SHABAKA FIGHTS THE CROCODILE
“Where to?” I said to Bes when we were outside the palace, for I was so
broken with grief that I scarcely knew what I did.
“To the house of the lady Tiu, I think, Master, since there you must
make preparations for your start on the morrow, also bid her farewell.
Oh!” he went on in a kind of rapture which afterwards I knew was
feigned though at the time I did not think about it, “Oh! how happy
should you be who now are free from all this woman-coil, with life new
and fresh before you. Reflect, Master, on the hunting we will have
yonder in Ethiopia. No more cares, no more plannings for the welfare of
Egypt, no more persuading of the doubtful to take up arms, no more
desperate battle-ventures with your country’s honour on your
sword-point. And if you must see women—well, there are plenty in
Ethiopia who come and go lightly as an evening breeze laden with the
odour of flowers, and never trouble in the morning.”
“At any rate _you_ are not free from such coils, Bes,” I said and in
the moonlight I saw his great face fall in.
“No, Master, I am tying them about my throat. See, such is the way of
the world, or of the gods that rule the world, I know not which. For
years I have been happy and free, I have enjoyed adventures and visited
strange countries and have gathered learning, till I think I am the
wisest man upon the Nile, at the side of one whom I loved and holding
nothing at risk, except my own life which mattered no more than that of
a gnat dancing in the sun. Now all is changed. I have a wife whom I
love also, more than I can tell you,” and he sighed, “but who still
must be looked after and obeyed—yes, obeyed. Further, soon I shall have
a people and a crown to wear, and councillors and affairs of state, and
an ancient religion to support and the Grasshopper itself knows what
besides. The burden has rolled from your back to mine, Master, making
my heart which was so light, heavy, and oh! I wish it had stopped where
it was.”
Even then I laughed, sad as I was, for truth lived in the philosophy of
Bes.
“Master,” he went on in a changed voice, “I have been a fool and my
folly has worked you ill. Forgive me since I acted for the best, only
until the end no one ever knows what is the best. Now here is the house
and I go to meet my wife and to make certain arrangements. By dawn
perhaps you will be ready to start to Ethiopia.”
“Do you really desire that I should accompany you there, Bes?”
“Certainly, Master. That is unless you should desire that I accompany
you somewhere else instead, by sea southward for instance. If so, I do
not know that I would refuse, since Ethiopia will not run away and
there is much of the world that I should still like to visit. Only then
there is Karema to be thought about, who expects, or, when she learns
all, soon will expect, to be a queen,” he added doubtfully.
“No, Bes, I am too tired to make new plans, so let us go to Ethiopia
and not disappoint Karema, who after holding a cup so long naturally
would like to try a sceptre.”
“I think that is wisest, Master; at any rate the holy Tanofir thinks it
wisest, and he is the voice of Fate. Oh! why do we trouble who after
all, every one of us, are nothing but pieces upon the board of Fate.”
Then he turned and left me and I entered the house where I found my
mother sitting, still in her festal robes, like one who waits. She
looked at my face, then asked what troubled me. I sat down on a stool
at her feet and told her everything.
“Much as I thought,” she said when I had finished. “These over-learned
women are strange fish to catch and hold, and too much soul is like too
much sail upon a boat when the desert wind begins to blow across the
Nile. Well, do not let us blame her or Bes, or Peroa who is already
anxious for his dynasty and would rather that Amada were a priestess
than your wife, or even the goddess Isis, who no doubt is anxious for
her votaries. Let us rather blame the Power that is behind the veil, or
to it bow our heads, seeing that we know nothing of the end for which
it works. So Egypt shuts her doors on you, my Son, and whither away?
Not to the East again, I trust, for there you would soon grow shorter
by a head.”
“I go to Ethiopia, my Mother, where it seems that Bes is a great man
and can shelter me.”
“So we go to Ethiopia, do we? Well, it is a long journey for an old
woman, but I weary of Memphis where I have lived for so many years and
doubtless the sands of the south make good burial grounds.”
“We!” I exclaimed. “_We?_”
“Surely, my Son, since in losing a wife you have again found a mother
and until I die we part no more.”
When I heard this my eyes filled with tears. My conscience smote me
also because of late, and indeed for years past, I had thought so much
of Amada and so little of my mother. And now it was Amada who had cast
me out, unjustly, without waiting to learn the truth, because at the
worst I, who worshipped her, had saved myself from death in slow
torment by speaking her name, while my mother, forgetting all, took me
to her bosom again as she had done when I was a babe. I knew not what
to say, but remembering the pearls, I drew them out and placed them
round my mother’s neck.
