OF THE TOMB OF THE DIVINE MENKAU-RA; OF THE WRITING ON THE BREAST OF
MENKAU-RA; OF THE DRAWING FORTH OF THE TREASURE; OF THE DWELLER IN THE
TOMB; AND OF THE FLIGHT OF CLEOPATRA AND HARMACHIS FROM THE HOLY PLACE
We stood within a small arched chamber, paved and lined with great
blocks of the granite stone of Syene. There before us--hewn from a
single mass of basalt shaped like a wooden house and resting on a sphinx
with a face of gold--was the sarcophagus of the Divine Menkau-ra.
We stood and gazed in awe, for the weight of the silence and the
solemnity of that holy place seemed to crush us. Above us, cubit over
cubit in its mighty measure, the pyramid towered up to heaven and was
kissed of the night air. But we were deep in the bowels of the rock
beneath its base. We were alone with the dead, whose rest we were about
to break; and no sound of the murmuring air, and no sight of life came
to dull the awful edge of solitude. I gazed on the sarcophagus; its
heavy lid had been lifted and rested at its side, and around it the dust
of ages had gathered thick.
“See,” I whispered, pointing to a writing, daubed with pigment upon the
wall in the sacred symbols of ancient times.
“Read it, Harmachis,” answered Cleopatra, in the same low voice; “for I
cannot.”
Then I read: “I, Rameses Mi-amen, in my day and in my hour of need,
visited this sepulchre. But, though great my need and bold my heart,
I dared not face the curse of Menkau-ra. Judge, O thou who shalt come
after me, and, if thy soul is pure and Khem be utterly distressed, take
thou that which I have left.”
“Where, then, is the treasure?” she whispered. “Is that Sphinx-face of
gold?”
“Even there,” I answered, pointing to the sarcophagus. “Draw near and
see.”
And she took my hand and drew near.
The cover was off, but the painted coffin of the Pharaoh lay in the
depths of the sarcophagus. We climbed the Sphinx, then I blew the dust
from the coffin with my breath and read that which was written on its
lid. And this was written:
“Pharaoh Menkau-ra, the Child of Heaven.
“Pharaoh Menkau-ra, Royal Son of the Sun.
“Pharaoh Menkau-ra, who didst lie beneath the heart of Nout.
“Nout, thy Mother, wraps thee in the spell of Her holy name.
“The name of thy Mother, Nout, is the mystery of Heaven.
“Nout, thy Mother, gathers thee to the number of the Gods.
“Nout, thy Mother, breathes on thy foes and utterly destroys them.
“O Pharaoh Menkau-ra, who livest for ever!”
“Where, then, is the treasure?” she asked again. “Here, indeed, is the
body of the Divine Menkau-ra; but the flesh even of Pharaohs is not
gold, and if the face of this Sphinx be gold how may we move it?”
For answer I bade her stand upon the Sphinx and grasp the upper part of
the coffin while I grasped its foot. Then, at my word, we lifted, and
the lid of the case, which was not fixed, came away, and we set it upon
the floor. And there in the case was the mummy of Pharaoh, as it
had been laid three thousand years before. It was a large mummy, and
somewhat ungainly. Nor was it adorned with a gilded mask, as is the
fashion of our day, for the head was wrapped in clothes yellow with age,
which were made fast with pink flaxen bandages, under which were pushed
the stems of lotus-blooms. And on the breast, wreathed round with
lotus-flowers, lay a large plate of gold closely written over with
sacred writing. I lifted up the plate, and, holding it to the light, I
read:
“I, Menkau-ra, the Osirian, aforetime Pharaoh of the Land of Khem, who
in my day did live justly and ever walked in the path marked for my feet
by the decree of the Invisible, who was the beginning and is the end,
speak from my tomb to those who after me shall for an hour sit upon my
Throne. Behold, I, Menkau-ra, the Osirian, having in the days of my life
been warned of a dream that a time will come when Khem shall fear to
fall into the hands of strangers, and her monarch shall have great need
of treasure wherewith to furnish armies to drive the barbarian back,
have out of my wisdom done this thing. For it having pleased the
protecting Gods to give me wealth beyond any Pharaoh who has been since
the days of Horus--thousands of cattle and geese, thousands of calves
and asses, thousands of measures of corn, and hundreds of measures of
gold and gems; this wealth I have used sparingly, and that which
remains I have bartered for precious stones--even for emeralds, the most
beautiful and largest that are in the world. These stones, then, I have
stored up against that day of the need of Khem. But because as there
have been, so there shall be, those who do wickedly on the earth, and
who, in the lust of gain, might seize this wealth that I have stored,
and put it to their uses; behold, thou Unborn One, who in the fulness
of time shalt stand above me and read this that I have caused to
be written, I have stored the treasure thus--even among my bones.
