmise that these “gold quarter-ounces” were sovereigns. A. H.

[7] These words are written in late-Victorian English by what I take to be Mr. Crabbe’s own hand. A. H.

[8] These words are written in late-Victorian English by what I take to be Mr. Crabbe’s own hand. A. H.

[9] These words are written in late-Victorian English by what I take to be Mr. Crabbe’s own hand. A. H.

[10] Mr. C.’s statement would almost seem to indicate that Messrs. Currelly, Dennis, Dalison, and Naville, the learned and assiduous excavators of the subterranean sanctuary at Thebes (cf. _The Times_, Tuesday, viiij Apr.) are only at the beginning of their labours. A. H.

THE FOURTH PAPYRUS

Touching the ordeal of the scorching staff, I consulted Amenemhat. He had grave doubts as to whether it was lawful to protect the hand with a magic unguent, or to hold the staff with tongs; and he stood by the injunctions of the well-written papyrus which ordained that the staff must be held in the hand. But, as for me, my dear mind foamed with blood, and my stomach shifted inch by inch, and the gorge of me swang to and fro, at the anticipation of the grievous anguish which I was to undergo: although I knew that, by enduring the ordeal the first time, I had summoned from the dead a master of magic, from whom I was learning ineffable wisdom, and, that, by enduring the same a second time, I should call from the dead a master of masters of magic, from whom I might learn wisdom absolutely illimitable. But, notwithstanding this, the heart in my bosom would take no cheer, but remained dull and spiritless and weighted with premonitions of disaster.

Furthermore, while my mind was thus obliquing brusquely in the manner of a crab, I needs must add to my perturbations by certain thoughts about the gods of my own motherland. And I pondered the question again, asking myself whether what I was meditating actually amounted to apostacy. And I went over much old ground: for the point was a very nice and subtile one. I told myself how that bad hierarchs and far-from-immaculate anointed ones, all the most righteous of men, of my race and age and tongue, had refused to let me serve my gods and theirs in the manner which those divine ones inhabiting heavenly palaces had themselves designed. And I enumerated, one by one, all the occasions when the same blameless persons, out of spite or out of pique or out of merely natural and ungracious cruelty, had chased me from temple after temple with secret anathemas, denied me my rites, and withdrawn from me the very hem of the skirt of fellowship. And I postulated that a well-minded man must have a religion. Therefore, without disloyalty to the gods of my own land, from whose worship my fellow-worshippers cut me off, I pronounced that it was permissible for me, in default of fulness, to use a moiety. Thus, then, I argued with myself, until I was satisfied, that is to say satisfied as nearly as might be.

And anon I addressed myself to my task, placing the crystal orb in the silver cup, and filling the last with Nile-water, while my familiar poured into the thirsty trench below the steps that magic emerald-coloured liquid, whose exact ingredients may not be told at large. Which having been well-done, we prepared to summon a Great One of the Greater Ones out of the Outer Immensity. And, for this cause, that the one whom I was about to summon was coming from so vast a distance of time, I knew that the heat of my magic staff would be immeasurably greater at this second summons than at the first. For movement is heat and heat is movement; and, the faster and longer the movement, the fiercer the heat of the burning.

But, while the priest Amenemhat sprinkled beautiful-smelling gum-tragacanth, I intoned the hymn _I am the One among the Forms which the Eye the Only One hath created_, and the incantation called _Of the Buckle of Red Jasper_; and then we both prayed to Ptah the Pain-lessener to make my ordeal as endurable as might be. It is true that I was not to have an additional burning from the fierce clear of the moon, since I was (this time) far beneath the earth: but I ceased not from my pure-minded prayers to Ptah, even when the crystal orb began to glow. For I was convinced that some catastrophe was at hand.

Wherefore, fearing lest the sudden death of his summoner (and I expected no less) should leave Amenemhat to drag out a weary existence for ever on man-breeding earth--for a spirit reincarnated by means of Nile-water must remain incarnate until his own incarnator shall permit him to depart his body--then, indeed, I hastily gave to my familiar the _Word of Freedom_, saying: “O Amenemhat, it seems that the time of our separation is at hand. But I am loth to part, for thou hast taught and served me well: but I will not help myself at another man’s serious cost. Therefore I free thee from my bond of rule, that thou mayst return to thy place when it shall seem good to thee. And, for thine own sake setting thee free, O Amenemhat, I bid thee farewell.”

