THE PROMISED LAND
One sunset, shortly after his marriage, word came to the tent of
Kenkenes that an Amalekite chieftain on his way to Egypt had paused for
the night just without the encampment of Israel.
"Here may be an opportunity to speak with thy father," Rachel
suggested. The prospect of talking once again to those he had left
behind was one too full of pleasure for the young Egyptian to receive
calmly. Hurriedly he despatched one of his serving men to the
Amalekite to bid him await a message. But Rachel called the messenger
back.
"Tell the Amalekite that thou comest from an Egyptian noble. For such
thy master is, and this chieftain is more willing to take command from
Egypt than from Israel."
The servant in his enthusiasm and the importance of his mission told
the Amalekite that he came from a prince of Egypt.
The chieftain was a youth who had just succeeded his father over his
people and was on his way to Memphis bearing tribute to Meneptah. To
this tributary nation Egypt was remote, splendid and full of glamour.
The name was synonymous of the world and all the glories thereof, and
particularly had it appealed to the active imagination of this youth.
He had seen many Egyptians, but they were naked prisoners laboring in
the mines of Sinai, or overseers or scribes or the ancient exile who
was governor of the province,--and surely these were not representative
of the land.
Now he was to get a glance at real Egypt.
In the early hours of the dawn a follower came to his pallet and told
him in awed tones that the prince was without. Tremulous with
pleasurable trepidation, he went out into the misty daybreak twilight
of the open. And there he met an imperial stranger who towered over
him as a palm over a shrub. At a single glance the Amalekite saw that
there was a circlet of gold about the brow, that the face was fine and
that the garments swept the sands. All this was significant, but when
the stranger delivered him two rolls, one addressed to the chief of the
royal scribes of the Pharaoh, the other to the royal murket, and paid
him with a jewel, the Amalekite, convinced and satisfied, prostrated
himself.
But we may not know what the youth thought when he found that there
were few in all Egypt like this princely stranger.
After these writings came, with all fidelity, to the hands of those who
loved him in Egypt, silence fell between them and Kenkenes.
Meneptah erected no more monuments after the eighth year of his reign,
for in that year Mentu, the murket, died. None could fill his place,
since to his name was attached the title "the Incomparable," as
befitted the artist of that great Pharaoh, likewise titled, who had so
loved him and his genius. Meneptah, in memory of Mentu and his artist
son who had served his king so well, set up no sculptor nor any murket
in his place. It was the one graceful act in the life of the feeble
king, the one resolution to which he held most tenaciously.
Though Mentu's union with Senci was short, it was most happy, save
perhaps for the absence of Kenkenes. But after the letter came from
the well-beloved son there was more cheer in the heart of the father.
Kenkenes was not dead, only absent, as he would have been had he lived
in Tanis or Thebes. Furthermore, the young man had spoken glowingly
and at length on the future of Israel and the Promised Land, and Mentu
told himself that he might visit Kenkenes one day in that new country.
Since there were no children in their house, Senci and the murket
spoiled Anubis, and in the eyes of his devoted master the ape had
earned his soft life. Shortly after the departure of Kenkenes Mentu
discovered the ape burying something in the sand of the courtyard
flower-beds. In spite of the favorite's vigorous protests Mentu
overturned the tiny heap of earth and discovered therein the
lapis-lazuli signet. There was but one explanation of the ape's
possession of the gem. He had torn the scarab from about the neck of
Unas when he flew in his face, the moment the light went out. After
his nature, he kept the jewel because it was bright.
All these things--the discovery of the signet in the tomb, the safety
of Kenkenes when all the other first-born had died, and the testimony
of the miracles to the power of Israel's God--made the good murket
think deeply. Indeed, all Egypt thought deeply after the Exodus of
Israel, and to such extremes was this sober thinking carried that
through very fear many added the name of the Hebrews' God to the
Pantheon. Mentu did not go so far, because he saw the inconsistency in
such procedure, but he shook his head and pondered and was not wholly
satisfied with many things in the Osirian creed.
Of the love of Hotep and Masanath something yet remains to be told. It
was common to examine the entire family of a traitor as to their
complicity in his misdeeds, and the option lay with the Pharaoh whether
or not they should bear some of his punishment. Har-hat was dead, the
army destroyed at his hands. When the news of the disaster reached
Tanis Meneptah's anger and grief knew no bounds.
