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

by Bolesław Prus

  CHAPTER XXVIII

  When the priests and the heir to the throne returned to the courtyardin the evening, several hundred torches were gleaming so brightly thatit was as clear there as in the daytime.

  At a sign from Mefres there came out again a procession of musicians,dancers, and minor priests carrying a statue of the cow-headed Hator;and when they had driven away evil spirits, Pentuer began to explainagain.

  "Ye see, worthy fathers," said he, "that since the time of thenineteenth dynasty a hundred thousand measures of land and two millionpeople have vanished out of Egypt. This explains why the income of thestate has decreased thirty-two thousand talents; that it has decreasedis known to all of us.

  "But this is only the beginning of misfortunes to the state and thetreasury. Ninety-eight thousand talents of income apparently remain tohis holiness. But do ye think that the pharaoh receives all thisincome?

  "I will tell you what his worthiness Herhor discovered in the provinceof the Hare.

  "During the nineteenth dynasty twenty thousand people dwelt in thatprovince; they paid three hundred and fifty talents of yearly taxes.To-day there are hardly fifteen thousand, and these, of course, paythe treasury only two hundred and seventy talents. Meanwhile thepharaoh, instead of receiving two hundred and seventy talents,receives one hundred and seventy.

  "'Why is that?' inquired Herhor; and this is what an investigationdiscovered: During the nineteenth dynasty there were in the districtabout one hundred officials, and these received each one thousanddrachmas yearly salary. To-day in that same district, though thepeople have decreased, there are more than two hundred officials whoreceive two thousand five hundred drachmas yearly.

  "It is unknown to his worthiness Herhor if this is the case in everydistrict. But this much is certain, that the treasury of the pharaoh,instead of ninety-eight thousand talents annually, has onlyseventy-four thousand--"

  "Say, worthy father, fifty thousand," interrupted Rameses.

  "I will explain that too," replied Pentuer. "In every case remember,prince, that the pharaoh's treasury pays to-day twenty-four thousandtalents to officials, while it gave only ten thousand during thenineteenth dynasty."

  Deep silence reigned among the dignitaries, for more than one of themhad a relative in office, well paid moreover. But Pentuer wasunterrified.

  "Now," continued he, "I will show thee, O heir, the manner of lifeamong officials, and the lot of common people in those old times andin our day."

  "Will it not take too much time? Besides, every man can see forhimself," murmured the priests, very promptly.

  "I wish to know this," said the prince, with decision.

  The murmur ceased. Pentuer went down along the steps of theamphitheatre to the court, and after him went the prince, the highpriests, Mefres and the others.

  They halted before a long curtain of mats, forming as it were apalisade. At a sign from Pentuer some tens of minor priests hastenedup with blazing torches. Another sign, and a portion of the curtainfell.

  From the lips of those present came a shout of admiration. They hadbefore them a brightly illuminated tableau in which about one hundredpersons were the characters.

  The tableau was divided into three stories; on the lower story stoodearth tillers, on a higher were officials, and on the highest was thegolden throne of the pharaoh resting on two lions whose heads were thearms of the throne.

  "It was in this way," said Pentuer, "during the nineteenth dynasty.Look at the earth-tillers. At their ploughs ye see sometimes oxen,sometimes asses; their picks, spades, and shovels are bronze, andhence are lasting. See what stalwart men they are! To-day one couldfind such only in the guard of his holiness. Their hands and feet arestrong, their breasts full, their faces smiling. All are bathed andanointed with olive oil. Their wives are occupied in preparing foodand clothing or in washing house utensils; the children are at schoolor are playing.

  "The laborer of that time, as ye see, ate wheaten bread, beans,flesh, fish, and fruit; he drank beer or wine, and see how beautifulwere the plates and pitchers. Look at the caps, aprons, and capes ofthe men: all adorned with various-colored needlework. Still morebeautifully embroidered were the skirts of women. And note howcarefully they combed their hair, what brooches, earrings, andbracelets they had. Those ornaments were made of bronze and coloredenamel; even gold was found among them, though only in the form ofwire.

  "Raise now your eyes to officials. They wore mantles, but everylaborer wore just such a dress on holidays. They lived exactly as didlaborers,--that is, in sufficiency, but modestly. Their furniture wasornamented somewhat more than that of laborers, and gold rings werefound oftener in their caskets. They made journeys on asses, or incars drawn by oxen."

