Produced by John Bickers; Dagny; Emma Dudding; David Widger
MORNING STAR
by H. Rider Haggard
DEDICATION
My dear Budge,--
Only a friendship extending over many years emboldened me, an amateur,
to propose to dedicate a Romance of Old Egypt to you, one of the world’s
masters of the language and lore of the great people who in these
latter days arise from their holy tombs to instruct us in the secrets of
history and faith.
With doubt I submitted to you this story, asking whether you wished
to accept pages that could not, I feared, be free from error, and with
surprise in due course I read, among other kind things, your advice to
me to “leave it exactly as it is.” So I take you at your word, although
I can scarcely think that in paths so remote and difficult I have not
sometimes gone astray.
Whatever may be the shortcomings, therefore, that your kindness has
concealed from me, since this tale was so fortunate as to please and
interest you, its first critic, I offer it to you as an earnest of my
respect for your learning and your labours.
Very sincerely yours,
H. Rider Haggard.
Ditchingham.
To Doctor Wallis Budge,
Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
It may be thought that even in a story of Old Egypt to represent a “Ka”
or “Double” as remaining in active occupation of a throne, while the
owner of the said “Double” goes upon a long journey and achieves sundry
adventures, is, in fact, to take a liberty with Doubles. Yet I believe
that this is scarcely the case. The _Ka_ or Double which Wiedermann
aptly calls the “Personality within the Person” appears, according to
Egyptian theory, to have had an existence of its own. It did not die
when the body died, for it was immortal and awaited the resurrection
of that body, with which, henceforth, it would be reunited and dwell
eternally. To quote Wiedermann again, “The _Ka_ could live without the
body, but the body could not live without the _Ka_ . . . . . it was
material in just the same was as the body itself.” Also, it would seem
that in certain ways it was superior to and more powerful than the body,
since the Egyptian monarchs are often represented as making offerings to
their own _Kas_ as though these were gods. Again, in the story of “Setna
and the Magic Book,” translated by Maspero and by Mr. Flinders Petrie
in his “Egyptian Tales,” the _Ka_ plays a very distinct part of its own.
Thus the husband is buried at Memphis and the wife in Koptos, yet the
_Ka_ of the wife goes to live in her husband’s tomb hundreds of miles
away, and converses with the prince who comes to steal the magic book.
Although I know no actual precedent for it, in the case of a
particularly powerful Double, such as was given in this romance to Queen
Neter-Tua by her spiritual father, Amen, the greatest of the Egyptian
gods, it seems, therefore, legitimate to suppose that, in order to save
her from the abomination of a forced marriage with her uncle and her
father’s murderer, the _Ka_ would be allowed to anticipate matters a
little, and to play the part recorded in these pages.
It must not be understood, however, that the fact of marriage with an
uncle would have shocked the Egyptian mind, since these people, and
especially their royal Houses, made a habit of wedding their own
brothers and sisters, as in this tale Mermes wed his half sister Asti.
I may add that there is authority for the magic waxen image which the
sorcerer Kaku and his accomplice used to bewitch Pharaoh. In the days of
Rameses III., over three thousand years ago, a plot was made to murder
the king in pursuance of which such images were used. “Gods of wax . .
. . . . for enfeebling the limbs of people,” which were “great crimes of
death, the great abomination of the land.” Also a certain “magic roll”
was brought into play which enabled its user to “employ the magic powers
of the gods.”
Still, the end of these wizards was not encouraging to others, for they
were found guilty and obliged to take their own lives.
But even if I am held to have stretched the prerogative of the _Ka_,
or of the waxen image which, by the way, has survived almost to our own
time, and in West Africa, as a fetish, is still pierced with pins or
nails, I can urge in excuse that I have tried, so far as a modern may,
to reproduce something of the atmosphere and colour of Old Egypt, as
it has appeared to a traveller in that country and a student of its
records. If Neter-Tua never sat upon its throne, at least another
daughter of Amen, a mighty queen, Hatshepu, wore the crown of the Upper
and the Lower Lands, and sent her embassies to search out the mysteries
of Punt. Of romance also, in high places, there must have been
abundance, though the short-cut records of the religious texts of the
priests do not trouble themselves with such matters.
At any rate, so believing, in the hope that it may interest readers
of to-day, I have ventured to discover and present one such romance,
whereof the motive, we may be sure, is more ancient, by far, than the
old Egyptians, namely, the triumph of true love over great difficulties
and dangers. It is pleasant to dream that the gods are on the side of
such lovers, and deign for their sakes to work the miracles in which for
thousands of years mankind has believed, although the scientist tells us
that they do not happen.