After Rameses had been interred at Thebes beside his fathers, and the
court had returned to Memphis, the king summoned Masanath, the sole
representative of the family of Har-hat, to give reason why she should
not be accused of complicity in the treason of her father.
Meneptah had taken counsel with none on this step. Perhaps he had an
inkling that it would be unpopular; perhaps he thought he was but
fulfilling the law. Hotep was at On comforting his family, who mourned
over Bettis, and most of the other ministers were scattered over Egypt
lamenting their own dead, and few expected the ungallant act of the
king.
But one day, when all the court had reassembled, Masanath came into the
great council chamber. Alone and dressed in mourning, she seemed so
little and defenseless that Meneptah stirred uncomfortably in his
throne. Slowly she approached the dais and fell on her knees before
the king. The great gathering of courtiers held its breath, wondering
and pitying.
Such was the scene upon which Hotep came all unknowing. At a glance he
understood the situation. It was too much for his well-bridled spirit.
With a cry, full of horror, indignation and compassion, he dropped his
writing-case and scroll, and, rushing forward, flung himself on his
knees beside her, one arm about her, the other extended in supplication
to the Pharaoh.
Meneptah, who, from the moment of Masanath's entrance into the council
chamber, had begun to repent his ill-advised act, was glad to be won
over. At the end of Hotep's impassioned story he came down from the
dais, and raising Masanath, kissed her and put her into the young man's
arms. Supplementing his pardon with command, he ordered his scribe to
marry the sad little orphan at once and take her away from the scene of
her sorrows till Isis restored her in spirits again.
The alacrity with which this royal command was obeyed proved how
acceptable it was to the lovers. By the next sunset they were going by
a slow and sumptuous boat down the broad bosom of the Nile toward the
sea, but they had no care whether or not they ever reached their
destination.
After some months spent on the coast, Masanath grew stronger and began
to live with much appreciation of the joys of existence. On their
return to Memphis Hotep was made fan-bearer in Har-hat's place, and for
the remaining fourteen years of Meneptah's reign practically ruled over
Egypt.
Vastly different, however, was his favoritism from the favoritism of
Har-hat. During the wise administration of the young adviser Egypt
recovered something of her former glory, lost in the dreadful
plague-ridden days preceding the Exodus. The army was reorganized
first, for Ta-user's party began to make demonstrations the hour that
the news of the Red Sea disaster reached the Hak-heb. All public
building and national extravagance were halted, and the surplus
treasure was expended in restocking the fields and granaries and
restoring commerce. Within five years after the Exodus the great check
Egypt had met in her nineteenth dynasty was not greatly apparent.
So the land recovered from the plagues, but its ruler never. The death
of Rameses lay like a heavy sin and torturing remorse on his
conscience. He wept till the feeble eyes lost their sight, but not
their susceptibility to tears. At last, succumbing to melancholia, he
became a child, for whom Hotep reigned and for whom the queen cared
with touching devotion.
The story of Seti is history. It is needless to say that his rough
usage at the hands of Ta-user awakened him, but it was long before he
found courage to return to Io, the sweetheart of his childhood. Yet,
when he did, after the manner of her kind, she wept over him and took
him back without a word of reproach. So the fair-faced sister of Hotep
came to be queen over Egypt and took another title with Nefer-ari as
prefix, and the quaint Danaid name, Io, was lost to all lips but Seti's
and Hotep's.
After Seti came to the throne he continued Hotep in the advisership and
prepared to reign happily. But in a little time the Thebaid, long
disaffected, seceded from the federation of Egypt and crowned
Amon-meses king of Thebes. Seti gathered his army, marched against the
rebellious district, put Amon-meses to the sword and reduced the
Thebaid to submission. Then he returned to Memphis for another space
of prosperity.
At the end of a year Ta-user and Siptah, after much browbeating of the
Hak-heb, raised funds sufficient to purchase mercenaries. Then, with
Ta-user at the head in barbaric splendor, they descended on Memphis.
The course Seti pursued has puzzled historians. He gathered up his
family, his court, his treasure, and without so much as lifting a
spear, fled into Ethiopia. After some time Ta-user sent to him and
conferred upon him the title of the Prince of Cush.
