The Pharaoh and the Priest: An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt

by Bolesław Prus

  CHAPTER XVIII

  From the day that he became viceroy of Lower Egypt a life unparalleledin troubles set in for Rameses,--such a life as he had not evenimagined, though born and reared in the pharaoh's palace.

  People simply tortured him; his torturers were persons who hadinterests of various kinds and who were of various social classes.

  On the very first day, at sight of the throngs of people, who crowdedand pushed one another with eagerness, trampled his lawns, broke histrees, and injured even the wall which enclosed his villa, the heirdemanded a guard for protection. But on the third day he was forced toflee from his own dwelling to the precincts of the palace proper,where, because of numerous sentries and above all because of highwalls, access to him was made difficult.

  During the ten days which preceded his departure, representatives ofall Egypt, if not of the whole world of that period, passed before theeyes of the new viceroy.

  First of all were admitted great personages. Hence to congratulate himcame the high priests of temples, ministers, ambassadors, Phoenician,Greek, Hebrew, Assyrian, Nubian, men whose dresses even he could notremember. Next came the chiefs of neighboring provinces, judges,secretaries, the higher officers of the army corps in Memphis, andlandowners.

  These people desired nothing, they simply expressed their delight athonor shown him. But the prince, while listening to these persons frommorning till midday and from midday till evening, felt confusion inhis head, and a quivering in all his members.

  After these came representatives of the lower classes with gifts:merchants bringing gold, foreign stuffs, amber, fruits, and perfumes.Then bankers and men who loaned money for interest. Further,architects with plans for new buildings, sculptors with projects forstatues and carvings in relief, masons, potters, makers of ordinaryand ornamental furniture, blacksmiths, founders, tanners,wine-merchants, weavers, even dissectors who opened the bodies of thedeparted.

  The procession of those men rendering homage had not finished when anarmy of petitioners approached the viceroy. Invalids, widows, andorphans of officers requested pensions; noble lords required courtoffices for their sons. Engineers presented new methods of irrigatingEgypt; physicians offered means against diseases of all sorts;soothsayers offered horoscopes. Relatives of prisoners petitioned tolessen punishments; those condemned to death begged for life; the sickimplored the heir to touch them, or to bestow on them his spittle.

  Finally, beautiful women announced themselves, the mothers of statelydaughters begging the heir humbly but insistently to receive theminto his mansion. Some indicated the amount of the pension demanded,praising their virginity and their talents.

  After ten days of looking every moment at new persons and faces, andhearing petitions which only the possession of a world and divinepower to dispense it could satisfy, Prince Rameses was exhausted. Hecould not sleep; he was so excited that the buzz of a fly pained hisnerves, and at moments he did not understand what people said whenthey talked to him.

  In this position Herhor came again to assist the viceroy. He commandedto inform the wealthy that the prince would not receive any morepersons on questions of interest; and against common people, who, inspite of repeated invitations to disperse, were still waiting, he senta company of Numidians with clubs. These succeeded with incomparablymore ease than Rameses in meeting popular wishes, for before an hourhad passed the petitioners had vanished from the square, like mist,while one and another of them for a couple of succeeding days pouredwater on their heads, or other bruised parts of their bodies.

  After this trial of supreme power the prince felt profound contemptfor men and became apathetic. He lay two days on a couch with hishands beneath his head gazing vacantly at the ceiling. He did notwonder that his sacred father passed his time at the altars of thegods, but he could not understand how Herhor was able to manage theavalanche of business, which, like a storm, not only surpassed thestrength of a man, but might even crush him.

  "How carry out plans in this case when a throng of petitions fetterour will, devour our thoughts, drink our blood? At the end of ten daysI am sick, at the end of a year I should be an idiot. In this officeit is impossible to carry out any plan; a man can just defend himselffrom madness."

  He was so alarmed by his weakness in the position of ruler that hesummoned Herhor, and with a complaining voice told of his suffering.

  The statesman listened with a smile to the complaints of the youngsteersman of the ship of state, and at last said in answer,--

  "Knowest thou, lord, that this immense palace in which we dwell wasreared by one architect, named Senebi, who moreover died before it wasfinished? And to a certainty thou wilt understand how this famousarchitect could carry out his plan without weariness and be always ina cheerful temper."