  Pentuer clapped his hands and on the stage there was movement. Thelaborers gave the officials baskets of grapes, bags of barley, peasand wheat, jugs of wine, beer, milk and honey, game and stuffs, manypieces white or colored. The officials took these products, kept aportion for themselves, but the choicest and most costly they put uphigher, for the throne. The platform where stood the symbol of thepharaoh's power was covered with products which formed as it were asmall mountain.

  "Ye see, worthy men," said Pentuer, "that in those times, whenearth-tillers were satisfied and wealthy, the treasury of his holinesscould hardly find place for the gifts of his subjects. But see what ishappening in our day."

  At a new signal a second part of the curtain fell, and another tableauappeared, similar to the preceding in general outline.

  "Here are our laborers of the present," said Pentuer, and in his voiceindignation was evident. "Their bodies are skin and bones, they looklike sick persons, they are filthy and have forgotten to anointthemselves with olive oil, but their backs are wounded from beating.

  "Neither oxen nor asses are near them, for what need is there of thosebeasts if ploughs are drawn by women and children? Picks and shovelsare wooden, they spoil easily and that increases men's labor. Theyhave no clothes whatever; only women wear coarse shirts, and not evenin a dream do they look at embroidery, though their grandfathers andgrandmothers wore it.

  "Look now at the food of the earth-tillers. At times barley and driedfish, lotus seed always, rarely a wheat cake, never flesh, beer, orwine.

  "Ask them where their utensils and furniture are. They have none,unless a pitcher for water; nothing could find room in the dens whichthey inhabit.

  "Pardon me now for that to which I turn your attention: Over there anumber of children are lying on the ground; that means that they aredead. It is wonderful how many children of laborers die from toil andhunger. And those that die are the happiest, for they who survive gounder the club of the overseer, or are sold to the Phoenician as lambsto the--"

  Emotion stopped his voice; he rested awhile, and then continued amidthe angry silence of the priesthood,--

  "And now look at the officials,--how animated they are in rouge, howbeautiful their clothes are! Their wives wear gold bracelets andearrings, and such fine garments that princes might envy them. Amonglaborers not an ox or an ass is now visible, but to make up officialsjourney on horseback or in litters. They drink only wine, and that ofgood quality."

  He clapped his hands, and again there was movement. The laborers gavethe officials bags of wheat, baskets of fruit, wine, game. Theseobjects the officials as before placed near the throne, but inquantities considerably smaller. On the pharaoh's platform there wasno longer a mountain of products, but the platform of the officialswas covered.

  "This is the Egypt of our day," continued Pentuer. "Laborers are inindigence, scribes are wealthy, the treasury is not so full as it oncewas. But now--"

  He gave a sign, and a thing unexpected took place there before them.

  Certain hands seized grain, fruit, stuffs from the platforms of thepharaoh and the officials; and when the amount of the goods haddecreased greatly, those same hands began to seize and lead awaylaborers, their wives and children.

  The spectators looked with amazement at the pecul
iar methods of thosemysterious persons. Suddenly some one cried out,--

  "Those are Phoenicians! They plunder us in that way."

  "That is it, holy fathers," said Pentuer. "Those are the hands ofPhoenicians concealed in the midst of us; they plunder the pharaoh andthe scribes, and lead away laborers captive when there is nothing todrag from them."

  "Yes! They are jackals! A curse on Phoenicians! Expel them, thewretches!" cried the priests. "It is they who inflict the greatestdamage on Egypt."

  Not all, however, shouted in that way.

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

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

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

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

  He passed to the next group of objects.

  "But to-day, look: the pitchers are small and almost without ornament,the furniture is simple, the stuffs coarse and devoid of variety. Notone thing made to-day can we compare as to shape, durability, orbeauty with those of former ages. Why has this happened?"

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

  "Here is a great number of things," said he, "which the Phoeniciansbring us from various regions. Some tens of kinds of incense, coloredglass, furniture, vessels, woven stuffs, chariots, ornaments,--allthese come from Asia and are bought by us.

  "Do ye understand now, worthy fathers, why the Phoenicians tear awaygrain, fruit, and cattle from the scribes and the pharaoh? In pay forthose foreign goods which have destroyed our artisans as locustsdestroy vegetation.

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

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

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

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

  Those present shuddered with horror.

  "I have said that the Phoenician takes two measures of land andthirty-two people for three years in exchange for one talent. See whata space of land and what a crowd of people; look now at my hand.

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

  "Can you estimate the complete insignificance of the Phoenicians inthis commerce? This small lump of gold has no real value: it isyellow, it is heavy, a man cannot eat it,--and that is the end of thematter. A man does not clothe himself with gold and he cannot stop hishunger or thirst with it. If he had a lump of gold as big as thepyramid, he would be as poor at the foot of it as a Libyan wanderingthrough the western desert where there is neither a date nor a drop ofwater.

