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

by Bolesław Prus

  CHAPTER LVIII

  After leaving Abydos, Rameses XIII. sailed up the Nile to the city ofTan-ta-ren (Dendera) and Keneh, which stood nearly opposite eachother: one on the western, the other on the eastern bank of the river.At Tan-ta-ren were two famous places: the pond in which crocodileswere reared, and the temple of Hator, where there was a school atwhich were taught medicine, sacred hymns, the methods of celebratingdivine ceremonies, finally astronomy.

  The pharaoh visited both places. He was irritated when they directedhim to burn incense before the sacred crocodiles, which he consideredas foul and stupid reptiles. And when one of these in time of offeringpushed out too far and seized the sovereign's garment with its teeth,Rameses struck it on the head with a bronze ladle so violently thatthe reptile closed its eyes for a time, and spread its legs, thenwithdrew and crept into the water, as if understanding that theyouthful sovereign did not wish to be familiar even with divinities.

  "But have I committed sacrilege?" inquired Rameses of the high priest.

  The dignitary looked around stealthily to see if any one werelistening, and answered,--

  "If I had known, holiness, that thou wouldst make it an offering inthat way, I should have given thee a club, not a censer. Thatcrocodile is the most unendurable brute in the whole temple. Once itseized a child--"

  "And ate it?"

  "The parents were satisfied!" said the priest.

  "Tell me," said the pharaoh, after thinking, "how can ye sages renderhomage to beasts which, moreover, when there are no witnesses, ye beatwith sticks?"

  The high priest looked around again, and seeing no one near by, heanswered,--

  "Of course thou canst not suspect, sovereign, that worshippers of onegod believe in the divinity of beasts. What is done is done for thepeople."

  In the temple of Hator the pharaoh passed quickly through the schoolof medicine, and listened without great interest to predictions givenby astrologers concerning him. When the astrologer high priest showedhim a tablet on which was engraved a map of heaven, he asked,--

  "How often do these predictions come true which ye read in the stars?"

  "They come true sometimes."

  "But if ye predict from trees, stones, or running water, do thosepredictions come true also?"

  The high priest was troubled.

  "Holiness, do not consider us untruthful. We predict the future forpeople because it concerns them, and we tell them, indeed, what theycan understand of astronomy."

  "And what do ye understand?"

  "We understand," said the priest, "the structure of the heavenly domeand the movement of the stars."

  "What good is that to any one?"

  "We have rendered no small service to Egypt. We indicate the maindirections according to which edifices are built and canals are dug.Without the aid of our science vessels sailing on the sea could not gofar from land. Finally we compose calendars and calculate futureheavenly phenomena. For instance, the sun will be eclipsed within ashort period."

  Rameses was not listening; he had turned and gone out.

  "How is it possible," thought the pharaoh, "to build a temple for suchchildish amusements, and besides to engrave the results on goldentablets? These holy men do not know what to snatch at from idleness."

  After he had remained a short time in Tan-ta-ren, the sovereigncrossed over to Keneh.

  In that place were no celebrated temples, incensed crocodiles, orgolden tablets with stars. But commerce and pottery flourished. Fromthat city went two roads to ports on the Red Sea: Koseir and Berenice,also a road to the porphyry mountains, whence they brought statues andgreat sticks of timber.

  Keneh was swarming with Phoenicians who received the sovereign withgreat enthusiasm, and presented him with valuables to the amount often talents.

  In spite of this, the pharaoh remained barely one day there, sincethey informed him from Thebes that the revered body of Rameses XII.was already in the palace of Luxor awaiting its burial.

  At that epoch Thebes was an immense city occupying about twelve squarekilometres of area. It possessed the greatest temple in Egypt: that ofAmon, also a multitude of edifices, private and public. The mainstreets were broad, straight, and paved with stone slabs, the banks ofthe Nile had their boulevards, the houses were four or five storieshigh.