How large a part marvel and magic of the most terrible and exalted kind
played in the life of Old Egypt and of the nations with which she fought
and traded, we need go no further than the Book of Exodus to learn.
Also all her history is full of it, since among the Egyptians it was an
article of faith that the Divinity, which they worshipped under so many
names and symbols, made use of such mysterious means to influence or
direct the affairs of men and bring about the accomplishment of Its
decrees.
H. R. H.
MORNING STAR
by H. Rider Haggard
CHAPTER I
THE PLOT OF ABI
It was evening in Egypt, thousands of years ago, when the Prince Abi,
governor of Memphis and of great territories in the Delta, made fast his
ship of state to a quay beneath the outermost walls of the mighty city
of Uast or Thebes, which we moderns know as Luxor and Karnac on the
Nile. Abi, a large man, very dark of skin, for his mother was one of the
hated Hyksos barbarians who once had usurped the throne of Egypt, sat
upon the deck of his ship and stared at the setting sun which for a few
moments seemed to rest, a round ball of fire, upon the bare and rugged
mountains, that ring round the Tombs of the Kings.
He was angry, as the slave-women, who stood on either side fanning him,
could see well enough by the scowl on his coarse face and the fire in
his large black eyes. Presently they felt it also, for one of them,
staring at the temples and palaces of the wonderful city made glorious
by the light of the setting sun, that city of which she had heard so
often, touched his head with the feathers of her fan. Thereon, as though
glad of an excuse to express his ill-humour, Abi sprang up and boxed her
ears so heavily that the poor girl fell to the deck.
“Awkward cat,” he cried, “do that again and you shall be flogged until
your robe sticks to your back!”
“Pardon, mighty Lord,” she said, beginning to weep, “it was an accident;
the wind caught my fan.”
“So the rod shall catch your skin, if you are not more careful, Merytra.
Stop that snivelling and go send Kaku the Astrologer here. Go, both, I
weary of the sight of your ugly faces.”
The girl rose, and with her fellow slave ran swiftly to the ladder that
led to the waist of the ship.
“He called me a cat,” Merytra hissed through her white teeth to her
companion. “Well, if so, Sekhet the cat-headed is my godmother, and she
is the Lady of Vengeance.”
“Yes,” answered the other, “and he said that we were both ugly--we, whom
every lord who comes near the Court admires so much! Oh! I wish a holy
crocodile would eat him, black pig!”
“Then why don’t they buy us? Abi would sell his daughters, much more his
fan-bearers--at a price.”
“Because they hope to get us for nothing, my dear, and what is more,
if I can manage it one of them shall, for I am tired of this life. Have
your fling while you can, I say. Who knows at which corner Osiris, Lord
of Death, is waiting.”
“Hush!” whispered Merytra, “there is that knave of an astrologer, and he
looks cross, too.”
Then, hand in hand, they went to this lean and learned man and humbly
bowed themselves before him.
“Master of the Stars,” said Merytra, “we have a message for you. No, do
not look at my cheek, please, the marks are not magical, only those of
the divine fingers of the glorious hand of the most exalted Prince Abi,
son of the Pharaoh happily ruling in Osiris, etc., etc., etc., of the
right, royal blood of Egypt--that is on one side, and on the other of
a divine lady whom Khem the Spirit, or Ptah the Creator, thought fit to
dip in a vat of black dye.”
“Hem!” said Kaku glancing nervously over his shoulder. Then, seeing that
there was no one near, he added, “you had better be careful what you
say, my dear. The royal Abi does not like to hear the colour of his late
mother defined so closely. But why did he slap your face?”
She told him.
“Well,” he answered, “if I had been in his place I would rather have
kissed it, for it is pretty, decidedly pretty,” and this learned man
forgot himself so far as to wink at Merytra.
“There, Sister,” said the girl, “I always told you that rough shells
have sweet nuts inside of them. Thank you for your compliment, Master of
learning. Will you tell us our fortune for nothing?”
“Yes, yes,” he answered; “at least the fee I want will cost you nothing.
Now stop this nonsense,” he added, anxiously, “I gather that _he_ is
cross.”
“I never saw him crosser, Kaku. I am glad it is you who reads the stars,
not I. Listen!”
As he spoke an angry roar reached them from the high deck above.
“Where is that accursed astrologer?” said the roar.