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

  "At the same time the pharaoh or the nomarch is deprived for threeyears of the services of those people. They pay him no tribute, theycarry no burdens for the army, but they toil to give income to thegreedy Phoenician.

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

  On the faces of the priests satisfaction was depicted; they were morewilling to hear of the guile of Phoenicians than the excesses ofscribes throughout Egypt.

  Pentuer rested awhile, then he turned to the viceroy.

  "For some months," said he, "Rameses, O servant of the gods, thou hastbeen inquiring why the income of his holiness is diminished. Thewisdom of the gods has shown thee that not only the treasure hasdecreased but also the army, and that both those sources of royalpower will decrease still further. And the end will be utter ruin forthis country, unless heaven sends down a ruler who will stop theinundation of misery which for some hundreds of years is overwhelmingEgypt.

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

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

  "Thou hast seen, prince, with thy own eyes and before witnesses, thatin the epoch when people were well nourished, stalwart, and satisfied,the treasury of the pharaoh was full. But when people began to lookwretched, when they were forced to plough with their wives andchildren, when lotus seed took the place of wheat and flesh, thetreasury grew needy. If thou wish therefore to bring the state to thatpower which it had before the wars of the nineteenth dynasty, if thoudesire that the pharaoh, his scribes, and his army should live inplenty, assure long peace to the land and prosperity to the people.Let grown persons eat flesh again and dress in embroidered garments,and let children, instead of groaning and dying under blows, play, orgo to school.

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

  Those present listened with fear and curiosity.

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

  "Away with the Phoenicians!" cried the priests. "Blot out all debts tothem. Admit not their ships and merchants."

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

  "I doubt not," said he, "that the holy Hator is speaking through thylips to us. Not only because no man could be so wise and all-knowingas thou art, but besides I have seen two flames, as horns, above thyforehead. I thank thee for the great words with which thou hastdispelled our ignorance. I bless thee, and I pray the gods when I amsummoned before them to make thee my advocate."

  An unbroken shout from the rest of the assembly supported the blessingof the highest dignitary. The priests were the better satisfied, sincealarm had hung over them lest Pentuer might refer to the scribes asecond time. But the sage knew how to restrain himself: he indicatedthe internal wound of the state, but he did not inflame it, andtherefore his triumph was perfect.
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  Prince Rameses did not thank Pentuer, he only dropped his head to hisown bosom. No one doubted, however, that the discourse of the prophethad shaken the soul of the heir, and that it was a seed from whichprosperity and glory might spring up for Egypt.

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

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

  In reality Pentuer had declared no new truth; all had been complainingof the decrease of land and people in Egypt, of the misery of workmen,the abuses of scribes, and the extortion of Phoenicians. But thediscourse of the prophet had given them tangible forms, andillustrated facts very clearly.

  The Phoenicians terrified the prince; he had not estimated till thattime the enormity of the misfortunes brought on people of Egypt bythose merchants. His horror was all the more vivid, since he hadrented out his own subjects to Dagon, and was himself witness of theway in which the banker collected his dues from them.

  But his entanglement in the business of Phoenicians produced strangeresults in Rameses. He did not wish to think of Phoenicians, andwhenever anger flamed up in his mind against those strangers thefeeling of shame was destroyed in him. He was in a certain sense theirconfederate. Meanwhile he understood perfectly how serious thedecrease was in land and in people, and on this he placed the mainemphasis in his lonely meditation.

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

  Chance gave the answer.

  On a certain evening the prince, while walking through the gardens ofthe temple, met a crowd of captives whom Nitager had seized on theeastern boundary and sent to the goddess Hator. Those people wereperfectly built, they did more work than Egyptians, and they did itbecause they were properly nourished, hence even satisfied with theirposition.

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

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

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

  Pentuer had announced with great emphasis, while Herhor had assertedstill earlier, that victorious wars were the source of misfortune forthe country. From this it resulted that to raise Egypt by a new warwas impossible.

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

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

  But something happened which cooled the faith of the prince somewhatin the truthful speech of the priests, or rather it roused hisprevious distrust of them.

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

  "I will not go by this way," said he.

  "Why not?" inquired the leech, with astonishment.

  "Dost thou not remember, holy father, that at the end of that corridoris an opening in which a certain traitor was tortured to death withoutpity."

  "Aha!" answered the leech. "There is an opening there into which wepoured boiling pitch at command of Pentuer."

