But Lucius did not sleep. Now that he was alone, he felt the agony of
his suffering and affliction. He drew a sandal from a little casket,
a woman's blue-leather sandal adorned with gold relief and small,
for all that Uncle Catullus was pleased to say. It was the only trace
that Ilia had left behind her. And he kissed the sandal and groaned
and stretched himself out impotently and clenched his fists and lay
like that, staring before him without moving.
He lay lost in thought. And suddenly he struck the gong and summoned
Tarrar, who entered nimbly and respectfully:
"Find Caleb and bring him here to me."
The little slave returned in a short time and ushered in Caleb, who
approached with graceful salaams. Tarrar left his master alone with
the Sabaean.
"Caleb," said Lucius, "sit down and listen. I need your advice."
"Your faithful servant is listening, my lord," said Caleb, sitting
down on a chair.
"Caleb," continued Lucius, "I have not come to Egypt merely to see
the things of interest which this country supplies. I have another
object. There are mysterious oracles in Egypt; there are prophets and
sibyls, so I am told, living in the desert. I want to know something. I
want to know where some one is, one who is dear to me and far away. I
want to consult the oracles and the prophets and sibyls. You must
conduct me, without saying a word to my uncle or my tutor, because
they do not approve of the attempts which I wish to make to find this
person whom I love. Be my guide, Caleb, and I will reward you."
"I will be your guide, my lord," replied Caleb, "and this very night
I will conduct you...."
"Where?"
"To the sibyl of Rhacotis, an old sorceress who knows everything."
"We will go by ourselves, in secret."
"Very well, my lord; no one shall accompany us.... What do you think:
would you not like a cool sherbet after your rest? And divert yourself
with looking at the goods which the travelling merchants from distant
foreign lands, who happen to-day to be staying in the diversorium,
have to offer for sale? I will have the sherbet prepared and the
merchants informed, my lord. And to-night I will lead you through
Rhacotis: we will go by ourselves, my lord, and no one shall know
anything of our nocturnal expedition."
Caleb went away; Tarrar drew the curtains aside. Beyond the bedchamber
was a pillared portico; and the green shadow of the palm-garden
outside fell within doors. Uncle Catullus was still asleep, but
Thrasyllus already sat reading his Egyptian guide-books at a table
under a palm-tree. The wonderful, fantastic stories of Herodotus
charmed the old tutor's mind, which was not disinclined to fantasy;
but Thrasyllus also took pleasure in the more succinct descriptions
of the learned Eratosthenes, Ptolemy Evergetes' librarian, who lived
three centuries before and was a noted astronomer, philosopher and
geographer. Thrasyllus loved to consult his splendid maps, which
had never yet been bettered and which lay spread in heavy parchment
on the table before him; and the tutor followed the cinnabar-traced
Nile on these maps down to Ethiopia and the mysterious sources of
the sacred stream.
Yes, Eratosthenes was the most respectable guide. When he went blind,
in his eighty-second year, he starved himself. Thrasyllus honoured
him as a martyr of science. But the tutor also consulted Artemidorus
and Hypsicrates, for he wished to be well-informed about the country
which he was about to visit, that mysterious country of age-old
history and colossal art, while also he did not despise the quite
modern writings of his contemporary, Strabo: what a contemporary
told about a country over the whole of which he had travelled was
perhaps most important of all, because of its practical utility and
also because of the freshness of the new impressions.
So Thrasyllus sat under his palm-tree at a table strewn with unrolled
papyri; more scrolls stood in a case by his side; and his fingers
followed the cinnabar-traced Nile. Lucius in the portico smiled in
kindly approval. But the travelling merchants, led by Caleb, arrived
through the garden. They were Indians, Sabaeans, Arabs, Phoenicians;
and their slaves toiled under their heavy bales of merchandise, which
were slung on pliant sticks over their shoulders. The merchants bent
low in salaams before the wealthy Roman, bowed down to the earth,
kissed the ground which his foot had trodden, all eager to sell their
exotic wares at a profit above the ordinary to so distinguished a
traveller. The Phoenicians made their slaves spread out Damascus
tapestry, but Lucius looked at it with scorn and the Phoenicians at
once rolled up their inferior tapestry. Then, however, they displayed
embroidery from Nineveh and Tyre; and Lucius turned a little pale,
because he thought of Ilia. It was all very beautiful in hue and very
curious in pattern.
"Call Uncle Catullus here," he said to Tarrar, who was squatting
beside him like a faithful little monkey.
Tarrar hastened to Catullus, who thereupon arrived, sleepily rubbing
his eyes, in a wide silk indoor simar; his grey hair stood in a tangle
around his bald skull.
"Uncle," said Lucius, aside, "look here, if you please. Those
embroideries from Tyre and Nineveh: I want them. Bargain for them."
For Uncle Catullus knew how to bargain. He began by turning up his
nose at the embroideries; and the merchants uttered loud cries of
protest and lifted their hands and invoked all the gods. But Uncle
Catullus scornfully shook his head and said:
"No, I won't buy that trash. Show me other things."
Then the Phoenicians showed gold vessels from Tartessus, but the Arabs
offered perfumes and aromatics from Jeddah and Zebid. The Sabaeans
displayed wonderful amulets, which bring luck and blissful dreams: the
Indians showed tame, trained snakes, as domestic pets: the snakes had a
small sardonyx encrusted in their heads, where it had grown into their
scaly skin, and they danced on the tips of their tails, to the piping
of the Indians' flutes. They were attractive little creatures and did
not cost more than one stater apiece, with the ebony casket in which
they were kept; and Lucius impatiently bought them at once, partly
because Tarrar found them so attractive and grinned where he squatted
and looked on while the snakes danced and twisted one among another.
But at last a Mongolian merchant arrived, with a pale-yellow face
and narrow eyes, which looked as though they were closed, and his
hair, around his shaven head, ended in a pigtail of purple silk,
with a tassel to it. This merchant offered little black balls, to
be smoked in peculiar pipes; he asked Lucius to accept a pipe and a
couple of little black pills in a yellow-silk bag, without payment,
and to smoke them when he had the opportunity. The intoxication which
they produced was something very peculiar, said the merchant.
Meanwhile Uncle Catullus had duly succeeded in acquiring the
embroideries from Tyre and Nineveh at a really laughable price and
presented them to his nephew, who of course paid for them in his
stead. But, when Lucius held them in his hands--they were narrow
strips embroidered with Assyrian lions and strange unicorns--he grew
sad and said:
"What use are they to me, after all? Time was when I should have
given them to Ilia as a border for her stola. Tarrar, put the pretty
embroideries away, with the Mongolian pills and all the other rubbish
which I have bought without wanting to: the little gold vases and
the Sabaean amulets."
"And the dear little snakes, my lord?" asked Tarrar, with glittering
eyes.
"You may keep them ... to play with," said Lucius, carelessly.
Meanwhile Caleb had had the cups of sherbet handed round. Uncle
Catullus thought it particularly good and considered that Lucius' cook
ought really to write down this Egyptian recipe; but Lucius gave his
to Tarrar, who scooped up the sherbet greedily with his black fingers.