“There, what did I tell you? Oh! never mind the rest of the papers, go
at once. Your robe is full of rolls as it is.”
“Yes,” answered Kaku as he ran to the ladder, “but the question is, how
will he like what is in the rolls?”
“The gods be with you!” cried one of the girls after him, “you will need
them all.”
“And if you get back alive, don’t forget your promise about the
fortunes,” said the other.
A minute later this searcher of the heavens, a tall, hook-nosed man, was
prostrating himself before Abi in his pavilion on the upper deck, so low
that his Syrian-shaped cap fell from his bald head.
“Why were you so long in coming?” asked Abi.
“Because your slaves could not find me, royal Son of the Sun. I was at
work in my cabin.”
“Indeed, I thought I heard them giggling with you down there. What did
you call me? Royal Son of the Sun? That is Pharaoh’s name! Have the
stars shown you----?” and he looked at him eagerly.
“No, Prince, not exactly that. I did not think it needful to search them
on a matter which seems established, more or less.”
“More or less,” answered Abi gloomily. “What do you mean by your ‘more
or less’? Here am I at the turning-point of my fortunes, not knowing
whether I am to be Pharaoh of the Upper and Lower Lands, or only the
petty lord of a city and a few provinces in the Delta, and you satisfy
my hunger for the truth with an empty dish of ‘more or less.’ Man, what
do you mean?”
“If your Majesty will be pleased to tell his servant exactly what you
desire to know, perhaps I may be able to answer the question,” replied
Kaku humbly.
“Majesty! Well, I desire to know by what warrant you call me ‘Majesty,’
who am only Prince of Memphis. Did the stars give it to you? Have you
obeyed me and asked them of the future?”
“Certainly, certainly. How could I disobey? I observed them all last
night, and have been working out the results till this moment; indeed,
they are not yet finished. Question and I will answer.”
“You will answer, yes, but what will you answer? Not the truth, I fancy,
because you are a coward, though if anyone can read the truth, it is
you. Man,” he added fiercely, “if you dare to lie to me I will cut your
head off and take it to Pharaoh as a traitor’s; and your body shall
lie, not in that fine tomb which you have made, but in the belly of a
crocodile whence there is no resurrection. Do you understand? Then
let us come to the point. Look, the sun sets there behind the Tombs of
Kings, where the departed Pharaohs of Egypt take their rest till the Day
of Awakening. It is a bad omen for me, I know, who wished to reach this
city in the morning when Ra was in the House of Life, the East, and not
in the House of Death, the West; but that accursed wind sent by Typhon,
held me back and I could not. Well, let us begin at the end which must
come after all. Tell me, you reader of the heavens, shall I sleep at
last in that valley?”
“I think so, Prince; at least, so says your planet. Look, yonder, it
springs to life above you,” and he pointed to an orb that appeared at
the topmost edge of the red glow of the sunset.
“You are keeping something back from me,” said Abi, searching Kaku’s
face with his fierce eyes. “Shall I sleep in the tomb of Pharaoh, in my
own everlasting house that I shall have made ready to receive me?”
“Son of Ra, I cannot say,” answered the astrologer. “Divine One, I will
be frank with you. Though you be wrath, yet will I tell you the truth
as you command me. An evil influence is at work in your House of Life.
Another star crosses and re-crosses your path, and though for a long
time you seem to swallow it up, yet at the last it eclipses you--it and
one that goes with it.”
“What star?” asked Abi hoarsely, “Pharaoh’s?”
“Nay, Prince, the star of Amen.”
“Amen! What Amen?”
“Amen the god, Prince, the mighty father of the gods.”
“Amen the god,” repeated Abi in an awed voice. “How can a man fight
against a god?”
“Say rather against two gods, for with the star of Amen goes the star of
Hathor, Queen of Love. Not for many periods of thousands of years have
they been together, but now they draw near to each other, and so will
remain for all your life. Look,” and Kaku pointed to the Eastern horizon
where a faint rosy glow still lingered reflected from the western sky.
As they watched this glow melted, and there in the pure heavens, lying
just where it met the distant land, seeming to rest upon the land,
indeed, appeared a bright and beautiful star, and so close to it that,
to the eye, they almost touched, a twin star. For a few minutes only
were they seen; then they vanished beneath the line of the horizon.
“The morning star of Amen, and with it the star of Hathor,” said the
astrologer.
“Well, Fool, what of it?” exclaimed Abi. “They are far enough from
my star; moreover, it is they that sink, not I, who ride higher every
moment.”
