In the middle of the month Famenut (January) spring began. All Egypt
was green with growing wheat. On black patches of land crowds of men
were sowing lupines, beans, and barley. In the air was the odor of
orange blossoms. The water had fallen greatly and new bits of land
were laid bare day by day.
Preparations for the funeral of Osiris-Mer-Amen-Rameses were ended.
The revered mummy of the pharaoh was inclosed in a white box, the
upper part of which repeated perfectly the features of the departed.
The pharaoh seemed to see with enamelled eyes, while the godlike face
expressed a mild regret, not for the world which the ruler had left,
but for the people condemned to the sufferings of temporal existence.
On its head the image of the pharaoh had an Egyptian cap with white
and sapphire stripes; on its neck, a string of jewels; on its breast,
the picture of a man kneeling with crossed hands; on its legs, images
of the gods, sacred birds, and eyes, not set into any face, but, as it
were, gazing out of infinity.
Thus arrayed, the remains of the pharaoh rested on a costly couch in a
small cedar chapel, the walls of which were covered with inscriptions
celebrating the life and deeds of the departed sovereign. Above
hovered a miraculous falcon with a human head, and near the couch
night and day watched a priest clothed as Anubis, the god of burial,
with a jackal's head on his body.
A heavy basalt sarcophagus had been prepared which was to be the outer
coffin of the mummy. This sarcophagus had also the form and features
of the dead pharaoh. It was covered with inscriptions, and pictures of
people praying, of sacred birds and also scarabs.
On the 17th of Famenut, the mummy, together with its chapel and
sarcophagus, was taken from the quarter of the dead to the palace and
placed in the largest hall there.
This hall was soon filled with priests, who chanted funeral hymns,
with attendants and servants of the departed, and above all with his
women, who screamed so vehemently that their cries were heard across
the river.
"O lord! thou our lord!" cried they, "why art thou leaving us? Thou so
kind, so beautiful. Thou art silent now, thou who didst speak to us so
willingly. Thou didst incline to our society, but to-day thou art far
from us."
During this time the priests sang,--
_Chorus I._ "I am Tum, who alone exists."
_Chorus II._ "I am Re, in his earliest splendor."
_Chorus I._ "I am the god who creates himself."
_Chorus II._ "Who gives his own name to himself, and no one among the
gods can restrain him."
_Chorus I._ "I know the name of the great god who is there."
_Chorus II._ "For I am the great bird Benu which tests the
existent."[37]
[37] "Book of the Dead."
After two days of groans and devotions a great car in the form of a
boat was drawn to the front of the palace. The ends of this car were
adorned with ostrich plumes and rams' heads, while above a costly
baldachin towered an eagle, and there also was the ureus serpent,
symbol of the pharaoh's dominion. On this car was placed the sacred
mummy, in spite of the wild resistance of court women. Some of them
held to the coffin, others implored the priests not to take their good
lord from them, still others scratched their own faces, tore their
hair, and even beat the men who carried the remains of the pharaoh.
The outcry was terrible.
At last the car, when it had received the divine body, moved on amid a
multitude of people who occupied the immense space from the palace to
the river. There were people smeared with mud, torn, covered with
mourning rags, people who cried in heaven-piercing voices. At the side
of these, according to mourning ritual, were disposed, along the whole
road, choruses.
_Chorus I._ "To the West, to the mansion of Osiris, to the West art
thou going, thou who wert the best among men, who didst hate the
untrue."
_Chorus II._ "Going West! There will not be another who will so love
the truth, and who will so hate a lie."
_Chorus of charioteers._ "To the West, oxen, ye are drawing the
funeral car, to the West! Our lord is going after you."
_Chorus III._ "To the West, to the West, to the land of the just! The
cities which thou didst love are groaning and weeping behind thee."
_The throng of people._ "Go in peace to Abydos! Go in peace to Abydos!
Go thou in peace to the Theban West!"
_Chorus of female wailers._ "O our lord, O our lord, thou art going to
the West, the gods themselves are weeping."
_Chorus of priests._ "He is happy, the most revered among men, for
fate has permitted him to rest in the tomb which he himself has
constructed."
_Chorus of drivers._ "To the West, oxen, ye are drawing the car, to
the West! Our lord is going behind thee."
_The throng of people._ "Go in peace to Abydos! Go in peace to Abydos,
to the western sea."[38]
[38] Authentic expression.
Every couple of hundred yards a division of troops was stationed
which greeted the lord with muffled drums, and took farewell with a
shrill sound of trumpets.
That was not a funeral, but a triumphal march to the land of
divinities.
