wide view of a part of the populous valley of the Nile, wound a broad
path, well trodden by thousands of naked feet. It was now crowded with
Hebrew slaves, some going to the city with burdens of brick slung at
the extremities of wooden yokes laid across the shoulder, or borne
upon their heads, and others returning to the plain after having
deposited their burdens. It was a broad path of tears and sighs, and
no loitering step was permitted by the overseers; for even if one
would stop to quench his thirst at the fountain, he was beaten
forward, and the blows accompanied with execrations. Alas, mother,
this cruel bondage of the Hebrews is the only dark spot which I have
seen in Egypt,--the only shadow of evil upon the brilliant reign of
Queen Amense!
I took one more survey of the wide landscape, which embraces the
abodes of one million of souls; for in the valley of Egypt are
fourteen thousand villages, towns and cities, and a population of
nearly seven millions. Yet the valley of the Nile is a belt of verdure
only a few miles wide, bounded by the Libyan and Arabian hills. Every
foot of soil seems occupied, and every acre teems with population. In
the streets, in the gardens, in the public squares, in temples, and
courts of palaces, in the field, or on the river, one can never be
alone, for he sees human beings all about him, thronging every place,
and engaged either in business or pleasure, or the enjoyment of the
luxury of idleness in the shade of a column or a tree.
Descending the tower, and seeing the prince still engaged with his
builders, pointing to the unfinished towers of Raamses, and the site
of the new palace he proposed erecting near by, I went down the steps
to the fountain, to quaff its cool waters. Here I beheld an old and
majestic-looking man bending over a youth, a wound in whose temple he
was bathing tenderly with water from the well. I perceived at a
glance, by the aquiline nose and lash-shaded dark, bright eye, that
they were Hebrews.
The old man had one of those Abrahamic faces I have described as
extant on the tomb of Eliezer of Damascus: a broad, extensive, and
high forehead; a boldly-shaped eagle nose; full lips; and a flowing
beard, which would have been white as wool but that it was stained
yellow by the sun and soil. He wore the coarse, short trowsers, and
body cloth of the bond-slave, and old sandals bound upon his feet with
ropes. The young man was similarly dressed. He was pale and nearly
lifeless. His beautiful head lay upon the edge of the fountain, and as
the old man poured, from the palm of his hand, water upon his face he
repeated a name, perhaps the youth's. I stood fixed with interest by
the scene. At this moment an Egyptian taskmaster entered, and with his
rod struck the venerable man several sharp blows and ordered him to
rise and go to his task. He made no reply--regarded not the shower of
blows--but bending his eyes tearfully upon the marble face before him,
with his fingers softly removed the warm drops of blood that stained
the temples.
"Nay," I said, quickly, to the Egyptian, "do not beat him! See, he is
old, and is caring for this poor youth!"
The Egyptian looked at me with an angry glance, as if he would also
chastise the speaker for interfering; when seeing from my appearance
that I was a man of rank, and perceiving, also, the prince through a
passage in the ruined wall, he bent his forehead low and said:
"My lord, I did not see you, or I would have taken the idle graybeard
out and beaten him."
"But why beat him?" I asked.
"His load awaits him on the road where he dropped it, when my second
officer struck down this young fellow, who stopped to gaze at a
chariot!"
"What relation do they bear to each other?" said I.
"This is the old man's youngest son. He is a weak fool, my lord, about
him, and though, as you see, he can hardly carry a full load for
himself, he will try and add to his own, a part of the bricks the boy
should bear. Come, old man, leave the boy and on to your work!"
The aged Hebrew raised to my face a look of despair trembling with
mute appeal, as if he expected no interposition, yet had no other hope
left.
"Leave them here," I said. "I will be responsible for the act."
"But I am under a chief captain who will make me account to him for
every brick not delivered. The tale of bricks that leaves the plain
and that which is received are taken and compared. I have a certain
number of men and boys under me, and they have to make up in their
loads a given tale of bricks between sun and sun. If they fail, I lose
my wages!" This was spoken sullenly.
