WHEN the priests and the heir to the throne returned to the courtyard
in the evening, several hundred torches were gleaming so brightly that
it was as clear there as in the daytime.
At a sign from Mefres there came out again a procession of musicians,
dancers, and minor priests carrying a statue of the cow-headed Hator;
and when they had driven away evil sprits, Pentuer began to explain
again.
"Ye see, worthy fathers," said he, "that since the time of the
nineteenth dynasty a hundred thousand measures of land and two million
people have vanished out of Egypt. This explains why the income of the
state has decreased thirty-two thousand talents; that it has decreased
is known to all of us.
"But this is only the beginning of misfortunes to the state and the
treasury. Ninety-eight thousand talents of income apparently remain to
his holiness. But do ye think that the pharaoh receives all this
income?
"I will tell you what his worthiness Herhor discovered in the province
of the Hare.
"During the nineteenth dynasty twenty thousand people dwelt in that
province; they paid three hundred and fifty talents of yearly taxes. To
day there are hardly fifteen thousand, and these, of course, pay the
treasury only two hundred and seventy talents. Meanwhile the pharaoh,
instead of receiving two hundred and seventy talents, receives one
hundred and seventy.
"'Why is that?' inquired Herhor; and this is what an investigation
discovered: During the nineteenth dynasty there were in the district
about one hundred officials, and these received each one thousand
drachmas yearly salary. Today in that same district, though the people
have decreased, there are more than two hundred officials who receive
two thousand five hundred drachmas yearly.
"It is unknown to his worthiness Herhor if this is the case in every
district. But this much is certain, that the treasury of the pharaoh,
instead of ninety-eight thousand talents annually, has only seventy-
four thousand."
"Say, worthy father, fifty thousand," interrupted Ramses.
"I will explain that too," replied Pentuer. "In every case remember,
prince, that the pharaoh's treasury pays today twenty-four thousand
talents to officials, while it gave only ten thousand during the
nineteenth dynasty."
Deep silence reigned among the dignitaries, for more than one of them
had a relative in office, well paid moreover. But Pentuer was
unterrified.
"Now," continued he, "I will show thee, O heir, the manner of life
among officials, and the lot of common people in those old times and in
our day."
"Will it not take too much time? Besides, every man can see for
himself," murmured the priests, very promptly.
"I wish to know this," said the prince, with decision.
The murmur ceased. Pentuer went down along the steps of the
amphitheatre to the court, and after him went the prince, the high
priests, Mefres and the others.
They halted before a long curtain of mats, forming as it were a
palisade. At a sign from Pentuer some tens of minor priests hastened up
with blazing torches. Another sign, and a portion of the curtain fell.
From the lips of those present came a shout of admiration. They had
before them a brightly illuminated tableau in which about one hundred
persons were the characters.
The tableau was divided into three stories; on the lower story stood
earth-tillers, on a higher were officials, and on the highest was the
golden throne of the pharaoh resting on two lions whose heads were the
arms of the throne.
"It was in this way," said Pentuer, "during the nineteenth dynasty.
Look at the earth-tillers. At their ploughs ye see sometimes oxen,
sometimes asses; their picks, spades, and shovels are bronze, and hence
are lasting. See what stalwart men they are! Today one could find such
only in the guard of his holiness. Their hands and feet are strong,
their breasts full, their faces smiling. All are bathed and anointed
with olive oil. Their wives are occupied in preparing food and clothing
or in washing house utensils; the children are at school or are
playing.
"The laborer of that time, as ye see, ate wheaten bread, beans, flesh,
fish, and fruit; he drank beer or wine, and see how beautiful were the
plates and pitchers. Look at the caps, aprons, and capes of the men:
all adorned with various-colored needlework. Still more beautifully
embroidered were the skirts of women. And note how carefully they
combed their hair, what brooches, earrings, and bracelets they had.
Those ornaments were made of bronze and colored enamel; even gold was
found among them, though only in the form of wire.
"Raise now your eyes to officials. They wore mantles, but every laborer
wore just such a dress on holidays. They lived exactly as did laborers,
that is, in sufficiency, but modestly. Their furniture was ornamented
somewhat more than that of laborers, and gold rings were found oftener
in their caskets. They made journeys on asses, or in cars drawn by
oxen."
Pentuer clapped his hands and on the stage there was movement. The
laborers gave the officials baskets of grapes, bags of barley, peas and
wheat, jugs of wine, beer, milk and honey, game and stuffs, many pieces
white or colored. The officials took these products, kept a portion for
themselves, but the choicest and most costly they put up higher, for
the throne. The platform where stood the symbol of the pharaoh's power
was covered with products which formed as it were a small mountain.
