ENANA CALLS TO HIS AID THE GODS JUSTICE AND VENGEANCE
The nameless horror that had driven the youthful Unis from his side had
no terrors for Enana the Magician.
Enana stood bathed in the palpitating glow of the self-illuminated Book.
Slowly he approached his hands to its cover, a cover as white as the
sandals of the gods themselves.
The instant Enana’s shriveled fingers came in contact with its radiance,
a sudden change came over him. Enana’s face glowed; a circle of light
played about his head. His eyes blazed with a light of triumph.
Holding the Magic Book before him, he commenced to sway back and forth,
back and forth, like some mystic of the temple about to prophesy.
The aged Magician began to speak, softly at first, but with a flow of
words that scarcely waited for breath.
“What saith the son of Hap? Seek the Book of Thoth. Eat not, drink not,
sleep not, until the Book is found! Two magic formulæ hath the Book!
Recite the first and thou shalt charm the sky, the earth, the moon, the
heights, the depths! Thou shalt converse with the birds. Thou shalt
understand the sayings of the fish and reptiles!
“Recite the second and, even though thy desire be among the Silent Ones,
the Dead, yet shall thou have power to raise them upon their feet in the
forms and with the hearts their mothers gave them.
“By the Double Spell thou shalt produce a Rising of the Moon at will.
Thou shalt be enabled to stop the Sun’s Ascension. Yea, thou shalt darken
the faces of both Sun and Moon. By the Double Spell thou shalt see the
Ascension of Ra and the Cycle of the Gods.
“Recited at the full of the Moon, thou shalt master the Hidden Names
of the Gods, whereby thou shalt become possessed of their amulets and
talismans. Yea, thou shalt become greater than Ra himself!”
Slowly Enana the Magician opened the Book. In characters of gold the
secret incantations of the gods were spread before him. Here appeared
the Secret Names of the Six White Gods of Day and the Six Black Gods
of Night. Here were the irresistible words of power that could stop
the planets in their courses and Ra in his passage of the sky. Here
again were the Mystic Names of Thoth and Set. Here were the dread
_hekau_-spells that could revivify the dead or consign the living to
annihilation and their “doubles” to extinction.
Enana closed the magic book. Carefully he placed it in his bosom. The
soft effulgence at once disappeared.
Leaving the little chamber, Enana stood upon the terrace. Below and about
him stretched the city, the city of the dead. A rift of dully gleaming
waters and, beyond it, lay another city, the city of the living.
A dull roar, a deep murmur, as of many voices, came up to him where he
stood. In honor of the annual Feast of the Apts, lights were breaking out
alike in temple, palace and peasant hut.
To-night the doors would be left open. Thus would the living welcome the
“souls” of their dead.
Already lines of flickering torches showed where many a devout
_ka_-servant, together with priests to assist him, could be seen winding
along the well-beaten paths or marching up the inclined planes of the
sphinx or tree-bordered avenues by which the royal mortuary-temples were
approached.
The Feast of the Apts was indeed, as it was often styled, a veritable
“Feast of Lights.”
Enana gazed northward. Across the river, a bright circle of lights showed
where his brother-priests of Amen had commenced the encircling of the
walls of Amen’s temple. Huy and his brother-priests still put on a bold
front.
Fires were lit at intervals along the Nile embankments. The river itself
now reflected many a fire that leaped, died, and leaped into life again,
along the great quay fronting the temple of the Southern Apt.
Nearer, scarcely a stone’s throw away, it seemed, appeared the lights
of the innumerable lamps which served to illuminate the pleasure-barge
of Thi, the Queen-Mother. As Enana well knew, Pharaoh and his immediate
family were accustomed to join the nightly fête from this point of
vantage.
Enana raised his hands in the direction of the broad patch of buildings
and trees which marked at once the royal palace and the nearby villa of
Menna, the Overseer.
Suddenly a brilliant meteor shot from the highest zenith and seemed to
bury itself in the waters of the palace lake. Enana’s voice rose upon the
night air:
An omen, Pharaoh! an omen Thi! an omen Menna!
By the Power of the Book, closed to ye are
The gates of the Sky. Closed to ye are
The Double Doors of Heaven!
Ye shall not cross the Lily Lake of the Sky,
Ye shall not sail upon the Boat with Ra!
The Magic Vestments shall not be spread for ye!
The White Sandals shall be hidden from ye!
Yea, by the Secret Names I know, by the
Hidden Talismans I possess, your bodies
Shall be destroyed; your tombs shall know
Them not! Your _kas_ shall not stand behind ye!
Your _bas_ shall not sit upon your tombs!
Annihilation is your portion; obliteration
Your destiny!
Enana’s voice rose to a shrill falsetto; his whole form seemed to tremble
as he cried aloud the first dread incantation:
Thoth! Thoth! Thoth!
Come to my aid in thy name of Wisdom!
Set! Set! Set!
Descend to me in thy name of Evil!
Turn thy face earthward, O Thoth!
Turn thy face earthward, O Set!
Enter my heart, Ye Gods; let thy
Hearts become my heart; thy wisdom
My Wisdom.
I know thy Hidden Names, O Thoth!
Thy Talismans are before me, O Set!
Thoth thou art compelled, Set thou art
Compelled. Hither to me, O Wisdom! Hither
To me, O Evil!
Send inspiration, O Thoth! Grant opportunity, O Set!
As the aged Magician’s voice shrilled out upon the night air Bata, the
unhappy Unis’ aged nurse, suddenly awoke.
Softly she stole down the corridor from a chamber at the rear of the
tomb, where she usually slept. Bata reached the open door just in time to
hear Enana command the very gods to descend to earth. The horrified Bata
fell in a faint across the threshold.
When at length Bata returned to consciousness, she somehow managed
to crawl back to her room, dumb with terror. Bata had seen the old
Magician’s trembling form aglow with a mystic light, his upturned face
shining with some inward flame. Before him, out of the gloom there had
suddenly appeared two heavily cloaked figures. Bata never doubted but
that the tall forms were those of the great gods Thoth and Set.