The sun was up on the twenty-ninth morning of the second month of the
over-flow of the Nile,
[The 29th Phaophi. The Egyptians divided the year into three
seasons of four months each. Flood-time, seed-time and Harvest.
(Scha, per and schemu.) The 29th Phaophi corresponds to the 8th
November.]
and citizens and their wives, old men and children, freemen and slaves,
led by priests, did homage to the rising day-star before the door of the
temple to which the quarter of the town belonged where each one dwelt.
The Thebans stood together like Huge families before the pylons, waiting
for the processions of priests, which they intended to join in order to
march in their train round the great temple of the city, and thence to
cross with the festal barks to the Necropolis.
To-day was the Feast of the Valley, and Anion, the great God of Thebes,
was carried over in solemn pomp to the City of the Dead, in order that
he--as the priests said--might sacrifice to his fathers in the other
world. The train marched westward; for there, where the earthly remains
of man also found rest, the millions of suns had disappeared, each of
which was succeeded daily by a new one, born of the night. The
young luminary, the priests said, did not forget those that had been
extinguished, and from whom he was descended; and Anion paid them this
mark of respect to warn the devout not to forget those who were passed
away, and to whom they owed their existence.
“Bring offerings,” says a pious text, “to thy father and thy mother
who rest in the valley of the tombs; for such gifts are pleasing to the
Gods, who will receive them as if brought to themselves. Often visit thy
dead, so that what thou dost for them, thy son may do for thee.”
The Feast of the Valley was a feast of the dead; but it was not a
melancholy solemnity, observed with lamentation and wailing; on the
contrary, it was a cheerful festival, devoted to pious and sentimental
memories of those whom we cease not to love after death, whom we esteem
happy and blest, and of whom we think with affection; to whom too the
throng from Thebes brought offerings, forming groups in the chapel-like
tombs, or in front of the graves, to eat and drink.
Father, mother and children clung together; the house-slaves followed
with provisions, and with torches, which would light up the darkness of
the tomb and show the way home at night.
Even the poorest had taken care to secure beforehand a place in one of
the large boats which conveyed the people across the stream; the barges
of the rich, dressed in the gayest colors, awaited their owners with
their households, and the children had dreamed all night of the sacred
bark of Anion, whose splendor, as their mothers told them, was
hardly less than that of the golden boat in which the Sun-God and his
companions make their daily voyage across the ocean of heaven. The broad
landing place of the temple of Anion was already crowded with priests,
the shore with citizens, and the river with boats; already loud music
drowned the din of the crowds, who thronged and pushed, enveloped in
clouds of dust, to reach the boats; the houses and hovels of Thebes
were all empty, and the advent of the God through the temple-gates was
eagerly expected; but still the members of the royal family had not
appeared, who were wont on this solemn day to go on foot to the great
temple of Anion; and, in the crowd, many a one asked his neighbor why
Bent-Anat, the fair daughter of Rameses, lingered so long, and delayed
the starting of the procession.
The priests had begun their chant within the walls, which debarred the
outer world from any glimpse into the bright precincts of the temple;
the Regent with his brilliant train had entered the sanctuary; the gates
were thrown open; the youths in their short-aprons, who threw flowers
in the path of the God, had come out; clouds of incense announced the
approach of Anion--and still the daughter of Rameses appeared not.
Many rumors were afloat, most of them contradictory; but one was
accurate, and confirmed by the temple servants, to the great regret of
the crowd--Bent-Anat was excluded from the Feast of the Valley.
She stood on her balcony with her brother Rameri and her friend Nefert,
and looked down on the river, and on the approaching God.
Early in the previous morning Bek-en-Chunsu, the old high-priest of the
temple of Anion had pronounced her clean, but in the evening he had
come to communicate to her the intelligence that Ameni prohibited her
entering the Necropolis before she had obtained the forgiveness of the
Gods of the West for her offence.
While still under the ban of uncleanness she had visited the temple of
Hathor, and had defiled it by her presence; and the stern Superior
of the City of the Dead was in the right--that Bek-en-Chunsu himself
admitted--in closing the western shore against her. Bent-Anat then had
recourse to Ani; but, though he promised to mediate for her, he came
late in the evening to tell her that Ameni was inexorable. The Regent at
the same time, with every appearance of regret, advised her to avoid
an open quarrel, and not to defy Ameni’s lofty severity, but to remain
absent from the festival.
Katuti at the same time sent the dwarf to Nefert, to desire her to join
her mother, in taking part in the procession, and in sacrificing in her
father’s tomb; but Nefert replied that she neither could nor would leave
her royal friend and mistress.
Bent-Anat had given leave of absence to the highest members of
her household, and had prayed them to think of her at the splendid
solemnity.
When, from her balcony, she saw the mob of people and the crowd of
boats, she went back into her room, called Rameri, who was angrily
declaiming at what he called Ameni’s insolence, took his hands in hers,
and said:
“We have both done wrong, brother; let us patiently submit to the
consequences of our faults, and conduct ourselves as if our father were
with us.”