At a certain distance behind the car went Rameses XIII., surrounded by
a great suite of generals, and behind him Queen Nikotris leaning on
two court ladies. Neither the son nor the mother wept, for it was
known to them then (the common people were not aware of this), that
the late pharaoh was at the side of Osiris and was so satisfied with
his stay in the land of delight that he had no wish to return to an
earthly existence.
After a procession of two hours which was attended by unbroken cries,
the car with the remains halted on the bank of the Nile. There the
remains were removed from the boat-shaped car and borne to a real
barge gilded, carved, covered with pictures, and furnished with white
and purple sails.
The court ladies made one more attempt to take the mummy from the
priests; again were heard all the choruses and the military music.
After that the lady Nikotris and some priests entered the barge which
bore the royal mummy, the people hurled bouquets and garlands--and the
oars began to plash.
Rameses XII. had left his palace for the last time and was moving on
the Nile toward his tomb in Theban mountains. But on the way it was
his duty, like a thoughtful ruler, to enter all the famed places and
take farewell of them.
The journey lasted long. Thebes was five hundred miles distant higher
up the river, along which the mummy had to visit between ten and
twenty temples and take part in religious ceremonies.
Some days after the departure of Rameses XII. to his eternal rest,
Rameses XIII. moved after him to rouse from sorrow by his presence the
torpid hearts of his subjects, receive their homage and give offerings
to divinities.
Behind the dead pharaoh, each on his own barge, went all the high
priests, many of the senior priests, the richest landholders, and the
greater part of the nomarchs. So the new pharaoh thought, not without
sorrow, that his retinue would be very slender.
But it happened otherwise. At the side of Rameses XIII. were all the
generals, very many officials, many of the smaller nobility and all
the minor priests, which more astonished than comforted the pharaoh.
This was merely the beginning. For when the barge of the youthful
sovereign sailed out on the Nile there came to meet him such a mass of
boats, great and small, rich and poor, that they almost hid the water.
Sitting in those barges were naked families of earth-tillers and
artisans, well-dressed merchants, Phoenicians in bright garments,
adroit Greek sailors, and even Assyrians and Hittites.
The people of this throng did not shout, they howled; they were not
delighted, they were frantic. Every moment some deputation broke its
way to the pharaoh's barge to kiss the deck which his feet had
touched, and to lay gifts before him: a handful of wheat, a bit of
cloth, a simple earthen pitcher, a pair of birds, but, above all, a
bunch of flowers. So that before the pharaoh had passed Memphis, his
attendants were forced repeatedly to clear the barge of gifts and thus
save it from sinking.
The younger priests said to one another that except Rameses the Great
no pharaoh had ever been greeted with such boundless enthusiasm.
The whole journey from Memphis to Thebes was conducted in a similar
manner and the enthusiasm of people rose instead of decreasing.
Earth-tillers left the fields and artisans the shops to delight
themselves with looking at the new sovereign of whose intentions
legends were already created. They expected great changes, though no
one knew what these changes might be. This alone was undoubted, that
the severity of officials had decreased, that Phoenicians collected
rent in a less absolute manner, and the Egyptian people, always so
submissive, had begun to raise their heads when priests met them.
"Only let the pharaoh permit," said people in inns, fields and
markets, "and we will introduce order among the holy fathers. Because
of them we pay immense taxes, and the wounds on our backs are always
open."
Among the Libyan hills, about thirty-five miles south of Memphis, lay
the country of Piom or Fayum, wonderful through this, that human hands
had made it.
There was formerly in this province a sunken desert surrounded by
naked hills. The pharaoh Amenhemat first conceived the daring plan of
changing this place into a fruitful region, three thousand five
hundred years before the Christian era.
With this object he divided the eastern part of the depression from
the rest and put a mighty dam around it. This dam was about eight
metres high, one hundred yards thick at the base, and its length more
than four hundred kilometres.
In this way was created a reservoir which held three milliards of
cubic metres of water, the surface of which occupied about three
hundred square kilometres. This reservoir served to irrigate two
hundred thousand hectares of land, and besides, in time of overflow,
it took in the excess of water and guaranteed a considerable part of
Egypt from sudden inundation.
This immense collection of water was called Lake Moeris, and was
considered one of the wonders of the world. Thanks to it a desert
valley was changed into the fertile land of Piom, where about two
hundred thousand people lived in comfort. In this province, besides
palms and wheat, were produced the most beautiful roses; oil made from
these went to all Egypt, and beyond its boundaries.