"Ye see, worthy men," said Pentuer, "that in those times, when earth-
tillers were satisfied and wealthy, the treasury of his holiness could
hardly find place for the gifts of his subjects. But see what is
happening in our day."
At a new signal a second part of the curtain fell, and another tableau
appeared, similar to the preceding in general outline.
"Here are our laborers of the present," said Pentuer, and in his voice
indignation was evident. "Their bodies are skin and bones, they look
like sick persons, they are filthy and have forgotten to anoint
themselves with olive oil, but their backs are wounded from beating.
"Neither oxen nor asses are near them, for what need is there of those
beasts if ploughs are drawn by women and children? Picks and shovels
are wooden, they spoil easily and that increases men's labor. They have
no clothes whatever; only women wear coarse shirts, and not even in a
dream do they look at embroidery, though their grandfathers and
grandmothers wore it."
"Look now at the food of the earth-tillers. At times barley and dried
fish, lotus seed always, rarely a wheat cake, never flesh, beer, or
wine.
"Ask them where their utensils and furniture are. They have none,
unless a pitcher for water; nothing could find room in the dens which
they inhabit.
"Pardon me now for that to which I turn your attention: Over there a
number of children are lying on the ground; that means that they are
dead. It is wonderful how many children of laborers die from toil and
hunger. And those that die are the happiest, for they who survive go
under the club of the overseer, or are sold to the Phoenician as lambs
to the slaughter."
Emotion stopped his voice; he rested awhile, and then continued amid
the angry silence of the priesthood,
"And now look at the officials, how animated they are in rouge, how
beautiful their clothes are! Their wives wear gold bracelets and
earrings, and such fine garments that princes might envy them. Among
laborers not an ox or an ass is now visible, but to make up officials
journey on horseback or in litters. They drink only wine, and that of
good quality."
He clapped his hands, and again there was movement. The laborers gave
the officials bags of wheat, baskets of fruit, wine, game. These
objects the officials as before placed near the throne, but in
quantities considerably smaller. On the pharaoh's platform there was no
longer a mountain of products, but the platform of the officials was
covered.
"This is the Egypt of our day," continued Pentuer. "Laborers are in
indigence, scribes are wealthy, the treasury is not so full as it once
was. But now."
He gave a sign, and a thing unexpected took place there before them.
Certain hands seized grain, fruit, stuffs from the platforms of the
pharaoh and the officials; and when the amount of the goods had
decreased greatly, those same hands began to seize and lead away
laborers, their wives and children.
The spectators looked with amazement at the peculiar methods of those
mysterious persons. Suddenly some one cried out,
"Those are Phoenicians! They plunder us in that way."
"That is it, holy fathers," said Pentuer. "Those are the hands of
Phoenicians concealed in the midst of us; they plunder the pharaoh and
the scribes, and lead away laborers captive when there is nothing to
drag from them."
"Yes! They are jackals! A curse on Phoenicians! Expel them, the
wretches!" cried the priests. "It is they who inflict the greatest
damage on Egypt."
Not all, however, shouted in that way.
When there was silence, Pentuer commanded to take the torches to the
other side of the court, and thither he conducted his hearers. There
were no tableaux there, but a kind of industrial exhibition.
"Be pleased to look," said he. "During the nineteenth dynasty
foreigners sent us these things: we received perfumes from Punt; gold,
iron weapons, and chariots of war came from Syria. That is all.
"But Egypt manufactured in those days. Look at these immense pitchers,
how many forms, and what a variety of colors.
"Or the furniture: that armchair was made of ten thousand pieces of
gold, mother-of-pearl, and woods of various hues. Look at the robes of
that period: what embroidery, what delicacy of material, how many
colors! And the bronze swords, the brooches, bracelets, earrings and
implements of tillage and crafts of various descriptions. All these
were made in this country during the nineteenth dynasty."
He passed to the next group of objects.
"But today, look: the pitchers are small and almost without ornament,
the furniture is simple, the stuffs coarse and devoid of variety. Not
one thing made today can we compare as to shape, durability, or beauty
with those of former ages. Why has this happened?"
He advanced a number of steps again, surrounded by torches.
"Here is a great number of things," said he, "which the Phoenicians
bring us from various regions. Some tens of kinds of incense, colored
glass, furniture, vessels, woven stuffs, chariots, ornaments, all these
come from Asia and are bought by us.