But his response came to me very thinly, very reed-like: for his body instantly began to fade away from him; and he was fast becoming an Osirian and a spider’s-web-coloured mist in my sight. And he said: “O Nicholas, Conquistator of Peoples, I indeed thank thee for the respite from the gnawing weariness of Amentet which thou hast granted to me, by summoning me to tread the kindly earth for a space; and, in return, I will unfold to thee some pages of the book of thy destiny. For, having been and being now about to be an Osirian, I can read plainly in that book: yet I may not tell thee all, for the gods have forbidden it. And, ere thou hast lived another moon’s age, thou shalt see me as I used to be: for I and thou are linked together in an unbreakable cycle of nigh two thousand years. And I and thou will meet again in this land of Khem, I the priest of Tanis, and thou: for that awful round of years is----”

Thus he departed, leaving the unfinished phrase lapping against my mind. But I was very grievously perturbed: for, unless I read his prediction awry, I was doomed to die within the month. And I was not ready, having an infinity (an inconceivable infinity) of things to do, of souls to save, of sufferers to soothe, of oppression to remove, of wrongs to put right, of liars and thieves and slanderers to confute and to despoil and to shame, of cruelties to avenge with head-diggings and eye-gougings and revenges and slaughters and maimings and stonings and spine-impalings with much moaning, and many other mind-grieving evils. For which causes I was not ready to die then.

Wherefore, arising with shoutings from my lethargy, I adjured the mind in my dear breast to be very strong, very valiant indeed, very alert to withstand Death’s insidious onsets. For, though I had seen many things, I never yet had met personally beautiful Death the soother of men. And first, I set myself to endure the ordeal in which I was engaged. For lurid gleams were leaping from the emerald liquid in the trench, wafting hot breaths in my direction.

Instantly, stripping off my linen robe and casting it outside the circle, I again ascended to the porphyry altar; and grasped the magic staff with my bare hand. Now that my mind was blazing with firm courage, the staff at first seemed cold. Anon, a gentle wave of warmth flushed through it; and a dart of anguish shot into my flesh. Pang followed pang: stab pierced stab. More swiftly came fiercer thrusts of pain as the heat increased. But I kept my mind fixed and my lips addressed to Ptah the Pain-lessener. Great scorching flames flowed from the staff over my hand and arm. I seemed to be holding a nineteen-times-heated fire; and, yet, amid all the intolerable agony, I was ware that this was but the beginning of my torment.

The heat of the flame was so intense, that I looked for my arm to vanish away in impalpable ashes. Irresistible desire of dropping the staff assailed me; and my fingers loosened a little against my will. Like as the helmsman of a ship, whose rudder is shattered by wintry storms, and who (knowing the right course) is unable to steer his vessel, even so was I then. The staff fell out of my grasp: but the silver chain, which looped it round my wrist, prevented it from rolling away.

Instantly, the flames expired; and the lambent streamers in the divination-cup died down. But I stood, alone, in darkness.

After a space of gloom and silence, I saw tiny golden sparks floating in the vast circumferent void. But I watched them: for there seemed naught else for me to do, nor was my will any longer inclined to force leadlike unwilling limbs to act. And the sparks became spots. And the spots became swiftly-rolling globes of light. I tried to utter a _Spell_: but voice and hearing had deserted me.

I lay, crouched against the blood-red altar of porphyry. The globes of light changed, taking wonderful forms. All my members were enfeebled; and, indeed, only the mind in my breast was me. For my body had renounced its allegiance to my sway, and had gone apart from me in shocking rebellion, leaving me to die having nothing but my mind and my mind’s eye, which saw and thought the very queerest things, the most terrible, the most unheard-of.

All round me, I saw the spirits of my senses standing. On the left, was my hearing: on his right, was my smell: on his right again, was my sight: on the right of that one was my taste: on his right was my touch. Above these, hovered my life, in the form of a small white bird like a beautifully-crowned hoopoe. Behind them, were my powers of speech and movement, very large, and sudden, and frightful. And the mind in my breast told me that these things were so.

But all these shapes mopped and mowed and sighed at me; and my voice made as though he would have derided me, his fallen master: but the bird of life forbade him. And the shapes wagged and wavered horribly, gesticulating among themselves; and some seemed friendly: but others were undoubtedly hostile. And, suddenly, with a pitiful gesture, my hearing put up his hands and dived cleanly into me; and I heard faint voices, as one hears the whimpering of miners coming up a pit-shaft. For my powers and my senses were arguing against me: but the bird of life argued for me.

“Ye shall not leave him thus:” cried the bird.

“And who can prevent us?” shrieked the rebels.

“I,” said my life, “for I will not leave him; and how can ye wander lifeless through the wide-bosomed earth when I am here refusing to die?”

Then, indeed, the mind in my noble breast spoke unwinged words, saying the _Spell of Not Letting the Powers and Senses of a Man be Taken from Him in the Netherworld_; and, afterward, I intoned aloud: “How now, rebellious creatures, why dally in idleness when work remains to be done? Know ye your master; and obey.”

And, with shambling gait and visages rueful and ashamed, my senses and my powers obliqued each to his separate task.

But I staggered to my feet; and, seizing the divination-cup, I drained its cool contents, looping my arm through the chain of the crystal orb. And, at the moment, flames began to rise from the summit of the purple altar. Whitish-green they were, ever-increasing in volume, as though some mountain (a forge of the Kyklops) were vomiting from a new vent. And the flames rose higher and higher, till they licked the very apex of the hall ninety men’s heights above me; and there was neither smoke nor vapour: but only fervent flames, humming and buzzing and bounding upward with irresistible leapings. But, changing to violet, they vanished, leaving the place in a violet glare wherein was the whirring of wheels.