The existence of Lake Moeris was connected with another wonder among
works of Egyptian engineers, Joseph's canal. This canal, two hundred
yards wide, extended about three hundred and fifty kilometres along
the western side of the Nile. It was situated fifteen kilometres from
the river, served to irrigate lands near the Libyan mountains, and
conveyed water to Lake Moeris.
Around the country of Piom rose a number of ancient pyramids and a
multitude of smaller tombs. On its eastern boundary was the celebrated
Labyrinth (Lope-rohunt). This was built also by Amenhemat and had the
form of an immense horseshoe. It occupied an area one thousand yards
long and six hundred wide.
This edifice was the great treasure-house of Egypt. In it reposed the
mummies of several famous pharaohs, renowned priests, generals, and
architects. Here lay the remains of revered animals,--above all, those
of crocodiles. And here was kept the property of the Egyptian state,
brought together in the course of ages. Of this structure it is
difficult to gain an idea at present.
The labyrinth was neither inaccessible from the outside, nor watched
over-carefully; it was guarded by a small division of troops attached
to the priests, and some priests of tried honesty. The safety of the
treasury lay specially in this: that with the exception of those few
persons, no one knew where to look for it in the labyrinth, which was
divided into two stories, one above ground, the other subterranean,
and in each of these there were fifteen hundred chambers.
Each pharaoh, each high priest, finally each treasurer and supreme
judge was bound to examine with his own eyes the property of the state
immediately after entering on his office. Still, no one of the
dignitaries could find it, or even learn where the treasure lay,
whether in the main body of the building or in some of its wings,
above the earth or beneath it.
There were some to whom it seemed that the treasure was really
underground, far away from the labyrinth proper. There were even some
who thought that the treasure was beneath the lake, so that it might
be submerged should the need come. Finally no dignitary of the state
cared to occupy himself with the question, knowing that an attack on
the property of the gods drew after it ruin to the sacrilegious. The
uninitiated might have discovered the road, perhaps, if fear had not
paralyzed intruders. Death in this world and the next threatened him
and his family who should dare with godless plans to discover such
secrets.
Arriving in those parts Rameses XIII. visited first of all the
province of Fayum. In his eyes it seemed like the interior of some
immense bowl, the bottom of which was a lake and hills the edges.
Whithersoever he turned he found green juicy grass varied with
flowers, groups of palms, groves of fig-trees and tamarinds, amid
which from sunrise to sunset were heard the singing of birds and the
voices of gladsome people.
That was perhaps the happiest corner of Egypt.
The people received the pharaoh with boundless delight. They covered
him and his retinue with flowers, they presented him with a number of
vessels of the costliest perfumes as well as gold and precious stones
to the amount of ten talents.
Rameses spent two days in that pleasant region where joy seemed to
blossom on the trees, flow in the air, and look over the waters of
Lake Moeris. But men reminded him that he should see the labyrinth
also.
He left Fayum with a sigh and gazed around as he travelled. Soon his
attention was fixed by a majestic pile of gray buildings which stood
on an eminence.
At the gate of the famous labyrinth Rameses was greeted by a company
of priests of ascetic exterior, and a small division of troops, every
man in which was completely shaven.
"These men look like priests," said Rameses.
"They do, because every one in the ranks has received the inferior
ordination, and centurions the superior," answered the high priest of
the edifice.
When he looked more carefully at the faces of those strange warriors,
who ate no meat and were celibates, the pharaoh noted in them calm
energy and quickness; he noted also that his sacred person made no
impression whatever in that place.
"I am very curious to learn how Samentu's secret plan will succeed,"
thought he. The pharaoh understood that it was impossible either to
frighten those men or to bribe them. They were as self-confident in
looks as if each one commanded countless regiments of spirits.
"We shall see," thought Rameses, "if they can frighten my Greeks and
Asiatics, who, fortunately, are so wild that they do not know pompous
faces."
At the request of the priests, the pharaoh's suite remained at the
gate, as if under guard of the shaven soldiers.
"Must I leave my sword too?" asked Rameses.
"It will not harm us," answered the chief overseer.
The young pharaoh had the wish at least to slap the pious man with the
side of his sword for such an answer, but he restrained himself.
Rameses and the priests entered the main building by an immense court
and passed between two rows of sphinxes. Here in a very spacious, but
somewhat dark, antechamber were eight doors, and the overseer
inquired,--
"Through which door dost thou wish to go to the treasure, holiness?"
"Through that by which we can go the most quickly."
Each of five priests took two bundles of torches, but only one ignited
a torch.
At his side stood the chief overseer holding in his hands a large
string of beads on which were written certain characters. Behind them
walked Rameses surrounded by three priests.