She looked at the wonderful things and smiled, then said,
“Such gems as these become white locks and withered breasts but ill.
Yet, my Son, I will keep them for you till you find a wife, if not
Amada, then another.”
“If not Amada, I shall never find a wife,” I said bitterly, whereat she
smiled.
Then she left me to make ready before she slept a while.
Work as we would noon had passed two hours, on the following day,
before we were prepared to start, for there was much to do. Thus the
house must be placed in charge of friends and the means of travel
collected. Also a messenger came from Pharaoh praying me for his and
Egypt’s sake to think again before I left them, and an answer sent that
go I must, whither the holy Tanofir would know if at any time Pharaoh
desired to learn. In reply to this came another messenger who brought
me parting gifts from Pharaoh, a chain of honour, a title of higher
nobility, a commission as his envoy to whatever land I wandered, and so
forth, which I must acknowledge. Lastly as we were leaving the house to
seek the boat which Bes had made ready on the Nile, there came yet
another messenger at the sight of whom my heart leapt, for he was
priest of Isis.
He bowed and handed me a roll. I opened it with a trembling hand and
read:
“From the Prophetess of Isis whose house is at Amada, aforetime Royal
Lady of Egypt, to the Count Shabaka,
“I learn, O my Cousin, that you depart from Egypt and knowing the
reason my heart is sore. Believe me, my Cousin, I love you well, better
than any who lives upon the earth, nor will that love ever change,
since the goddess who holds my future in her hands, knows of what we
are made and is not jealous of the past. Therefore she will not be
wroth at the earthly love of one who is gathered to her heavenly arms.
Her blessing and mine be on you and if we see each other no more face
to face in the world, may we meet again in the halls of Osiris.
Farewell, beloved Shabaka. Oh! why did you suffer that black master of
lies, the dwarf Bes, to persuade you to hide the truth from me?”
So the writing ended and below it were two stains still wet, which I
knew were caused by tears. Moreover, wrapped in a piece of silk and
fastened to the scroll was a little gold ring graven with the royal
_uræus_ that Amada had always worn from childhood. Only on the previous
night I had noted it on the first finger of her right hand.
I took my stylus and my waxen tablets and wrote on one of them:
“Had you been a man, Amada, and not a woman, I think you would have
judged me differently but, learned priestess and prophetess as you are,
a woman you remain. Perchance a time may come when once more you will
turn to me in the hour of your need; if so and I am living, I will
come. Yea, if I am dead I think that I still shall come, since nothing
can really part us. Meanwhile by day and by night I wear your ring and
whenever I look on it I think of Amada the woman whose lips have
pressed my own, and forget Amada the priestess who for her soul’s sake
has been pleased to break the heart of the man who loved her and whom
she misjudged so sorely in her pride and anger.”
This tablet I wrapped up and sealed, using clay and her own ring to
make the seal, and gave it for delivery to the priest.
At length we drew near to the river and here, gathered on the open
land, I found the most of those who had fought with me in the battle
against the Easterns, and with them a great concourse of others from
the city. These collected round me, some of them wounded and hobbling
upon crutches, praying me not to go, as did the others who foresaw
sorrow to Egypt from my loss. But I broke away from them almost in
tears and with my mother hid myself beneath the canopy of the boat.
Here Bes was waiting, also his beautiful wife who, although she seemed
sad at leaving Egypt, smiled a greeting to us while the steersmen and
rowers of the boat, tall Ethiopians every one of them, rose and gave me
a General’s salute. Then, as the wind served, we hoisted the sail and
glided away up Nile, till presently the temples and palm-groves of
Memphis were lost to sight.
Of that long, long journey there is no need to tell. Up the Nile we
travelled slowly, dragging the boat past the cataracts till Egypt was
far behind us. In the end, many days after we had passed the mouth of
another river that was blue in colour which flowed from the northern
mountain lands down into the Nile, we came to a place where the rapids
were so long and steep that we must leave the boat and travel overland.
Drawing near to it at sunset I saw a multitude of people gathered on
the sand and beyond them a camp in which were set many beautiful
pavilions that seemed to be broidered with silk and gold, as were the
banners that floated above them whereon appeared the effigy of a
grasshopper, also done in gold with silver legs.
“It seems that my messengers travelled in safety,” said Bes to me, “for
know, that yonder are some of my subjects who have come here to meet
us. Now, Master, I must no longer call you master since I fear I am
once more a king. And you must no longer call me Bes, but Karoon.
