interest.
"True, O Prince of Tyre!" he answered. "These two great pyramids, say
our sacred books, were the work of the giants who lived in the days
before the flood of Noachis, or Noah. They are the tombs of their
kings, and were centuries in being built according to our years. And
when the gods brought the unknown oceans over the earth, to punish the
nations which living so long became as wise as the gods, but at the
same time grew as wicked as wise, these vast sepulchres withstood,
like the lesser hills, the waters of desolation, and remained in
ruinous grandeur, not only as witnesses of the flood, but monuments of
a past people whose towers, as well as tombs, reached unto the
heavens. You see these pyramids, and how they are now defaced by the
billows that dashed against and over them. Anciently, when they were
completed, their whole surfaces were encased with beautiful tiles of
the brightest blue and purest white, inlaid alternately in perfect
squares. Upon this magnificent encasing was inscribed, in pictorial
signs, the history of man; but no person has ever interpreted them.
You see, my prince, that here, at the top, are a few strata still
remaining of this rich encasement; all the rest having been destroyed
by the deluge--by the abrasion of the waves, and the hurling against
its sides of mighty ships, driven by the huge and angry billows which
rolled like a boiling sea across the earth. Thus you behold these vast
structures, as it were in ruins, yet still retaining fragmentary
portions of their original glory and beauty. When the waters departed,
the gods limited the lives of men to one hundred years; hence the
pyramids that the kings this side the flood have erected are
comparatively small in magnitude."
"But the third, was it not built before the flood?"
"I did not intend you should so understand," he answered. "It was
commenced before the flood by the king who was destroyed thereby. But
the son of the wise and good Prince Noah completed it during the
several hundred years that he lived--as did his father also--after the
flood; for it was only the lives of their descendants that were to be
limited. Thus Amun, says tradition, finished the third pyramid, but
did not encase it, as the art was lost by the deluge which had
destroyed those who were skilled in it. There are other accounts, my
prince, but they either come near this one, or so far differ from it
that they are entitled to no credit."
"It is _your_ opinion, then, O high-priest, that these two pyramids
were built by the giants of the ages before the great deluge?" I
asked.
"I have no other one," he replied firmly. "When the age of man was
shortened to one hundred years from one thousand, his stature was also
lessened. Hence the men of the ages since the flood cannot build a
pyramid like one of these. All the power of engines and art cannot
uprear such stones six hundred feet into the air. This is giants'
work."
"Then you believe that there were giants in the earth in the days
before the flood?" I said, doubtingly.
"These pyramids attest the fact," he replied, with an impressive
gesture of his right hand towards the opposite one. "Noah himself,
says tradition, and his sons, Chephres, Chufu, and Amun or
Men-Cherines, were gigantic, and are worshipped as gods, as you know,
not only here and in Syria and Ethiopia, but in the Orient, and beyond
the seas, under various names. In the third pyramid Amun was entombed.
In the second is Chephres, or Chefret, who, when an aged king, was
brought from the place where he died, and placed in a sarcophagus
above the chamber where lay the king who found sepulture there before
the flood. Within the pyramid on which we are, rest the sacred bones
of the Prince-god Noah, who, at the age of nine hundred and fifty
years, came hither to be buried by the side of his eldest son
Chephres. 'Such a mourning of the nations, all of whom sprung from his
loins, the earth never knew, and will never witness more,' say the
sacred scrolls of the temples. All kings, and queens, and princes, and
lords, and nobles, of every realm followed the embalmed body of their
father and deity; and King Menes, his grandson, went up from Egypt
with all the hosts of the land to meet the funeral procession, and to
receive the divine body. Cheops is but another name for Noah. Here
also is entombed Menes."
Such, my dear mother, is the priestly tradition of the pyramids. We,
of Tyre, have a myth that the Father of the Flood is buried in
Damascus; but though Egyptians love to concentrate all history around
their own land, and make Egypt the cradle of the human race, yet as
this tradition seems to be better founded than ours, and as they can
point to the grand tombs of these kings of the flood, I am ready to
concede to her the honor which she claims of being the place of
sepulture of the giants who survived the deluge. And what fitter
tombs, than these eternal mountains of granite, could the progenitors
of the race repose in! Fit sepulchres are these in their grandeur of
proportions, for men whose stature was gigantic, and whose lives
extended through a thousand years!