But I dismissed inertia; and, having my faculties under order, I began to look upon these happenings with a wholesome curiosity.

In the midst of the wheels were faces and figures and events, faint indeed at first, but growing clearer and firmer and more violent in movement till they displaced the wheels. But I watched very intently; and I saw the histories of mortal men of many different races being enacted before my eyes. For, things (which then were past, and since have been) were done in my sight in that secret subterranean hall of Thebes. Kings and queens and emperors and princes and republicans and patricians and plebeians swept in reverse order across my view, all doing their deeds. Time rushed enormously backward in tremendous panoramas. Great men died before they won their fame. Kings were deposed before they had been crowned. Nero and the Borgias and Cromwell and Asquith and the Jesuits[11] enjoyed eternal infamy and then began to earn it. My motherland, the kingdom of Victory queen of the stalwart stately Anglicans, melted into barbaric Britain: Byzantion melted into Rome; Venice into Henetian Altino; Hellas into innumerable migrations. Blows fell; and then were struck. Bearded men became smooth-skinned boys. Death came first; and birth came last. All things changed save one: silver Sihor’s living waters rolled down through the green streak of Egypt and the sacred Delta to the innumerably smiling sea.

Thus, was I whirled back through the rolling wheels of Time.

At length events were still. The medley of scenes vanished. And I was ware that I was alone with Another, Unknown, in a void of blackness, impenetrable, save where the blood-red altar glimmered obscurely; and, on it, was inthroned a Presence, shapeless, indistinguishable from the murky gloom.

But I was not afraid. And anon a voice spake to me, saying: “O man of many wiles and inquisitive mind, it is permitted to thee to have thy will, seeing that thy will is good and not evil. And, forasmuch as wicked and fatuous anointed ones are minded to neglect thee, wasting thee, throwing thee away as worthless, forasmuch also as the Maker of thy stars will not have His good work spoiled and His keen tool rusted or blunted by disuse or misuse, therefore, employment is granted to thee such as thine energy deserveth and as thy mind desireth. For which cause, thou art put back in time; and several lives are given thee to live, and several deeds to do, and several fountains of wisdom are laid bare to thee, so that (being perfected by much striving) at a favourable occasion thou mayst fulfil thy free and perdurable destiny.”

Thus having spoken, the Voice ceased. But I was alone, in the dark, very alert, inexpressibly elated, hugging huge joys in my superior mind; and my heart was throbbing like the tail of a lambkin in springtime drinking life from the ewe.

But the hall rocked slowly and more rapidly, with lamps and tones and the roaring of hurricanes and waterspouts and the vibrance of unmentioned and unthought-of music. And long tongues of white fire went before; and all the gods of Khem followed after in intolerable procession, Osiris and Isis and Heru the Child, and hawk-headed Ra in his splendour, and well-plumed watery Nu and Nut, and intelligent Ptah excessive in magnitude, and ram-headed Khnemu, and birdlike Khepera, and self-originated Tum, and feathered Shu, and lion-headed Tefnut, and Zeb the cackler, and Heru of the two horizons, and dark Set, and jackal-headed Anpu the way-opener, and ibis-headed Thoth the measurer, and Maat the straight, and Net the lady of heaven, and Sekhet the eye, and cat-headed Bast, and plumed Ansu with his flail, and mistress Ta Urt, and Hapi of the South with the papyrus, and Hapi of the North with the lotus, and Amen the Only One who has no second, and Mother Nut the sky his wife. And, all the while, I heard the shattering shaking of the sacred sistrum, denoting the presence of Divine Mother Isis, the Greatest of the Three.

But the Voice spake yet again to me, saying: “O man of many wiles and inquisitive mind, these are the forms of The Supreme, at this time to which thou art come.”

But I gazed on the assemblage of the gods, until my eyes were blinded; and, for a time, I saw no more.

Such, then, was the manifestation which I gained by magic art at Thebes.

_I, Empedokles son of Polypemon, a Rhodian, have written this. My lord the king ceased from dictating these histories, in order that he might lead a squadron of his flying chariots, waging against King Artavasdes, who_ (_audacious_) _has demanded tribute. And the Divine Herakles has gone with my lord the king. May unconquered Mithra, M.Z.L., P.S.U., D.O.M., S.H.C., M.E.L.F.,[12] prosper this undertaking. And I seal up the scrolls, impressing the wax with my lord the king’s own sigil of the crab and the moon. And these scrolls are written fairly by me, and sealed by me, Empedokles, the scribe, by command of my lord the king._[13]

FOOTNOTES:

[11] This synthesis strikes me as being really most remarkable. A. H.

