The news of the end of the sacred ram of Anion, and of the death of the
bull Apis of Memphis, had reached the House of Seti, and was received
there with loud lamentation, in which all its inhabitants joined, from
the chief haruspex down to the smallest boy in the school-courts.
The superior of the institution, Ameni, had been for three days in
Thebes, and was expected to return to-day. His arrival was looked for
with anxiety and excitement by many. The chief of the haruspices was
eager for it that he might hand over the imprisoned scholars to condign
punishment, and complain to him of Pentaur and Bent-Anat; the initiated
knew that important transactions must have been concluded on the farther
side of the Nile; and the rebellious disciples knew that now stern
justice would be dealt to them.
The insurrectionary troop were locked into an open court upon bread and
water, and as the usual room of detention of the establishment was too
small for them all, for two nights they had had to sleep in a loft on
thin straw mats. The young spirits were excited to the highest pitch,
but each expressed his feelings in quite a different manner.
Bent-Anat’s brother, Rameses’ son, Rameri, had experienced the same
treatment as his fellows, whom yesterday he had led into every sort of
mischief, with even more audacity than usual, but to-day he hung his
head.
In a corner of the court sat Anana, Pentaur’s favorite scholar, hiding
his face in his hands which rested on his knees. Rameri went up to him,
touched his shoulders and said:
“We have played the game, and now must bear the consequences for good
and for evil. Are you not ashamed of yourself, old boy? Your eyes are
wet, and the drops here on your hands have not fallen from the clouds.
You who are seventeen, and in a few months will be a scribe and a grown
man!”
Anana looked at the prince, dried his eyes quickly; and said:
“I was the ring-leader. Ameni will turn me out of the place, and I must
return disgraced to my poor mother, who has no one in the world but me.”
“Poor fellow!” said Rameri kindly. “It was striking at random! If only
our attempt had done Pentaur any good!”
“We have done him harm, on the contrary,” said Anana vehemently,
“and have behaved like fools!” Rameri nodded in full assent, looked
thoughtful for a moment, and then said:
“Do you know, Anana, that you were not the ringleader? The trick was
planned in this crazy brain; I take the whole blame on my own shoulders.
I am the son of Rameses, and Ameni will be less hard on me than on you.”
“He will examine us all,” replied Anana, “and I will be punished sooner
than tell a lie.”
Rameri colored.
“Have you ever known my tongue sin against the lovely daughter of Ra?”
he exclaimed. “But look here! did I stir up Antef, Hapi, Sent and all
the others or no? Who but I advised you to find out Pentaur? Did I
threaten to beg my father to take me from the school of Seti or not? I
was the instigator of the mischief, I pulled the wires, and if we are
questioned let me speak first. Not one of you is to mention Anana’s
name; do you hear? not one of you, and if they flog us or deprive us of
our food we all stick to this, that I was guilty of all the mischief.”
“You are a brave fellow!” said the son of the chief priest of Anion,
shaking his right hand, while Anana held his left.
The prince freed himself laughing from their grasp.
“Now the old man may come home,” he exclaimed, “we are ready for him.
But all the same I will ask my father to send me to Chennu, as sure as
my name is Rameri, if they do not recall Pentaur.”
“He treated us like school-boys!” said the eldest of the young
malefactors.
“And with reason,” replied Rameri, “I respect him all the more for it.
You all think I am a careless dog--but I have my own ideas, and I will
speak the words of wisdom.”
With these words he looked round on his companions with comical gravity,
and continued--imitating Ameni’s manner:
“Great men are distinguished from little men by this--they scorn and
contemn all which flatters their vanity, or seems to them for the moment
desirable, or even useful, if it is not compatible with the laws which
they recognize, or conducive to some great end which they have set
before them; even though that end may not be reached till after their
death.
“I have learned this, partly from my father, but partly I have thought
it out for myself; and now I ask you, could Pentaur as ‘a great man’
have dealt with us better?”
“You have put into words exactly what I myself have thought ever since
yesterday,” cried Anana. “We have behaved like babies, and instead of
carrying our point we have brought ourselves and Pentaur into disgrace.”
The rattle of an approaching chariot was now audible, and Rameri
exclaimed, interrupting Anana, “It is he. Courage, boys! I am the guilty
one. He will not dare to have me thrashed--but he will stab me with
looks!”
Ameni descended quickly from his chariot. The gate-keeper informed him
that the chief of the kolchytes, and the inspector of victims from the
temple of Anion, desired to speak with him.
“They must wait,” said the Prophet shortly. “Show them meanwhile into
the garden pavilion. Where is the chief haruspex?”
