The travellers had left Sais, after visiting the temple of
Athene and the tomb of Psammetichus, son of Necho, founder of the
twenty-sixth dynasty, one of the twelve kings of the Dodecarchy,
who divided Egypt among themselves after the death of Sethos in
B. C. 671. Psammetichus, in obedience to the oracles, defeated and
expelled his eleven fellow-kings and reigned alone at Memphis and
afterwards at Sais. Here was his tomb; it was sacred; there was an
oracle attached to it; and Lucius had consulted that oracle.
After that, Lucius had consulted the manteum, or oracle, of Latona at
Butos, on an island in the lake. He had next visited Xois, Hermopolis,
Lycopolis, Mendes and all the Sebennytic nome, which contained
numberless oracles and shrines. At Mendes the god Pan was worshipped;
and there was an oracle which spoke by means of the god's pipes. Here
the goat was held sacred and received public worship at the hands of
priestesses in Dionysiac frenzy. The travellers next visited Diospolis
and Leontopolis, Busiris and Cunopolis and all the Busiritic nome.
All these towns, with numbers of villages in between, covered
the islands of the flooded Delta, densely peopled and luxuriously
cultivated. The great farmsteads and country-mansions stood linked
along the canals, which were filled high to their banks with the
flowing waters. The ears of corn swelled with ripeness along the
shores; and the cattle gleamed and glanced, grazing in the rich
meadows. The fat fields were fragrant, in these last days of the summer
month of Epiphi, with a strange, moist scent as of nameless flowers
ever drenched in dew. The sun was warm, but not burning, as though the
moisture of so many waters tempered all the heat; the fierce rays did
not burn, as though they were ever drinking the excessive damp. And
from the marshes, which the Nile had turned into lakes, rose no mist,
but the scent of the water-flowers: lotus, nymphea and nenuphar.
The rains seemed to have ended. The maximum gauge in the Nilometers
appeared to have been reached; only the morning dew was often heavy,
like rain. But the days glided past in an immaculate glory of sunshine
tempered by moisture, while the rich, fragrant country lay stretched
under smooth skies, which changed cloudlessly from morning rose to
midday blue and evening gold, in a gradual fusing of tints. There
was hardly a breeze in the evening; the atmosphere retained an ideal
perfection of heavenly, temperate warmth; this summer warmth was
fresh and cool.
The thalamegus glided up the Nile. The river was as wide as a sea;
everywhere, in the noonday sun, the pools of the waters glittered
in among the farmsteads, mansions and shrines. On the horizon, the
outlines of the towns, with the needles of the obelisks, shimmered
in the damp haze. At every moment, dense palm-clusters or sycamores
raised their regular canopies along the river, forming an avenue,
or else tamarisks luxuriated and their branches threw fine shadows,
like blue stripes upon gold.
There lay the Athribitic nome and the Prosopitic nome, whose capital
is Aphroditopolis. Lucius went on shore with a great retinue. The
town, consecrated to Aphrodite, was peopled by none but hierodules,
priests and priestesses of the goddess. Lucius consulted the oracle.
Next morning, after the orgy, he was lying under the triple awning
of the barge which was gliding still higher up the river. Around
him were screens of plaited, transparent reeds, interwoven with
flowers. Thrasyllus sat by his side:
"Nemu-Pha told me," said Thrasyllus, "that both Plato and Pythagoras
spent years and years on the steps of the temples of Isis before they
were deemed worthy of learning one word of the Hermetic wisdom. Well,
I never imagined that Nemu-Pha would unlock the Hermetic wisdom
to me. But I did hope perhaps to learn a single word with which,
continuing to meditate my own thoughts, I could have unlocked the
secret, Lucius, of your happiness. But Nemu-Pha did not speak that
word to me. And yet, my son, I had to pay him a high price to be
admitted to his sanctuary. I am sorry for wasting your money."
Lucius smiled:
"Nevertheless, Thrasyllus, the oracles, even though they never satisfy
the questioner wholly, say very strange and impressive things. Shall
I make you a confession? I certainly hope that I shall one day know
who robbed me of Ilia. And, when I know, I shall not rest until I
have tortured him and made him die a thousand deaths."