“Aye, Prince, but in a year to come they will certainly eclipse that
star of yours. Prince, Amen and Hathor are against you. Look, I will
show you their journeyings on this scroll and you shall see where they
eat you up yonder, yes, yonder over the Valley of dead Kings, though
twenty years and more must go by ere then, and take this for your
comfort, during those years you shine alone,” and he began to unfold a
papyrus roll.
Abi snatched it from him, crumpled it up and threw it in his face.
“You cheat!” he said. “Do you think to frighten me with this nonsense
about stars? Here is my star,” and he drew the short sword at his side
and shook it over the head of the trembling Kaku. “This sharp bronze
is the star I follow, and be careful lest it should eclipse _you_, you
father of lies.”
“I have told the truth as I see it,” answered the poor astrologer with
some dignity, “but if you wish, O Prince, that in the future I should
indeed prophesy pleasant things to you, why, it can be done easily
enough. Moreover, it seems to me that this horoscope of yours is not so
evil, seeing that it gives to you over twenty years of life and power,
more by far than most men can expect--at your age. If after that come
troubles and the end, what of it?”
“That is so,” replied Abi mollified. “It was my ill-temper, everything
has gone cross to-day. Well, a gold cup, my own, shall pay the price of
it. Bear me no ill-will, I pray you, learned scribe, and above all tell
me no falsehood as the message of the stars you serve. It is the truth
I seek, the truth. If only she may be seen, and clasped, I care not how
ill-favoured is her face.”
Rejoicing at the turn which things had taken, and especially at the
promise of the priceless cup which he had long coveted, Kaku bowed
obsequiously. He picked up his crumpled roll and was about to retire
when through the gloom of the falling night, some men mounted upon asses
were seen riding over the mud flats that border the Nile at this spot,
towards that bank where the ship was moored.
“The captain of my guard,” said Abi, who saw the starlight gleam upon
a bronze helmet, “who brings me Pharaoh’s answer. Nay, go not, bide and
hear it, Kaku, and give us your counsel on it, your true counsel.”
So the astrologer stood aside and waited, till presently the captain
appeared saluting.
“What says Pharaoh, my brother?” asked the Prince.
“Lord, he says that he will receive you, though as he did not send for
you, he thinks that you can scarcely come upon any necessary errand,
as he has heard long ago of your victory over the desert-dwelling
barbarians, and does not want the offering of the salted heads of their
officers which you bring to him.”
“Good,” said Abi contemptuously. “The divine Pharaoh was ever a woman in
such matters, as in others. Let him be thankful that he has generals who
know how to make war and to cut off the heads of his enemies in defence
of the kingdom. We will wait upon him to-morrow.”
“Lord,” added the captain, “that is not all Pharaoh’s message. He says
that it has been reported to him that you are accompanied by a guard of
three hundred soldiers. These soldiers he refuses to allow within the
gates. He directs that you shall appear before his Majesty attended by
five persons only.”
“Indeed,” answered Abi with a scornful laugh. “Does Pharaoh fear, then,
lest I should capture him and his armies and the great city with three
hundred soldiers?”
“No, Prince,” answered the captain bluntly; “but I think he fears lest
you should kill him and declare yourself Pharaoh as next in blood.”
“Ah!” said Abi, “as next of blood. Then I suppose that there are still
no children at the Court?”
“None, O Prince. I saw Ahura, the royal wife, the Lady of the Two Lands,
that fairest of women, and other lesser wives and beautiful slave girls
without number, but never a one of them had an infant on her breast or
at her knee. Pharaoh remains childless.”
“Ah!” said Abi again. Then he walked forward out of the pavilion whereof
the curtains were drawn back, and stood a while upon the prow of the
vessel.
By now night had fallen, and the great moon, rising from the earth as it
were, poured her flood of silver light over the desert, the mountains,
the limitless city of Thebes, and the wide rippling bosom of the Nile.
The pylons and obelisks, glittering with copper and with gold, towered
to the tender sky. In the window places of palaces and of ten thousand
homes lamps shone like stars. From gardens, streets and the courts of
temples floated the faint sound of singing and of music, while on the
great embattled walls the watchmen called the hour from post to post.
It was a wondrous scene, and the heart of Abi swelled as he gazed upon
it. What wealth lay yonder, and what power. There was the glorious house
of his brother, Pharaoh, the god in human form who for all his godship
had never a child to follow after him when he ascended to Osiris, as he
who was sickly probably must do before so very long.