He had hardly spoken when the vigorous old man for whom he was enquiring
hurried to meet him, to make him acquainted with all that had occurred
in his absence. But the high-priest had already heard in Thebes all that
his colleague was anxious to tell him.
When Ameni was absent from the House of Seti, he caused accurate
information to be brought to him every morning of what had taken place
there.
Now when the old man began his story he interrupted him.
“I know everything,” he said. “The disciples cling to Pentaur, and have
committed a folly for his sake, and you met the princess Bent-Anat with
him in the temple of Hatasu, to which he had admitted a woman of low
rank before she had been purified. These are grave matters, and must be
seriously considered, but not to-day. Make yourself easy; Pentaur will
not escape punishment; but for to-day we must recall him to this temple,
for we have need of him to-morrow for the solemnity of the feast of the
valley. No one shall meet him as an enemy till he is condemned; I desire
this of you, and charge you to repeat it to the others.”
The haruspex endeavored to represent to his superior what a scandal
would arise from this untimely clemency; but Ameni did not allow him to
talk, he demanded his ring back, called a young priest, delivered the
precious signet into his charge, and desired him to get into his chariot
that was waiting at the door, and carry to Pentaur the command, in his
name, to return to the temple of Seti.
The haruspex submitted, though deeply vexed, and asked whether the
guilty boys were also to go unpunished.
“No more than Pentaur,” answered Ameni. “But can you call this
school-boy’s trick guilt? Leave the children to their fun, and their
imprudence. The educator is the destroyer, if he always and only keeps
his eyes open, and cannot close them at the right moment. Before
life demands of us the exercise of serious duties we have a mighty
over-abundance of vigor at our disposal; the child exhausts it in play,
and the boy in building wonder-castles with the hammer and chisel of
his fancy, in inventing follies. You shake your head, Septah! but I tell
you, the audacious tricks of the boy are the fore-runners of the deeds
of the man. I shall let one only of the boys suffer for what is past,
and I should let him even go unpunished if I had not other pressing
reasons for keeping him away from our festival.”
The haruspex did not contradict his chief; for he knew that when Ameni’s
eyes flashed so suddenly, and his demeanor, usually so measured, was as
restless as at present, something serious was brewing.
The high-priest understood what was passing in Septah’s mind.
“You do not understand me now,” said he. “But this evening, at the
meeting of the initiated, you shall know all. Great events are stirring.
The brethren in the temple of Anion, on the other shore, have fallen off
from what must always be the Holiest to us white-robed priests, and will
stand in our way when the time for action is arrived. At the feast of
the valley we shall stand in competition with the brethren from Thebes.
All Thebes will be present at the solemn service, and it must be proved
which knows how to serve the Divinity most worthily, they or we. We must
avail ourselves of all our resources, and Pentaur we certainly cannot do
without. He must fill the function of Cherheb
[Cherheb was the title of the speaker or reciter at a festival. We
cannot agree with those who confuse this personage with the chief of
the Kolchytes.]
for to-morrow only; the day after he must be brought to judgment. Among
the rebellious boys are our best singers, and particularly young Anana,
who leads the voices of the choir-boys.
“I will examine the silly fellows at once. Rameri--Rameses’ son--was
among the young miscreants?”
“He seems to have been the ring-leader,” answered Septah.
Ameni looked at the old man with a significant smile, and said:
“The royal family are covering themselves with honor! His eldest
daughter must be kept far from the temple and the gathering of the
pious, as being unclean and refractory, and we shall be obliged to expel
his son too from our college. You look horrified, but I say to you
that the time for action is come. More of this, this evening. Now, one
question: Has the news of the death of the ram of Anion reached you?
Yes? Rameses himself presented him to the God, and they gave it his
name. A bad omen.”
“And Apis too is dead!” The haruspex threw up his arms in lamentation.
“His Divine spirit has returned to God,” replied Ameni. “Now we have
much to do. Before all things we must prove ourselves equal to those in
Thebes over there, and win the people over to our side. The panegyric
prepared by us for to-morrow must offer some great novelty. The Regent
Ani grants us a rich contribution, and--”
“And,” interrupted Septah, “our thaumaturgists understand things
very differently from those of the house of Anion, who feast while we
practise.”
Ameni nodded assent, and said with a smile: “Also we are more
indispensable than they to the people. They show them the path of life,
but we smooth the way of death. It is easier to find the way without a
guide in the day-light than in the dark. We are more than a match for
the priests of Anion.”
“So long as you are our leader, certainly,” cried the haruspex.
“And so long as the temple has no lack of men of your temper!” added
Ameni, half to Septah, and half to the second prophet of the temple,
sturdy old Gagabu, who had come into the room.