[12] I can only elucidate these majuscules by reference to the Henetian inscription containing the Mithraic Morning Litanies (_Corona Matutina Mithraica_) lately discovered by Mr. Rolfe at Tauricellium (_Torcello_): “_Manceps Zodiacorum Luminum--Pater, Sospitator, Unificator--Deus Optimus Maximus--Sol, Heros, Creator,--Mundi Expiator, Lustrator, Fautor._” A. H.

[13] Several words in these documents are not to be found in my lexicons. On pronouncing them aloud, however, at a time when they worried me dreadfully, I discovered that they were mere phonetic traliterations, _e.g._ ΡΕΒΟΛΒΕΡ is evidently “revolver,” and I take ΟΥΑΔΤϹ for “watch.” Though, why Mr. Crabbe could not have continued to call these conveniences a “death-spitter” or a “fire-ball-spitter” and a “time-teller,” respectively, is something of a mystery to me. Perhaps we shall be safe in assuming that his attention, to the form of matter which he dictated, varied in intensity from time to time. It does so with the best of us. Nec semper tendet arcum Apollo. I surmise that Mr. C.’s “death-parcels” were cartridges, and (from another indication in the papyri) it may be asserted that they were tipped with an article or convenience called a “dumdum.” A. H.

THE FIFTH PAPYRUS

_I, King Balthazar of Moxoene, having been victorious once again over a barbarian people, and being wounded in battle, but not excessively, dictate these words to Empedokles, my scribe, to pass the time._

Having seen, therefore, the vast white hall in the secret subterranean temple at Thebes teeming full of the whole hierarchy of the gods of Khem with all their relative appanages; and, having watched these holy ones departing with the indicible pomp and splendour of their coming; and, having heard the mystic voice which told me the meaning of these manifestations, warning me of my connection with the same: anon, I was left to ponder all these admirable happenings.

Now the hall was flooded with soft white light, as it had been when I first entered it with Amenemhat. And, as I meditated, standing strongly at my ease by the altar of blood-red porphyry, I was ware that white carpets of silk (covered with silver embroideries) were looped from column to column all round the immense circle, between each pair of pillars a carpet hanging from capitals to bases. But the embroideries represented the Assessors of Amentet: throned in state they were; and they judged the dead, allotting some to the blissful abodes, and others to the flaming house of Set who gnawed them with his teeth ever champing in expectation of fresh meals. And, while I gazed on these things, I remembered how that Amenemhat had spoken of similar carpets. But, when I thought of that priest of Tanis, I was moved to hold a council with the mind in my dear breast concerning many things. For it seemed good to me to recall events in order, so that (knowing the past precisely) I might understand the present and proceed securely to the future. Wherefore, I reminded myself of my godlike dismissal of Amenemhat at a time when I awfully needed a friend, of the ordeal of the scorching staff, of the overwhelming and wily inquisitiveness which impelled me to persist in spite of failure, of the mind-delighting reward promised to my perseverance, of the flying whirling wheels which swept me back through panoramas of Time, of the apparition of the godlike company of Khem. And I considered all these things, fully and turn by turn, before I laid them away in the cells of my memory, as sedulous squirrels store nuts in hollow trees, making provision for winter. But, when, at length, I was satisfied, I came down the steps from the purple altar; and, gathering my priestly robe from the floor where I had cast it at the beginning of the ordeal, I clothed myself, and proceeded to the cloistral antechambers in search of the truck of baggage which Amenemhat had trundled, from the outer future world, into that arena of untimed immortality. For I was convinced that I no longer stood in time where I had been, but rather more than nineteen hundred years prior to the life which I had left. But, of this, I had no particular or human certainty, but only a general or divine one, for my watch told me that barely eleven hours had elapsed since my entrance into the place; and I firmly prepared myself to find that those eleven hours included nineteen centuries, and that the land of Egypt (which I had left flourishing under the rule of Victory queen of the stalwart stately Anglicans) was now cowering beneath the talons of Roman Eagles. But, having wound-up my watch, and feeling very hungry, I refreshed my body with the provisions in my baggage, leaving nothing for mice. Thus I did, in the cloister behind the embroidered carpets.

Afterward, it seemed good to me to take such matters as would be useful to me in my new life, and to dispose of the rest, before emerging into activity in the sweet sunlight. Accordingly, under my linen robe, I buckled on my belt of beautiful death-parcels with my death-spitter in its proper sling. And, above that belt, I buckled on my broad belt with the well-placed pockets, so that the two belts (one above another) became like a thorax protecting my vitals. But, in the well-sewn pockets of the broad belt, I bestowed my watch, and a box of wax-matches,[14] and my gold and silver money, and my pocket-book with its beautiful pencil,[15] and my Waterman’s Ideal Fountain Pen,[16] and my Foreign Office Passport,[17] with the circular notes from my bankers, and eight notes[18] each worth twenty-five ounces of gold. Thus having prepared myself, I laced the strong sandals on my feet, arranging the pleats of my robe conveniently to conceal what was underneath, yet leaving all things ready to be snatched-at in case of necessity. But there was nothing left, excepting my magic apparatus, and the truck and lanthorn which had come with me to the place.