Moreover, forgive me, but when you come into my presence you must bow,
which I shall like less than you do, but it is the custom of the
Ethiopians. Oh! I would that you were the king and that I were your
friend, for henceforth good-bye to ease and jollity.”
I laughed, but Bes did not laugh at all, only turned to his wife who
already ruled him as though he were indeed a slave, and said, “Lady
Karema, make yourself as beautiful as you can and forget that you have
ever been a Cup or anything useful, since henceforth you must be a
queen, that is if you please my people.”
“And what happens if I do not please them, Husband?” asked Karema
opening her fine eyes.
“I do not quite know, Wife. Perhaps they may refuse to accept me, at
which I shall not weep. Or perhaps they may refuse to accept you, at
which of course I should weep very much, for you see you are so very
white and, heretofore, all the queens of the Ethiopians have been
black.”
“And if they refuse to accept me because I am white, or rather brown,
instead of black like oiled marble, what then, O Husband?”
“Then—oh! then I cannot say, O Wife. Perhaps they will send you back to
your own country. Or perhaps they will separate us and place you in a
temple where you will live alone in all honour. I remember that once
they did that to a white woman, making a goddess of her until she died
of weariness. Or perhaps—well, I do not know.”
Then Karema grew angry.
“Now I wish I had remained a Cup,” she said, “and the servant of the
holy Tanofir who at least taught me many secret things, instead of
coming to dwell among black barbarians in the company of a dwarf who,
even if he be a king, it seems has no power to protect the wife whom he
has chosen.”
“Why will women always grow wroth before there is need?” asked Bes
humbly. “Surely it would be time to rate me when any of these things
had happened.”
“If any of them do happen, Husband, I shall say much worse things than
that,” she replied, but the talk went no further, for at this moment
our boat grounded and singing a wild song, many of those who waited
rushed into the water to drag it to the bank.
Then Bes stood up on the prow, waving his bow and there arose a mighty
shout of, “_Karoon! Karoon!_ It is he, it is he returned after many
years!”
Twice they shouted thus and then, every one of them, threw themselves
face downwards in the sand.
“Yes, my people,” cried Bes, “it is I, Karoon, who having been
miraculously preserved from many dangers in far lands by the help of
the Grasshopper in heaven, and, as my messengers will have told you, of
my beloved friend, lord Shabaka the Egyptian, who has deigned to come
to dwell with us for a while, have at length returned to Ethiopia that
I may shed my wisdom on you like the sun and pour it on your heads like
melted honey. Moreover, mindful of our laws which aforetime I defied
and therefore left you, I have searched the whole world through till I
found the most beautiful woman that it contained, and made her my wife.
She too has deigned to come to this far country to be your queen.
Advance, fair Karema, and show yourself to these my Ethiopians.”
So Karema stepped forward and stood on the prow of the boat by the side
of Bes, and a strange couple they looked. The Ethiopians who had risen,
considered her gravely, then one of them said,
“Karoon called her beautiful, but in truth she is almost white and very
ugly.”
“At least she is a woman,” said another, “for her shape is female.”
“Yes, and he has married her,” remarked a third, “and even a king may
choose his own wife sometimes. For in such matters who can judge
another’s taste?”
“Cease,” said Bes in a lordly way. “If you do not think her beautiful
to-night, you will to-morrow. And now let us land and rest.”
So we landed and while I did so I took note of these Ethiopians. They
were great men, black as charcoal with thick lips, white teeth and flat
noses. Their eyes were large and the whites of them somewhat yellow,
their hair curled like wool, their beards were short and on their faces
they wore a continual smile. Of dress most of them had little, but
their elders or leaders wore lion and leopard skins and some were clad
in a kind of silken tunic belted about the middle. All were armed for
war with long bows, short swords and small shields round in shape and
made from the hide of the hippopotamus or of the unicorn. Gold was
plentiful amongst them since even the humblest wore bracelets of that
metal, while about the necks of the chieftains it was wound in great
torques, also sometimes on their ankles. They wore sandals on their
feet and some of them had ostrich feathers stuck in their hair, a few
also had grasshoppers fashioned of gold bound on the top of their
heads, and these I took to be the priests. There were no women in their
number.
As the sun was sinking we were led at once to a very beautiful tent
made of woven flax and ornamented as I have described, where we found
food made ready for us in plenty, milk in bowls and the flesh of sheep
and oxen boiled and roasted. Bes, however, was taken to a place apart,
which made Karema even more angry than she was before.
Scarcely had we finished eating when a herald rushed into the tent
crying, “Prostrate yourselves! Yea, be prostrated, the Grasshopper
comes! Karoon comes.”