"It was the pirates, Lucius," said Thrasyllus, evasively, "unless
Ilia was drowned."
"It was one pirate, Thrasyllus," said Lucius. "All the oracles now
never speak except of one pirate. And it is for me ... as though I
saw him before me! The dog!"
The barge was gliding past Latopolis, on the right; on the left,
standing farther back from the river, Heliopolis showed faintly. They
were nearing Babylon, but the travellers were to go through to Memphis.
"Look!" said Thrasyllus, starting up in rapture. "The Pyramids!"
Lucius turned, with real interest. There on the horizon, like an
enormous, mystic geometry, the triangles of the Pyramids, which
announced Memphis, rose against the pink morning sky. They were like
eternal lines drawn by the gods from earth to heaven.
"The Pyramids!" echoed Lucius, as though overcome by a mystic
impression.
On the other side, Heliopolis was now more clearly outlined, standing
high on a hill, with the temple of the bull Mnevis. Babylon, a suburb
of Memphis, swarmed on the river-bank and, with the battlements
of its forts; was visible through a sycamore avenue. And suddenly,
after a grove of palms, Memphis loomed into view.
"Memphis!" cried Thrasyllus.
And Uncle Catullus, appearing from his cabin, pointed and repeated:
"Memphis!"
The old Egyptian capital lay Cyclopean, like some extinct monster,
with heavy lines of squat, bleaching sanctuaries and, on the river,
a portico of giant pylons. Behind these age-old, massive buildings
the Pyramids showed spectrally.
Thrasyllus pointed his long, crystal spy-glass towards the horizon:
"There!" he said, with a shiver. "The most sacred monument
in Egypt! The great Sphinx, the immense Neith, the ever-silent
wisdom! Next to the second pyramid: that looming figure of a gigantic,
motionless animal!"
The barge hove to and was moored. Caleb proposed that they should go
on shore.
Here, even on the quays, the riotous bustle of agriculture and
commerce had ceased to reign. Under the palms there was not the
metropolitan press and throng of Alexandria, the world's market-place
and emporium. Only a few fruit-sellers squatted beside their wares
and uttered their cries, now that they saw strangers, offering
sliced melons and coco-nut milk. Here and there an Egyptian cowered,
dreaming, with long, split eyes. The quays were old, grey, wide and
deserted. Even the foreigners' barge roused but little curiosity. A few
children at play assembled when the two litters were carried on shore.
Caleb found it difficult to hire two camels, for himself and
Thrasyllus, but he succeeded. The cavalcade started; Caleb's armed
guards--for an escort was needed here, because of the robbers in the
desert--surrounded the litters. And the strangers proceeded along
the quays, under the palms, to the city. Caleb rode ahead, for he
knew the city and the way.
The city was gloomy, huge and empty, but Lucius, ever sensitive to
impressions, underwent the enchantment of that past. For Memphis was
the eternal past. The town had once numbered six hundred thousand
inhabitants. It now haply numbered a few thousands; the rare figures
in the wide streets were dwarfed and lost. Sometimes a woman's face
peeped out from the half-opened, vermilion shutters of some great grey,
dilapidated house.
Ye gods, what dimensions! What lines, what spaciousness of deserted
squares, what heaven-high rows of pylons! The Serapeum yonder,
at the endless end of an avenue of six hundred sphinxes, six rows
of a hundred sphinxes, the ever-silent incarnations of wisdom, the
lion-women who were the wisdom of Neith! What colossal statues, hewn
out of one block of stone and towering to the sky, with the pschent
crowns of their diadems! And everywhere the deathly silence and under
the feet of the Libyan bearers the dust of ages, which flew up on
high in one dense cloud after another!
Caleb rode ahead, by the sphinxes in the avenue. They stood in rows,
the wise lionesses with fixed women's faces, eternal guardians of
the secret. Some of them were already sinking in the sandy ground,
disappearing with their stretched fore-paws. Others shelved to one
side, borne down by the pressure of the centuries. Here the Pharaohs
themselves had passed in sacred processions! Here Moses had walked
and Hermes Trismegistus; here Joseph had wandered, the interpreter of
dreams; here, lastly, Cambyses, with his Persian hordes, had ridden
sacrilegiously! This was Memphis, thrice-sacred Memphis, profaned
long centuries ago and now dead and sinking in the devouring sands
of the desert, which approached from the west, out yonder! The city
would be swallowed up by the sands! That past would sink back into
the lap of the earth!