But, on pondering the thing again, I was ware (from the carpets between the columns, and from a certain aspect of the porphyry altar), that the temple in which I stood was no longer a deserted temple, forgotten because buried by the lapse of ages, but actually a temple in daily use. From which portent, I also was ware that it behoved me to be ready to inflict my presence upon anyone (or at least to explain it plausibly to anyone) who by chance might totter in my direction, and, indeed, not to wait for such discovery, but to go at once in search of the society of articulately-speaking men, and to take my share in life as I should find it on the grain-giving earth.

For these reasons, then, I set my cabinet of essences and quintessences in a darkish recess, hiding it, in case I should need it again: but it remains there to this day. But I retraced my steps toward the causeway, recrossing the dark river; and, coming there, I broke my truck and lanthorn into pieces, and committed them to the swiftly-flowing stream. But I went on toward the light of the outer world, having the crystal orb (silver-banded with adornments of rose-crystals and blue moonstones) hanging by its chain from my neck, and the silver divination-cup in my left hand, and in my right the magic staff with its silver chain twisted round my wrist. Thus, I passed majestically through the antechambers; and a fold of my robe inshrouded my head, lest my silver hair and beard should bewray me to the shaveling priests guarding every portal. But they, seeing me emerging from the holy place with a holy and even mind and wearing priestly habiliments, were unperturbed; and, beside, the sight of the very beautiful instruments in my hands, and the _Word of Silence_ in the ancient tongue of Khem which I gave them in my passage, prevented any doubts of me from afflicting their ingenious minds. But also, of course, I was receiving favour from the gods.

So, at last, I stepped up through the secret trap-door on to the sandy plain under the full blaze of radiant Ra. And I at once perceived a difference. For the plain, with its low pillar on the spit of pebbles, was the same, but infinitely smaller; and, below me, where I had left desolate ruins, was a city heaped with mighty fanes and splendid palaces. I, Nicholas Crabbe, liegeman of Victory queen of the stalwart stately Anglicans, gazed with my live well-seeing eyes, not a puny Luxor, but on Thebes of the Hundred Gates, Menes’ Thebes, Thotmes’ Thebes, the capital of the Upper Land, the great metropolis of the south, in glory inconceivable, and yet not yet in its greatest glory.

For a time, I stood, musing at the wonder to which my wiles had brought me, and contriving many plans. For, it appeared to me, that (though I had done very well as a priest of Isis in extricating myself from the temple) the mind in my lordly breast was yearning for a wider more-strenuous life, in which my wisdom and my power (but now considerable) might be used and (if possible) augmented. And, for this reason, it seemed well to seek yet another guise before entering the city.

But a certain remembrance set me searching the rock-strewn plain; and, by chance, about an hour before sunset, by favour of some god, I came to the cavity under certain boulders, where I had seen fit to hide a small teak-wood chest lined with aluminium, when I came to that place with my familiar Amenemhat. Now I am ignorant of the reason why I found it there, for the time when I hid it there is even now very far in the future. But, as I had found my baggage in the secret hall, with the food (which I brought from the era of Victory queen of the stalwart stately Anglicans) still sweet and fresh more than nineteen centuries before its actual confection, I was not then, and I am not now, disposed to vibrate the air with explanations of what no one can understand. It is enough that I found my teak-wood chest in the place where some day I shall no doubt hide it, and that its contents provided me with easy and beautiful garments wherewith I promptly indued myself, namely, a pair of brown leather boots, with a flannel jacket and trousers, and a silk shirt and socks, all of a very pale grey colour, and a soft felt hat of the same hue but of the shape affected by Hermes.[19] But when I had clothed myself in these well-cut garments, I buckled my revolver-belt outside them, and hanged a leathern satchel, containing my crystal orb and my divination-cup, over my wide shoulders. But I kept the magic staff in my right hand to twirl and flourish by the way; and, so, I set out for the city.

A well-carved open chariot passed by; and the slave, driving, gazed curiously on my strange form. Around me, on both sides of the wide white road, brick-red tillers of the soil toiled with bent backs amid the emerald crops. Another chariot passed me; and halted a little further on for the naked charioteer to gaze upon me with jaw-dropped amazement. At the gate of the city, I saw fierce Makedonians on guard, clothed (as was the fashion of their race) with copper armour blazing like red gold, and kirtles of the well-cured skins of ponies, and great crested helmets on their heads, and long spears of tough ashwood in their hands, very brave to look upon. And, as I came near, one (the most righteous of men) said to his fellows: “I say, here is well-hatted Hermes!”

“Aye:” responded another: “and the godly youth goeth attired for this hot land in grey cloud-garments, shielding his tender skin from Helios his rays.”

“Ho, stranger!” cried a third. “Stand thou, and say whether thou art god or man, and what contraband thou bearest in thy bag, and whether thou art friendly to the Pharoah.”