To the friends of the young Pharaoh it was patent that he feared to
meet Ta-user. Having succumbed once to her influence, to his undoing
and the misery of his beloved Io, he dared not come under the
all-compelling eyes of the sorceress again. So he surrendered his
crown and his country for his soul's sake.
But fifty years after, Seti's son, the formidable Set-Nekt, returned
into Egypt and restored the Rameside house on a basis so solid that
another glorious dynasty arose thereon, second only in brilliance to
that which had gone out in the anarchy of Siptah and Ta-user's reign.
This done, he wreaked personal vengeance upon the usurpers of his
father's throne. He broke open the tomb of Siptah and Ta-user, threw
out their bodies to the jackals, obliterated the inscriptions, enlarged
the crypt, put his own and his father's history on the walls and used
it for his mausoleum when he died.
And this was the deadliest retaliation he could inflict in his father's
name.
Much of this Kenkenes learned from the lips of Egyptian merchants whom
he met in Canaan, forty years after the Exodus.
Kenkenes was a proselyte who had found his God for himself. He
believed as he drew his breath and as his heart beat, involuntarily and
without any lapse. Never could a son of Israel have surrendered
himself more eagerly to the law. Its good and its purposes were ever
before his eyes, and his footsteps led in the paths that it lighted.
Though he saw not the Lord in a burning bush nor talked with Him on
Sinai, he found Him on the lonely uplands of the sheep-ranges and heard
Him in the voiceless night on the limitless desert. The young Egyptian
was not yet twenty years old at the time of the numbering before Sinai,
and he entered the Promised Land with Joshua and Caleb. For verily he
walked with God all the days of his life.
It must not be supposed that there was no serene life nor any happiness
in the long wandering of forty years. A generation of oriental adults
practically dies out in that time. The passing of the elders of
Israel, though it was accomplished by plagues and sendings for
iniquities, was as the passing of the old in the Orient to-day. The
encampment was not continually filled with calamity and great
mourning--far from it. There were long stretches of peace and plenty,
extending almost uninterruptedly for years, and those who followed the
law escaped the intervals of catastrophe.
Kenkenes was among the chosen people but not of them, partly because he
was of the execrated race of the oppressors and partly because the most
of Israel had nothing in common with the nobleman. But Moses loved him
and found joy in his company. Joshua loved him and had him by his side
when Israel warred. Caleb and Aaron loved him because he was godly,
and Miriam was proud of him and was mild in his presence. He took no
public part in the people's affairs, yet who shall say that he was not
near when Bezaleel wrought the wondrous angels for the ark? Who shall
say that his purest jewel did not enter the breast-plate of the high
priest? There are many names embraced in that general term, "every
wise-hearted man among them that wrought the work of the tabernacle."
So when Israel took up the forty years of pasture-hunting in Paran,
Kenkenes made his tent beautiful and pitched it always apart from the
multitude, and here he was contented all the days that Israel tarried
in that place. Under his care his flocks increased, his cattle
multiplied and his camels were not few, and he laid up riches for the
four stalwart sons and the golden-haired daughter who were to live
after him.
From the moment of his union with his beautiful wife, through the long
years of semi-isolation that he knew thereafter, he grew closer and
closer to Rachel. She filled all his needs as Israel failed to supply
them, and he missed neither friend nor neighbor when she was near.
Rachel knew wherein she was more fortunate than other women and her
content and her devotion were beyond measure. So Kenkenes and Rachel
were lovers all the days of their lives.
If ever they grew reminiscent there was one name spoken more tenderly
than any other--the name of Atsu. Kenkenes would grow sad of
countenance and he would look away, but there was no jealousy in his
heart for the tears of Rachel weeping over the task-master who died for
her.
The collar of golden rings became popular in Israel, and, after many
modifications effected by time and fashion, it came at last to be the
insignia of the virtuous woman. For centuries it was worn and no one
knows when the custom died out.
The genius of Kenkenes did not die. His voice enriched with age, and
the rocky vales wherein his flocks wandered had melodious echoes
whenever he followed the sheep. But he never used chisel upon stone
again. His sons were artists after him, but they were handicapped
also. And so it continued for many generations until the Temple of
Solomon was built. Then, though the plans came from the Lord, and
artisans were brought from Tyre, it was the descendants of Kenkenes who
made the Temple beautiful "with carved figures of cherubim and palm
trees and open flowers, within and without."