  Since every temple and palace had a great gateway with pylons Thebeswas called "the city of a hundred gates." It was a city on the onehand greatly given to commerce and trade, and on the other, thethreshold, as it were, of eternity. On the western bank of the Nile,in the hills and among them, was an incalculable number of tombs ofpharaohs, priests, and magnates.

  Thebes was indebted for its splendor to two pharaohs: Amenophis III.or Memnon, who found it a "city of mud and left it a city of stone,"and Rameses II., who finished, and perfected the edifices begun byAmenophis.

  On the eastern bank of the Nile, in the southern part of the city, wasan entire quarter of immense regal edifices: palaces, villas, temples,on the ruins of which the small town of Luxor stands at present. Inthat quarter the remains of Rameses XII. were placed for the lastceremonies.

  When Rameses XIII. arrived all Thebes went forth to greet him, onlyold men and cripples remained in the houses, and thieves in thealleys. Here, for the first time, the people took the horses from thepharaoh's chariot and drew it themselves. Here for the first time thepharaoh heard shouts against the abuses of priests. This comfortedhim; also cries that every seventh day should be for rest. He desiredto make that gift to toiling Egypt, but he knew not that his plans hadbecome known, and that the people were waiting to see themaccomplished.

  His journey of five miles lasted a couple of hours amid dense crowdsof people. The pharaoh's chariot was stopped very often in the midstof a throng, and did not move till the guard of his holiness hadraised those who lay prostrate before it.

  When at last he reached the palace gardens where he was to occupy oneof the smaller villas, the pharaoh was so wearied that he did notoccupy himself with affairs of state on his arrival. Next day,however, he burnt incense before the mummy of his father, which was inthe main royal chamber, and informed Herhor that they might conductthe remains to the tomb prepared for them.

  But this ceremony was not performed immediately.

  They conveyed the late pharaoh to the temple of Rameses, where itremained a day and a night. Then they bore the mummy with boundlessmagnificence to the temple of Amon-Ra.

  The details of the funeral ceremony were the same as in Memphis,though incomparably grander.

  The royal palaces on the right bank of the Nile were on the southernend of the city, while the temple of Amon-Ra was in the northern partof it. These were connected by a road unique in character. This was anavenue two kilometres long, very broad, lined not only with immensetrees, but with two rows of sphinxes. Some of these with lions' bodieshad human heads, others had rams' heads. There were several hundredsof these statues on the avenue, at both sides of which countlessthrongs of people had assembled from Thebes and the surroundingregion. Along the middle of the avenue moved the funeral procession.Advancing to the music of various regiments were detachments of femalewailers, choruses of singers, all the guilds of artisans andmerchants, deputations from some tens of provinces with their gods andbanners, deputations from more than ten nations which kept uprelations with Egypt. And again wailers' music and priestly choruses.

  This time the mummy of the pharaoh advanced in a golden boat also, butincomparably richer than that in Memphis. The car which bore it wasdrawn by eight pair of white bulls; this car, two stories high, wasalmost concealed under garlands, bouquets, ostrich plumes, andprecious woven stuffs. It was surrounded by a dense cloud of smokefrom censers, which produced the impression that Rameses XII. wasappearing to his people in clouds like a divinity.

  From the pylons of all Theban temples came thunder-like outbursts andwith them loud and rapid sounds from the clashing of bronze disks.

  Though the avenue of sphinxes was free and wide; though the p
rocessiontook place under the direction of Egyptian generals, and thereforewith the greatest order, the procession spent three hours in passingthose two kilometres between the palace and the edifices of Amon.

  Only when the mummy of Rameses XII. was borne into the temple didRameses XIII. drive forth from the palace in a golden chariot drawn bya pair of splendid horses. The people standing along the avenue, whoduring the time of the procession had held themselves quietly, burstout at sight of the beloved sovereign into a shout so immense that thethunders and sounds from the summits of all the temples were lost init.

  There was a moment when that mighty throng, borne away by excitement,would have rushed to the middle of the avenue and surrounded theirsovereign. But Rameses, with one motion of his hand, restrained theliving deluge and prevented the sacrilege.