Here I must say that I found that the title of Karoon meant “Great
Grasshopper,” but Karema who did not know this, asked indignantly why
she should prostrate herself to a grasshopper. Indeed she refused to do
so even when Bes entered the pavilion wonderfully attired in a
gorgeous-coloured robe of which the train was held by two huge men. So
absurd did he look that my mother and I must bow very deeply to hide
our laughter while Karema said,
“It would be better, Husband, if you found children to carry your robe
instead of two giants. Moreover, if it is meant to copy the colours of
a grasshopper, ‘tis badly done, since grasshoppers are green and you
are gold and scarlet. Also they do not wear feathers set awry upon
their heads.”
Bes rolled his eyes as though in agony, then turning, bade his
attendants be gone. They obeyed, though doubtfully as though they did
not like to leave him alone with us, whereon he let down the flap of
the pavilion, threw off his gorgeous coverings and said,
“You must learn to understand, Wife, that our customs are different
from those of Egypt. There I was happy as a slave and you were held to
be beautiful as the Cup of the holy Tanofir, also learned. Here I am
wretched as a king and you are held to be ugly, also ignorant as a
stranger. Oh! do not answer, I pray you, but learn that all goes well.
For the time you are accepted as my wife, subject to the decision of a
council of matrons, aged relatives of my family, who will decide when
we reach the City of the Grasshopper whether or not you shall be
acknowledged as the Queen of the Ethiopians. No, no, I pray you say
nothing since I must go away at once, as according to the law of the
Ethiopians the time has come for the Grasshopper to sleep, alone,
Karema, as you are not yet acknowledged as my wife. You also can sleep
with the lady Tiu and for Shabaka a tent is provided. Rest sweetly,
Wife. Hark! They fetch me.”
“Now, if I had my way,” said Karema, “I would rest in that boat going
back to Egypt. What say you, lord Shabaka?”
But I made no answer who followed Bes out of the tent, leaving her to
talk the matter over with my mother. Here I found a crowd of his people
waiting to convey him to sleep and watching, saw them place him in
another tent round which they ranged themselves, playing upon musical
instruments. After this someone came and led me to my own place where
was a good bed in which I lay down to sleep. This however I could not
do for a long while because of my own laughter and the noise of the
drums and horns that were soothing Bes to his rest. For now I
understood why he had preferred to be a slave in Egypt rather than a
king in Ethiopia.
In the morning I rose before the dawn and went out to the river-bank to
bathe. While I was making ready to wash myself, who should appear but
Bes, followed, but at a distance, by a number of his people.
“Never have I spent such a night, Master,” he said, “at least not since
you took me prisoner years ago, since by law I may not stop those horns
and musical instruments. Now, however, also according to the law of the
Ethiopians, I am my own lord until the sun rises. So I have come here
to gather some of those blue lilies which she loves as a present for
Karema, because I fear that she is angry and must be appeased.”
“Certainly she is very angry,” I said, “or at least was so when I left
her last night. Oh! Bes, why did you let your people tell her that she
was ugly?”
“How can I help it, Master? Have you not always heard that the
Ethiopians are chiefly famous for one thing, namely that they speak
nothing but the truth. To them she, being different, seems to be ugly.
Therefore when they say that she is ugly, they speak the truth.”
“If so, it is a truth that she does not like, Bes, as I have no doubt
she will tell you by and by. Do they think me ugly also?”
“Yes, they do, Master; but they think also that you look like a man who
can draw a bow and use a sword, and that goes far with the Ethiopians.
Of your mother they say nothing because she is old and they venerate
the aged whom the Grasshopper is waiting to carry away.”
Now I began to laugh again and went with Bes to gather the lilies.
These grew at the end of a mass of reeds woven together by the pressure
of the current and floating on the water. Bes lay down upon his stomach
while his people watched from a distance on the bank amazed into
silence, and stretched out his long arms to reach the blue lotus
flowers. Suddenly the reeds gave way beneath him just as he had grasped
two of the flowers and was dragging at them, so that he fell into the
river.
Next instant I saw a swirl in the brown water and perceived a huge
crocodile. It rushed at Bes open-mouthed. Being a good swimmer he
twisted his body in order to avoid it, but I heard the great teeth
close with a snap on the short leathern garment which he wore about his
middle.
“The devil has me! Farewell!” he cried and vanished beneath the water.
Now, as I have said, I was almost stripped for bathing, but had not yet
taken off my short sword which was girded round me by a belt. In an
instant I drew it and amidst the yells of horror of the Ethiopians who
had seen all from the bank, I plunged into the river. There are few
able to swim as I could and I had the art of diving with my eyes open
and remaining long beneath the surface without drawing breath, for this
I had practised from a child.