THE END
AUTHOR'S NOTE
When the Chaldeans prostrated themselves before Nebuchadnezzar, they
cried: "O King, live forever!" When patrician Rome hailed Nero in the
Circus, the acclaim was: "Vivat Imperator!" When the faithful saluted
the Caliph, they said: "May thy shadow never grow less."
Humanity, living in eternal contemplation of the tomb, offers its
highest tribute in bespeaking immortality for its great.
But Egypt did not invoke the gift of deathlessness upon the Pharaoh;
she declared it. He was an Immortal and died not. Though he more
nearly justified the confident declaration of his people, he but proved
that there is no sublunar immortality, though in Egypt--almost.
The Pharaoh lived with a triple purpose: the perpetuity of his empire,
of his dynasty, of his individuality. He steeped his body in
indestructibility and wrote his name in adamant. He employed the
manifold means at the command of his era, and whether his monument were
a colossus, a temple or a city, he builded well.
While Europe was yet a vast tract of gloomy forests, and morasses, and
plains, while the stone that was to rear Troy was yet scattered on the
slopes of Ida, Mena, the first Pharaoh of the first Dynasty, deflected
the Nile against the Arabian hills and built Memphis in its bed. So
say the writings that are graven in stone. If this be true, this story
deals with a quaint but efficient civilization that was already three
thousand years old, fourteen centuries before Christ.
An effort has been made to conform to the history of the time as it
comes down to us in the form of biblical accounts and the writings of
contemporaneous chroniclers. The author has taken liberty with
accepted history in the age of Meneptah's first-born and in placing
Hebrews in the quarries at Masaarah. The escape of Kenkenes in the
Passover is not intended to contradict the biblical statement that not
one of the eldest born was spared. Rather, it is offered, as an
hypothesis, that the Angel of Death would have passed over any true
believer in Jehovah, regardless of his nationality. Furthermore, the
author has given the Greek spelling to some names, the Egyptic to
others, the purpose being to present those pronunciations most familiar
to readers.
For all facts herein set forth, the author is indebted to a multitude
of authorities, chiefly to Wilkinson, Birch, Rawlinson, Ebers, and
Erman.
LIST OF CHARACTERS AND PLACES
Abydos,--A-by'-dos, city of Upper Egypt and burial-place of Osiris.
Amenti,--A-men'-tee, the realm of Death.
Amon-meses,--A'-mon-mee'-seez, half-brother to Meneptah and hostile to
him.
Anubis,--A-niu'-bis, pet ape named after the jackal-headed god.
Apepa,--A-pay'-pah, a Hyksos monarch who befriended Joseph.
Asar-Mut,--A-sar-Moot', half-brother to Meneptah and high priest to
Ptah.
Athor,--Ah'-thor, the feminine love-deity.
Atsu,--At'-soo, a noble Egyptian, vice-commander over the works at
Pa-Ramesu, afterwards degraded.
Baal-Zephon,--Bay'-al-Zee'-phon, a hill at the northern end of the Red
Sea.
Bast,--Bahst, the cat-headed goddess, patron deity of Bubastis.
Besa,--Bee'-sah, a dwarf-like deity similar to the Roman Cupid.
Bettis,--Bet'-tis, older sister to Hotep and Io.
Bubastis,--Biu-bast'-is, city in lower Egypt near Goshen.
Deborah,--Deb'-or-ah, an aged woman of Israel, Rachel's attendant.
Hak-heb,--Hayk'-heb, a village on the Nile, shipping point for
Nehapehu, fifty miles south of Memphis.
Har-hat,--Hahr'-hat, fan-bearer, or prime minister to the Pharaoh;
father of Masanath.
Hathors,--Hah'-thorz, seven personifications of Athor, usually seven
cows, similar to the fates of Roman and Greek mythology.
Hotep,--Hoe'-tep, the royal scribe, friend of Kenkenes, brother of
Bettis and Io.
Hyksos,--Hick'-soz, the Shepherd Kings.
Imhotep,--Eem-hoe'-tep, the physician god.
Ipsambul,--Ip-sahm'-bool, a temple cut from living rock.
Io,--Eye'-o, younger sister to Hotep and Bettis, in love with Seti.
