Moon of Israel: A Tale of the Exodus Read online

  As it chanced, although the Prince Seti and I were born upon the sameday and therefore, like the other mothers of gentle rank whose childrensaw the light upon that day, my mother received Pharaoh's gift and Ireceived the title of Royal Twin in Ra, never did I set eyes upon thedivine Prince Seti until the thirtieth birthday of both of us. All ofwhich happened thus.

  In those days the great Pharaoh, Rameses the second, and after him hisson Meneptah who succeeded when he was already old, since the mightyRameses was taken to Osiris after he had counted one hundred risings ofthe Nile, dwelt for the most part at the city of Tanis in the desert,whereas I dwelt with my parents at the ancient, white-walled city ofMemphis on the Nile. At times Meneptah and his court visited Memphis, asalso they visited Thebes, where this king lies in his royal tomb to-day.But save on one occasion, the young Prince Seti, the heir-apparent, theHope of Egypt, came not with them, because his mother, Asnefert, did notfavour Memphis, where some trouble had befallen her in youth--theysay it was a love matter that cost the lover his life and her a soreheart--and Seti stayed with his mother who would not suffer him out ofsight of her eyes.

  Once he came indeed when he was fifteen years of age, to be proclaimedto the people as son of his father, as Son of the Sun, as the futurewearer of the Double Crown, and then we, his twins in Ra--there werenineteen of us who were gently born--were called by name to meet himand to kiss his royal feet. I made ready to go in a fine new robeembroidered in purple with the name of Seti and my own. But on that verymorning by the gift of some evil god I was smitten with spots allover my face and body, a common sickness that affects the young. So ithappened that I did not see the Prince, for before I was well again hehad left Memphis.

  Now my father Meri was a scribe of the great temple of Ptah, and I wasbrought up to his trade in the school of the temple, where I copiedmany rolls and also wrote out Books of the Dead which I adorned withpaintings. Indeed, in this business I became so clever that, after myfather went blind some years before his death, I earned enough to keephim, and my sisters also until they married. Mother I had none, for shewas gathered to Osiris while I was still very little. So life went onfrom year to year, but in my heart I hated my lot. While I was still aboy there rose up in me a desire--not to copy what others had written,but to write what others should copy. I became a dreamer of dreams.Walking at night beneath the palm-trees upon the banks of the Nile Iwatched the moon shining upon the waters, and in its rays I seemed tosee many beautiful things. Pictures appeared there which were differentfrom any that I saw in the world of men, although in them were men andwomen and even gods.

  Of these pictures I made stories in my heart and at last, although thatwas not for some years, I began to write these stories down in my sparehours. My sisters found me doing so and told my father, who scolded mefor such foolishness which he said would never furnish me with breadand beer. But still I wrote on in secret by the light of the lamp in mychamber at night. Then my sisters married, and one day my father diedsuddenly while he was reciting prayers in the temple. I caused him to beembalmed in the best fashion and buried with honour in the tomb he hadmade ready for himself, although to pay the costs I was obliged to copyBooks of the Dead for nearly two years, working so hard that I found notime for the writing of stories.

  When at length I was free from debt I met a maiden from Thebes with abeautiful face that always seemed to smile, and she took my heart frommy breast into her own. In the end, after I returned from fighting inthe war against the Nine Bow Barbarians, to which I was summoned likeother men, I married her. As for her name, let it be, I will not thinkof it even to myself. We had one child, a little girl which died withintwo years of her birth, and then I learned what sorrow can mean toman. At first my wife was sad, but her grief departed with time and shesmiled again as she used to do. Only she said that she would bear nomore children for the gods to take. Having little to do she began to goabout the city and make friends whom I did not know, for of these, beinga beautiful woman, she found many. The end of it was that she departedback to Thebes with a soldier whom I had never seen, for I was alwaysworking at home thinking of the babe who was dead and how happiness is abird that no man can snare, though sometimes, of its own will, it fliesin at his window-place.

  It was after this that my hair went white before I had counted thirtyyears.

  Now, as I had none to work for and my wants were few and simple, I foundmore time for the writing of stories which, for the most part, weresomewhat sad. One of these stories a fellow scribe borrowed from me andread aloud to a company, whom it pleased so much that there were manywho asked leave to copy it and publish it abroad. So by degrees I becameknown as a teller of tales, which tales I caused to be copied and sold,though out of them I made but little. Still my fame grew till on a dayI received a message from the Prince Seti, my twin in Ra, saying that hehad read certain of my writings which pleased him much and that it washis wish to look upon my face. I thanked him humbly by the messenger andanswered that I would travel to Tanis and wait upon his Highness. First,however, I finished the longest story which I had yet written. It wascalled the Tale of Two Brothers, and told how the faithless wife of oneof them brought trouble on the other, so that he was killed. Of how,also, the just gods brought him to life again, and many other matters.This story I dedicated to his Highness, the Prince Seti, and with it inthe bosom of my robe I travelled to Tanis, having hidden about me a sumof gold that I had saved.