"Do ye understand now, worthy fathers, why the Phoenicians tear away
grain, fruit, and cattle from the scribes and the pharaoh? In pay for
those foreign goods which have destroyed our artisans as locusts
destroy vegetation.
"Among things obtained through Phoenicians for his holiness, the
nomarchs, and the scribes, gold has the first place.
"This kind of commerce is the most accurate picture of calamities
inflicted on Egypt by Asia.
"When a man borrows gold to the amount of one talent, he is obliged in
three years to return two talents. But most frequently the Phoenicians,
under pretext of decreasing trouble for the debtor, assure payment in
their own way: that is, debtors for each talent borrowed give them as
tenants for three years two measures of land and thirty-two people.
"See there, worthy fathers," said he, pointing to a part of the court
which was better lighted. "That square of land one hundred and ten
yards in length and as wide signifies two measures; the men, women, and
children of that crowd mean eight families. All that together: people
and land pass for three years into dreadful captivity. During that time
their owner, the pharaoh or a nomarch, has no profit at all from them;
at the end of that term he receives the land back exhausted, and of the
people, twenty in number at the very highest, the rest have died under
torture!"
Those present shuddered with horror.
"I have said that the Phoenician takes two measures of land and thirty-
two people for three years in exchange for one talent. See what a space
of laud and what a crowd of people; look now at my hand.
"This piece of gold which I grasp here, this lump, less than a hen's
egg in size, is a talent.
"Can you estimate the complete insignificance of the Phoenicians in
this commerce? This small lump of gold has no real value: it is yellow,
it is heavy, a man cannot eat it, and that is the end of the matter. A
man does not clothe himself with gold and he cannot stop his hunger or
thirst with it. If he had a lump of gold as big as the pyramid, he
would be as poor at the foot of it as a Libyan wandering through the
western desert where there is neither a date nor a drop of water.
"And see, for a piece of this barren metal a Phoenician takes a piece
of land which suffices to feed and clothe thirty-two people, and
besides that he takes the people. For three years he exercises power
over beings who know how to cultivate land, gather in grain, make flour
and beer, weave garments, build houses, and make furniture.
"At the same time the pharaoh or the nomarch is deprived for three
years of the services of those people. They pay him no tribute, they
carry no burdens for the army, but they toil to give income to the
greedy Phoenician.
"Ye know, worthy fathers, that at present there is not a year during
which in this or that province an insurrection does not break out among
laborers exhausted by hunger, borne down by toil, or beaten with
sticks. And some of those men perish, others are sent to the quarries,
while the country is depopulated more and more for this reason only,
that the Phoenician gave a lump of gold to some land-owner! Is it
possible to imagine greater misery? And is Egypt not to lose land and
people yearly under such conditions? Victorious wars undermined Egypt,
but Phoenician gold-dealers are finishing it."
On the faces of the priests satisfaction was depicted; they were more
willing to hear of the guile of Phoenicians than the excesses of
scribes throughout Egypt.
Pentuer rested awhile, then he turned to the viceroy.
"For some months," said he, "Ramses, O servant of the gods, Thou hast
been inquiring why the income of his holiness is diminished. The wisdom
of the gods has shown thee that not only the treasure has decreased but
also the army, and that both those sources of royal power will decrease
still further. And the end will be utter ruin for this country, unless
heaven sends down a ruler who will stop the inundation of misery which
for some hundreds of years is overwhelming Egypt.
"The treasury of the pharaohs was full when we had more land and
people. We must win back from the desert the fertile lands which it has
swallowed, and remove from the people those burdens which weaken and
kill them."
The priests were alarmed again, lest Pentuer might mention scribes for
the second time.
"Thou hast seen, prince, with thy own eyes and before witnesses, that
in the epoch when people were well nourished, stalwart, and satisfied,
the treasury of the pharaoh was full. But when people began to look
wretched, when they were forced to plough with their wives and
children, when lotus seed took the place of wheat and flesh, the
treasury grew needy. If Thou wish therefore to bring the state to that
power which it had before the wars of the nineteenth dynasty, if Thou
desire that the pharaoh, his scribes, and his army should live in
plenty, assure long peace to the land and prosperity to the people. Let
grown persona eat flesh again and dress in embroidered garments, and
let children, instead of groaning and dying under blows, play, or go to
school.
"Remember, finally, that Egypt bears within its bosom a deadly
serpent."
Those present listened with fear and curiosity.
"That serpent which is sucking at the blood of the people, the property
of the nomarchs, and the power of the pharaoh is the Phoenician!"
"Away with the Phoenicians!" cried the priests. "Blot out all debts to
them. Admit not their ships and merchants."