But I must return to the prospect from the summit of this mausoleum of
giants. The sun was near the horizon, and sent his level and mingled
rose, golden, and purple beams aslant across the valley. The air was
perfectly clear, and our view unimpeded in all directions.
To the south, along the verdant plain of the Nile, the pyramids shone
in the sun as if sheathed with plates of gold. Palms, temples,
obelisks in pairs, and pylones were mingled with them in the richest
confusion; while as far as the eye could penetrate they receded into
the desert, till their size was diminished by distance to shining
mounds.
Turning my eyes to the west, the yellow plain of Libya, with its rocky
hills inclosing the verdant valley of the Nile in that direction,
rolled away to the edge of the horizon, an arid, undulating,
illimitable expanse, which, under the sun, blazed like a lake of fire
from the burning reflection of its sands. The contrast of this realm
of desolation, and its storm-piled drifts of gray, brown, and dusky
sand, lying so near the groves, and green fields, and blooming gardens
which surrounded the pyramids and extended to the base of the ridge,
was very remarkable. One part looked like the abode of Osiris, full of
beauty, and light, and happiness: the other like that of Typhon, or
the spirit of evil, who strove, ever battling with his storms of sand,
to invade, overwhelm, and desolate these scenes of beauty! And, ere
many centuries, his arid hosts threaten to sweep past the pyramids,
and to overleap the very gates of Memphis! But at present, all the
land within the hills is a region of delight, presenting a pleasing
contrast, with its perennial green, to the desolate and savage realm
of the desert. Luxuriantly covered with verdure; bright with golden
wheat-fields, charming green meadows, foliage of every variety; groups
of trees rising from a thousand courts; countless villages everywhere,
and myriads of brilliant lakes, it was a scene of unmixed beauty.
Jizeh, a little to the east, with its temple-palaces and gardens,
filled the view. Farther east lay, first, the glorious city of Apis,
its squares, avenues, lakes, groves, fanes, and monuments, all open to
the eye like a magnificent picture. Beyond the glittering Nile, the
banks of which were rich with fertility and adorned with villas, I
beheld Raamses, and still farther Pythom, the treasure-cities, in the
fair expanse of the land of Goshen,--alas! beautiful only to the eye,
for upon it rests the dark shadow of Hebrew bondage; and south, a few
miles, after a thousand scenes of rural beauty fill the vision,
towers, like the throne of the kingdom, the city of the Lord of the
Sun, its gorgeous temple and forest of obelisks flinging back the
sunbeams with a splendor that fills the soul with wonder and delight!
"O happy, glorious, mighty Egypt! what a blessed and favored land art
thou! With one foot upon the seven mouths of thy mighty river, another
upon Ethiopia, and thy head in the clouds, all nations bow down to thy
might and greatness! Leader of the kingdoms of the earth! what a
future is thine, if thy kings and rulers are true to thee and to
themselves!"
The hierarch heard me utter these words, for I spake aloud in my
wonder at the glory of this kingdom and the magnificence of her power.
"The future of Egypt, my prince, no man can foresee. But the sacred
books contain a prophecy, that during one cycle of a soul, three
thousand years, she will be a nation despised and ruled by kings of
another race, and all that will remain to her will be her defaced
pyramids and temples; the marvel of which will bring strangers from
the ends of the earth, curious to gaze upon these mute witnesses of
her ancient power and glory."
"The gods forbid!" I said warmly.
"The gods," he answered, "govern the earth, and do what they will with
its kingdoms. These sacred papyri also speak of Tyre and prophesy its
desolation, and say that the empire of commerce shall be removed to an
unknown world beyond the great sea of the West, and that a race yet
unborn shall sway the destinies of the earth, and another religion
shall prevail in the hearts of men."
"What are these papyri?" I asked.
"Books which have been handed down from the first kings, who in their
turn received them from the ancient gods."
I turned away sorrowfully at the thought of this prediction, my dear
mother. The idea that Tyre, which now sits a queen upon the shores of
her sea, will ever be desolate, is not possible for me to conceive.
May her prosperity and peace be prolonged to the ends of the ages!