“He would tear the panther-skin from the haughty priest’s shoulders,”
cried Rameri, “if he dared to humiliate you so in his presence;” and
tears of rage ran down his smooth cheeks as he spoke.
“Put anger aside,” said Bent-Anat. “You were still quite little the last
time my father took part in this festival.”
“Oh! I remember that morning well,” exclaimed Rameri, “and shall never
forget it.”
“So I should think,” said the princess. “Do not leave us, Nefert--you
are now my sister. It was a glorious morning; we children were collected
in the great hall of the King, all in festival dresses; he had us called
into this room, which had been inhabited by my mother, who then had
been dead only a few months. He took each of us by the hand, and said he
forgave us everything we might have done wrong if only we were sincerely
penitent, and gave us each a kiss on our forehead. Then he beckoned us
all to him, and said, as humbly as if he were one of us instead of the
great king, ‘Perhaps I may have done one of you some injustice, or have
kept you out of some right; I am not conscious of such a thing, but if
it has occurred I am very sorry’--we all rushed upon him, and wanted
to kiss him, but he put us aside smiling, and said, ‘Each of you has
enjoyed an equal share of one thing, that you may be sure--I mean your
father’s love; and I see now that you return what I have given you.’
Then he spoke of our mother, and said that even the tenderest father
could not fill the place of a mother. He drew a lovely picture of the
unselfish devotion of the dead mother, and desired us to pray and to
sacrifice with him at her resting-place, and to resolve to be worthy of
her; not only in great things but in trifles too, for they make up
the sum of life, as hours make the days, and the years. We elder ones
clasped each other’s hands, and I never felt happier than in that
moment, and afterwards by my mother’s grave.” Nefert raised her eyes
that were wet with tears.
“With such a father it must be easy to be good,” she said.
“Did your mother never speak good words that went to your heart on the
morning of this festival?” asked Bent-Anat.
Nefert colored, and answered: “We were always late in dressing, and then
had to hurry to be at the temple in time.”
“Then let me be your mother to-day,” cried the princess, “and yours too,
Rameri. Do you not remember how my father offered forgiveness to the
officers of the court, and to all the servants, and how he enjoined us
to root out every grudge from our hearts on this day? ‘Only stainless
garments,’ he said, ‘befit this feast; only hearts without spot.’ So,
brother, I will not hear an evil word about Ameni, who is most likely
forced to be severe by the law; my father will enquire into it all and
decide. My heart is so full, it must overflow. Come, Nefert, give me a
kiss, and you too, Rameri. Now I will go into my little temple, in
which the images of our ancestors stand, and think of my mother and the
blessed spirits of those loved ones to whom I may not sacrifice to-day.”
“I will go with you,” said Rameri.
“You, Nefert--stay here,” said Bent-Anat, “and cut as many flowers as
you like; take the best and finest, and make a wreath, and when it is
ready we will send a messenger across to lay it, with other gifts, on
the grave of your Mena’s mother.”
When, half-an-hour later, the brother and sister returned to the young
wife, two graceful garlands hung in Nefert’s bands, one for the grave of
the dead queen, and one for Mena’s mother.
“I will carry over the wreaths, and lay them in the tombs,” cried the
prince.
“Ani thought it would be better that we should not show ourselves to the
people,” said his sister. “They will scarcely notice that you are not
among the school-boys, but--”
“But I will not go over as the king’s son, but as a gardener’s boy--”
interrupted the prince. “Listen to the flourish of trumpets! the God has
now passed through the gates.”
Rameri stepped out into the balcony, and the two women followed him, and
looked down on the scene of the embarkation which they could easily see
with their sharp young eyes.
“It will be a thinner and poorer procession without either my father or
us, that is one comfort,” said Rameri. “The chorus is magnificent; here
come the plume-bearers and singers; there is the chief prophet at the
great temple, old Bek-en-Chunsu. How dignified he looks, but he will not
like going. Now the God is coming, for I, smell the incense.”
With these words the prince fell on his knees, and the women followed
his example--when they saw first a noble bull in whose shining skin the
sun was reflected, and who bore between his horns a golden disk, above
which stood white ostrich-feathers; and then, divided from the bull only
by a few fan-bearers, the God himself, sometimes visible, but more often
hidden from sight by great semi-circular screens of black and white
ostrich-feathers, which were fixed on long poles, and with which the
priests shaded the God.
His mode of progress was as mysterious as his name, for he seemed to
float slowly on his gorgeous throne from the temple-gates towards the
stream. His seat was placed on a platform, magnificently decorated with
bunches and garlands of flowers, and covered with hangings of purple and
gold brocade, which concealed the priests who bore it along with a slow
and even pace.
As soon as the God had been placed on board his barge, Bent-Anat and her
companions rose from their knees.
Then came some priests, who carried a box with the sacred evergreen tree
of Amon; and when a fresh outburst of music fell on her ear, and a cloud
of incense was wafted up to her, Bent-Anat said: “Now my father should
be coming.”
“And you,” cried Rameri, “and close behind, Nefert’s husband, Mena,
with the guards. Uncle Ani comes on foot. How strangely he has dressed
himself like a sphinx hind-part before!”
“How so?” asked Nefert.