  In the course of some minutes the pharaoh passed over the road andhalted before the immense pylons of the noblest temple in Egypt.

  As Luxor was the quarter of palaces in the south, so Karnak was thequarter of divinities on the northern side of the city. The temple ofAmon-Ra formed the main centre of Karnak.

  This building alone occupied two hectares of space, and the gardensand ponds around it about twenty. Before the temple stood two pylonsforty metres high. The forecourt, surrounded by a corridor resting oncolumns, occupied nearly one hectare, the hall of columns in whichwere assembled the privileged classes was half a hectare in extent.This was not the edifice yet, but the approach to it.

  That hall, or hypostyle, was more than a hundred and fifty yards longand seventy-five yards in width, its ceiling rested on one hundred andthirty-four columns. Among these the twelve central ones were fifteenyards in circumference and from twenty to twenty-four metres high.

  The statues disposed in the temple near the pylons, and at the sacredlakes accorded in size with all other parts of Karnak.

  In the immense gate the worthy Herhor, the high priest of that temple,was waiting for Rameses. Surrounded by a whole staff of priests Herhorgreeted the pharaoh almost haughtily, and while burning a censerbefore the sovereign he did not look at him. Then he conducted Ramesesto the hypostyle and gave the order to admit deputations within thewall of the temple.

  General View of the Ruins of Karnak]

  In the midst of the hypostyle stood the boat with the mummy of thedeparted sovereign, and on both sides of it, two thrones of equalheight stood opposed to each other. On one of these Rameses took hisplace surrounded by nomarchs and generals, on the other sat Herhorsurrounded by the priesthood. Then the high priest Mefres gave Herhorthe mitre of Amenhotep and the young pharaoh for the second timebeheld on the head of the high priest the golden serpent, the symbolof regal authority.

  Rameses grew pale from rage, and thought: "Shall I need to remove theureus and thy head at the same time?"

  But he was silent, knowing that in that greatest of Egyptian templesHerhor was lord, the equal of the gods, and a potentate perhapsgreater than the pharaoh.

  During this time when the people filled the court, behind the purplecurtain dividing the rest of the temple from mortals were heard harpsand low singing. Rameses looked at the hall. A whole forest of mightycolumns covered from above to the bases with paintings, the mysteriouslighting, the ceiling far up near the sky somewhere, produced on himan effect that was crushing.

  "What does it signify," thought he, "to win a battle at the SodaLakes? To build an edifice like this is an exploit!--But those priestsbuilt it."

  At that moment he felt the power of the priestly order. Could he, hisarmy, or even the whole people overturn that temple? And if it wouldbe difficult to deal with the edifice would it be easier to strugglewith its builders? The voice of the high priest Mefres roused him fromdisagreeable meditations.

  "Holiness," said the old man; "thou most worthy confidant of the gods"(here he bowed to Herhor); "ye nomarchs, scribes, warriors, and commonpeople,--the most worthy high priest of this temple, Herhor, invitesyou to judge, according to ancient custom, the earthly acts of thelate pharaoh, and to acknowledge or deny to him burial."

  Anger rushed to the head of Rameses. "It was not enough that theyinsulted him in that place, but in addition they dare to discuss thedeeds of his father, to decide as to his burial."

  But he calmed himself; that was only a formality, as ancient, infact, as the Egyptian dynasties. It related not to judgment, but topraise of the departed.

  At a sign given by Herhor the high priests took their seats on stools.But neither the nomarchs nor the generals surrounding the throne ofRameses were seated; there were not even stools for them.

  The pharaoh fixed in his memory that insult also; but he had somastered himself now that it was impossible to learn whether henoticed the disregard shown those near him.

  Meanwhile the holy Mefres dwelt on the life of the deceased pharaoh.