We now turned to descend this elevation, from whence the heart of
Egypt lay open before us. The sight of the sheer eight hundred feet
along the inclined side of the pyramid was fearful. The projections
which were to receive our feet were not apparent; and we commenced the
descent with the greatest caution, being obliged to lower ourselves
from block to block; and where the encasement of tiles remained, we
were sustained by the iron heads of short spears with which each of us
was provided, a hook being secured at the opposite end.
At length we reached the broad terrace which surrounds the pyramid,
and upon which are statues and small sphinxes facing outward. Between
two of large size, representing Osiris and Isis, we descended a broad
flight of steps to an ancient gate, which, as I was told, led to the
entrance of the pyramid. The passage, however, has not been opened for
many centuries--the piety of the Pharaohs permitting the mighty dead
to rest in their granite tumuli undisturbed by curiosity or cupidity.
When we had crossed the court, the priest ascended with me one of the
towers of the pylon. From thence he showed me a mass of rock lying in
a position which answered, in reference to the main pyramid, to that
which the sphinx occupied.
"Seest thou, O prince," he said, "that isolated rock? The ancients
intended to chisel it also into a sphinx to match this one, for they
used to place them in pairs, like their obelisks. But the grand
conception has never been carried out; and you perceive that our noble
queen, Amense, is erecting the pyramid of her years so near, that it
in part stands upon it. Two such sphinxes crouched in front of Cheops
would have been an entrance to the mausoleum worthy of it, and of him
who reposes therein. Instead of carrying out this original design, the
great temple and colossal wings have been built, and the avenue from
the sphinx so turned aside by a slight angle, as to terminate at the
central pylon; thereby making one sphinx answer the purpose of two,
but at the sacrifice of proportion; for the twofold grandeur of the
combined pyramids lessens the impression of the single sphinx, while
the two reposing before Cheops alone, would have been in keeping with
its majesty."
As it was now sunset, we hastened to our chariot and drove back to the
city, along the magnificent causeway I have before described.
Upon my return to the palace of the high-priest, and after describing
to his beautiful daughter, Luxora, the incidents of my visit, she
said, with an arch smile--
"You ought not, O Sesostris, to have come away without seeing the
emerald table of Hermes!"
"I heard nothing of it, lady," I answered. "I have, moreover, seen
splendor enough for one day. What and where is this table?"
"In the central chamber of the great pyramid. The people of Egypt
believe the tradition, and so also have some of its kings."
"What is the tradition?" I asked. "But first, do you believe it?"
"With all my heart. I never doubted it since I was a child," she
answered, smiling, yet with a tone of sincerity. "My father thinks if
it were true, it would have been removed when the god Noachis was
placed there."
"It is not in the chamber of the sarcophagus, sister," said Osiria,
the sister younger than Luxora--a maiden remarkable for her
sprightliness and intelligence; "it is in a vault of crystal _under_
the pyramid."
"You are right, my dear sister," replied the elder, gracefully. "I
will tell the prince the legend."
"Then I will tell him _mine_," said Osiria, with an arch look. "I know
he will like mine the best."
"Because he likes you the best, is it?" her sister replied, playfully.
"But have a care, Osiria; our guest is betrothed to a great princess
in his own country."
"That need not prevent him from being my good friend in this,"
responded Osiria, pleasantly.
"Your tradition, noble Luxora?" I asked.
"It is this. In the ancient days of the earth, before the deluge of
the gods, the thrice great Hermes, who knew all the secrets of
alchemy, engraved them upon an emerald table and placed it in a cave,
which he sealed up. His motive for doing this was both to preserve
them and to conceal them from men--for the race of man had grown so
wicked, that they made use of what they knew of alchemy to injure one
another and defy the deities, answering back the thunder of heaven
with thunders of their own. Over this cave the first pyramid was
built, and there the emerald table, with all its secrets, so dear to
our sex, has remained to this hour!"
I thanked Luxora for her legend, and assured her that I had quite as
much curiosity to see the wonderful emerald as she had.
"But if it were discovered," said Osiria, "who could read and
understand the writing upon it! Now, O prince, hear _my_ tradition;
for, having visited the pyramids, it will be agreeable to you to hear
all that is said about them."
"I will listen with the greatest pleasure," I answered.
