could not penetrate, by reason of the three treasure-keepers,
namely,--the awful statue, with an enwreathed serpent upon his head;
the statue of agate, with the terrible voice; and the statue of stone,
with the power to draw every one to him, and press him to death
between his arm and his iron breast."
"Then said the king, 'Cast up the cost of making this entrance.' So
the money expended being computed, lo! it was the same sum which they
had found; it neither exceeded nor was defective. So he closed up the
opening and went his ways, seeing that the gods were against him.
"Many years afterwards, another king opened the other pyramid, and
found a passage which descended far below in the earth, in the
direction of the centre of the pyramid. By it he reached a
subterranean chamber far beneath the level of the foundation, almost
directly under the apex. In it was a square well, on each side of
which were doors opening into subterranean passages; these he
followed, and at length reached a gate of brass, which he perceived
led into the foundations of the greater pyramid. But he could not open
it, nor has any power been sufficient to do so to this day. Returning
he found another side passage, leading into the pyramid and so upward,
to a vaulted room, containing the mighty sarcophagus of the great
Noah. This dead monarch of two worlds, before and after the deluge,
was reposing in calm majesty in his colossal mummy-case, which was
covered with plates of gold. Upon his head was a crown of emerald
olive-leaves, each leaf an emerald; and upon his breast, a white dove,
made of one pearl. Leaving with awe the father of the world to his
sublime and eternal repose, guarded only by the pure white dove, the
king, in retiring, found, to his great joy, a narrow passage, which
led upward towards the top of the pyramid. It conducted him and his
attendants to a chamber with twelve sides, on each of which was
pictured one of the constellations in the path of the precession of
the equinoxes, in their motion towards the west. The floor was of
polished ivory, inlaid with silver stars, dispersed over it as they
appeared in their heavenly places when the pyramid was completed. The
seven planets, including the sun and the moon, were represented in the
ceiling, each one in a panel of silver, with its deity,--all inlaid
with silver and precious stones.
"In the centre of this 'Hall of the Universe,' was a hollow stone:
when the king entered the chamber, the stone vanished at the pressure
of his feet on the floor, and a statue larger than life, of pure
crystal, was displayed to his sight. This statue represented a king
upon whom was a breastplate of gold set with jewels; on his breast was
a stone of incalculable price, and over his head, a carbuncle of the
shape and bigness of the sacred egg of the phœnix, shining like the
light of the day. He held upon his left arm a shield formed of one
single topaz, upon which were characters written with a pen, that
neither the king, nor the wise men, nor astrologers, nor magicians,
nor the priests who knew all languages, could interpret. Suddenly
darkness filled the place, their torches were extinguished, and save
only the king who had with him his diamond-set signet, which shed
light before his steps, no one ever returned to the entrance; nor
could he ever find the chamber of the statue again. But the first
passage to the subterranean chamber remains open to this day, by which
men descend; and others are from time to time discovered; the
treasury-chambers, however, remain sealed to the eyes of men!"
When the intelligent Osiria had ended her account, I gratefully
expressed to her my appreciation of her kindness in giving me such
interesting information. She accepted my thanks in the graceful manner
which characterizes Egyptian ladies of rank. The magnificent Luxora
said, with a charming air of feigned provocation--
"With your brilliant tradition, sister, you have quite thrown into the
shade my poor solitary emerald table!"
"There is no doubt whatever, O Sesostris," said their father, who had
listened to the tradition as he sat in his ivory chair, in the rich
undress vestments he wore when not engaged in official acts in the
temple, "or rather, we of the priesthood do not doubt, that the
pyramids, at least the pair so nearly of a size and so close together,
were builded before the deluge, which, according to our astrologers,
took place under the dynasty of the demigods, about one thousand five
hundred and forty years ago, when the world was nearly two thousand
four hundred years old; but our books of mysteries give many more
thousands of years! In the most ancient temple of Thoth, at Thebes,
which is the true astronomical capital of the kingdom, as well as the
ecclesiastical one, there is a tablet in the ceiling of the adytum,
representing the configuration of the seven planets as they existed on
the first day after the creation. This was the beginning of the world,
and since that day the heavenly bodies have not stood thus again! Upon
the wall beneath it is a _stele_, portraying their position at the
time of the Noachic deluge. The arc of their celestial motion, between
the creation and the deluge, being accurately measured in the progress
of centuries, by astrologers of the houses of the mysteries, compared
with the arc measured for one thousand years since the deluge, shows
that the fixed stars, between the creation and the deluge, moved
thirty spaces of the thousand years along the zodiac westward. That
is, the arc of the zodiac was thirty times as large between the
creation and deluge, as between the deluge and the end of a thousand
years after it; while the seven planets changed their places in the
same proportions of time and change. Hence, guided by the march of the
heavenly bodies, they teach that thirty thousand years elapsed between
the creation and the deluge; since it would take that time to change
the configuration of the stars so greatly as to subtend so vast an arc
as their precession drew along the zodiacal path! But, as I have said,
the sacred books of the priests, who are governed only by the
planetary constellations, aided by tradition, give the number of years
I have previously stated."