  "I am curious."

  "Well, he did not do everything himself; he did not hew the beams orcut the stones, he did not make the bricks, he did not carry them tothe scaffolding. He did not lay them into the wall and fasten themtogether. He only drew the plan, and moreover he had assistants. Butthou, prince, hadst the wish to do all things thyself, to listen inperson and transact every business. That goes beyond human strength."

  "How should I do otherwise if among petitioners there are some whohave suffered without cause, or if there is unrewarded service? Ofcourse the foundation of the state is justice."

  "How many canst thou hear in a day without weariness?" asked Herhor.

  "Well, twenty."

  "Thou art happy. I hear at the most six or ten, but they are notinterested in the petitions,--they are chief secretaries, overseers,and ministers. These men report to me no details, only the mostimportant things that are done in the army, on the estates of thepharaoh, in questions of religion, in the courts, in the provinces,and touching movements of the Nile. Therefore they report no trivialmatter, because each man before he comes to me must hear ten inferiorsecretaries. Each inferior secretary and overseer collectedinformation from ten sub-secretaries and sub-inspectors, and they intheir turn have heard reports from ten officials who are under them.In this manner I and his holiness speaking with only ten people dailyknow all that is most important in a hundred thousand points of Egyptand the world beyond it.

  "The watchman in charge of one part of a street in Memphis sees only afew houses. A decurion of ten policemen knows the whole street, acenturion a division of the city, the chief knows all the city. Thepharaoh stands above them all, as if he were standing on the highestpylon of the temple of Ptah, and sees not only Memphis, but thecities, Sochem, On, Cherau, Turra, Tetani, with their suburbs, anda portion of the western desert.

  Step Pyramid]

  "From that height his holiness is unable, it is true, to see thepeople who are wronged, or those who are unrewarded, but he is able tosee the crowd of laborers who have collected without work. He cannotsee warriors in the dramshops, but he can know what regiment isexercising. He cannot see what a given earth-tiller or citizen ispreparing for dinner, but he can see a fire beginning in a givenquarter of the city.

  "This order in the state," continued Herhor, with growing animation,"is our strength and glory. Snofru, a pharaoh of the first dynasty,asked a certain priest what monument he should rear to himself.

  "'Draw on the earth, O lord,' replied the priest, 'a square, and puton it six million unhewn stones; they will represent the people. Onthat foundation place sixty thousand hewn stones; they will be thelower officials. On them place six thousand polished stones; they willbe thy higher officials. On these put sixty covered with carvings;those will be thy most intimate counsellors and chief leaders, and onthe summit place one monolith with its pedestal and the golden imageof the sun; that will be thyself.'

  "The Pharaoh Snofru followed that advice. Thus rose the oldestpyramid, the step pyramid, a tangible image of our state; from thatpyramid all others had their origin. Those are immovable buildings,from the summits of which the rim of the world is visible, and theywill be a marvel to the remotest generations.

  "In
this system resides our superiority over all neighbors. TheEthiopians were as numerous as we, but their king himself took care ofhis own cattle, and beat his own subjects with a club; he knew not howmany subjects he had, nor was he able to collect them when our troopsinvaded his country. There was not a united Ethiopia, but a greatcrowd of unorganized people. For that reason they are our vassals atpresent.

  "The Prince of Libya judges all disputes himself, especially among thewealthy, and gives so much time to them that he cannot attend to hisown business. So at his side whole bands of robbers rise up; these weexterminate.

  "Were there in Phoenicia a single ruler who knew what was happeningand who commanded in all parts, that country would not pay us one utenof tribute. But what a happiness for us that the kings of Nineveh andBabylon have each only one minister, and are tormented with the onrushof business as thou art this day. They wish to see, judge, and commandeverything; hence the affairs of their states are entangled for acentury to come. But were some insignificant scribe to go from Egyptto those kings, explain their errors of management, and give them ourofficial system, our pyramid, in a year's time Judaea and Phoeniciawould fall into the hands of the Assyrians, and in a few tens of yearspowerful armies, coming from the East and the North by land and bysea, would hurl themselves on us, armies which we might not be able tovanquish."