Silence was enforced by the high priest Mefres, who with tears in his
eyes turned to Pentuer.
"I doubt not," said he, "that the holy Hator is speaking through thy
lips to us. Not only because no man could be so wise and all-knowing as
Thou art, but besides I have seen two flames, as horns, above thy
forehead. I thank thee for the great words with which Thou hast
dispelled our ignorance. I bless thee, and I pray the gods when I am
summoned before them to make thee my advocate."
An unbroken shout from the rest of the assembly supported the blessing
of the highest dignitary. The priests were the better satisfied, since
alarm had hung over them lest Pentuer might refer to the scribes a
second time. But the sage knew how to restrain himself: he indicated
the internal wound of the state, but he did not inflame it, and
therefore his triumph was perfect.
Prince Ramses did not thank Pentuer, he only dropped his head to his
own bosom. No one doubted, however, that the discourse of the prophet
had shaken the soul of the heir, and that it was a seed from which
prosperity and glory might spring up for Egypt.
Next morning Pentuer, without taking farewell of any, left the temple
at sunrise and journeyed away in the direction of Memphis.
For a number of days Prince Ramses held converse with no man, he
meditated; he sat in his cell, or walked up and down the shady
corridors. Work in his soul was progressing.
In reality Pentuer had declared no new truth; all had been complaining
of the decrease of laud and people in Egypt, of the misery of workmen,
the abuses of scribes, and the extortion of Phoenicians. But the
discourse of the prophet had given them tangible forms, and illustrated
facts very clearly.
The Phoenicians terrified the prince; he had not estimated till that
time the enormity of the misfortunes brought on people of Egypt by
those merchants. His horror was all the more vivid, since he had rented
out his own subjects to Dagon, and was himself witness of the way in
which the banker collected his dues from them.
But his entanglement in the business of Phoenicians produced strange
results in Ramses. He did not wish to think of Phoenicians, and
whenever anger flamed up in his mind against those strangers the
feeling of shame was destroyed in him. He was in a certain sense their
confederate. Meanwhile he understood perfectly how serious the decrease
was in land and in people, and on this he placed the main emphasis in
his lonely meditation.
"If we had," said he to himself, "those two millions of people lost by
Egypt, we might through help from them win back those fertile lands
from the desert, we might even extend those lands. And then in spite of
Phoenicians our laborers would be in a better condition, and there
would be also increase in the income of Egypt. But where can we find
men?"
Chance gave the answer.
On a certain evening the prince, while walking through the gardens of
the temple, met a crowd of captives whom Nitager had seized on the
eastern boundary and sent to the goddess Hator. Those people were
perfectly built, they did more work than Egyptians, and they did it
because they were properly nourished, hence even satisfied with their
position.
When he saw them, his mind was cleared as if by a lightning flash. He
almost lost presence of mind from emotion. The country needs men, many
men, hundreds of thousands, even a million, two millions. And here are
men! The only need was to turn to Asia, seize all whom they might meet
on the road, and send them to Egypt. War must continue till so many
were taken that every earth-tiller from the cataract to the sea might
have his own bondman.
Thus rose a plan, colossal and simple, thanks to which Egypt would find
population, the earth-tillers aid in their labor, and the treasury of
the pharaoh an endless source of income.
The prince was enchanted, though next day a new doubt sprang up in him.
Pentuer had announced with great emphasis, while Herhor had asserted
still earlier, that victorious wars were the source of misfortune for
the country. From this it resulted that to raise Egypt by a new war was
impossible.
"Pentuer is a great sage, and so is Herhor," thought Ramses. "If they
consider war harmful, if the high priest Mefres and other priests judge
in the same way, then perhaps war is in fact dangerous. It must be
dangerous, if so many holy and wise men insist thus."
Ramses was deeply disappointed. He had thought out a simple method of
elevating Egypt, but the priests maintained that that was the true way
to ruin it. The priests are most holy, and they are wise men.
But something happened which cooled the faith of the prince somewhat in
the truthful speech of the priests, or rather it roused his previous
distrust of them.
Once he was going with a certain leech to the library. The way lay
through a dark and narrow corridor from which the heir drew back with
repulsion.
"I will not go by this way," said he.
"Why not?" inquired the leech, with astonishment.
"Dost Thou not remember, holy father, that at the end of that corridor
is an opening in which a certain traitor was tortured to death without
pity."
"Aha!" answered the leech. "There is an opening there into which we
poured boiling pitch at command of Pentuer."
"And ye killed a man."