  "Rameses XII.," said he, "did not commit any of the forty-two sins,hence the court of the gods pronounces a gracious verdict regardinghim. And since, moreover, the royal mummy, thanks to the exceptionalcare of the priests, is provided with every amulet, prayer, direction,and spell, there is no doubt that the late pharaoh is now in thedwelling of the gods, sitting at the side of Osiris, and is himselfOsiris.

  "During his earthly life the divine nature of Rameses XII. was mademanifest. He reigned more than thirty years. He gave the peopleprofound peace and erected or finished many temples. Besides, he washimself a high priest and surpassed in piety the most pious. Duringhis reign honor to the gods and elevation of the sacred priestly orderheld the chief position. Therefore he was beloved of the heavenlypowers, and one of the Theban gods, Khonsu, at the prayer of thepharaoh, was pleased to go to the country of Buchten, and expel anevil spirit from the king's daughter."

  Mefres drew breath and continued,--

  "When I have shown your worthinesses that Rameses XII. was a god, willye inquire with what object that higher being came down to theEgyptian land and spent some tens of years here?

  "He did so to reform the world, which, through decay of faith, is muchcorrupted. For who is occupied in devotion to-day, who thinks ofobeying the will of the gods in our time?

  "In the distant north we see the great Assyrian people who believeonly in the power of the sword, and who, instead of giving themselvesto devotion and wisdom, are subjecting other nations. Nearer to us arePhoenicians, whose god is gold, and whose worship is mere fraud andusury. There are others also: the Hittites on the East, the Libyans onthe west, the Ethiopians on the south, and the Greeks of theMediterranean,--those are barbarians and robbers. Instead of toilingthey rob, instead of working wisdom they drink, play dice, or sleeplike tired animals.

  "In the world there is only one really wise and pious people, theEgyptians; but see what is happening among us. Because of the influxof infidel foreigners, religion has fallen here also. Nobles andofficials at their wine cups revile eternal life and the gods, whilethe people throw mud at sacred statues and make no offerings totemples.

  "Excess has taken the place of devotion, riot the place of wisdom.Each man wants to wear immense wigs, and anoint himself with rareperfumes; he would have tunics and aprons woven with gold, wear chainsand bracelets set with jewels. A barley cake suffices him no longer:he wants wheaten bread with milk and honey; he washes his feet in beerand quenches his thirst with wine from foreign countries.

  "Because of this all nobles are in debt, the people are beaten andoverloaded with labor; here and there rebellions break out. What do Isay! here and there? During a certain time through the length and thebreadth of Egypt, thanks to secret disturbances, we hear the shout:'Give us rest after every six days of labor! Do not beat us withoutjudgment! Give each man of us a plot of land as his property!'

  "This is a declaration of ruin for Egypt, against which we must findrescue. The rescue is only in religion, which teaches that the peopleshould labor. Holy men, as persons knowing the will of the gods,should indicate the labor, and it is the duty of the pharaoh and hisofficials to see that this labor is
carried out actually.

  "Religion teaches all this; according to these principles RamesesXII., who was equal to the gods, governed Egypt. We high priests,knowing his devotion, will cut out the following inscription on histomb and on the temples:

  "'The bull Horus, the mighty Apis who united the crowns of thekingdom, the golden falcon wielding the sabre, the conqueror of ninenations, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, the ruler of two worlds,the son of the sun, Amen-Mer-Rameses, beloved of Amon-Ra, the lord andruler of the Theban region, the son of Amon-Ra received as son byHorus, and begotten by Hormach, King of Egypt, ruler of Phoenicia,lord of nine nations.'"[40]

  [40] Authentic tomb inscription.

  When this proposal was confirmed by a shout of those assembled,dancers ran out from behind the curtain and performed a sacred dancebefore the sarcophagus, and the priests burned incense. Then they tookthe mummy from the boat and bore it to the sanctuary of Amon intowhich Rameses XIII. had not the right to enter.

  The service ended soon after and the assembly left the temple.

  While returning to the palace of Luxor the young pharaoh was so sunkin thought that he hardly saw the immense throng of people and did nothear the shouts which rose from it.