  "Therefore let us fall on them to-day and take advantage of their wantof order," cried Rameses.

  "We are not cured yet of previous victories," answered Herhor, coldly;and he began to take leave of the viceroy.

  "Have victories weakened us?" burst out the heir. "Or have we notbrought home treasures?"

  "But does not the axe with which we cut wood become blunted?" inquiredHerhor; and he went out.

  The prince understood that the great minister wished peace at allcosts, in spite of the fact that he was chief of the armies.

  "We shall see," whispered Rameses to himself.

  A couple of days before his departure Rameses was summoned to hisholiness. The pharaoh was sitting in an armchair in a marble hall; noother person was present, and the four entrances were guarded byNubian sentries.

  At the side of the royal armchair was a stool for the prince, and asmall table covered with documents written on papyrus. On the wallswere colored bas-reliefs showing the occupations of field-workers, andin the corners of the hall were ungraceful statues of Osiris smilingpensively.

  When the prince at command of his father sat down, his holiness spoketo him,--

  "Here, my son, are thy documents as leader and viceroy. Well, have thefirst days of power wearied thee?"

  "In thy service, holiness, I shall find strength."

  "Flatterer!" said the pharaoh, smiling. "Remember that I do notrequire overwork on thy part. Amuse thyself; youth needs recreation.This does not mean, however, that thou art not to have importantaffairs to manage."

  "I am ready."

  "First I will disclose my cares to thee. Our treasury has a badaspect; the inflow of revenue decreases yearly, especially in LowerEgypt, and expenditures are rising."

  The pharaoh fell to thinking.

  "Those women--those women, Rameses,--they swallow up the wealth, notof mortal men only, but my wealth. I have some hundreds of them, andeach woman wishes to have as many maids as possible, as manydressmakers, barbers, slaves,--slaves for her litter, slaves for herchamber,--horses, oarsmen, even her own favorites and theirchildren-- Little children! When I was returning from Thebes one ofthose ladies, whom I do not even remember, ran into my road and,showing a sturdy boy of three years, desired that I should designatefor him a property, since he was, as she said, a son of mine. My son,and three years of age. Canst thou understand this? The affair wassimple. I could not argue with a woman, besides, in such a delicatequestion. But for a man of noble birth it is easier to be polite thanfind money for every fancy of that sort."

  He shook his head and continued,--

  "Meanwhile incomes since the beginning of my reign have decreasedone-half, especially in Lower Egypt. I ask what this means. Theyanswer: people have grown poor, many citizens have disappeared, thesea has covered a certain extent of land on the north, and the deserton the east, we have had a number of bad harvests; in a word, talefollows tale while the treasury becomes poorer and poorer. Therefore Ibeg thee to explain this matter. Look about, learn to knowwell-informed men who are truthful, and form of them an examiningcommission. When they begin to report, trust not over-much to papyrus,but verify here and there in person. I hear that thou hast the eye ofa leader; if that be true, one glance will tell thee how accurate thestatements of the commission are. But hasten not in giving thyopinion, and above all, do not herald it. Note down every weightyconclusion which comes to thy head on a given day, and when a few dayshave passed reexamine that question and note it down a second time.This will teach thee caution in judgment and accuracy in graspingsubjects."

  "It will be as thou commandest," replied the prince.

  "Another mission which thou must accomplish is truly difficult.Something is happening in Assyria which begins to alarm my government.Our priests declare that beyond the Northern sea stands a pyramidalmountain covered with green at its base and with snow on the summit.This mountain has marvellous qualities. After many years of quiet itbegins all at once to smoke, roar, and tremble, and then it hurls outas much liquid fire as there is water in the Nile. This fire, whichflows down its sides in various directions and over an immense stretchof country, ruins the labor of earth-tillers.

  "Well, Assyria is a mountain of that sort. For whole ages calm andquiet reign in that region, till all on a sudden a tempest bursts outthere, great armies pour forth from it and annihilate peacefulneighbors. At present around Nineveh and Babylon seething is audible:the mountain is smoking. Thou must learn therefore how far that smokeindicates an outburst, and think out means of precaution."