Therefore, O thou Unborn One, sleeping in the womb of Nout, I say this
to thee! If thou indeed hast need of riches to save Khem from the foes
of Khem, fear not and delay not, but tear me, the Osirian, from my tomb,
loose my wrappings and rip the treasure from my breast, and all shall
be well with thee; for this only I do command, that thou dost replace my
bones within my hollow coffin. But if the need be passing and not great,
or if there be guile in thy heart, then the curse of Menkau-ra be on
thee! On thee be the curse that shall smite him who breaks in upon the
dead! On thee be the curse that follows the traitor! On thee be the
curse that smites him who outrages the Majesty of the Gods! Unhappy
shalt thou live, in blood and misery shalt thou die, and in misery
shalt thou be tormented for ever and for ever! For, Wicked One, there in
Amenti we shall come face to face!
“And to the end of the keeping of this secret, I, Menkau-ra, have set up
a Temple of my Worship, which I have built upon the eastern side of
this my House of Death. It shall be made known from time to time to the
Hereditary High Priest of this my Temple. And if any High Priest that
shall be do reveal this secret to another than the Pharaoh, or Her
who wears the Pharaoh’s crown and is seated upon the throne of Khem,
accursed be he also. Thus have I, Menkau-ra, the Osirian, written. Now
to thee, who, sleeping in the womb of Nout, yet shall upon a time stand
over me and read, I say, judge thou! and if thou judgest evilly, on thee
shall fall this the curse of Menkau-ra from which there is no escape.
Greeting and farewell.”
“Thou hast heard, O Cleopatra,” I said solemnly; “now search thy heart;
judge thou, and for thine own sake judge justly.”
She bent her head in thought.
“I fear to do this thing,” she said presently. “Let us hence.”
“It is well,” I said, with a lightening of the heart, and bent down to
lift the wooden lid. For I, too, feared.
“And yet, what said the writing of the Divine Menkau-ra?--it was
emeralds, was it not? And emeralds are now so rare and hard to come by.
Ever did I love emeralds, and I can never find them without a flaw.”
“It is not a matter of what thou dost love, Cleopatra,” I said; “it is a
matter of the need of Khem and of the secret meaning of thy heart, which
thou alone canst know.”
“Ay, surely, Harmachis; surely! And is not the need of Egypt great?
There is no gold in the treasury, and how can I defy the Roman if I have
no gold? And have I not sworn to thee that I will wed thee and defy the
Roman; and do I not swear it again--yes, even in this solemn hour, with
my hand upon dead Pharaoh’s heart? Why, here is that occasion of which
the Divine Menkau-ra dreamed. Thou seest it is so, for else Hat-shepsu
or Rameses or some other Pharaoh had drawn forth the gems. But no; they
left them to come to this hour because the time was not yet come. Now it
must be come, for if I take not the gems the Roman will surely seize on
Egypt, and then there will be no Pharaoh to whom the secret may be
told. Nay, let us away with fears and to the work. Why dost look so
frightened? Having pure hearts, there is naught to fear, Harmachis.”
“Even as thou wilt,” I said again; “it is for thee to judge, since if
thou judgest falsely on thee will surely fall the curse from which there
is no escape.”
“So, Harmachis, take Pharaoh’s head and I will take his----Oh, what an
awful place is this!” and suddenly she clung to me. “Methought I saw
a shadow yonder in the darkness! Methought that it moved toward us and
then straightway vanished! Let us be going! Didst thou see naught?”
“I saw nothing, Cleopatra; but mayhap it was the Spirit of the Divine
Menkau-ra, for the spirit ever hovers round its mortal tenement. Let us,
then, be going; I shall be right glad to go.”
She made as though to start, then turned back again and spoke once more.
“It was naught--naught but the mind that, in such a house of Horror,
bodies forth those shadowy forms of fear it dreads to see. Nay, I must
look upon these emeralds; indeed, if I die, I must look! Come--to the
work!” and stooping, she with her own hands lifted from the tomb one
of the four alabaster jars, each sealed with the graven likeness of the
heads of the protecting Gods, that held the holy heart and entrails of
the Divine Menkau-ra. But nothing was found in these jars, save only
what should be there.
Then together we mounted on the Sphinx, and with toil drew forth the
body of the Divine Pharaoh, laying it on the ground. Now Cleopatra took
my dagger, and with it cut loose the bandages which held the wrappings
in their place, and the lotus-flowers that had been set in them by
loving hands, three thousand years before, fell down upon the pavement.