"What is thy day's wages?" I demanded.
"A quarter of a scarabæus," he answered. This is the common cheap
coin, bearing the sacred beetle cut in stone, copper, lead, and even
wood. Higher values are represented by silver, bronze, brass, and gold
rings. Money in disk-form I have not yet heard of in Egypt. An
Egyptian's purse is a necklace of gold rings of greater or less value.
The scarabæus is often broken in four pieces, each fraction containing
a hieroglyphic. The value is about equal to a Syrian neffir.
I placed in his hand a copper scarabæus, and said: "Go thy way! This
shall justify thee to thy conscience. These Hebrews are too helpless
to be of further service to thee this day."
The taskmaster took the money with a smile of gratification, and at
once left the court of the fountain. The old Hebrew looked at me with
grateful surprise, caught my hand, pressed it to his heart, and then
covered it with kisses. I smiled upon him with friendly sympathy, and,
stooping down, raised the head of the young man upon my knee. By our
united aid he was soon restored to sensibility.
But, my dear mother, I will, with your permission, continue my
narrative in another letter. The trumpets, which from the temple of
Osiris proclaim that the last rays of the setting sun are disappearing
from its summit, also warn me to draw my letter to a close. The
incense of the altar rises into the blue and golden sky, and typifies
prayer. I will receive the lesson it teaches, and retire to my oratory
and pray, O mother, for thy health and happiness and the prosperity of
thy reign.
Your affectionate son,
SESOSTRIS
LETTER VII.
CITY OF ON.
MY ROYAL AND BELOVED MOTHER:
I will now continue the narrative of my interview with the venerable
bond-servant at the fountain or "well of strangers," near the
treasure-city Raamses.
After the youth had recovered his senses, I was for a few moments an
object of profound surprise to him. He surveyed me with mingled fear
and wonder.
"My lord is good, fear him not, Israel," said the old man. The youth
looked incredulous, and, had his strength permitted, would have fled
away from me. I said--
"I am not thy taskmaster! Dread not my presence!" The tone of my voice
reassured him. He smiled gently, and an expression of gladness lighted
up his eyes. A drop of blood trickled down his forehead and increased
the paleness of his skin.
"What is thy name?" I asked the old man, speaking in Syriac, for in
that tongue I had heard him murmur the name of his son; and I have
since found that all Hebrews of the older class speak this language,
or rather Syro-Chaldaic. They also understand and speak the Egyptian
vernacular.
"Ben Isaac, my lord!" he answered.
"Art thou in bondage?"
"I and my children, as my fathers were!"
"What brought thee and thy people into this servitude?"
"It is a sad history, my lord! Art thou then a stranger in Egypt, that
thou art ignorant of the story of the Hebrew?"
"I am a Phœnician. I have been but a few weeks in Egypt."
"Phœnicia! That is beyond Edom; nay, beyond Philistia," he said
musingly. "Our fathers came farther, even from Palestine."
"Who were your fathers?"
"Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."
"I have heard of them, three princes of Syria, many generations past!"
"Yes, my lord of Phœnicia," said the venerable man, his eyes
lighting up; "they were princes in their land! But, lo! this day
behold their children in bondage! And _such_ a servitude!" he cried,
raising his withered hands heavenward. "Death, my lord, is preferable
to it! How long must we groan in slavery? How long our little ones
bear the yoke of Egypt?"
At this moment one of the footmen of Prince Remeses found me and said:
"My lord prince seeks for thee!"
I put money in the hands of the venerable Hebrew and his son, and left
them amid their expressions of grateful surprise. When I rejoined
Remeses, he was already in his chariot. Having placed myself by his
side, he said that he would now drive me around the walls of the new
city, and show me its general plan. He had explained all particulars
with his builders, and they were to commence the erection of the
palace of the governor the following week.