But, dear mother, I will here close this long letter, and reserve, for
the commencement of my next, the singular tradition related to me by
Osiria.
Your affectionate son,
SESOSTRIS.
LETTER XVII.
PALACE OF THE HIERARCH, AT MEMPHIS.
MY MUCH HONORED MOTHER:
I have much of interest concerning which to write to you in this
letter; but will first redeem my promise to give you the traditional
story narrated by the lovely Osiria, daughter of the pontiff of
Memphis. Her father came in as she commenced, and smilingly said--
"Daughter, are you about to overthrow the prince's faith in the true
history of the pyramids, by a fanciful legend?"
"No, my dear father," she answered; "I only desire him to know all he
can about these mighty monuments of a former world, and if he does not
believe with me in the legend, it will at least interest him."
I assured the beautiful maiden that it would without doubt interest
me, and possibly upon hearing it I might receive it "as the most
reliable account of the origin of the pyramids."
"Not in opposition," said the high-priest, with a smile, "to the
sacred books."
"Not in opposition," said Luxora, archly, "to my emerald table."
"Let the prince, dear father, and sister, hear and judge," said the
youngest daughter; and commenced as follows:
"A very long time ago--before the time of the vast deluge, when all
the oceans that roll around the world's verge met in the centre and
overflowed the highest mountains--a king, whose name was Saurida
Salhouhis, was informed by his astrologers that seven stars had fallen
into the sea, betokening a great overflow thereof. He answered, 'The
mountains of my kingdom are higher than the ocean, and will defy its
waves.'
"The next year his astrologers again came to him, and said that the
sun was covered with dark spots, and that a comet was visible with a
crest of fire, and threatened evil to the earth. The same night the
king dreamed that the mountains became plains, and that all the stars
of heaven were extinguished. On awakening he called his one hundred
and forty-four priests, and commanding them to consult the gods,
received for answer, that the earth was to be drowned. Thereupon he
commenced building the two pyramids, and ordered vaults to be made
under them, which he filled with the riches and treasures of his
kingdom. He prepared seven tables or shields of pure gold, on which he
engraved all the sciences of the earth, all the knowledge he had
learned from his wise men, the names of the subtle alkalies, and
alakakirs, and the uses and hurts of them; and all the mysteries of
astrology, physics, geometry, and arithmetic."
"These seven golden tables of my sister's legend," said Luxora,
laughing, "are not near so wonderful as my table of emerald."
"Lest," said Osiria, "you should imagine I am drawing upon my fancy, I
will read to you the remainder of the tradition from the ancient book
in the keeping of the priests of Amun, in the Thebaïd, given me by my
mother, who was the daughter of the priest of the sacred house there."
Having thus spoken the maiden retired, and, after a few minutes
absence, returned, followed by a Hebrew woman carrying a pictured
scroll, such as I had never before seen. Aided by her attendant, she
unrolled it for several cubits, and having found the legend, commenced
to read (a rare art among Egyptian ladies, except daughters of the
learned priests) as follows,--the tall and stately Hebrew supporting
the roll rather with an air of royal condescension than of submission:
"After the king, Saurida Salhouhis, had given orders for the building
of the pyramids, the workmen cut out gigantic columns, vast stones,
and wonderful pillars hewn of single rocks. From the mountains of
Ethiopia they fetched enormous masses of granite, and from Nubia of
gray porphyry, and made with these the foundations of the pyramids,
fastening the stones together by bars of lead and bands of iron. They
built the gates forty cubits under ground, and made the height of them
one hundred royal cubits, each of which is equal to six of ours; and
each side also was made a hundred royal cubits in extent. The
beginning of this undertaking happened under a fortunate horoscope,
and resulted successfully. After he had finished the larger of the
pyramids, the king covered it with blue satin from the top to the
bottom, and appointed a solemn festival, at which were present all the
inhabitants of his kingdom.