The high priest who held the beads turned to the right and entered a
great hall, the walls and columns of which were covered with
inscriptions and figures. From that they entered a narrow corridor,
which led upward, and found themselves in a hall distinguished by a
great number of doors. Here a tablet was pushed aside in the floor,
discovering an opening through which they descended, and again
advanced through a narrow corridor to a chamber which had no doors.
But the guide touched one hieroglyph of many, and the wall moved aside
before them.
Rameses tried to remember the direction in which they were going, but
soon his attention was bewildered. He noted, however, that they passed
hurriedly through great halls, small chambers, narrow corridors, that
they climbed up or descended, that some halls had a multitude of doors
and others none whatever. He observed at once that the guide at each
new entrance dropped one bead from his long rosary, and sometimes, by
the light of the torch, he compared the indications on the beads with
those on the walls.
"Where are we now?" asked the pharaoh on a sudden, "beneath the earth,
or above it?"
"We are in the power of the gods!" replied his neighbor.
After a number of turns and passages the pharaoh again said,--
"But I think that we are here for the second time."
The priests were silent, but he who carried the torch held his light
to the walls in one and another place, and Rameses, while looking,
confessed in spirit that they had not been there before.
In a small chamber without doors they lowered the light, and the
pharaoh saw on the pavement dried, black remains, covered with decayed
clothing.
"That," said the overseer of the building, "is the body of a
Phoenician who, during the sixteenth dynasty, tried to break into the
labyrinth; he got thus far."
"Did they kill him?" inquired Rameses.
"He died of hunger."
The party had advanced again about half an hour, when the priest who
bore the torch lighted a niche in the corridor where also dried
remains were lying.
"This," said the overseer, "is the body of a Nubian priest, who in the
time of thy grandfather, holiness, tried to enter the labyrinth."
The pharaoh made no inquiry as to what happened to this man. He had
the impression of being in some depth and the feeling that the edifice
would crush him. Of taking bearings amid those hundreds of corridors,
halls, and chambers, he had no thought any longer. He did not even
wish to explain to himself by what miracle those stone walls opened,
or why pavements sank before him.
"Samentu will do nothing," said he in spirit. "He will perish like
these two, whom I must even mention to him."
Such a crushing, such a feeling of helplessness and nothingness he had
never experienced. At moments it seemed to him that the priests would
leave him in one of those narrow doorless chambers. Then despair
seized the young pharaoh; he touched his sword and was ready to cut
them down. But he remembered directly that without their assistance he
could not go hence, and he dropped his head.
"Oh to see the light of day, even for a moment! How terrible must
death be among three thousand rooms filled with gloom or utter
darkness!"
Heroic souls have moments of deep depression which the common man
cannot even imagine.
The advance had lasted an hour almost when at last they entered a low
hall resting on octagonal pillars. The three priests surrounding the
pharaoh, separated--then Rameses noticed that one of them nestled up
to a column and vanished, as it were, in the interior of it.
After a while a narrow opening appeared in one of the walls, the
priests returned to their places, and the guide commanded to light
four torches. All turned toward that opening and pushed through it
cautiously.
"Here are the chambers," said the overseer.
The priests lighted quickly torches which were fixed to the walls and
columns. Rameses saw a series of immense chambers filled with most
varied products of priceless value. In this collection every dynasty,
if not every pharaoh, had placed from what he or it possessed, that
which was most peculiar, or which had the most value.
There were chariots, boats, beds, tables, caskets, and thrones gold or
covered with gold plate, also inlaid with ivory, mother-of-pearl and
colored wood so ornamentally that artists must have worked tens of
years at them. There were weapons, shields and quivers glittering with
jewels. There were pitchers, plates, and spoons of pure gold, costly
robes, and baldachins.
All this treasure, thanks to dry and pure air, was preserved without
change during ages.
Among rare objects the pharaoh saw the silver model of the Assyrian
palace brought to Rameses XII. by Sargon. The high priest, while
explaining to the pharaoh whence each gift came, looked at his face
diligently. But in place of admiration for the treasures, he noticed
dissatisfaction.
"Tell me, worthiness," inquired Rameses on a sudden, "what good comes
of these treasures shut up in darkness?"
"Should Egypt be in danger there would be great power in them,"
replied the overseer. "For a few of these helmets, chariots and swords
we might buy the good-will of all the Assyrian satraps. And maybe even
King Assar himself would not resist if we gave him furniture for his
throne hall, or his arsenal."
"I think that they would rather take all from us by the sword than a
few through good-will," said the pharaoh.
"Let them try!" replied the priest.
"I understand. Ye have then means of destroying the treasures. But in
that case no one could make use of them."