Then we searched and found the end of the outer bandage, which was fixed
in at the hinder part of the neck. This we cut loose, for it was glued
fast. This done, we began to unroll the wrappings of the holy corpse.
Setting my shoulders against the sarcophagus, I sat upon the rocky
floor, the body resting on my knees, and, as I turned it, Cleopatra
unwound the cloths; and awesome was the task. Presently something fell
out; it was the sceptre of the Pharaoh, fashioned of gold, and at its
end was a pomegranate cut from a single emerald.
Cleopatra seized the sceptre and gazed on it in silence. Then once
more we went on with our dread business. And ever as we unwound, other
ornaments of gold, such as are buried with Pharaohs, fell from the
wrappings--collars and bracelets, models of sistra, an inlaid axe, and
an image of the holy Osiris and of the holy Khem. At length all the
bandages were unwound, and beneath we found a covering of coarsest
linen; for in those very ancient days the craftsmen were not so skilled
in matters pertaining to the embalming of the body as they are now. And
on the linen was written in an oval, “Menkau-ra, Royal Son of the Sun.”
We could in no wise loosen this linen, it held so firm on to the body.
Therefore, faint with the great heat, choked with mummy dust and the
odour of spices, and trembling with fear of our unholy task, wrought
in that most lonesome and holy place, we laid the body down, and ripped
away the last covering with the knife. First we cleared Pharaoh’s head,
and now the face that no man had gazed on for three thousand years was
open to our view. It was a great face, with a bold brow, yet crowned
with the royal uræus, beneath which the white locks, stained yellow by
the spices, fell in long, straight wisps. Not the cold stamp of death,
and not the slow flight of three thousand years, had found power to mar
the dignity of those shrunken features. We gazed on them, and then, made
bold with fear, stripped the covering from the body. There at last it
lay before us, stiff, yellow, and dread to see; and on the left side,
above the thigh, was the cut through which the embalmers had done their
work, but it was sewn up so deftly that we could scarcely find the mark.
“The gems are within,” I whispered, for I felt that the body was very
heavy. “Now, if thy heart fail thee not, thou must make an entry to
this poor house of clay that once was Pharaoh,” and I gave her the
dagger--the same dagger which had drunk the life of Paulus.
“It is too late to doubt,” she answered, lifting her white beauteous
face and fixing her blue eyes all big with terror upon my own. She took
the dagger, and with set teeth the Queen of this day plunged it into the
dead breast of the Pharaoh of three thousand years ago. And even as she
did so there came a groaning sound from the opening to the shaft where
we had left the eunuch! We leapt to our feet, but heard no more, and the
lamp-light still streamed down through the opening.
“It is nothing,” I said. “Let us make an end.”
Then with much toil we hacked and rent the hard flesh open, and as we
did so I heard the knife point grate upon the gems within.
Cleopatra plunged her hand into the dead breast and drew forth somewhat.
She held it to the light, and gave a little cry, for from the darkness
of Pharaoh’s heart there flashed into light and life the most beauteous
emerald that ever man beheld. It was perfect in colour, very large,
without a flaw, and fashioned to a scarabæus form, and on the under side
was an oval, inscribed with the divine name of Menkau-ra, Son of the
Sun.
Again, again, and yet again, she plunged in her hand and drew emeralds
from Pharaoh’s breast bedded there in spices. Some were fashioned and
some were not; but all were perfect in colour without a flaw, and in
value priceless. Again and again she plunged her white hand into that
dread breast, till at length all were found, and there were one hundred
and forty and eight of such gems as are not known in the world. The last
time that she searched she brought forth not emeralds, indeed, but two
great pearls, wrapped in linen, such as never have been seen. And of
these pearls more hereafter.
So it was done, and all the mighty treasure lay glittering in a heap
before us. There it lay, and there, too, lay the regalia of gold, the
spiced and sickly-scented wrappings, and the torn body of white-haired
Pharaoh Menkau-ra, the Osirian, the ever living in Amenti.
We rose, and a great awe fell upon us, now that the deed was done and
our hearts were no more upborne by the rage of search--so great an awe,
indeed, that we could not speak. I made a sign to Cleopatra. She grasped
the head of Pharaoh and I grasped his feet, and together we lifted him,
climbed the Sphinx, and placed him once more within his coffin. I piled
the torn mummy cloths over him and on them laid the lid of the coffin.
And now we gathered up the great gems, and such of the ornaments as
might be carried with ease, and I hid them as many as I could, in the
folds of my robe. Those that were left Cleopatra hid upon her breast.
Heavily laden with the priceless treasure, we gave one last look at
the solemn place, at the sarcophagus and the Sphinx on which it rested,
whose gleaming face of calm seemed to mock us with its everlasting smile
of wisdom. Then we turned and went from the tomb.