"Then in this great pyramid he built thirty treasure-chambers, which
he filled with an immense store of riches,--precious vessels,
signatures of agates, bloodstones, and cornelian, instruments of iron,
earthen vases, arms which rust not, and crystal which might be bended
yet not broken, strange shells, and deadly poisons, with many other
things besides. He made, in the west pyramid, a subterranean hall with
divers spheres and stars in the vaulted roof, placed in their
celestial houses, as they appear in the sky, each in his own aspect;
and he deposited here the perfumes which are burned to them, and the
books that treat of their mysteries. He placed, also, in the colored
pyramid the scrolls of the priests, in chests of black marble, every
chest having upon it a book with leaves of brass, in which were
inscribed the duties and wonders of the priesthood, its nature, and
the mode of worship in his time; and, in a chest of iron, were seven
books which revealed what was, and is, and shall be from the beginning
to the end of time.
"In every pyramid he placed a treasurer: the treasurer of the western
pyramid was a statue of red marble-stone, standing upright by the door
of the treasure-house,--a lance in his hand, and about his head a
wreathed serpent. Whosoever came near the door, and stood still, the
serpent entwined about the throat, and, killing him, returned to its
place.
"The treasurer of the colored pyramid was an idol of black agate,
sitting upon a throne, with a lance in its hand, and its eyes open and
shining. If any mortal looked upon it, he heard a voice so terrible
that his senses fled away from him, and he fell prostrate upon his
face and died.
"The treasurer of his seven tables of gold was a statue of stone,
called Albutis, in a sitting posture: whosoever looked towards it, was
drawn to the statue till he was pressed against it so hard that he
died there. Over the portal of each he caused to be written:
"'I, King Saurid, built the pyramids in six years. He that comes after
me, and says he is equal to me, let him destroy them in six hundred
years. It is easier to pluck down than to build up. I also covered
them, when I had finished them, with satin; and let him cover them
with mats of grass.'
"Here ends the record on the scroll," said the maiden. "Miriam, thou
wilt roll it up, and place it whence I took it, in the sacred shrine
of books."
The Hebrew woman, whose appearance was so remarkable for dignity and a
certain air of command, that I could not but regard her with interest,
then rolled up the book, and moved quietly, but with a stately step,
from the room. As she went out, attracted by my close scrutiny, she
fixed upon me a large pair of splendid eyes, dark and beautiful, and
lighted up by the inward fire of an earnest spirit. Her age was about
eight or nine and forty. I do not know why, in looking at her, I
thought of Remeses, now at Thebes, waiting to assemble his vast army;
perhaps there was a style of face and shape of the eye that recalled
him.
"Who is this Hebrew woman?" I asked; for though I have been several
days a guest of the high-priest, I had not before seen her.
"My assistant and copier of the scrolls and papyrus leaves, in the
Hall of the Sacred Books," answered Osiria; "for know, O prince, that
I am my father's scribe, and have the care of all the rolls of the
temple."
"Nor can any temple," interposed the hierarch, "boast so orderly a
chamber of books as mine; neither do I see any copies of prayers and
rites so beautifully done as those by Osiria."
"I do not deserve all the praise, my father," answered the maiden;
"for the rich coloring of the heading cartouches of chapters, as well
as the graceful form of the characters, is due to Miriam."
"What the servant does the master is praised for," answered the
priest, smilingly. "But you have not told the prince the whole of the
tradition."
"It is true. I must now state how the pyramid was opened by one of the
Phœnician conqueror kings. This Philistine warrior, whose barbaric
name I have forgotten, and do not wish to remember, on seeing the
pyramids, demanded to know what was within them. He was answered by
the priest of the sphinx, who is the guardian of the two pyramids,
that 'they contained the embalmed bodies of the ancient gods, and
first kings of men, the emerald and golden tablets, and all the
treasures of gold, silver, and works of art, and every thing which
appertained to the world before the deluge,--all of which had been
preserved by them from the waters, and were now therein.'
"Hearing this, this king told them he would have them opened. All the
priests assured him that it could not be done; but he replied, 'I will
have it certainly done.' So the engineers of his army opened a place
in the great pyramid by means of fire and vinegar; smiths aided the
work with sharpened iron and copper wedges, and huge engines to remove
the stones. It was a vast work, as the thickness of the wall was
twenty cubits. They were many months reaching an apartment within,
where they found a ewer made of bright-green emerald, containing a
thousand dinars, very weighty, one hundred chœnixes of gold-dust,
twenty blocks of ebony, a hundred tusks of ivory, and a thousand
ounces of rings of Arabic gold.