"Do not the Egyptian astrologers," I asked, "give a period for a year
of the heavens to make one revolution through the zodiac?"
"It is one of their mysteries. Finishing upon a chart the arc of
precession which they measure on the zodiac they measure the whole
circle it will sweep, and calculate a cycle or period of thirty-six
thousand years, as the duration of one grand year of the universe!"
"As, then, thirty thousand years of this year of the stars passed
before the deluge, if the astrologers are correct in their sidereal
calculations," I remarked, "there are but four thousand and four
hundred and fifty years to the end of the first celestial year of
creation!"
"Which," said Luxora, "they teach will terminate time; and the earth
will then be recreated, and there will be a new starry world, and the
year of the universe will be doubled to seventy-two thousand years;
and when twelve of these vast years are completed, the creation will
be dissolved and all things return to nothing as before the beginning
of time, and the souls of men will be absorbed in the Divine Essence!"
"You are remarkably well versed in astrology," I said to the
noble-looking young women.
"We are priest's daughters," she answered; "and from our father we
derive all our knowledge."
"Can you, then," I asked, "explain to me one thing that has been
alluded to in our conversation? I am desirous of knowing something
about the phœnix, which I see even now represented, inlaid in
ivory, upon this table of vases."
"I fear that I shall not be able, prince, to make you understand,
what, I confess, I am not well informed upon. The phœnix has always
been a mystery to me."
"I understand the bird," said Osiria, "to be the symbol of a star. But
I have never fully comprehended it. I have doubts if there be such an
extraordinary bird. Will you, father, gratify us and the Prince of
Tyre at the same time?"
The kind and courteous hierarch, before replying, laid down a
beautiful fishing-rod which he was arranging--it being a favorite
pastime of his leisure to sit in the pavilion before his windows, and
amuse himself by fishing in the oval lake that fills one of the areas
of his palace, and around which runs a columnar arcade, in whose cool
shade we take our walks for exercise in the heat of the day. And this
amusement, my dear mother, is not only a favorite one with him, but
with all Egyptian gentlemen; who also delight in hunting the gazelle
and other animals--keeping for the purpose leashes of trained dogs,
some of them very beautiful, and as swift as the winds. They are
singularly fond of having dogs accompany them in their walks, and
adorn them with gold or silver collars. The ladies also have pet dogs,
chosen either for their beauty, or--odd distinction--for their
peculiar ugliness. Luxora boasts a little dog, of the rare and admired
Osirtasen breed, which is as beautiful and symmetrical as a gazelle,
with soft, expressive eyes, and graceful movements; while Osiria
prides herself on a pet animal, the ugliness of which, as it seems to
me, is its only recommendation. Remeses has a noble, lion-like dog,
that he admits into his private sitting-room, and has for his
attendant at all times when he walks abroad. Nearly every lord has his
hounds; and to own a handsome dog is as much a mark of rank, as is the
slender acacia cane.
"The phœnix, according to the ancients," said the priest, "is a
bird of which there exists but one specimen in the world. It comes
flying from the east once in the course of six hundred and fifty-one
years, many other birds with dazzling wings bearing it company. It
reaches the City of the Sun about the time of the vernal equinox,
where it burns itself upon the roof of the temple, in the fire of the
concentrated rays of the sun, as they are reflected from the golden
shield thereon with consuming radiance. No sooner is it consumed to
ashes, than an egg appears in the funeral pyre, which the heat that
consumed the parent warms instantly into life, and out of it the same
phœnix comes forth, in full plumage, and spreading its wings it
flies away again, to return no more until the expiration of six
hundred and fifty-one years!"