"That is not a question for my mind," replied the overseer. "We guard
what is given to us, and do what is ordered."
"Would it not be better to use a portion of these treasures to fill
the coffers of the state and raise Egypt from the misery in which it
is at present?" asked the pharaoh.
"That does not depend on us."
Rameses frowned. He examined things for some time without very great
interest; at last he inquired,--
"Yes, these products of art might be useful in gaining the good-will
of Assyrian dignitaries; but if war were to break out with Assyria how
could we get wheat, men, and arms from nations which have no knowledge
of rare objects?"
"Open the treasury," said the high priest.
At this time the priests hurried in different directions: two vanished
as if in the interior of columns, while a third went up along the wall
on steps and did something near a carved figure.
Again a hidden door slipped aside and Rameses entered the real hall of
treasure.
That was a spacious room filled with priceless objects. In it were
earthen jars containing gold dust, lumps of gold piled up like bricks,
and ingots of gold in packages. Blocks of silver stored at one side
formed, as it were, a wall two ells thick and as high as the ceiling.
In niches and on stone tables lay precious stones of every color:
rubies, topazes, emeralds, sapphires, diamonds, pearls as large as
nuts and even as birds' eggs. There were single jewels which equalled
a town in value.
"This is our property in case of misfortune," said the overseer.
"For what misfortune are ye waiting?" inquired the pharaoh. "The
people are poor, the nobility and the court are in debt, the army
decreased one half, the pharaoh without money. Has Egypt ever been in
a worse position?"
"It was in a worse position when the Hyksos conquered it."
"In a few years," replied Rameses, "even the Israelites will conquer
this country unless the Libyans and Ethiopians precede them. And then
these beautiful stones, broken into pieces, will go to ornament the
sandals of black men and Hebrews."
"Be at rest, holiness. In case of need not only the treasure itself,
but the labyrinth would vanish without a trace, together with its
guardians."
Rameses understood thoroughly that he had before him fanatics who
thought only of this: not to let any one possess that treasure. He sat
down on a pile of gold bricks, and continued,--
"Then ye are preserving this property for evil days in Egypt?"
"Thou speakest truth, holiness."
"But who will convince you, its guardians, that those days have come
when they are really present?"
"To do that it would be necessary to call an extraordinary assembly of
Egyptians, an assembly made up of the pharaoh, thirteen priests of the
highest degree, thirteen nomarchs, thirteen nobles, thirteen officers,
and thirteen of each of the following: merchants, artisans, and
earth-tillers."
"Then ye would give to such an assembly the treasures?" asked the
pharaoh.
"We would give the necessary sum if the whole assembly, as one man,
decided that Egypt was in danger, and--"
"And what?"
"If the statue of Amon in Thebes confirmed that decision."
Rameses dropped his head as if to hide his great satisfaction.
He had a plan ready.
"I shall be able to collect such an assembly and incline it to
unanimity," thought the pharaoh. "Also it seems to me the divine
statue of Amon will confirm the decision if I put my Asiatics around
it."
"I thank you, pious men," said he aloud, "for showing me these
precious things, the great value of which does not prevent me from
being one among the poorest of sovereigns. And now I beg you to lead
me hence by the shortest way possible and the most convenient."
"We wish thee, holiness, to double the wealth of the labyrinth. As to
the road, there is only one, we must return as we came."
One of the priests gave Rameses dates, another a flask of wine mixed
with some invigorating substance. Then the pharaoh recovered strength
and went forward cheerfully.
"I would give much," said he, laughing, "to know all the turns of this
wonderful passage."
The guiding priest stopped,--
"I assure thee, holiness, that we ourselves do not understand or
remember this road, though each one of us has entered a number of
times by it."
"Then how do ye manage?"
"We have certain indications, but if one of these were to fail us,
even at this moment we should die here of hunger."
They reached the antechamber at last and through it the courtyard.
Rameses looked around and drew one breath of relief after another.
"For all the treasures of the labyrinth I would not guard them!" cried
he. "Terror falls on my breast when I think that it is possible to die
in those stone prisons."
"But it is possible to grow attached to them," replied the priest
smiling.
The pharaoh thanked each of his guides, and concluded,--
"I should be glad to show you some favor; ask for one."
The priests listened with indifference, and their chief answered,--
"Pardon me, holiness, but what could we wish for? Our figs and dates
are as sweet as those in thy garden, our water is as good as that from
thy well. If wealth attracted us have we not more of it than all the
kings put together?"
"I cannot win these men by anything," thought the pharaoh, "but I will
give them a decision of the assembly, and a decision of Amon."