The leech smiled. He was a kindly, gladsome person. So, observing the
indignation of the prince, he said after some meditation,
"It is not permitted to betray temple secrets. Of course, before each
of the greater solemnities, we bring this to the mind of younger
candidates."
His tone was so peculiar that Ramses required explanation.
"I cannot betray secrets," replied the leech; "but promise, worthiness,
to hide a story in thy breast, and I will tell thee one."
Ramses promised. The leech gave this narrative:
"A certain Egyptian priest, while visiting temples in the unbelieving
land of Aram, met at one of them a man who seemed to him in good flesh
and satisfied, though he wore wretched garments. 'Explain to me,' said
the priest to the gladsome poor man, 'how it is that, though Thou art
indigent, thy body looks as though Thou wert chief of this temple.'
"That man looked around then to see if any one were listening, and
answered,
"'I am fat, because my voice is very woeful; hence I am a martyr at
this temple. When people come to service here, I crawl into an opening
and groan with all the strength that is in my body; for this they give
me food abundantly throughout the year, and a large jug of beer every
day when I am tortured.'
"Thus do they manage in the unbelieving land of Aram," said the leech,
as he raised a finger to his lips, and added, "Remember, prince, what
Thou hast promised, and of boiling pitch in this place think whatever
suits thee."
This story roused the prince anew; he felt relief because a man had not
been killed in the temple, but all his earlier distrust of priests
sprang into life again.
That they deluded simple people, he knew. He remembered the priests'
procession with the sacred bull Apis, while he was in their school. The
people were convinced that Apis led the priests, while every student
saw that the divine beast went in whatever direction priests drove him.
Who could tell, therefore, that Pentuer's discourse was not intended
for him, as that procession of Apis for the people? For that matter, it
was easy to put on the ground beans of red or other colors, and also it
was not difficult to arrange tableaux. How much more splendid were
those exhibitions which he had seen, even the struggles of Set with
Osiris, in which a number of hundreds of persons assisted. But in that
case, too, did not the priests deceive people? That was given as a
battle of the gods: meanwhile it was carried on by men in disguise. In
it Osiris perished, but the priest who represented Osiris came out as
sound as a rhinoceros. What wonders did they not exhibit there! Water
rose; there were peals of thunder; the earth trembled and vomited fire.
And that was all deception. Why should the exhibition made by Pentuer
be true? Besides, the prince had discovered strong indications that
they wished to deceive him. The man groaning underground and covered,
as it were, with boiling pitch by the priests was deception. But let
that pass. The prince had convinced himself frequently that Herhor did
not want war; Mefres also did not want it. Pentuer was the assistant of
one of them, and the favorite of the other.
Such a struggle was taking place in the prince that it seemed to him at
one time that he understood everything, at another that he was
surrounded by darkness; now he was full of hope, and now he doubted
everything. From hour to hour, from day to day, his soul rose and fell
like the waters of the Nile in the course of its yearly changes.
Gradually, however, the prince recovered his balance, and when the time
came to leave the temple, he had formulated certain views of the
problem.
First of all, he understood clearly that Egypt needed more land and
more people. Second, he believed that the simplest way to find men was
a war with Asia. But Pentuer had proved to him that war could only
heighten the disaster. A new question rose then, did Pentuer speak the
truth, or was he lying? If he spoke the truth, he plunged the prince in
despair, for Ramses saw no means to raise the state except war. Unless
war were made, Egypt would lose population yearly, and the treasury of
the pharaoh would increase its debts till the whole process would end
in some ghastly overthrow, perhaps even in the reign of the coming
pharaoh.
"But if Pentuer lied? Why should he lie? Evidently because Herhor,
Mefres, and the whole priestly corporation had persuaded him to act
thus.
"But why did priests oppose war? What interests had they in opposing?
Every war brought immense profit to them and the pharaoh.
"But would the priests deceive him in an affair so far reaching? It is
true that they deceived very often, but in small matters, not when it
was a question of the future and the existence of the state. It was not
possible to assert that they deceived always. Besides, they were the
servants of the gods, and the guardians of great secrets." Spirits
resided in their temples; of this Ramses convinced himself on the first
night after he had come to that temple of Hator.
"But if the gods did not permit the uninitiated to approach their
altars, if they watched so carefully over temples, why did they not
watch over Egypt, which is the greatest of all temples?"
When some days later Ramses, after a solemn religious service, left the
temple of Hator amid the blessings of the priests, two questions were
agitating him,
Could war with Asia really harm Egypt? Could the priests in this
question be deceiving him, the heir to the throne?