Isis,--Eye'-sis, consort to Osiris and goddess of wisdom.
Jambres,--Jam'-breez, a priest in disgrace, sometime astrologer to
Rameses II and to Meneptah.
Kenkenes,--Ken-ken'-eez, son of Mentu, the murket.
Khem,--Kem, the Egyptian Pan.
Khu-n-Aten,--Khoon-Ah'-ten, Amenhotep IV, a Pharaoh of the eighteenth
dynasty, who attempted to reform the national faith.
Loi,--Lo'-ee, high-priest to Amen at Karnak.
Ma,--Mah, the goddess of truth.
Masaarah,--Mah-saar'-ah, a limestone quarry opposite Memphis.
Masanath,--Ma-sayn'-ath, second daughter to Har-hat, beloved of Hotep.
Meneptah,--Me-nep'-tah, successor to Rameses II, and Pharaoh of the
Exodus.
Menes,--Meen'-eez, captain of the royal guard.
Mentu,--Men'-too, the murket or royal architect, father of Kenkenes.
Merenra,--Mer-en'-rah, commander over the works at Pa-Ramesu.
Mesu,--May'-soo, Moses, the Law-giver.
Mizraim,--Miz'-ray-im, the Hebrew name for Egypt.
Mut,--Moot, the mother goddess.
Nari,--Nahr'-ee, the handmaiden of Masanath.
Nechutes,--Nee-koo'-teez, the royal cup-bearer.
Nehapehu,--Nee-hay'-pe-hiu, a fertile pocket in the Libyan desert,
fifty miles south of Memphis.
Neferari Thermuthis,--Nef-er-ahr'-ee Ther-moo'-this, first consort to
Rameses II and foster mother of Moses.
Nomarch,--Nome'-ark, governor of a civil division called a nome.
On, Heliopolis,--near the site of the modern Cairo.
Osiris,--Oh-sy'-ris, the great god of Egypt, the principle of good, the
creator.
Pa-Ramesu,--Pay-Ram'-e-soo, a treasure city begun by Rameses II.
Paraschites,--Par-a-shy'-teez, embalmers, an unclean class.
Pentaur,--Pen'-tor, an Egyptian priest and poet of the time of Rameses
II.
Pepi,--Pay'-pee, servant of Masanath.
Pharaoh,--Fay'-roe, title given to the Egyptian monarchs.
Pithom,---Py'-thom, a treasure city built by Rameses II.
Ptah,--P-tah', the patron deity of Memphis.
Punt,--Poont, Arabia.
Ra,--Rah, the sun god, patron deity of On.
Rachel,--daughter of Maai of Israel, beloved of Kenkenes.
Rameses,--Ram'-e-seez, a popular name for Egyptian kings; the name of
Meneptah's older son and also the name of Meneptah's father, the
Incomparable Pharaoh.
Ranas,--Rah'-nas, the servant of Snofru.
Sema,--See'-mah, an aged servant of Mentu.
Senci,--Sen'-cee, a lady of noble birth, aunt of Hotep and his sisters.
Set,--the god of war and evil.
Seti,--Set'-ee, second son to Meneptah, beloved of Io.
Siptah,--Sip'-tah, son of Amon-meses and claimant to the Egyptian
throne.
Snofru,--Sno'-froo, priest of Ra at On.
Tahennu,--Tah-hen'-niu, a fair-haired tribe on the Mediterranean, which
was exterminated by Seti I.
Ta-meri,--Tam'-e-ree, daughter of the nomarch of Memphis and beloved by
Nechutes.
Tanis,--Tay'-nis, the Egyptian name for Zoan.
Tape,--Tay'-pay, Thebes.
Ta-user,--Tay'-oo'-ser, a princess of the realm and beloved of Siptah.
Thebaid,--Thee-bay'-id, civil division embracing Thebes and surrounding
towns.
Thebes,--Theebz, capital of Upper Egypt and largest city in Egypt.
Toth,--Tote, the male deity of wisdom and law.
Tuat,--Tiu'-ayt, the Egyptian Hades.
Unas,--Yu'nas, servant to Har-hat.
Wady Toomilat,--Wah'-dee Toom'-ee-laht, great Rameside road leading
into the Orient.
Zoan,--Zoe'-an, the capital of the Delta.