The wide circuit we made along the plain afforded me a commanding view
of the treasure-city in its progress. The walls at one part were
literally black with slaves, who like ants traversed them, carrying
their burdens of bricks to those who laid the courses. A vast pile,
built more for strength than beauty, attracted my notice. "That is one
of the twelve great granaries of the Prince Joseph, which he built one
hundred and fourscore years ago, in the twelve districts of Egypt. It
is still in use as such." As we passed the gateway, I perceived that
the cartouch was defaced. Remeses said that this was the act of
Amunophis, when he came to the throne, whose policy was to remove not
only every trace of the rule of the Palestinian kings, but all the
memorials which brought their dynasty to remembrance; and these
granaries of Pharaoh's prime minister, Iosepf or Joseph, were among
the noblest monuments of the reign of the last of the foreign rulers,
the father of the Princess Ephtha, from whom Remeses is descended, in
the fourth generation only, I believe.
At length we stopped at a beautiful gate of a small temple dedicated
to Apis. Every part of it was minutely and exquisitely sculptured. It
contained a single shrine, within which was the effigy of the sacred
bull, a cubit in length, of solid gold. Boys dressed in the finest
white linen were the officiating priests. While I was admiring this
miniature edifice and the richness of all its appointments, Remeses
said:--
"This is an affectionate tribute of a mother's love On my twelfth
birthday she had this sacred fane dedicated in honor of the event.
Here she consecrated me as a boy to the youthful god Horus. I remember
perfectly, the solemn impression the whole scene made upon my heart
and imagination. Once a year I come hither and pass a night watching
before its altar and in prayer, rather in filial acquiescence with her
wishes, which to me are laws, than from reverence for the god!"
We had already alighted, and were standing on the portico of the
temple, which was of crescent shape, and bordered by a row of
elegantly veined alabaster columns from Alabastron, rich quarries of
the Pharaohs near the Cataracts. After examining the temple, and
expressing the admiration which it merited, we were going out, when I
saw a young Hebrew girl flying from the pursuit of one of the
taskmasters. Just as we were entering the temple, I had seen her
passing with many other females, some laden with straw, others with
bunches of leeks and garlic, which they were taking to the fields for
the dinner of the laborers, who were not permitted to go to their huts
until dark, having left them at the first blush of dawn to commence
their ceaseless toils. Those women who worked not in the brick-fields
were the providers of food for the rest. This young girl I had noticed
was bending painfully under an intolerable load of garlic and leeks,
which she bore upon her head, and yet assisting a tottering woman, who
was walking by her side with an equally heavy burden of provisions, in
a coarse wicker-basket. I was struck with the elegance of her figure
and with the beauty of her face, as well as with her kindness to her
companion, when she herself needed aid. We were leaving the temple, as
I have said, when I beheld her flying. As she came near, she saw the
prince, and cast herself at his feet, embracing them, and exclaiming--
"O my lord--O great and mighty god! mercy!--save me!"
Remeses regarded her with surprise, and said, sternly yet not
cruelly--
"What dost thou wish? Why dost thou fly from thy taskmaster?"
"When I cast down my load and took up my mother's, who was ready to
die, he struck me because I could not take both together. I would have
done it, O lord prince, but had not the strength."
"Go back to thy task, young woman. Thou shalt not be punished for a
kind act to thy mother. The gods forbid we should destroy all filial
ties, even among our slaves." This last sentence was spoken rather
with his own mind than addressed to any one. "What is this I hear?" he
continued, speaking to the sub-officer, who, seeing his slave seek the
protection of Remeses, had stopped, a short distance off, expecting to
have her sent back to him. "Didst thou strike this Hebrew girl?"
"She is wilful and intractable, your highness," answered the man
humbly, "and--"
"Is there not a law forbidding blows to be given to the females of
this people? You will deliver your rod of office to my chief servant
here, and are no longer a taskmaster. It shall be known, that it is
the will of the queen that women shall have light tasks, that they be
treated leniently, and not made to suffer the punishment of blows."
The man, with a downcast face, came forward, and placed his rod in the
hands of the chief servant, who was the captain of the twelve footmen
of the prince's chariot, and who, at a glance from his master, broke
it, and cast the pieces upon the ground. "Now go, and bring hither the
basket. I will see what are the burdens you place upon the weak, and,
henceforth, they shall be proportioned to the strength of the bearer."