  "I cannot deceive my own heart," thought Rameses. "The high priestsinsult me; this has not happened to any pharaoh till my time; more,they point out to me the way in which I can gain their favor. Theywish to manage the state, and I am to see that their commands areaccomplished.

  "But it will be otherwise: I shall command and ye must accomplish.Either my royal foot will be planted on your necks or I shall perish."

  For two days the revered mummy of Rameses XII. remained in the templeof Amon, in a place so sacred that even high priests might not enter,save only Herhor and Mefres. Before the deceased only one lamp wasburning, the flame of which, nourished in a miraculous manner, wasnever extinguished. Over the deceased hung the symbol of the spirit, aman-headed falcon. Whether it was a machine, or really a living being,was known to no one. This is certain, that priests who had the courageto look behind the curtain stealthily saw that this being kept oneplace in the air unsupported while its lips and eyes continued moving.

  The continuation of the funeral began, and the golden boat carried thedeceased to the other side of the river. But first it passed throughthe main street of Thebes surrounded by an immense retinue of priests,wailers, warriors, and people, amid incense, music, wailing andchanting. This was perhaps the most beautiful street in all Egypt. Itwas broad, smooth, lined with trees. Its houses, four and even fivestories high, were covered from roof to foundation with mosaic or withbas-reliefs in colors. It looked as if those buildings had been hungwith immense colored tapestry or hidden by colossal picturesrepresenting the work and occupations of merchants, artisans,mariners, also distant lands and their people. In one word that wasnot a street, but a colossal gallery of pictures, barbarous as to thedrawing, but brilliant in colors.

  The funeral procession advanced about two kilometres from the north tothe south, keeping more or less the centre of the city, then it turnedwestward toward the river.

  In the middle of the river opposite this point was a large islandconnected by a bridge of boats with the city. To avoid accidents thegenerals in command reformed the procession; they put four people in arank, ordered them to move very slowly and forbade them to keep step.With this object the different bands of music at the head of themultitude each played different music.

  After a couple of hours the procession passed the first bridge, nextthe island, then the second bridge, and was on the western bank of theriver.

  If we might call the eastern part of Thebes the city of gods andkings, the western quarter was that of tombs and mortuary temples.

  The procession advanced from the Nile toward the Libyan hills by themiddle road. South of this road, on an eminence, stood a temple,commemorating the victories of Rameses III., the walls of which arecovered with pictures of conquered nations: Hittites, Amorites,Philistines, Ethiopians, Arabs, Libyans. A little lower down rose twocolossal statues of Amenhotep II., the height of which,notwithstanding their sitting posture, was twenty metres. One of thesestatues was distinguished by the miraculous property that when struckby the rays of the rising sun it gave out sounds like those of a harpwhenever chords snap in it.

  Still nearer the road, but always on the left, stood the Ramesseum, abeautiful though not very large temple which was built by Rameses II.The entrance to this edifice was guarded by statues with the royalinsignia in their hands. In the forecourt towered the statue ofRameses II. to the height of sixteen metres.

  The road rose gradually, and a very steep eminence became more andmore visible; this was as full of holes as a sponge: those holes werethe tombs of Egyptian officials. At the entrance to them, among steepcliffs stood the very strange temple of Queen Hatasu. This temple wasfour hundred and fifty yards long. From the forecourt, surrounded by awall, there was an entrance by steps to the second court surrounded bycolumns; under this was a subterranean temple. From the court ofcolumns the passage rose by steps again to a temple cut out in thecliff under which was another subterranean temple. In this way thetemple was of two stories, each of which was divided into an upper anda lower part. The stairs were immense, without railing, but furnishedwith two rows of sphinxes; the entrance to each stairway was guardedby two sitting statues.

  At the temple of Hatasu began the gloomy ravine which led from thetombs of high dignitaries to those of the pharaohs. Between these twoquarters was the tomb of the high priest Retemenof, the corridors andchambers of which occupied about one hectare of subterranean area.