Suddenly Lucius shuddered with the mystic awe of what has been. And
his own life and grief seemed small to him.
They approached the sanctuary. It rose as a huge shadow. And from every
door swarmed serving-priests of Serapis, minor priests and door-keepers
... because they saw the strangers. They ranged themselves in front
of the entrance and stood waiting.
Caleb said:
"These are distinguished Latin lords, cousins of the divine Caesar
Tiberius, blessed be his name. They wish to see the sacred bull...."
"Apis ..." said the oldest priest.
"Who is Osiris, in the sacred shape of the bull ..." added other
priests.
And others again, oracularly:
"And who drew the plough through the fields of sacred Egypt when he
disguised himself with the other gods, under the forms of animals...."
"From the eyes of Jupiter Ammon, who wished to reign alone."
"The same," said Caleb, flinging himself from his camel.
The priests arranged themselves in processional order while the
travellers alighted and Thrasyllus also slid from his camel. And
they sang the Hymn of Apis, as they were wont to do when visitors
came. For in the huge dead city of Memphis, inhabited by hardly a few
thousands, who were dwarfed and lost in the spaces of the ancient,
mystic capital of ancient, mystic Egypt, in truth the worship of Apis
was still maintained only because all the travellers came to see the
sacred bull. The fees which the travellers paid to the priests formed
the principal revenue of their brotherhood. The temple was falling in
ruins; the enormous pylons seemed to totter, the gigantic architraves
leaned forward; the giant statues were bruised by the rains and
eaten away, as though the centuries themselves had mutilated them;
the sphinxes were sinking into the sand. But still the worship of
the bull Apis was maintained, because of the strangers and their fees.
A young priest who spoke a little Latin was allotted to the travellers
and took his place by Lucius' side, respectfully:
"It is a pity," he said, smiling cheerfully, "that Serapis did not
bring you to Memphis a month earlier. For then, my noble lord, you
would have beheld the death of Apis and his return to life."
"What is this, then?" asked Lucius.
"The incarnation of the god in the sacred bull lasts a quarter of
a century," the young, pleasant, smiling priest explained. "After
being incarnated in the bull for five-and-twenty years, the god
disappears out of the bull and the bull is marked down for death. The
priests drown him solemnly in the Nile and embalm his sacred body and
celebrate his obsequies with special ceremonies. What a pity, my lord,
that you have come too late! After the obsequies they seek the young
Apis, they seek him throughout sacred Egypt. As a rule they find him
immediately, for the godhead immediately becomes reincarnated in a
new-born bull; and, if it omit to do so, the calamity is so great
that the country is plunged into mourning and the disaster foretells
universal plagues. But Serapis Osiris loves his Egypt and but seldom
delays the new incarnation. This time, after Apis' obsequies, we were
able at once to celebrate his blessed advent."
"And where was Apis found?" asked Lucius.
"On the farm belonging to my father, who is a land-owner," replied the
pleasant young priest, smiling mischievously. "I am a land-owner's
son; and, when Apis was born in our stables, my father dedicated me
to Osiris, that I might take care of the god. I came here with him;
I have been here hardly a month; I came with him."
And he smiled, glad, young and happy; his fresh, young cheeks were
still bronzed with the sun and his arms and hands were sturdy as
those of a young peasant and shepherd.
The singing priests drew themselves up before a secos, a square plot
of grass surrounded by columns.
"My lords," said the pleasant-looking priest, "this is the secos of
the mother of Apis and we are going to show her to you."
"So she also comes from your father's farm?" asked Uncle Catullus.
"Most certainly, my lord," replied the priest, roguishly.
"That of course goes without saying," commented Uncle Catullus.
The young priest opened the gate of the secos. At the far end was
the sacred stall, like the wide interior of a temple. The priest,
vanished in the shadow.
And, when he reappeared, he was leading, merely by pressing his hand
against her snow-white flank, a handsome, sleek cow.
He led her to the strangers. She shone, well-tended and well-fed. She
had placid eyes of bluish gold, beautiful, large, soft and womanly,
the eyes of Hera herself. Her horns were gilded and her hoofs were
painted red.