  "And ye killed a man--"

  The leech smiled. He was a kindly, gladsome person. So, observing theindignation of the prince, he said after some meditation,--

  "It is not permitted to betray temple secrets. Of course, before eachof the greater solemnities, we bring this to the mind of youngercandidates."

  His tone was so peculiar that Rameses required explanation.

  "I cannot betray secrets," replied the leech; "but promise,worthiness, to hide a story in thy breast, and I will tell thee one."

  Rameses promised. The leech gave this narrative:--

  "A certain Egyptian priest, while visiting temples in the unbelievingland of Aram, met at one of them a man who seemed to him in good fleshand satisfied, though he wore wretched garments. 'Explain to me,' saidthe priest to the gladsome poor man, 'how it is that, though thou artindigent, thy body looks as though thou wert chief of this temple.'

  "That man looked around then to see if any one were listening, andanswered,--

  "'I am fat, because my voice is very woful; hence I am a martyr atthis temple. When people come to service here, I crawl into an openingand groan with all the strength that is in my body; for this they giveme food abundantly throughout the year, and a large jug of beer everyday when I am tortured.'

  "Thus do they manage in the unbelieving land of Aram," said the leech,as he raised a finger to his lips, and added, "Remember, prince, whatthou hast promised, and of boiling pitch in this place think whateversuits thee."

  This story roused the prince anew; he felt relief because a man hadnot been killed in the temple, but all his earlier distrust of priestssprang into life again.

  That they deluded simple people, he knew. He remembered the priests'procession with the sacred bull Apis, while he was in their school.The people were convinced that Apis led the priests, while everystudent saw that the divine beast went in whatever direction priestsdrove him.

  Who could tell, therefore, that Pentuer's discourse was not intendedfor him, as that procession of Apis for the people? For that matter,it was easy to put on the ground beans of red or other colors, andalso it was not difficult to arrange tableaux. How much more splendidwere those exhibitions which he had seen, even the struggles of Setwith Osiris, in which a number of hundreds of persons assisted. But inthat case, too, did not the priests deceive people? That was given asa battle of the gods; meanwhile it was carried on by men in disguise.In it Osiris perished, but the priest who represented Osiris came outas sound as a rhinoceros. What wonders did they not exhibit there!Water rose; there were peals of thunder; the earth trembled andvomited fire. And that was all deception. Why should the exhibitionmade by Pentuer be true? Besides, the prince had discovered strongindications that they wished to deceive him. The man groaningunderground and covered, as it were, with boiling pitch by the priestswas deception. But let that pass. The prince had convinced himselffrequently that Herhor did not want war; Mefres also did not want it.Pentuer was the assistant of one of them, and the favorite of theother.

  Such a struggle was taking place in the prince that it seemed to himat one time that he understood everything, at another that he wassurrounded by darkness; now he was full of hope, and now he doubtedeverything. From hour to hour, from day to day, his soul rose and felllike the waters of the Nile in the course of its yearly changes.

  Gradually, however, the prince recovered his balance, and when thetime came to leave the temple, he had formulated certain views of theproblem.

  First of all, he understood clearly that Egypt needed more land andmore people. Second, he believed that the simplest way to find men wasa war with Asia. But Pentuer had proved to him that war could onlyheighten the disaster. A new question rose then,--did Pentuer speakthe truth, or was he lying? If he spoke the truth, he plunged theprince in de
spair, for Rameses saw no means to raise the state exceptwar. Unless war were made, Egypt would lose population yearly, and thetreasury of the pharaoh would increase its debts till the wholeprocess would end in some ghastly overthrow, perhaps even in the reignof the coming pharaoh.

  "But if Pentuer lied? Why should he lie? Evidently because Herhor,Mefres, and the whole priestly corporation had persuaded him to actthus.

  "But why did priests oppose war? What interests had they in opposing?Every war brought immense profit to them and the pharaoh.

  "But would the priests deceive him in an affair so far reaching? It istrue that they deceived very often, but in small matters, not when itwas a question of the future and the existence of the state. It wasnot possible to assert that they deceived always. Besides, they werethe servants of the gods, and the guardians of great secrets." Spiritsresided in their temples; of this Rameses convinced himself on thefirst night after he had come to that temple of Hator.

  "But if the gods did not permit the uninitiated to approach theiraltars, if they watched so carefully over temples, why did they notwatch over Egypt, which is the greatest of all temples?"

  When some days later Rameses, after a solemn religious service, leftthe temple of Hator amid the blessings of the priests, two questionswere agitating him,--

  Could war with Asia really harm Egypt? Could the priests in thisquestion be deceiving him, the heir to the throne?