The man returned several hundred yards along the road, and after
several strenuous efforts, with great difficulty lifted the basket,
and placed it at the prince's feet. To the amazement of all about him
he stooped to raise the wicker-basket of leeks from the ground.
Putting forth his strength he lifted it, for he is a man of great
vigor, but immediately setting it down again, he said, with
indignation flashing from his eyes, as he addressed the disgraced
taskmaster--
"Seest thou what thou wouldst compel this frail child to bear upon her
head? Thou art cruel and barbarous! Bind him! He shall go to prison."
"My lord, I am not alone--"
"So much the worse. If the abuse is wide-spread, it is time to correct
it, and see that the law of the realm is observed. Take him away!"
Two of the servants seized him, and, tying his hands behind him with
the thong of one of his own sandals, led him away into the citadel of
Raamses. The Hebrew girl still kneeled, trembling and wondering.
Remeses spoke to her kindly, no doubt moved by her tears and
extraordinary beauty, and said--
"Go in peace, child. Return to thy mother. Fear no more the rod of thy
taskmasters. The hand of the first that is laid on a Hebrew woman
shall be cut off with a sword."
The young girl kissed the sandaled feet of the prince, and hastened to
the spot where she had left her mother seated on the ground. Remeses,
with his eyes, followed her, and sighed. Who can tell what heavy
thoughts were passing in his mind! When he comes to the throne, I know
him not, my mother, if the condition of the Hebrews will not be
greatly ameliorated, and their lot rendered far happier. I saw the
girl embrace and raise her mother from the earth, and then supporting
her affectionately, lead her away towards a group of huts, not far
off, in one of which, probably, was their abode.
"My Sesostris," said the prince, "walk with me along this terrace. I
have yet to see the governor of the queen's granaries, and will
converse with thee until he arrives."
The terrace ran along the south side of the low pyramidal area on
which the temple was elevated. From it there was a lovely view of
fields, and gardens, and groves of palm and orange trees, extending
over the land of Goshen, which is the most fertile and highly-cultivated
portion of Egypt that I have seen. From the terrace, steps of polished
porphyry led to a garden fragrant with flowers, which were cultivated
alongside of the temple, in order to make of them offerings of
chaplets to the god, who was crowned with them every morning by the
"flower priest." The office of this dignitary was as sacred as his who
offered incense, which indeed is but the fragrance of flowers in
another form, purified by fire. In this garden I saw the myrobalanum,
with its rich fruit, out of which a rare ointment is extracted for
anointing the priests; the phœnicobalanus, which bears an
intoxicating fruit, and gives to the priests who eat of it divining
powers; the graceful palma, or sheath for the palm-flowers; the
almond-tree, brilliant with its flowering branches; the wine-giving
myxa; the ivory-palm fruit, of which censers are made; the mimosa
Nilotica, and the golden olive of Arsinoë. All these grew on one path,
which traversed the garden close to the terrace, and I enumerate them,
dear mother, as I know your horticultural taste, and that any thing
about the plants of Egypt will gratify you. I have already selected
several of the most beautiful, and intend, by the first ship that
sails for Tyre from the Nile, to forward them to you. That they may be
cared for, and rightly managed when you receive them, I shall send
with them an Egyptian gardener. I have seen no oaks in Egypt, nor does
our majestic Libanian cedar grow here. It is a land rather of flowers
than of trees. The myrtle is everywhere seen as an ornamental tree,
and is highly odoriferous in this climate. Here, I saw also the
endive, and the Amaracus, from the latter of which the celebrated
Amaracine ointment, used to anoint the Pharaohs, is expressed. One bed
of variegated flowers, at the end of the terrace, attracted my
attention from their combined splendor. There were the edthbah, with
its proud purple flower; the ivy-shaped-leaved dulcamara, used by the
priests for sacred chaplets; also the acinos, of which wreaths are
made by maidens, to wear intermingled with their braided tresses.