Immediately I saw the great reptile sinking to the mud and dragging Bes
with him to drown him there. But here the river was very deep and with
a few swift strokes I was able to get under the crocodile. Then with
all my strength I stabbed upwards, driving the sword far into the soft
part of the throat. Feeling the pain of the sharp iron the beast let go
of Bes and turned on me. How it happened I do not know but presently I
found myself upon its back and was striking at its eyes. One thrust at
least went home, for the blinded brute rose to the surface, bearing me
with him, and oh! the sweetness of the air as I breathed again.
Thus we appeared, I riding the crocodile like a horse and stabbing
furiously, while close by was Bes rolling his yellow eyes but helpless,
for he had no weapon. Still the devil was not dead although blood
streamed from him, only mad with pain and rage. Nor could the shouting
Ethiopians help me since they had only bows and dared not shoot lest
their shafts should pierce me. The crocodile began to sink again,
snapping furiously at my legs. Then I bethought me of a trick I had
seen practised by natives on the Nile.
Waiting till its huge jaws were open I thrust my arm between them,
grasping the short sword in such fashion that the hilt rested on its
tongue and the point against the roof of its mouth. It tried to close
its jaws and lo! the good iron was fixed between them, holding them
wide open. Then I withdrew my hand and floated upwards with nothing
worse than a cut upon the wrist from one of its sharp fangs. I appeared
upon the surface and after me the crocodile spouting blood and
wallowing in its death agonies. I remembered no more till I found
myself lying on the bank surrounded by a multitude with Bes standing
over me. Also in the shallow water was the crocodile dead, my sword
still fixed between its jaws.
“Are you harmed, Master” cried Bes in a voice of agony.
“Very little I think,” I answered, sitting up with the blood pouring
from my arm.
Bes thrust aside Karema who had come lightly clothed from her tent,
saying,
“All is well, Wife. I will bring you the lilies presently.”
Then he flung his arms about me, kissed my hands and my brow and
turning to the crowd, shouted,
“Last night you were disputing as to whether this Egyptian lord should
be allowed to dwell with me in the land of Ethiopia. Which of you
disputes it now?”
“No one!” they answered with a roar. “He is not a man but a god. No man
could have done such a deed.”
“So it seems,” answered Bes quietly. “At least none of you even tried
to do it. Yet he is not a god but only that kind of man who is called a
hero. Also he is my brother, and while I reign in Ethiopia either he
shall reign at my side, or I go away with him.”
“It shall be so, Karoon!” they shouted with one voice. And after this I
was carried back to the tent.
In front of it my mother waited and kissed me proudly before them all,
whereat they shouted again.
So ended this adventure of the crocodile, except that presently Bes
went back and recovered the two lilies for Karema, this time from a
boat, which caused the Ethiopians to call out that he must love her
very much, though not as much as he did me.
That afternoon, borne in litters, we set out for the City of the
Grasshopper, which we reached on the fourth day. As we drew near the
place regiments of men to the number of twelve thousand or more, came
out to meet us, so that at last we arrived escorted by an army who sang
their songs of triumph and played upon their musical instruments until
my head ached with the noise.
This city was a great place whereof the houses were built of mud and
thatched with reeds. It stood upon a wide plain and in its centre rose
a natural, rocky hill upon the crest of which, fashioned of blocks of
gleaming marble and roofed with a metal that shone as gold, was the
temple of the Grasshopper, a columned building very like to those of
Egypt. Round it also were other public buildings, among them the palace
of the Karoon, the whole being surrounded by triple marble walls as a
protection from attack by foes. Never had I seen anything so beautiful
as that hill with its edifices of shining white roofed with gold or
copper and gleaming in the sun.
Descending from my litter I walked to those of my mother and Karema,
for Bes in his majesty might not be approached, and said as much to
them.
“Yes, Son,” answered my mother, “it is worth while to have travelled so
far to see such a sight. I shall have a fine sepulchre, Son.”
“I have seen it all before,” broke in Karema.
“When?” I asked.
“I do not know. I suppose it must have been when I was the Cup of the
holy Tanofir. At least it is familiar to me. Already I weary of it, for
who can care for a land or a city where they think white people hideous
and scarcely allow a wife to go near her husband, save between midnight
and dawn when they cease from their horrible music?”
“It will be your part to change these customs, Karema.”
“Yes,” she exclaimed, “certainly that will be my part,” after which I
went back to my litter.