  "Shall I be able to do so?" asked the prince, in a low voice.

  "Thou must learn to observe. If thou hast the wish to learn anythingwell, be not satisfied with the witness of thy own eyes, butstrengthen thyself with the aid of a number of others. Confine notthyself to the judgment of Egyptians alone, for each people, each manhas a special way of looking at subjects, and neither one grasps thewhole truth in any question. Listen therefore to what the Phoenicians,the Hebrews, the Hittites, and the Egyptians think of the Assyrians,and weigh in thy own heart with care all that agrees in theirjudgments concerning Assyria. If all tell thee that danger is comingfrom that point, thou wilt know that it is coming; but if differentmen speak variously, be on thy guard also, for wisdom commands us tolook for less good and more evil."

  "Thy speech is like that of the gods," whispered the heir of Egypt.

  "I am old, and from the height of the throne things are seen of whichmortal men have not even a suspicion. Wert thou to inquire of the sunwhat he thinks of this world's affairs, he would tell thee thingsstill more curious."

  "Among the people from whom I am to gain knowledge of Assyria, thouhast not mentioned the Greeks, O father," put in Rameses.

  The pharaoh nodded, and said with a kindly smile,--

  "The Greeks! oh, the Greeks! A great future is in store for thatpeople. In comparison with us they are in childhood, but what a spiritis in them!

  "Dost remember my statue made by a Greek sculptor? That is my secondself, a living person! I kept it a month in the palace, but at last Igave it to the temple in Thebes. Wilt thou believe, fear seized melest that stone _I_ should rise from its seat and claim one-half ofthe government. What a disorder would rise then in Egypt!

  "The Greeks! Hast thou seen the vases which they make, the palaceswhich they build? From that clay out there and from stone somethingcomes that delights my old age and forbids me to think of myfeebleness.

  "And their language! O gods, it is music and sculpture and painting.In truth, I say that if Egypt could ever die as a man dies, the Greekswould take all its property. Nay more, they would persuade the worldthat everything done by
us was their work, and that we never existed.And still they are only the pupils of our primary schools, for, asthou knowest, we have no right to communicate the highest knowledge toforeigners."

  "Still, father, it seems that thou hast no trust in the Greeks."

  "No, for they are peculiar; one can trust neither Greek norPhoenician. The Phoenician, when he wishes, sees and will tell theegenuine truth of Egypt, but thou wilt never know when he is tellingit. The Greek, as simple as a child, would tell the truth always, buthe is never able.

  "The Greeks look at the world in a manner different altogether fromour way. In their wonderful eyes everything glitters, assumes colorsand changes, as the sky and the water of Egypt. How then could we relyon their judgment?

  "In the days of the Theban dynasty, far away toward the north, wasthe little town of Troy. We have in Egypt twenty thousand as large asit. Various Greek vagrants laid siege to that hamlet, and so annoyedits few inhabitants that after ten years of trouble they burned theirlittle fortress and moved to other places. An every-day robbernarrative! Meanwhile just see what songs the Greeks sing of the Trojancombats. We laugh at those wonders and heroisms, for our governmenthad accurate information of events there. We see the lies which strikeany one, but still we listen to those songs, as a child does to taleswhich its nurse tells, and we cannot tear ourselves free from them.

  "Such are the Greeks: born liars, but fascinating; yes, and valiant.Every man of them would rather die than tell truth. They do not liefor profit, as do the Phoenicians, but because their mind constrainsthem."

  "Well, what am I to think of the Phoenicians?"

  "They are wise people of mighty industry and daring, but hucksters:for them life means profit, be it great or the greatest. ThePhoenicians are like water: they bring much with them, but bear awaymuch, and push in at all points. One must give them the leastpossible, and above all watch that they enter not through hiddencrannies into Egypt. If thou pay them well and offer hope of stillgreater profit, they will be excellent assistants. What we know to-dayof secret movements in Assyria we know through Phoenicians."

  "And the Jews?" asked the prince, dropping his eyes.