“A sphinx,” said Rameri laughing, it has the body of a lion, and the
head of a man,
[There were no female sphinxes in Egypt. The sphinx was called Neb,
i. e., the lord. The lion-couchant had either a man’s or a rams
head.]
and my uncle has a peaceful priest’s robe, and on his head the helmet of
a warrior.”
“If the king were here, the distributor of life,” said Nefert, “you
would not be missing from among his supporters.”
“No indeed!” replied the prince, “and the whole thing is altogether
different when my father is here. His heroic form is splendid on his
golden throne; the statues of Truth and justice spread their wings
behind him as if to protect him; his mighty representative in fight, the
lion, lies peacefully before him, and over him spreads the canopy with
the Urmus snake at the top. There is hardly any end to the haruspices,
the pastophori with the standards, the images of the Gods, and the
flocks and herds for sacrifice. Only think, even the North has sent
representatives to the feast, as if my father were here. I know all the
different signs on the standards. Do you recognize the images of the
king’s ancestors, Nefert? No? no more do I; but it seemed to me that
Ahmes I., who expelled the Hyksos--from whom our grandmother was
descended--headed the procession, and not my grandfather Seti, as he
should have done. Here come the soldiers; they are the legions which Ani
equipped, and who returned victorious from Ethiopia only last night.
How the people cheer them! and indeed they have behaved valiantly. Only
think, Bent-Anat and Nefert, what it will be when my father comes home,
with a hundred captive princes, who will humbly follow his chariot,
which your Mena will drive, with our brothers and all the nobles of the
land, and the guards in their splendid chariots.”
“They do not think of returning yet!” sighed Nefert. While more and more
troops of the Regent’s soldiers, more companies of musicians, and rare
animals, followed in procession, the festal bark of Amon started from
the shore.
It was a large and gorgeous barge of wood, polished all over and
overlaid with gold, and its edge was decorated with glittering
glass-beads, which imitated rubies and emeralds; the masts and yards
were gilt, and purple sails floated from them. The seats for the priests
were of ivory, and garlands of lilies and roses hung round the vessel,
from its masts and ropes.
The Regent’s Nile-boat was not less splendid; the wood-work shone
with gilding, the cabin was furnished with gay Babylonian carpets; a
lion’s-head formed the prow, as formerly in Hatasu’s sea-going vessels,
and two large rubies shone in it, for eyes. After the priests had
embarked, and the sacred barge had reached the opposite shore, the
people pressed into the boats, which, filled almost to sinking, soon
so covered the whole breadth of the river that there was hardly a spot
where the sun was mirrored in the yellow waters.
“Now I will put on the dress of a gardener,” cried Rameri, “and cross
over with the wreaths.”
“You will leave us alone?” asked Bent-Anat.
“Do not make me anxious,” said Rameri.
“Go then,” said the princess. “If my father were here how willingly I
would go too.”
“Come with me,” cried the boy. “We can easily find a disguise for you
too.”
“Folly!” said Bent-Anat; but she looked enquiringly at Nefert, who
shrugged her shoulders, as much as to say: “Your will is my law.”
Rameri was too sharp for the glances of the friends to have escaped him,
and he exclaimed eagerly:
“You will come with me, I see you will! Every beggar to-day flings his
flower into the common grave, which contains the black mummy of his
father--and shall the daughter of Rameses, and the wife of the chief
charioteer, be excluded from bringing garlands to their dead?”
“I shall defile the tomb by my presence,” said Bent-Anat coloring.
“You--you!” exclaimed Rameri, throwing his arms round his sister’s neck,
and kissing her. “You, a noble generous creature, who live only to
ease sorrow and to wipe away tears; you, the very image of my
father--unclean! sooner would I believe that the swans down there are
as black as crows, and the rose-wreaths on the balcony rank hemlock
branches. Bek-en-Chunsu pronounced you clean, and if Ameni--”
“Ameni only exercises his rights,” said Bent-Anat gently, “and you know
what we have resolved. I will not hear one hard word about him to-day.”
“Very well! he has graciously and mercifully kept us from the feast,”
said Rameri ironically, and he bowed low in the direction of the
Necropolis, “and you are unclean. Do not enter the tombs and the temples
on my account; let us stay outside among the people. The roads over
there are not so very sensitive; paraschites and other unclean folks
pass over them every day. Be sensible, Bent-Anat, and come. We will
disguise ourselves; I will conduct you; I will lay the garlands in the
tombs, we will pray together outside, we will see the sacred procession
and the feats of the magicians, and hear the festive discourse. Only
think! Pentaur, in spite of all they have said against him, is to
deliver it. The temple of Seti wants to do its best to-day, and Ameni
knows very well that Pentaur, when he opens his mouth, stirs the hearts
of the people more than all the sages together if they were to sing in
chorus! Come with me, sister.”
“So be it then,” said Bent-Anat with sudden decision.
Rameri was surprised at this quick resolve, at which however he was
delighted; but Nefert looked anxiously at her friend. In a moment
her eyes fell; she knew now who it was that her friend loved, and the
fearful thought--“How will it end?” flashed through her mind.