Now while the usual dirty little boys and loafers and inquisitive women were assembling, I realized that I had to do with Argyraspides, seeing that the shields of the soldiers were laminated with silver; and, moreover, I perceived that they were offering me the _Sign of the Shield-rim_.[20] But I used wiles, answering: “First tell ye me who the Pharoah is, and why ye Argives serve the lord of Khem.”

Thus I spoke: but deep-seated indignation swept from their hearts across their faces, even as Sihor’s stream inundates the thirsty land in flood-time. And anon one chirruped: “O thou silly fellow! The divine Ayletes is the Pharoah whom we serve.”

“Ayletes?” I cried. “Is, then, Ptolemaios Dionysos the Piper lord of sacred Khem? And are ye Makedonians minions of the Lagidai?”

“Aye, stranger:” the blameless guard responded: “Makedonians we are, but no slaves of that Flute-player. Of our own will we serve Ptolemaios, for pay and for promotion. But, who art thou?” he continued. “Who art thou, who seemest first to know nothing and then to know everything? And why art thou thus garbed? And what bearest thou there?”

Then, indeed, I was wily: for I made them the _Countersign of the Shieldnavel_;[21] and I said, in a parable which he who has a grain of sense may read: “I am Karkinos Gampsonyx called Oypogonos, son of Kallikhronos, born of Nomadikos, begotten by Eypator son of Eygenes who sprang from the great race of the Selenidai. And I go thus garbed because I have a lordly mind to go thus garbed. And, in my hand, I bear that which is Life. And, on my thigh, I bear that which is death.”

Thus I spoke. But the sentinels cowered before me, muttering among themselves: “He knoweth the great _Countersign_: Yet he is not of us, neither of present-born men, victims not masters of life and of death: but he is some god or hero out of the Netherworld.” But to me they said: “Pass freely, O Karkinos Oypogonos of the multitudinous paternity, who art lord of life and death. And the Piper may stop thee if he will: but we will have nothing to do with it.”

But I went smoothly into the city. And men cast wondering looks at me, because of my strange aspect; but, because I had been able to cause the insolent soldiers of the corrupt Lagidai to shrink from me, I was sufficiently admired. Now the sun was near his setting; and the mind in my breast earnestly desired to seek a small place of my own, near water, where I might rest awhile, watching for an opportunity of mingling advantageously with mortal men. For, indeed, I have ever had a natural longing to be near water, and useful to men. Wherefore, having found my way to the river, I addressed myself to an Argive colonist, and he was a master of barges, who (by chance) was seeing his barks laid up for the night. And from him I demanded the hire of a convenient barge, intending to sail downstream to the Delta, that (during the voyage) I might tranquilly estimate the wisdom which I had, and perhaps acquire more, and also take part in such adventures as the gods might assign to my treatment.

But the bargeman answered me, saying: “No barges, O lord, can pass down Sihor to the Delta, now. For the wild mercenaries of the Pharoah have mutinied at Anteiopolis for an increase of wages.”

“I know,” I said, “that there are masterless hounds everywhere.”

“But these, lord, are not masterless: for they serve Pyrrhos, one of themselves, a ruddy-locked barbarian, who has made Thebes (the sacred city of the ram-headed god) a byword through the Upper Land and the Lower, requiring of us (as tribute) whole meals of the milk of mice as well as a ransom of much gold.”

“But the guards of the Lagidai--” I began.

He interrupted me: “Lord, they league with Pyrrhos; and a share of his spoils keeps them in their quarters while he bites our necks.”

“But, why do not ye, Thebans, resist this freebooter?”

“There is no strength left to us, lord, since the dread Pharoah Ptolemaios Lathyros sacked Thebes: whom may Set snatch, and his heart be eaten alive by slow-worms, hornets, and interminably-tongued chameleons----”

“Peace, fellow!” I snarled. “Nor soil thine Argive mouth with barbaric imprecations. And know that I will sail for the Delta, though a myriad of outlaws be between here and there.”

“Then, lord, thou wilt go alone: for no boatman will risk his life.”

“Not for gold?” I inquired, shewing a handful of coins.

Then, indeed, the man wavered, curiously examining the money. But he said: “Oh, where were these well-minted pieces struck? For they are over-round and too well-stamped to come from a barbaric mint. And, O lord, who art thou?”

But, being aware that he was as much in my power as though the knuckles of my first and second blooming fingers clutched the tender nose of him, and being desirous at length to make an end of bargaining, I answered him, saying: “Whom I am, thou shalt know on a fitting occasion: but, that I am to be obeyed, thou shalt know now. Let therefore thine eyes gaze in this direction.”

With which words, I stretched out my magic staff to the life-giving river, whispering a certain _Spell of Summons_. And the sons of slime surged up with great swirlings, the many-fanged far-sweeping crocodiles, while I slowly swayed my staff in rhythm with the inchantment which sang within me. But they came in cohorts from far and near, with huge eddyings of the dark-brown water; and they lay winking in close lines by the jetty, expecting orders from me their summoner.