  The road to the ravine was so steep that men had to help the draughtbulls, and push the funeral boat forward. The procession moved, as itwere, along a cornice cut into the cliff side; at last they halted ona broad platform some hundreds of feet above the ravine counting fromthe lower bed of it.

  Here was the door leading to the underground tomb which during histhirty years' reign the pharaoh had made for himself. This tomb was awhole palace with chambers for the pharaoh, for his family andservants, with a dining-room, bedchamber and bath, with chapelsconsecrated to various gods, and finally with a well at the bottom ofwhich was a small chamber where the mummy of the sovereign would restfor the ages.

  By the light of brilliant torches the walls of all the rooms appearedcovered with prayers, and also with pictures which represented everyoccupation and amusement of the departed: hunting, the building oftemples, the cutting of canals, triumphal entries, solemnities inhonor of the gods, battles of troops with their enemies, the labors ofpeople.

  And those were not sufficient: the chambers were not only fitted withfurniture, vessels, chariots, weapons, flowers, meat, bread, and wine,but they were furnished also with a multitude of statues. There werevarious portraits of Rameses XII., his priests, ministers, women,warriors, and slaves; for the sovereign could not dispense in theother world any more than in this with costly vessels, exquisite foodand faithful servants.

  When the funeral car halted at the entrance the priests drew forthfrom its sarcophagus the mummy of the pharaoh, and placed it on theearth resting against the cliff with its shoulder. Then Rameses XIII.burned incense before the remains of his father, while Queen Nikotrisembraced the mummy by the neck, and said with weeping,--

  "I am thy sister, Nikotris, thy wife; do not desert me, thou greatone! Dost thou desire really, my good father, that I should go? But ifI go thou wilt be alone, and will any one be with thee?"

  Now the high priest Herhor burned incense before the mummy, and Mefrespoured out wine, saying,--

  "To thy second self we offer this, O Osiris-Mer-Amen-Rameses,sovereign of Upper and Lower Egypt, whose voice in the presence of thegreat god is truthful."

  Then the wailers and the chorus of priests were heard:

  _Chorus I._ "Complain, complain, weep, weep, weep, without ceasing, asloudly as ever ye are able."

  _Wailers._ "O worthy traveller, who turnest thy
steps to the land ofeternity, how quickly they are tearing thee from us."

  _Chorus II._ "How beautiful is that which is happening to him! SinceKhonsu of Thebes was loved by him greatly, the god has permitted thesovereign to reach that west, the world of the generations of hisservants."

  _Wailers._ "O thou who hast been attended by so many servitors, thouart now in the land ruled by loneliness. Thou who hadst splendidrobes and didst love spotless linen art lying now in the garments ofyesterday!"

  _Chorus I._ "In peace, in peace, to the West, O our lord, go thou inpeace. We shall see thee again when the day of eternity comes, forthou art going to the land which brings all men together."[41]

  [41] Authentic.

  The final ceremony began.

  They brought a bull and an antelope which it was the duty of RamesesXIII. to slay, but they were slain by his substitute before the gods,Sem, the high priest. The inferior priests dressed the beasts quickly,after which Herhor and Mefres, taking the hind legs, placed them inturn at the mouth of the mummy. But the mummy had no wish to eat, forit was not brought to life yet, and its lips were closed.

  To remove that obstacle Mefres washed it with holy water and incensedit with perfumes and alum, saying,--

  "Here stands thy father; here stands Osiris-Mer-Amen-Rameses. I am thyson; I am Horus; I come to purify thee and make thee alive. I put thybones again in order; I join that which was severed, for I am Horus,the avenger of my father. Thou wilt sit on the throne of Ra whoproceeds from Nut, who gives birth to Re every morning, who givesbirth to Mer-Amen-Rameses daily, just as Re."

  Thus speaking, the high priest touched with amulets the mouth, thebreasts, the hands, and the feet of the mummy.

