Moon of Israel: A Tale of the Exodus Read online

  "Why did you tell me you were a scribe, my lord Ana?" asked Pambasa, ashe led me to my beautiful sleeping-place.

  "Because that is my trade, Chamberlain."

  He looked at me, shaking his great head till the long white beard wavedacross his breast like a temple banner in the faint evening breeze, andanswered:

  "You are no scribe, you are a magician who can win the love and favourof his Highness in an hour which others cannot do between two risingsof the Nile. Had you said so at once, you would have been differentlytreated yonder in the hall of waiting. Forgive me therefore what I didin ignorance, and, my lord, I pray it may please you not to melt away inthe night, lest my feet should answer for it beneath the sticks."

  It was the fourth hour from sunrise of the following day that, for thefirst time in my life I found myself in the Court of Pharaoh standingwith other members of his household in the train of his Highness, thePrince Seti. It was a very great place, for Pharaoh sat in the judgmenthall, whereof the roof is upheld by round and sculptured columns,between which were set statues of Pharaohs who had been. Save atthe throne end of the hall, where the light flowed down throughclerestories, the vast chamber was dim almost to darkness; at least soit seemed to me entering there out of the brilliant sunshine. Throughthis gloom many folk moved like shadows; captains, nobles, and stateofficers who had been summoned to the Court, and among them white-robedand shaven priests. Also there were others of whom I took no count, suchas Arab headmen from the desert, traders with jewels and other wares tosell, farmers and even peasants with petitions to present, lawyers andtheir clients, and I know not who besides, through which of all thesenone were suffered to advance beyond a certain mark where the lightbegan to fall. Speaking in whispers all of these folk flitted to and frolike bats in a tomb.

  We waited between two Hathor-headed pillars in one of the vestibules ofthe hall, the Prince Seti, who was clad in purple-broidered garments andwore upon his brow a fillet of gold from which rose the uraeus or hoodedsnake, also of gold, that royal ones alone might wear, leaning againstthe base of a statue, while the rest of us stood silent behind him.For a time he was silent also, as a man might be whose thoughts wereotherwhere. At length he turned and said to me:

  "This is weary work. Would I had asked you to bring that new tale ofyours, Scribe Ana, that we might have read it together."

  "Shall I tell you the plot of it, Prince?"

  "Yes. I mean, not now, lest I should forget my manners listening to you.Look," and he pointed to a dark-browed, fierce-eyed man of middle agewho passed up the hall as though he did not see us, "there goes mycousin, Amenmeses. You know him, do you not?"

  I shook my head.

  "Then tell me what you think of him, at once before the first judgmentfades."

  "I think he is a royal-looking lord, obstinate in mind and strong inbody, handsome too in his way."

  "All can see that, Ana. What else?"

  "I think," I said in a low voice so that none might overhear, "that hisheart is as black as his brow; that he has grown wicked with jealousyand hate and will do you evil."

  "Can a man grow wicked, Ana? Is he not as he was born till the end? I donot know, nor do you. Still you are right, he is jealous and will do meevil if it brings him good. But tell me, which of us will triumph at thelast?"

  While I hesitated what to answer I became aware that someone had joinedus. Looking round I perceived a very ancient man clad in a white robe.He was broad-faced and bald-headed, and his eyes burned beneath hisshaggy eyebrows like two coals in ashes. He supported himself on a staffof cedar-wood, gripping it with both hands that for thinness were liketo those of a mummy. For a while he considered us both as though he werereading our souls, then said in a full and jovial voice:

  "Greeting, Prince."

  Seti turned, looked at him, and answered:

  "Greeting, Bakenkhonsu. How comes it that you are still alive? When weparted at Thebes I made sure----"

  "That on your return you would find me in my tomb. Not so, Prince, it isI who shall live to look upon you in your tomb, yes, and on others whoare yet to sit in the seat of Pharaoh. Why not? Ho! ho! Why not, seeingthat I am but a hundred and seven, I who remember the first Rameses andhave played with his grandson, your grandsire, as a boy? Why should Inot live, Prince, to nurse your grandson--if the gods should grant youone who as yet have neither wife nor child?"

  "Because you will get tired of life, Bakenkhonsu, as I am already, andthe gods will not be able to spare you much longer."

  "The gods can endure yet a while without me, Prince, when so many areflocking to their table. Indeed it is their desire that one good priestshould be left in Egypt. Ki the Magician told me so only this morning.He had it straight from Heaven in a dream last night."

  "Why have you been to visit Ki?" asked Seti, looking at him sharply. "Ishould have thought that being both of a trade you would have hated eachother."

  "Not so, Prince. On the contrary we add up each other's account; I mean,check and interpret each other's visions, with which we are both of usmuch troubled just now. Is that young man a scribe from Memphis?"

  "Yes, and my friend. His grandsire was Pentaur the poet."

  "Indeed. I knew Pentaur well. Often has he read me to sleep with hislong poems, rank stuff that grew like coarse grass upon a deep buthalf-drained soil. Are you sure, young man, that Pentaur was yourgrandfather? You are not like him. Quite a different kind of herbage,and you know that it is a matter upon which we must take a woman'sword."

  Seti burst out laughing and I looked at the old priest angrily, thoughnow that I came to think of it my father always said that his mother wasone of the biggest liars in Egypt.

  "Well, let it be," went on Bakenkhonsu, "till we find out the truthbefore Thoth. Ki was speaking of you, young man. I did not pay muchattention to him, but it was something about a sudden vow of friendshipbetween you and the Prince here. There was a cup in the story too, analabaster cup that seemed familiar to me. Ki said it was broken."

  Seti started and I began angrily:

  "What do you know of that cup? Where were you hid, O Priest?"

  "Oh, in your souls, I suppose," he answered dreamily, "or rather Ki was.But I know nothing, and am not curious. If you had broken the cup witha woman now, it would have been more interesting, even to an old man.Be so good as to answer the Prince's question as to whether he or hiscousin Amenmeses will triumph at the last, for on that matter both Kiand I are curious."

  "Am I a seer," I began again still more angrily, "that I should read thefuture?"

  "I think so, a little, but that is what I want to find out."

  He hobbled towards me, laid one of his claw-like hands upon my arm, andsaid in a new voice of command:

  "Look now upon that throne and tell me what you see there."

  I obeyed him because I must, staring up the hall at the empty throne. Atfirst I saw nothing. Then figures seemed to flit around it. From amongthese figures emerged the shape of the Count Amenmeses. He sat upon thethrone, looking about him proudly, and I noted that he was no longerclad as a prince but as Pharaoh himself. Presently hook-nosed menappeared who dragged him from his seat. He fell, as I thought, intowater, for it seemed to splash up above him. Next Seti the Princeappeared to mount the throne, led thither by a woman, of whom I couldonly see the back. I saw him distinctly wearing the double crown andholding a sceptre in his hand. He also melted away and others camewhom I did not know, though I thought that one of them was like to thePrincess Userti.

  Now all were gone and I was telling Bakenkhonsu everything I hadwitnessed like a man who speaks in his sleep, not by his own will.Suddenly I woke up and laughed at my own foolishness. But the other twodid not laugh; they regarded me very gravely.

  "I thought that you were something of a seer," said the old priest, "orrather Ki thought it. I could not quite believe Ki, because he said thatthe young person whom I should find with the Prince here this morningwould be one who loved him with all the heart, and it is only a womanwho love
s with all the heart, is it not? Or so the world believes. Well,I will talk the matter over with Ki. Hush! Pharaoh comes."

  As he spoke from far away rose a cry of--

  "Life! Blood! Strength! Pharaoh! Pharaoh! Pharaoh!"