The pleasant-looking priest led her to the strangers and was glad
and happy because Apis' mother was so comely:
"Is she not handsome?" he asked proudly.
The strangers smiled and agreed that she was very handsome; and the
priest, with respectful familiarity, stroked her snow-white flank
and pointed out that she had one black foot. Then he kissed her,
fondly and reverently, on her moist muzzle and led her back, with
the pressure of his hand, to the temple that was her stall. She went,
solemnly, as though aware of her high, sacred dignity, which existed
only because of the strangers and their fee.
The priest, still smiling, returned; and the other priests sang
their hymn.
And, by the priest's pleasant manner, Lucius seemed to observe that he
ought to pay. He beckoned to Caleb; and there were mutual, smiling,
roguish negotiations between Caleb and the priest. For Caleb always
tried to pay the fees which he distributed on Lucius' behalf a little
less liberally than he set them down on the long papyrus scroll of
his bill; and he generally succeeded.
But the priest was not only roguish, but very crafty and polite; and
the transaction, conducted in mysterious and jocular whispers, lasted
a long time ... until Lucius said, impatiently, but still smiling:
"And may we now see Apis himself?"
So Caleb paid, grudgingly. But the priest remained pleasant and the
other priests sang while conducting the strangers to Apis' own secos.
This sanctuary was even bigger and more impressive than that of the
white bull-mother. There was a square in front of it, with obelisks;
and the pleasant-looking priest entered between two sphinxes. But
the pillars, the obelisks, the sphinxes seemed to totter, to slant,
to burst with old age.
The priests sang the hymn; and suddenly, like a whirlwind, a young
bull came trotting out of the stable over the grass-plot. It was Apis;
and the priests lifted their hands in adoration as they sang.
But, if his mother was stately and aware of her dignity, Apis himself
carried his divinity with the recklessness of his hot youth. He ran
across the lawn, glad to have escaped from his stable; and the pleasant
priest, laughing, ran after him. But he could not catch him by his
gold collar; and, panting for breath, the little priest said, proudly:
"Isn't he beautiful and playful? Isn't he most delightful, our Apis?"
He was beautiful and playful and most delightful, the visitors
granted. He was a splendid bull-calf. His coat gleamed black as jet;
and he was painted in accordance with the sacred prescript without
which there is no incarnation: a white moon, like a snowy little crown,
shone like a sickle between his gilded horns; and two other little
white crowns adorned him on either side above the forelegs. His eyes
blazed as might carbuncles with a light kindled behind them; and he
stared from under his curly forehead with an almost human glance. His
neck already fell into powerful, heavy folds; his chest was broad;
and he lashed his tail like a whip. His hoofs were vermilion. And he
trotted round his grass-plot and pushed out the sods with his horns
and scratched with his red hoofs. The pleasant-looking priest now
went up to him, laughing, and took him, respectfully and yet firmly,
by the gold collar and talked to him and laughed; and Apis shook
himself; and the priest laughed; and now all the priests began to
laugh and the strangers laughed and Caleb roared and Uncle Catullus
held his sides. Even Lucius had to laugh and Thrasyllus too; they all
laughed at Apis, because he was such a delightful, pretty, playful
bull-calf, just like a merry boy, with his human eyes which looked
at you naughtily and watchfully and archly ... until all of a sudden
he tore himself loose from his little priest and ran, ran like a
whirlwind, till the clods of earth flew all around.
"He is so pretty and playful!" said the little priest, glad and
happy as a boy, when he came back panting, after locking up the
little bull again in the sanctuary. "But he is wild, he is very wild:
as a rule, we only show him through the windows of his secos; but,
when such very distinguished strangers come to look at him, we let
him out for a trot, now and again. Yes, then he may come for a trot,
once in a way!... And he himself thinks it great fun, to come for a
trot, now and then, in the presence of strangers."
Then the pleasant-looking little priest went up to Caleb, who was
still laughing aloud because Apis was such a very delightful little
bull. And there was a long and protracted discussion, mysterious,
jocular and yet weighty. For Caleb was taken aback; but then the
little priest knew what it cost to make Apis trot about so prettily
for such very distinguished strangers.