  Now the choruses were heard again,--

  _Chorus I._ "Henceforth Osiris-Mer-Amen-Rameses will eat and drink allthings which the gods eat and drink. He will sit in their place, likethem; he is healthy and powerful."

  _Chorus II._ "He has power in every limb; it is hateful to him to behungry and unable to eat, thirsty and unable to drink."

  _Chorus I._ "O gods, give to Osiris-Mer-Amen-Rameses thousands ofthousands of pitchers of wine, thousands of garments, thousands ofloaves and of bullocks!"

  _Chorus II._ "O ye who are living on the earth, when ye pass this way,if life be dear to you and death be repulsive, if ye desire that yourdignities pass to your descendants, repeat this prayer for theheaven-dweller who is placed here."

  _Mefres._ "O ye great ones, ye prophets, ye princes, scribes, andpharaohs, O ye other people who are to come a million years after me,if any of you put his name on the place of my name the god will punishhim by destroying his person on earth!"[42]

  [42] Authentic.

  After this curse the priests lighted the torches, took the royalmummy, placed it again in its casket, and the casket in the stonesarcophagus which had the human form in its general outlines. Then, inspite of the shrieks, the despair, and the resistance of wailers, theybore that immense weight toward the tomb chamber.

  After they had passed by the light of torches through a number ofcorridors and chambers they halted in that one where the well was.They lowered the sarcophagus in that opening, went down themselves,and put away the sarcophagus in a lower subterranean space, thenwalled up the passage to this space quickly and in such a manner thatthe most trained eye could not have discovered it; then they went upand closed the entrance to the well with equal effectiveness.

  The priests did all this without witnesses; and they did the work soaccurately that the mummy of Rameses XII. remains to this day in itssecret abode, as safe from thieves as from modern curiosity. Duringtwenty-nine centuries many tombs of pharaohs have been ravaged, butthat one is inviolate.

  While some priests were hiding the remains of the pious pharaoh,others illuminated the underground chambers and invited the living toa feast in that dwelling.

  Rameses XIII., Queen Nikotris, and Sem, with some civil and militarydignitaries entered the dining-hall. In the middle of the chamberstood a table covered with food, wine, and flowers, and at the wallsat a statue of the late sovereign carved out of porphyry. He seemedto gaze at those present, smile pensively, and beg them to eat in hispresence.

  The feast began with a sacred dance, which was accompanied by a hymnsung by one of the highest priestesses.

  "Enjoy days of happiness, for life lasts but one instant. Enjoyhappiness, for when ye enter the tomb ye will rest there the wholelength of each day during ages."

  After the priestess came a prophet, and to the accompaniment of harpshe chanted,--

  "The world is endless change and endless renewal. That arrangement offate is wise; the decision of Osiris deserves admiration; for as abody which belongs to past time decays and perishes, other bodies risebehind it.

  "The pharaohs, those gods who were before us, rest in their pyramids;their mummies and their second selves remain, though the palaces whichthey built are no longer on their sites, and no longer in existence.

  "Despair not, but give thyself to thy desires and thy happiness, andwear not thy heart out till for thee the day comes when thou wiltimplore, while Osiris, the god whose heart beats no longer, will nothear thy petitions.

  "The mourning of a world will not restore happiness to a man who islying in the tomb; use, then, thy days of happiness and in delight beno laggard. There is no man, indeed, who can take his goods to theother world with him; there is none who can go to that world and comeback to this one."[43]

  [43] Authentic.

  The feast ended; the worthy assembly incensed the statue of thedeceased once again and made ready to return to Thebes. In themortuary temple only priests remained to make regular offerings to thedeceased and a guard watching the tomb against sacrilegious attemptsof robbers.

  Thenceforth Rameses XII. was alone in that mysterious chamber. Througha small secret opening in the rock a gloomy light barely broke in tohim; instead of the rustle of ostrich plumes was the rustle ofenormous bat wings; instead of music was heard, during night hours,complaining howls of hyenas, and at times the mighty voice of a lion,which greeted from the desert the pharaoh in his resting-place.