  So I came to Tanis at the beginning of winter and, walking to the palaceof the Prince, boldly demanded an audience. But now my troubles began,for the guards and watchmen thrust me from the doors. In the end Ibribed them and was admitted to the antechambers, where were merchants,jugglers, dancing-women, officers, and many others, all of them, itseemed, waiting to see the Prince; folk who, having nothing to do,pleased themselves by making mock of me, a stranger. When I had mixedwith them for several days, I gained their friendship by telling to themone of my stories, after which I was always welcome among them. StillI could come no nearer to the Prince, and as my store of money wasbeginning to run low, I bethought me that I would return to Memphis.

  One day, however, a long-bearded old man, with a gold-tipped wand ofoffice, who had a bull's head embroidered on his robe, stopped in frontof me and, calling me a white-headed crow, asked me what I was doinghopping day by day about the chambers of the palace. I told him my nameand business and he told me his, which it seemed was Pambasa, one ofthe Prince's chamberlains. When I asked him to take me to the Prince,he laughed in my face and said darkly that the road to his Highness'spresence was paved with gold. I understood what he meant and gave him agift which he took as readily as a cock picks corn, saying that he wouldspeak of me to his master and that I must come back again.

  I came thrice and each time that old cock picked more corn. At last Igrew enraged and, forgetting where I was, began to shout at him andcall him a thief, so that folks gathered round to listen. This seemedto frighten him. At first he looked towards the door as though to summonthe guard to thrust me out; then changed his mind, and in a grumblingvoice bade me follow him. We went down long passages, past soldiers whostood at watch in them still as mummies in their coffins, till at lengthwe came to some broidered curtains. Here Pambasa whispered to me towait, and passed through the curtains which he left not quite closed, sothat I could see the room beyond and hear all that took place there.

  It was a small room like to that of any scribe, for on the tables werepalettes, pens of reed, ink in alabaster vases, and sheets of papyruspinned upon boards. The walls were painted, not as I was wont to paintthe Books of the Dead, but after the fashion of an earlier time, such asI have seen in certain ancient tombs, with pictures of wild fowl risingfrom the swamps and of trees and plants as they grow. Against the wallshung racks in which were papyrus rolls, and on the hearth burned a fireof cedar-wood.

  By this fire stood the Prince, whom I knew from his statues. His yearsappeared fewer than mine although we were born upon the same day, and hewas t
all and thin, very fair also for one of our people, perhaps becauseof the Syrian blood that ran in his veins. His hair was straight andbrown like to that of northern folk who come to trade in the markets ofEgypt, and his eyes were grey rather than black, set beneath somewhatprominent brows such as those of his father, Meneptah. His face wassweet as a woman's, but made curious by certain wrinkles which ran fromthe corners of the eyes towards the ears. I think that these camefrom the bending of the brow in thought, but others say that they wereinherited from an ancestress on the female side. Bakenkhonsu my friend,the old prophet who served under the first Seti and died but the otherday, having lived a hundred and twenty years, told me that he knew herbefore she was married, and that she and her descendant, Seti, mighthave been twins.

  In his hand the Prince held an open roll, a very ancient writing as I,who am skilled in such matters that have to do with my trade, knew fromits appearance. Lifting his eyes suddenly from the study of this roll,he saw the chamberlain standing before him.

  "You came at a good time, Pambasa," he said in a voice that was verysoft and pleasant, and yet most manlike. "You are old and doubtlesswise. Say, are you wise, Pambasa?"

  "Yes, your Highness. I am wise like your Highness's uncle, Khaemuas themighty magician, whose sandals I used to clean when I was young."

  "Is it so? Then why are you so careful to hide your wisdom which shouldbe open like a flower for us poor bees to suck at? Well, I am glad tolearn that you are wise, for in this book of magic that I have beenreading I find problems worthy of Khaemuas the departed, whom I onlyremember as a brooding, black-browed man much like my cousin, Amenmeseshis son--save that no one can call Amenmeses wise."

  "Why is your Highness glad?"

  "Because you, being by your own account his equal, can now interpret thematter as Khaemuas would have done. You know, Pambasa, that had he livedhe would have been Pharaoh in place of my father. He died too soon,however, which proves to me that there was something in this tale ofhis wisdom, since no really wise man would ever wish to be Pharaoh ofEgypt."

  Pambasa stared with his mouth open.

  "Not wish to be Pharaoh!" he began--

  "Now, Pambasa the Wise," went on the Prince as though he had not heardhim. "Listen. This old book gives a charm 'to empty the heart of itsweariness,' that it says is the oldest and most common sickness in theworld from which only kittens, some children, and mad people are free.It appears that the cure for this sickness, so says the book, is tostand on the top of the pyramid of Khufu at midnight at that moment whenthe moon is largest in the whole year, and drink from the cup of dreams,reciting meanwhile a spell written here at length in language which Icannot read."