At the shaft we halted. I called to the eunuch, who stayed above, and
methought a faint mocking laugh answered me. Too smitten with terror to
call again, and fearing that, should we delay, Cleopatra would certainly
swoon, I seized the rope, and being strong and quick mounted by it and
gained the passage. There burnt the lamp: but the eunuch I saw not.
Thinking, surely, that he was a little way down the passage, and
slept--as, in truth, he did--I bade Cleopatra make the rope fast about
her middle, and with much labour, drew her up. Then, having rested
awhile, we moved with the lamps to seek for the eunuch.
“He was stricken with terror and has fled, leaving the lamp,” said
Cleopatra. “O ye Gods! who is _that_ seated there?”
I peered into the darkness, thrusting out the lamps, and this was what
their light fell on--this at the very dream of which my soul sickens!
There, facing us, his back resting against the rock, and his hands
splayed on either side upon the floor, sat the eunuch--_dead!_ His eyes
and mouth were open, his fat cheeks dropped down, his thin hair yet
seemed to bristle, and on his countenance was frozen such a stamp of
hideous terror as well might turn the beholder’s brain. And lo! fixed
to his chin, by its hinder claws, hung that grey and mighty bat, which,
flying forth when we entered the pyramid, vanished in the sky, but,
returning, had followed us to its depths. There it hung upon the dead
man’s chin slowly rocking itself to and fro, and we could see the fiery
eyes shining in its head.
Aghast, utterly aghast, we stood and stared at the hateful sight; till
presently the bat spread his huge wings and, losing his hold, sailed to
us. Now he hovered before Cleopatra’s face, fanning her with his white
wings. Then with a scream, like a woman’s shriek of fury, the accursed
Thing flittered on, seeking his violated tomb, and vanished down the
well into the sepulchre. I fell against the wall. But Cleopatra sank
in a heap upon the floor, and, covering her head with her arms, she
shrieked till the hollow passages rang with the echoes of her cries,
that seemed to grow and double and rush along the depths in volumes of
shrill sound.
“Rise!” I cried, “rise and let us hence before the Spirit shall return
to haunt us! If thou dost suffer thyself to be overwhelmed in this place
thou art lost for ever.”
She staggered to her feet, and never may I forget the look upon her ashy
face or in her glowing eyes. Seizing lamps with a rush, we passed the
dead eunuch’s horrid form, I holding her by the hand. We gained the
great chamber, where was the sarcophagus of the Queen of Menkau-ra, and
traversed its length. We fled along the passage. What if the Thing had
closed the three mighty doors? No; they were open, and we sped through
them; the last only did I stay to close. I touched the stone, as I knew
how, and the great door crashed down, shutting us off from the presence
of the dead eunuch and the Horror that had hung upon the eunuch’s chin.
Now we were in the white chamber with the sculptured panels, and now
we faced the last steep ascent. Oh that last ascent! Twice Cleopatra
slipped and fell upon the polished floor. The second time--it was when
half the distance had been done--she let fall her lamp, and would,
indeed, have rolled down the slide had I not saved her. But in doing
thus I, too, let fall my lamp that bounded away into shadow beneath us,
and we were in utter darkness. And perchance about us, in the darkness,
hovered that awful Thing!
“Be brave!” I cried; “O love, be brave, and struggle on, or both are
lost! The way, though steep, is not far; and, though it be dark, we can
scarce come to harm in this straight shaft. If the gems weight thee,
cast them away!”
“Nay,” she gasped, “that I will not; this shall not be endured to no
end. I die with them!”
Then it was that I saw the greatness of this woman’s heart; for in the
dark, and notwithstanding the terrors we had passed and the awfulness of
our state, she clung to me and clambered on up that dread passage. On we
clambered, hand in hand, with bursting hearts, till there, by the mercy
or the anger of the Gods, at length we saw the faint light of the moon,
creeping through the little opening in the pyramid. One struggle more,
now the hole was gained, and like a breath from heaven, the sweet night
air played upon our brows. I climbed through, and, standing on a pile
of stones, lifted and dragged Cleopatra after me. She fell to the ground
and then sank down upon it motionless.
I pressed upon the turning stone with trembling hands. It swung to and
caught, leaving no mark of the secret place of entry. Then I leapt down
and, having pushed away the pile of stones, looked on Cleopatra. She had
swooned, and notwithstanding the dust and grime upon her face, it was so
pale that at first I believed she must be dead. But placing my hand upon
her heart I felt it stir beneath; and, being spent, I flung myself down
beside her upon the sand, to gather up my strength again.