The short twilight had deepened to purple over the desert; night came
gliding along the firmament; the stars began to peep. And Caleb,
who suspected Lucius' emotion at each fresh divination, considered
that new impressions would be the best medicine for him. After a
short deliberation with Uncle Catullus and Thrasyllus, he said:
"My noble lord, before the night has quite fallen, I should like to
take you to the great Neith ... for the sake both of the statue itself
and of the Jewish prophet, a hermit, who dwells in a cave hard by."
Lucius nodded his approval. And in the falling night he sat erect on
the saddle-pad of his camel and raised his head towards the stars. Had
he guessed the truth? Had the truth gradually been revealed within
him? Or had the sibyl, Amphris, the oracle and the priests whom he had
consulted really shown him the way to that truth? He did not know, he
had so many vague memories that it all grew confused in his seeking,
solving brain.... But he certainly was the Cypriote, the sailor, Carus
... who, shortly before Ilia's disappearance, had himself disappeared
from the crew of the quadrireme ... and whom he had once found with
Ilia among the oleanders! A thing which she had never been able to
explain! Carus! A sailor! Not a slave, it was true, but one of his
meanest servants! A Cyprian sailor, to have robbed him of the woman
who reigned as queen over his house, whom he dressed like a goddess,
whom he covered with everything that was precious! And she must have
been kidnapped--it could not be otherwise--with her own consent,
her own, infatuated consent.
Had he guessed the truth? Had his groping brain at last divined the
truth? Or had the priests and the oracles and Amphris and the sibyl
indeed revealed the truth to him? He decided that they must have done
so. His soul was inclined to accept the supernatural. And he knew,
he knew, thanks to the wise knowledge of the priests and the oracles.
So she had been able to leave him, him, for his hired sailor! He
raised his head towards the stars. His lips were tightly clenched,
his forehead frowned. But never, he resolved, would his lips utter to
any one, not even to Thrasyllus, the secret truth which the oracles
had revealed to him. He would be silent and his pride would suppress
his grief.
"Look, my lord," said Caleb, while Lucius still stared straight before
him, up, towards the stars.
Lucius lowered his eyes. And suddenly he gave a start. The Sphinx
loomed before him in the night. In the immense starry night, with the
sands glittering all around like a silver sea, loomed the immense
Neith, the omniscient wisdom. It was more gigantic than any sphinx
that he had ever seen.
It had been shaped by Nature herself out of an immense monolith. Human
hands had only reshapen it more plainly for human eyes ... into the
Sphinx. It was not the veiled Isis of Sais; it was the unveiled,
silent knowledge, which had known everything from the beginning of
time. It raised its head towards the stars ... as he had done. It was
resting: its lioness-body rested and sank into the sand; its fore-paws
projected like walls. Its superhuman breasts seemed to heave in the
night. Its fixed eyes stared upwards and its granite veil stood out
upon its lioness-body. It was awesomely beautiful in the starry night.
The travellers had alighted. And Caleb had fetched the Jewish hermit
from the cave in which he lived, opposite the Sphinx.
"I believe he's mad," said Caleb, timidly, a little alarmed by Lucius'
frown. "But it doesn't matter if he is mad. He is the Jewish hermit;
and all distinguished foreigners, such as your lordship, listen to
him ... because he says strange things."
"He too!" muttered Lucius.
The Jewish hermit came up to them in the fallen night. He was of
giant stature and incredibly old; his beard fell in waves down to
his waist. His grey robe trailed over the sand. And he exclaimed,
in a loud voice:
"I am Tsafnath-Paeneach, 'he who reveals mysteries!' I am of the tribe
of Joseph himself, who took to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah
priest of On! In me was the wisdom of Joseph, who interpreted dreams,
and the wisdom of the priests of On! But all wisdom is dead in me,
Jahve be praised, since I beheld Him!"
"Whom?" asked Lucius, dismayed by the prophet's booming voice.