But the heart of the bargeman became like dripping in a hot pan; and he said: “Lord, I perceive that thou art the Divine Hermes at least, with that wonderful wand: for none but thou, and only thou on a very important message from All-father Zeys, could do this thing.”

To whom I gave a stern word, saying: “Be ware of opposing the counsels of Zeys, or of hindering Hermes. For the minions of Pyrrhos have no more power over me than had the Makedonians of the Lagidai. But, even as I command these sons of slime, so am I superior to all earth-stamping men.”

“Dreadful lord,” he answered at once, “take the best of my barges: for Nesamun my brother-in-law, who has more skill in boatmanship than I, shall indeed go with thee this minute in his own barge.”

Having succeeded in my wile, I dismissed the Argive to see to the business. But I waited, watching the crocodiles having their teeth cleaned and blinking luxuriously, till I was tired of their musky exhalations. And, having given them leave, they returned to their stations in the slime. And anon, seeing that the barge was being prepared very speedily, I bade the bargeman that his brother-in-law should visit me; and to him I gave order that he should take a stock of provisions, buying also a slave-boy of lusty form and a mind incapable of fear, with other things which were necessary. Furthermore, I said that all was to be ready for sailing at dawn. And, having offered two quarter-ounces of gold of Victory queen of the stalwart stately Anglicans to the bargeman for his charges, he foolishly refused the same, abasing himself to the earth as before a god. But I, having ascended the gangway, entered my cabin, where I ate a melon and some cheeses and pigeons; and betook myself to slumber.

These things I did in Thebes of the Hundred Gates.

FOOTNOTES:

[14] All these words are written in English. A. H.

[15] All these words are written in English. A. H.

[16] All these words are written in English. A. H.

[17] All these words are written in English. A. H.

[18] All these words are written in English. A. H.

[19] All these words are written in English. A. H.

[20] The original has “ΑΝΤΥΞ.” A. H.

[21] The original has “ΟΜΦΑΛΟϹ.” It is extremely humiliating to confess that I have not been able, so far, to trace this _Sign_ and _Countersign_ to any existing Rite. I am deeply pained and mortified. A. H.

THE SIXTH PAPYRUS

When Day with her white steeds was come (most beautiful to behold), and the dawn was yet cool, then indeed I examined my barge with its contents and its mariners. And I saw that Nesamun was a nimble and mightily powerful youth, and that Yokkho the slave was slim and very eager, both stripped for work, and of a brick-red colour, with long black and white eyes, and closely shaven polls which they covered with a napkin as is the custom among the Egyptians. But they carried girdles in their bundles. And I saw that the barge was long and flattish, having two bulwarks. But there was a chief cabin in the waist; and the roof of it was like a deck: but the low waist was open. And, at the prow, there was a smaller cabin, with a deck above it, whereon a slave might stand to shove the barge off shoals and sandbanks with the well-handled pole. And there was a third cabin at the stern; and the steersman stood on the roof of it wielding the cunning steering-oar. But, in the waist, was a lofty mast, with a triangular sail of woven reeds and the cordage relative thereto. And, having seen all these things, I inspected the baskets of provisions; and these were very grateful to the mind. For there was fresh bread, and much wheat (the marrow of men), and many cheeses, and fruits both fresh and dried, with jars of wine from Kos and Korinth, and vinegar, and condiments, and nuts. But, when I had given an order, all these things were stored in the fore-cabin. And I bade the boatman and his boy to take the aft-cabin for themselves, so that their smells might not come to me, as I slept in the chief cabin, or took the air in the waist, or on the main deck during the voyage. Not that they were in any wise disagreeable, being both healthy and naked and constantly washed: but so I willed it, for (at that time) my stomach heaved at the odour of all mortals. And, these matters having been settled, Yokkho pulled the gangway into the barge, while Nesamun pushed out on to the placid bosom of Hapi-hallowed Sihor. But, when they had hoisted the sail, a favourable breeze assisted the slow stream to waft us toward the distant Delta.

In this manner, I departed from hundred-gated Thebes.

But I began to ponder the past: for this always has been, and always is, and always will be, my singular habit, recounting in my dear mind every particular of the things which I had done, or which had been done to me, weighing their worth and import and possibilities, rejecting some to fall into oblivion, but storing others in my memory until such time when they might be used for my advantage. And, of all the things which I had done during the last two days, there were two things which I regretted. The first was that I had left my magic cabinet with the papyrus-enkheiridion at Thebes; and the second was that I had left my priestly robe and sandals in the cavity under the boulders on the plain. But, nevertheless, the mind in my noble breast bade me be of good cheer, relinquishing all matters, even greater than these, without a backward thought; and going forward boldheartedly in search of fresh adventures, and the more boldly as the more barehandedly, seeing that greater wisdom is to be gained by the simple, and more blooming laurels are to be won by the absolutely naked, than by the trained philosopher, or by the heavyarmed. Furthermore, the divine ones inhabiting olympian palaces put into my mind an unmentioned and unthought-of action. For I remembered the prediction of Amenemhat, how he said that within the month I should meet him again. For, since those words, Time had rolled back for me, so that it seemed that I was now actually living in the former lifetime of Amenemhat. And, also, it seemed that (if these things were so) the friendly priest would be performing his functions at Tanis in the Delta: to which place I, undoubtedly by the direction of the gods, was at that moment proceeding. Wherefore, taking courage from the thought that, though I had not all which I might have had, still, I had a great deal, to wit, the prospect of meeting a friend, the divination-cup, the crystal orb, and the magic staff, beside my arms and my money all safely stored in my cabin, to say nothing of the inestimable wisdom which I had so far attained, then, indeed, I became cheerful of heart; and set myself to take my pleasure from what was round about me.