Both accompanied him into the garden, where the two priests were
awaiting him with the miraculous heart.
Ameni greeted the priest from the temple of Anion with dignified
friendliness, the head kolchytes with distant reserve, listened to their
story, looked at the heart which lay in the box, with Septah and Gagabu,
touched it delicately with the tips of his fingers, carefully examining
the object, which diffused a strong perfume of spices; then he said
earnestly:
“If this, in your opinion, kolchytes, is not a human heart, and if in
yours, my brother of the temple of Anion, it is a ram’s heart, and if
it was found in the body of Rui, who is gone to Osiris, we here have a
mystery which only the Gods can solve. Follow me into the great court.
Let the gong be sounded, Gagabu, four times, for I wish to call all the
brethren together.”
The gong rang in loud waves of sound to the farthest limits of the group
of buildings. The initiated, the fathers, the temple-servants, and the
scholars streamed in, and in a few minutes were all collected. Not a man
was wanting, for at the four strokes of the rarely-sounded alarum every
dweller in the House of Seti was expected to appear in the court of the
temple. Even the leech Nebsecht came; for he feared that the unusual
summons announced the outbreak of a fire.
Ameni ordered the assembly to arrange itself in a procession, informed
his astonished hearers that in the breast of the deceased prophet Rui, a
ram’s heart, instead of a man’s, had been found, and desired them all to
follow his instructions. Each one, he said, was to fall on his knees
and pray, while he would carry the heart into the holiest of holies, and
enquire of the Gods what this wonder might portend to the faithful.
Ameni, with the heart in his hand, placed himself at the head of the
procession, and disappeared behind the veil of the sanctuary, the
initiated prayed in the vestibule, in front of it; the priests and
scholars in the vast court, which was closed on the west by the stately
colonnade and the main gateway to the temple.
For fully an hour Ameni remained in the silent holy of holies, from
which thick clouds of incense rolled out, and then he reappeared with
a golden vase set with precious stones. His tall figure was now
resplendent with rich ornaments, and a priest, who walked before him,
held the vessel high above his head.
Ameni’s eyes seemed spell-bound to the vase, and he followed it,
supporting himself by his crozier, with humble inflections.
The initiated bowed their heads till they touched the pavement, and
the priests and scholars bent their faces down to the earth, when they
beheld their haughty master so filled with humility and devotion. The
worshippers did not raise themselves till Ameni had reached the middle
of the court and ascended the steps of the altar, on which the vase
with the heart was now placed, and they listened to the slow and solemn
accents of the high-priest which sounded clearly through the whole
court.
“Fall down again and worship! wonder, pray, and adore! The noble
inspector of sacrifices of the temple of Anion has not been deceived
in his judgment; a ram’s heart was in fact found in the pious breast of
Rui. I heard distinctly the voice of the Divinity in the sanctuary, and
strange indeed was the speech that met my ear. Wolves tore the sacred
ram of Anion in his sanctuary on the other bank of the river, but the
heart of the divine beast found its way into the bosom of the saintly
Rui. A great miracle has been worked, and the Gods have shown a
wonderful sign. The spirit of the Highest liked not to dwell in the body
of this not perfectly holy ram, and seeking a purer abiding-place found
it in the breast of our Rui; and now in this consecrated vase. In this
the heart shall be preserved till a new ram offered by a worthy hand
enters the herd of Anion. This heart shall be preserved with the most
sacred relics, it has the property of healing many diseases, and the
significant words seem favorable which stood written in the midst of the
vapor of incense, and which I will repeat to you word for word, ‘That
which is high shall rise higher, and that which exalts itself, shall
soon fall down.’ Rise, pastophori! hasten to fetch the holy images,
bring them out, place the sacred heart at the head of the procession,
and let us march round the walls of the temple with hymns of praise. Ye
temple-servants, seize your staves, and spread in every part of the city
the news of the miracle which the Divinity has vouchsafed to us.”
After the procession had marched round the temple and dispersed, the
priest of Anion took leave of Ameni; he bowed deeply and formally before
him, and with a coolness that was almost malicious said:
“We, in the temple of Anion, shall know how to appreciate what you heard
in the holy of holies. The miracle has occurred, and the king shall
learn how it came to pass, and in what words it was announced.”
“In the words of the Most High,” said the high priest with dignity;
he bowed to the other, and turned to a group of priests, who were
discussing the great event of the day.