Yes, but before then a miracle might happen; in this way or in that a
successor to the throne might be found and acknowledged, for were not
Pharaoh and his House beloved by all the priests of Amen, and by the
people, and was not he, Abi, feared and disliked because he was fierce,
and the hated savage blood flowed in his veins? Oh! what evil god had
put it in his father’s heart to give him a princess of the Hyksos for a
mother, the Hyksos, whom the Egyptians loathed, when he had the fairest
women of the world from whom to choose? Well, it was done and could
not be undone, though because of it he might lose his heritage of the
greatest throne in all the earth. Also was it not to this fierce Hyksos
blood that he owed his strength and vigour?
Why should he wait? Why should he not set his fortune on a cast? He had
three hundred soldiers with him, picked men and brave, children of the
sea and the desert, sworn to his House and interests. It was a time of
festival, those gates were ill-guarded. Why should he not force them
at the dead of night, make his way to the palace, cause Pharaoh to be
gathered to his fathers, and at the dawn discover himself seated upon
Pharaoh’s throne? At the thought of it Abi’s heart leapt in his breast,
his wide nostrils spread themselves, and he erected his strong head as
though already he felt upon it the weight of the double crown. Then he
turned and walked back to the pavilion.
“I am minded to strike a blow,” he said. “Say now, my officer, would you
and the soldiers follow me into the heart of yonder city to-night to win
a throne--or a grave? If it were the first, you should be the general
of all my army, and you, astrologer, should become vizier, yes, after
Pharaoh you two should be the greatest men in all the land.”
They looked at him and gasped.
“A venturesome deed, Prince,” said the captain at length; “yet with such
a prize to win I think that I would dare it, though for the soldiers
I cannot speak. First they must be told what is on foot, and out of so
many, how know we that the heart of one or more would not fail? A word
from a traitor and before this time to-morrow the embalmers, or the
jackals, would be busy.”
Abi heard and looked from him to his companion.
“Prince,” said Kaku, “put such thoughts from you. Bury them deep. Let
them rise no more. In the heavens I read something of this business,
but then I did not understand, but now I see the black depths of hell
opening beneath our feet. Yes, hell would be our home if we dared to
lift hand against the divine person of the Pharaoh. I say that the gods
themselves would fight against us. Let it be, Prince, let it be, and you
shall have many years of rule, who, if you strike now, will win nothing
but a crown of shame, a nameless grave, and the everlasting torment of
the damned.”
As he spoke Abi considered the man’s face and saw that all craft had
left it. This was no charlatan that spoke to him, but one in earnest who
believed what he said.
“So be it,” he answered. “I accept your judgment, and will wait upon my
fortune. Moreover, you are both right, the thing is too dangerous,
and evil often falls on the heads of those who shoot arrows at a god,
especially if they have not enough arrows. Let Pharaoh live on while I
make ready. Perhaps to-morrow I may work upon him to name me his heir.”
The astrologer sighed in relief, nor did the captain seem disappointed.
“My head feels firmer on my shoulders than it did just now,” he said:
“and doubtless there are times when wisdom is better than valour.
Sleep well, Prince; Pharaoh will receive you to-morrow two hours after
sunrise. Have we your leave to retire?”
“If I were wise,” said Abi, fingering the hilt of his sword as he spoke,
“you would both of you retire for ever who know all the secret of my
heart, and with a whisper could bring doom upon me.”
Now the pair looked at each other with frightened eyes, and, like his
master, the captain began to play with his sword.
“Life is sweet to all men, Prince,” he said significantly, “and we have
never given you cause to doubt us.”
“No,” answered Abi, “had it been otherwise I should have struck first
and spoken afterwards. Only you must swear by the oath which may not be
broken that in life or death no word of this shall pass your lips.”
So they swore, both of them, by the holy name of Osiris, the judge and
the redeemer.
“Captain,” said Abi, “you have served me well. Your pay is doubled, and
I confirm the promise that I made to you--should I ever rule yonder you
shall be my general.”
While the soldier bowed his thanks, the prince said to Kaku,
“Master of the stars, my gold cup is yours. Is there aught else of mine
that you desire?”
“That slave,” answered the learned man, “Merytra, whose ears you boxed
just now----”
“How do you know that I boxed her ears?” asked Abi quickly. “Did the
stars tell you that also? Well, I am tired of the sly hussy--take her.
Soon I think she will box yours.”
But when Kaku sought Merytra to tell her the glad tidings that she was
his, he could not find her.
Merytra had disappeared.