  "A quick people, but gloomy fanatics and born enemies of Egypt. Onlywhen they feel on their necks the iron-shod sandal of the Assyrian,will they turn to us. May that time not come too late to them! It ispossible to use their services, not here, of course, but in Ninevehand Babylon."

  The pharaoh was wearied now. Hence the prince fell on his face beforehim, and when he had received the paternal embrace he went to hismother.

  The lady, sitting in her study, was weaving delicate linen to makegarments for the gods, and her ladies in waiting were sewing andembroidering robes or making bouquets. A young priest was burningincense before the statue of Isis.

  "I come," said the prince, "to thank thee, my mother, and takefarewell."

  The queen rose and putting her arms around her son's neck, said to himtearfully,--

  "Hast thou changed so much? Thou art a man now! I meet thee so rarelythat I might forget thy features did I not see them in my heart everymoment. Thou art unkind. How many times have I gone with the firstdignitary of the state toward thy villa, thinking that at last thouwouldst cease to be offended, but thou didst bring out thy favorite inmy presence."

  "I beg thy pardon--I beg thy pardon!" said Rameses, kissing hismother.

  She conducted him to a garden in which peculiar flowers grew, and whenthey were without witnesses, she said,--

  "I am a woman, so a woman and a mother has interest for me. Dost thouwish to take that girl with thee on thy journey? Remember that thetumult and the movement which will surround thee may harm her, for inher condition calm and quiet are needed."

  "Art thou speaking of Sarah?" inquired Rameses, astonished. "She hassaid nothing to me of that condition."

  "She may be ashamed; perhaps she does not herself know," replied thequeen. "In every case the journey--"

  "I have no intention of taking her!" exclaimed Rameses. "But why doesshe hide this from me--as if the child were not mine?"

  "Be not suspicious," chided the lady. "This is the usual timidity ofyoung women. Moreover, she may be hiding her condition from fear lestthou cast her away from thee."

  "For that matter, I shall not take her to my court!" broke out theprince, so impatiently that the queen's eyes were smiling, but shecovered them with their long lashes.

  "It is not well to be over-harsh with a woman who loved thee. I knowthat thou hast given an assured support to her. We will give hersomething also. And a child of the royal blood must be reared well,and have property."

  "Naturally," answered Rameses. "My first son, though without princelyrights, must be so placed that I may not be ashamed of him, and hemust not regret separation from me."

  After parting with the queen, Rameses wished to go to Sarah, and withthat object returned to his chambers.

  Two feelings were roused in him,--anger at Sarah for hiding the causeof her weakness, and pride that he was going to be a father.

  He a father! This title gave him an importance which, as it were,supported his titles of commander and viceroy. Father! that did notmean a stripling who must look perforce with reverence on olderpeople.

  He was roused and enraptured. He wished to see Sarah, to scold, thenembrace her and give her presents.

  But when he returned to his part of the palace he found there twonomarchs from Lower Egypt who had come to report on their provinces,and when he had heard them out, he was wearied. Besides, he was tohold an evening reception and did not wish to be late in beginning.

  "And again I shall not be with her," thought he. "Poor girl! fortwenty days she has not seen me--"

  He summoned the negro.

  "Hast thou that cage which Sarah gave thee when we went to greet hisholiness?"

  "I have."

  "Take a pigeon from it, and let the bird loose."

  "The pigeons are eaten."

  "Who ate them?"

  "Thou. I told the cook that those birds came from the Lady Sarah; sohe made a roast and pies out of them for thee, worthiness."

  "May the crocodiles eat you both!" cried the prince, in anger.

  He sent for Tutmosis and despatched him immediately to Sarah. Heexplained to him the history of the pigeons, and said,--

  "Give her emerald earrings, bracelets, anklets, and two talents. Saythat I am angry because she concealed her condition, but that I willforgive her if the child is healthy and handsome. Should she have aboy, I will give her another place," finished he with a smile."But--but--persuade her to put away even a few Jews, and to take evena few Egyptian men and women. I do not wish my son to be born intosuch company; besides, he might play with Jew children. They wouldteach him to give his father the worst dates of the harvest."

  Village of Bedreshen on the site of Memphis]