"It was a night of twinkling stars!" cried the prophet. "It was thirty
years ago! I lived in my cave, as I do now! And I knew everything
and I looked Neith in the face and in the eyes.... Along the road,
yonder, through the sands ... they came! They came, they came, they
drew near.... On an ass that stumbled with fatigue sat a woman. A
greybeard, staff in hand, led the stumbling beast. Then I saw that
the woman held, pressed to her breast, in the folds of her mantle,
a Child! And the woman was like Heva and like Isis; and the Child was
like Habel and like Horus. When they came before the mighty Neith,
the ass could stumble no farther through the sands of the desert. And
the woman alighted and smiled upon the Child through her tears. But
the greybeard led the woman to the mighty Neith and helped her to climb
into its deep granite lap. There the woman rested against Neith's bosom
and the Child rested against the woman's bosom. And then ... then
I saw, I, Tsafnath-Paeneach, I who reveal mysteries, that the Child
that was like Habel and Horus was radiant in the night, in the folds of
the woman's mantle! The Child was radiant; a wreath of rays, a halo of
light shone about the Child! The mother slept, the radiant Child slept,
the greybeard slept ... and the mighty Neith watched over their sleep
in the starry night! Then, O Jahve, I knew that I had beheld Thy Son;
and this happiness was my last wisdom. Since then I know nothing more,
O Jahve, be praised! Since then I have discovered no mysteries! Since
then the knowledge of Joseph has died away within me and that of the
priests of On! For I have seen Jahve's Son, there, there, in the lap
of Neith ... and since then I have seen nothing but that vision! And
I shall die with the vision of the radiant Child before my eyes!"
The prophet's loud, booming voice had risen to a cry of joy; and
Caleb repeated to Lucius, in a whisper:
"You see, my lord, he's mad."
But Thrasyllus, on the other side, whispered:
"He's not mad, Lucius.... He is a seer.... He has seen.... He has
perhaps seen the new God of Whom all the sibyls speak...."
"Which new God?" asked Lucius.
"I don't know His name," said Thrasyllus.
But Uncle Catullus spoke:
"My dear nephew, that great monstrous fellow frightens me, here
in the dark, in the desert, in front of this awful statue. Egypt
gives me too many impressions. I feel like a sponge full of water,
so soaked am I with impressions. Egypt will be the death of me,
Lucius, you'll see it will! Meanwhile I propose to mount my camel."
And Uncle Catullus called his guards and drivers and bade them make
his camel kneel down for him.
But Lucius went to the prophet and drew him aside:
"Do you know the past?" he asked, anxiously.
"The past?" echoed the Jewish seer, in an uncertain voice; and his
eyes were as though blind.
"Do you see and can you tell me if that which I think has happened
... is undoubtedly true?"
"I no longer see either the past or the future," said the seer. "I
see nothing but the present. And the present for me is nothing but
... the radiant Child yonder!"
"Who is He?" asked Lucius.
"I do not know, unless He be Jahve's Son!" cried the seer. "He was like
Habel, he was like Horus. But I do not know, unless He be Jahve's Son!"
Thrasyllus approached:
"Lucius," he said, "let us go. The night is falling and the guards
have warned us against wild animals and robbers."
"Let Caleb give the prophet a gold piece," said Lucius.
Caleb produced a stater; but the prophet's laugh of thunder sent him
staggering back:
"Gold!" cried the prophet, laughing like thunder. "What do I want
with dead gold! I have seen living gold; I have seen the Child That
was radiant gold as the sun itself, radiant as the burning bush! What
do I want with dead gold!"
"He's mad! He's mad!" cried Caleb. "He doesn't want gold!"
And, terrified, Caleb slipped back the stater--but into another
purse, in which he collected his savings--and rushed to his camel,
which was already kneeling in the sand.
In the light of the stars that twinkled over the sea of sand the
travellers rode back to Memphis.