For, as I walked about my deck, I saw the stalwart Nesamun poised like some grand archaic carving in carnelian jasper, at one moment lithe, and at another moment rigid, intent upon his business at the steering-oar. And, at his feet, across the narrow aft-deck, Yokkho was stretched at length, busy with fishing-lines which trailed behind in golden Sihor. All around, were the rolling waters, bordered with leaves like living emeralds; and, above, the great splendour of Ra flamed in the turquoise-coloured dome of the heavens. Nothing broke the stillness, excepting ripples lapping about the well-carved prow, or when the slave laughed contentedly, drawing a silver fish from the stream from time to time and tossing it to flap in a heap below Nesamun’s feet.

But when fishes enough for a meal for my crew had been caught, for fish is a food which my gorge rejects without even trying it, then I called Yokkho to me, demanding that he should soothe me with singing. And, having fetched a certain well-sounding harp from his baggage, he began to tighten the strings. But I saw that the harp was an old one, very dilapidated, and the gilding and the paint were both worn off, leaving bare wood to be seen. And also I knew it for the harp of a priest of Khem, though one of the glass eyes of the face on the base had fallen out, and the face itself was so broken and discoloured that it was not to be decyphered either as of a god or of a man. And the slave-boy said that, having been rescued from a sunken temple-barge at Philai where he dived for it, the harp had been damaged by water. For which cause, he fitted it with new strings, the frame being still whole. And when at length he had tuned it, crouching on his hams and pressing it to his tender shoulder, then he opened his throat and began to sing. But his song was in a rude metre, with a pæan of praise at the end of every tenth strophe; and he would have continued singing even unto this day: for his song was as interminable as that endless song of future Galatia which will be called _Jean François de Nantes_.[22] But long before weariness prevented his hand from twanging the strings, I myself called for silence, demanding the name of his ditty. And he said that it was one of the folk-songs of the watermen of the Thebaid. This, then, was the song which Yokkho sang:

_Slowly return we
deeply deploring
great Hapi’s anger:
we have enanger’d
Sihor’s protector:
we must propitiate,
or we shall starve:
He is offended:
our nets go empty:
Let us lament it._

_Great is Hapi:
worship Hapi:
mighty Hapi,
grant us favour._

_Now let the Ueb
pour out the red wine:
now let the Kherkeb
offer our prayer,
that our petitions,
eager and earnest,
with a sweet savour
upward may fly,
mounting to Hapi
dwelling in Duät._

_Great is Hapi:
worship Hapi:
mighty Hapi,
grant us favour._

_Then will the dread lord,
dread lord of Sihor,
smell the sweet odour
and hear our prayer:
leaping from Eäru
amid the grain-fields,
and earthward flying,
the sacred Sahus
will speed his flight
to our rejoicing._

_Great is Hapi:
worship Hapi:
mighty Hapi,
grant us favour._

_Then he will fill
full, even fuller,
each fisher’s net,
till inward trawling
we seize the prey;
and load our boats
with Sobk his food.
All will be purchased.
But we remember,
in our good fortune,
Hapi the Giver._

_Great is Hapi:
worship Hapi:
mighty Hapi,
grant us favour._

_We have offended;
and, on a sandbank,
we are held prisoners;
and the storm rages
tearing our sail:
winds blind us with spray,
while the sons of the slime
creep o’er our quarter,
each seizing victims
shrieking in vain._

_Great is Hapi:
worship Hapi:
mighty Hapi,
grant us favour...._

But when I had made an end of his singing, I gave him a small coin of no value to me, which seemed to him wealth incalculable, he being such a simple little fellow. And, having praised his pretty voice, a most innocent one and not by any means shrill, I turned to Nesamun demanding a meal. For, the sun being on his zenith, it was my pleasure to eat before sleeping. And, having brought me cheeses and gherkins and cakes of bread and fresh fruit and a jar of wine where I sat in the shade of my cabin, the mariners went ashore and filled their own bellies with the fish which they broiled in papyrus on a fire. But, when they had bathed and returned to the barge, we again set sail, Nesamun guiding the steering-oar, and Yokkho fanning me with a palm-leaf where I slept in the cool cabin.