  "There is no virtue in spells, Prince, if anyone can read them."

  "And no use, it would seem, if they can be read by none."

  "Moreover, how can any one climb the pyramid of Khufu, which is coveredwith polished marble, even in the day let alone at midnight, yourHighness, and there drink of the cup of dreams?"

  "I do not know, Pambasa. All I know is that I weary of this foolishness,and of the world. Tell me of something that will lighten my heart, forit is heavy."

  "There are jugglers without, Prince, one of whom says he can throw arope into the air and climb up it until he vanishes into heaven."

  "When he has done it in your sight, Pambasa, bring him to me, butnot before. Death is the only rope by which we climb to heaven--or belowered into hell. For remember there is a god called Set, after whom,like my great-grandfather, I am named by the way--the priests alone knowwhy--as well as one called Osiris."

  "Then there are the dancers, Prince, and among them some very finelymade girls, for I saw them bathing in the palace lake, such as wouldhave delighted the heart of your grandfather, the great Rameses."

  "They do not delight my heart who want no naked women prancing here. Tryagain, Pambasa."

  "I can think of nothing else, Prince. Yet, stay. There is a scribewithout named Ana, a thin, sharp-nosed man who says he is yourHighness's twin in Ra."

  "Ana!" said the Prince. "He of Memphis who writes stories? Why did younot say so before, you old fool? Let him enter at once, at once."

  Now hearing this I, Ana, walked through the curtains and prostratedmyself, saying,

  "I am that scribe, O Royal Son of the Sun."

  "How dare you enter the Prince's presence without being bidden----"began Pambasa, but Seti broke in with a stern voice, saying,

  "And how dare you, Pambasa, keep this learned man waiting at my doorlike a dog? Rise, Ana, and cease from giving me titles, for we are notat Court. Tell me, how long have you been in Tanis?"

  "Many days, O Prince," I answered, "seeking your presence and in vain."

  "And how did you win it at last?"

  "By payment, O Prince," I answered innocently, "as it seems is usual.The doorkeepers----"

  "I understand," said Seti, "the doorkeepers! Pambasa, you will ascertainwhat amount this learned scribe has disbursed to 'the doorkeepers' andrefund him double. Begone now and see to the matter."

  So Pambasa went, casting a piteous look at me out of the corner of hiseye.

  "Tell me," said Seti when he was gone, "you who must be wise in yourfashion, why does a Court always breed thieves?"

  "I suppose for the same reason, O Prince, that a dog's back breedsfleas. Fleas must live, and there is the dog."

  "True," he answered, "and these palace fleas are not paid enough. Ifever I have power I will see to it. They shall be fewer but better fed.Now, Ana, be seated. I know you though you do not know me, and already Ihave learned to love you through your writings. Tell me of yourself."

  So I told him all my simple tale, to which he listened without a word,and then asked me why I had come to see him. I replied that it wasbecause he had sent for me, which he had forgotten; also because Ibrought him a story that I had dared to dedicate to him. Then I laid theroll before him on the table.

  "I am honoured," he said in a pleased voice, "I am greatly honoured.If I like it well, your story shall go to the tomb with me for my Kato read and re-read until the day of resurrection, though first I willstudy it in the flesh. Do you know this city of Tanis, Ana?"

  I answered that I knew little of it, who had spent my time here hauntingthe doors of his Highness.

  "Then with your leave I will be your guide through it this night, andafterwards we will sup and talk."

  I bowed and he clapped his hands, whereon a servant appeared, notPambasa, but another.

  "Bring two cloaks," said the Prince, "I go abroad with the scribe, Ana.Let a guard of four Nubians, no more, follow us, but at a distance anddisguised. Let them wait at the private entrance."

  The man bowed and departed swiftly.

  Almost immediately a black slave appeared with two long hooded cloaks,such as camel-drivers wear, which he helped us to put on. Then, takinga lamp, he led us from the room through a doorway opposite to that bywhich I had entered, down passages and a narrow stair that ended in acourtyard. Crossing this we came to a wall, great and thick, in whichwere double doors sheathed with copper that opened mysteriously at ourapproach. Outside of these doors stood four tall men, also wrapped incloaks, who seemed to take no note of us. Still, looking back when wehad gone a little way, I observed that they were following us, as thoughby chance.

  How fine a thing, thought I to myself, it is to be a Prince who bylifting a finger can thus command service at any moment of the day ornight.

  Just at that moment Seti said to me:

  "See, Ana, how sad a thing it is to be a Prince, who cannot even stirabroad without notice to his household and commanding the service of asecret guard to spy upon his every action, and doubtless to make reportthereof to the police of Pharaoh."

  There are two faces to everything, thought I to myself again.