Above all towered the heliochrysum, with which the gods are crowned,
and by it grew its rival, the sacred palm, the branches of which are
borne at the feasts of Isis.
There were many other rare and beautiful plants, but I have enumerated
these to show you what a land of flowers is this sunny land of Osiris
and Isis.
The prince, after we had once traversed the terrace in silence, turned
his thoughtful face towards me and said, betraying what was upon his
thoughts--
"Prince, this is the problem of Egypt. Its solution calls for greater
wisdom than belongs to man!"
"You mean the bondage of the Hebrew people?" I answered, at once
perceiving the meaning of his words.
"Yes," he replied, with a sigh and a grave brow. "I have promised to
acquaint you with their history. Listen, and as far as I know it you
shall have it given to you. Our records, kept and preserved by the
priests in the Hall of Books in the Temple of the Sun, give the
following account of the origin of this race, which, allowing for the
errors that are interwoven in all mere tradition, is, no doubt, worthy
of credit.
"About four hundred years ago," says the History of the Priests,
"there arrived in the land of Palestine a Syrian prince from
Mesopotamia or Assyria, with large flocks and herds; having formed an
alliance with Melchisedec, king of Salem, the two dwelt near one
another in peace and friendship,--for not only was the Assyrian wise
and upright, but the gods were with him, and blessed and prospered him
in all that he did."
"This Melchisedec the king," I said, "was also favored of his god; and
his virtues have come down to us fragrant with the beauty of piety and
good deeds."
"Tradition has been faithful to him," answered Remeses. "Among the
Arabian priests of Petra he is held as a god, who came down on earth
to show kings how to reign and benefit mankind. With him the Prince of
Assyria, Abram, was on terms of the closest friendship. At length a
famine arising in the land where he dwelt, he came down into Egypt
just after the invading hosts of Phœnicia and Palestine had
inundated our kingdom, and conquering On and Memphis, had subdued
Lower Egypt, and set up their foreign dynasty, known as that of the
Hyksos or Shepherd Kings."
"This history is well known to our archives kept in the temple of
Astarte at Tyre," I answered; "and therein we learn that the hero
SAITES, who had a warlike spirit which could not find field in Lower
Syria, was threatened by famine, and hearing of the abundance in Egypt
and the splendor of its cities, combined with the enervating habits
which grow out of luxury and unbroken peace, he conceived the idea of
its invasion; and at the head of an undisciplined but brave army of
one hundred and seventy thousand men, horsemen and footmen, with three
hundred chariots of iron, he descended through Arabia Deserta, and
entered Egypt by the desert of the sea, capturing and fortifying
Ezion-Geber on his march."
"These particulars are not so fully given by our historians," answered
Remeses. "This ambitious warrior having entered the Sethroite country,
encamped and founded a city which he made his arsenal of war; and from
it he sent out his armies and conquered Memphis and the whole of Lower
Egypt. The kings of Egypt, abandoning to him Lower Egypt, retired with
their court and army to the Thebaïd, and were content to reign there
over half the kingdom, while the haughty conquerors established their
foreign throne at Memphis.
"It was," continued Remeses, "during the reign of Bnon, the first
Phœnician Pharaoh after the death of the conqueror, that Abram came
into Egypt. He had known this prince in Palestine when he was in his
youth, and the king gladly welcomed so powerful a lord and warrior,
who had in battle overthrown Chedorlaomer, the mighty King of Elam,
and whose language was nearly similar to his own. This Prince Abram
dwelt in Egypt during the continuance of the famine in Syria and near
the court of the king, who not only took him into his counsels, but
lavished upon him great riches. 'But the king,' says the history,
'becoming enamored of the beautiful Princess Sara, the wife of the
Lord of Palestine, Abram removed from his court; and with great riches
of gold, silver, cattle, and servants, marched out of Egypt into
Arabia of the South, and so to his own city.'"
"It is probably," I said, "from this fact of Prince Abram's coming
into Egypt about the time that the Phœnicians came, that some
traditions have made him its conqueror and the founder of the dynasty
of the Shepherd Kings."