Ameni enquired of them as to the preparations for the festival of the
morrow, and then desired the chief haruspex to call the refractory
pupils together in the school-court. The old man informed him that
Pentaur had returned, and he followed his superior to the released
prisoners, who, prepared for the worst, and expecting severe punishment,
nevertheless shook with laughter when Rameri suggested that, if by
chance they were condemned to kneel upon peas, they should get them
cooked first.
“It will be long asparagus
[Asparagus was known to the Egyptians. Pliny says they held in
their mouths, as a remedy for toothache, wine in which asparagus had
been cooked.]
--not peas,” said another looking over his shoulder, and pretending to
be flogging. They all shouted again with laughter, but it was hushed as
soon as they heard Ameni’s well-known footstep.
Each feared the worst, and when the high-priest stood before them even
Rameri’s mirth was quite quelled, for though Ameni looked neither
angry nor threatening, his appearance commanded respect, and each one
recognized in him a judge against whose verdict no remonstrance was to
be thought of.
To their infinite astonishment Ameni spoke kindly to the thoughtless
boys, praised the motive of their action--their attachment to a
highly-endowed teacher--but then clearly and deliberately laid before
them the folly of the means they had employed to attain their end, and
at what a cost. “Only think,” he continued, turning to the prince,
“if your father sent a general, who he thought would be better in a
different place, from Syria to Kusch, and his troops therefore all went
over to the enemy! How would you like that?”
So for some minutes he continued to blame and warn them, and he ended
his speech by promising, in consideration of the great miracle that gave
that day a special sanctity, to exercise unwonted clemency. For the sake
of example, he said, he could not let them pass altogether unpunished,
and he now asked them which of them had been the instigator of the deed;
he and he only should suffer punishment.
He had hardly clone speaking, when prince Rameri stepped forward, and
said modestly:
“We acknowledge, holy father, that we have played a foolish trick; and I
lament it doubly because I devised it, and made the others follow me.
I love Pentaur, and next to thee there is no one like him in the
sanctuary.”
Ameni’s countenance grew dark, and he answered with displeasure:
“No judgment is allowed to pupils as to their teachers--nor to you. If
you were not the son of the king, who rules Egypt as Ra, I would punish
your temerity with stripes. My hands are tied with regard to you, and
yet they must be everywhere and always at work if the hundreds committed
to my care are to be kept from harm.”
“Nay, punish me!” cried Rameri. “If I commit a folly I am ready to bear
the consequences.”
Ameni looked pleased at the vehement boy, and would willingly have
shaken him by the hand and stroked his curly head, but the penance he
proposed for Rameri was to serve a great end, and Ameni would not
allow any overflow of emotion to hinder him in the execution of a well
considered design. So he answered the prince with grave determination:
“I must and will punish you--and I do so by requesting you to leave the
House of Seti this very day.”
The prince turned pale. But Ameni went on more kindly:
“I do not expel you with ignominy from among us--I only bid you a
friendly farewell. In a few weeks you would in any case have left the
college, and by the king’s command have transferred your blooming life,
health, and strength to the exercising ground of the chariot-brigade. No
punishment for you but this lies in my power. Now give me your hand; you
will make a fine man, and perhaps a great warrior.”
The prince stood in astonishment before Ameni, and did not take his
offered hand. Then the priest went up to him, and said:
“You said you were ready to take the consequences of your folly, and
a prince’s word must be kept. Before sunset we will conduct you to the
gate of the temple.”
Ameni turned his back on the boys, and left the school-court.
Rameri looked after him. Utter whiteness had overspread his blooming
face, and the blood had left even his lips. None of his companions
approached him, for each felt that what was passing in his soul at this
moment would brook no careless intrusion. No one spoke a word; they all
looked at him.
He soon observed this, and tried to collect himself, and then he said in
a low tone while he held out his hands to Anana and another friend:
“Am I then so bad that I must be driven out from among you all like
this--that such a blow must be inflicted on my father?”
“You refused Ameni your hand!” answered Anana. “Go to him, offer him
your hand, beg him to be less severe, and perhaps he will let you
remain.”
Rameri answered only “No.” But that “No” was so decided that all who
knew him understood that it was final.
Before the sun set he had left the school. Ameni gave him his blessing;
he told him that if he himself ever had to command he would understand
his severity, and allowed the other scholars to accompany him as far as
the Nile. Pentaur parted from him tenderly at the gate.
When Rameri was alone in the cabin of his gilt bark with his tutor, he
felt his eyes swimming in tears.
“Your highness is surely not weeping?” asked the official.
“Why?” asked the prince sharply.
“I thought I saw tears on your highness’ cheeks.”
“Tears of joy that I am out of the trap,” cried Rameri; he sprang on
shore, and in a few minutes he was with his sister in the palace.