"This is a very extraordinary story," I said.
"It is," answered the high-priest; "yet it has a simple explanation."
"I should be gratified to hear it," I answered.
"Do you believe, dear father," asked Osiria, "there ever was such a
bird?"
"I have seen it," answered the priest, mysteriously. "But I will
gratify your curiosity. The first recorded appearance of this
phœnix was nineteen hundred and two years ago, in the reign of
Sesostris, a king of the twelfth Egyptian dynasty."
"The Pharaoh for whom I am named," I said.
"How came you, O prince, to have an Egyptian name?" asked Luxora.
"The memory of Sesostris the Great was highly venerated by my father,
and hence his selection of it for me; besides, I am related to the
Phœnician kings."
I had no sooner made this unlucky confession, than the two sisters
looked at their father, then interchanged glances, and appeared quite
embarrassed. I at once reflected that the memory of the Phœnician
dynasty is distasteful to the Egyptians; and that, by confessing my
alliance with them, I had risked their good-will. But the surprise
passed off instantly, for they were too well-bred to show any
continued feeling, and the priest resumed--
"The last appearance was six hundred years ago and in fifty-one years
he will reappear, to consume himself in the burning rays of the sun."
"I hope I shall be alive to see it," said Osiria, with animation.
"This singular myth," pursued the hierarch, "signifies to us of the
priests who are initiated into these astrological mysteries, nothing
more than the transit of the planet Mercury across the disk of the
sun. The fabulous bird, the phœnix, is an emblem of Mercury, as
Osiris is of the Sun, according to the teaching of the books of Isis."
"I perceive the whole truth now," I answered.
"What is it, my lord prince?" asked the sisters.
"There is but one planet Mercury, as there was but one phœnix. The
City of the Sun, or the Temple of the Sun, on which the phœnix was
said to consume himself, is simply the Sun, or the house of the god
Sun, in which Mercury, during his passage across the disk, may be said
to be consumed by fire. As the phœnix consumes himself once every
six hundred and fifty-one years, at the vernal equinox,--so say our
Sabæan books, kept in the Temple of Hercules at Tyre,--Mercury once
every six hundred and fifty-one years enters the flames of the sun on
nearly the same days of the year! As the phœnix flies from the east
westward to the City of the Sun, so the course of Mercury is from east
to west athwart the sun. While the phœnix in its passage to the
City of the Sun is attended by a flight of dazzling birds, so Mercury
in its passage across the disk of the sun is accompanied by bright,
scintillating stars in the heavens around. As the phœnix came forth
anew out of the flames which had consumed him to ashes, so Mercury,
while in the direct line of the sun, is lost to the vision as if
consumed, but, having crossed its disk, reappears and flies away on
his course again, resuming all his former splendor! Is not this a full
solution, my lord priest?" I asked.
"You have well solved the riddle," he answered; "and I must compliment
you on your knowledge of astrology, O prince. In Egypt we are
acquainted with this science, but it is not expected of strangers. In
all the years in which the phœnix, according to the 'Books of the
Stars,' is said to have destroyed himself with fire in the City of On,
Mercury has likewise performed his transits over the sun, according to
the calculations of our hierogrammatists, whose duty it is to keep
records of descriptions of the world, the course of the sun, moon, and
planets, and the condition of the land of Egypt, and the Nile."
When I had expressed my thanks to the noble and intelligent priest,
his wife, Nelisa, who entered a few moments before, said to him
playfully:
"What a beautiful mystery you have destroyed with your science and
learning, my lord! I have from a child delighted in the mysterious
story of the phœnix."
"We have mysteries enough left in our mythology and astrology, my dear
wife," he answered. "There is scarcely a deity of the land who is not
in his origin a greater mystery than the phœnix. Around them all
are clouds and mists, often impenetrable by the limited reason of man;
and in many lands, as it was anciently in Egypt, the word for religion
is 'mystery.'"
The hierarch was now summoned by the sound of a sistrum to enter the
temple, with which his palace communicated--it being the hour of
evening prayer and oblation. The young ladies prepared to ride in a
beautiful chariot brought to the palace by their brother, a fine
specimen of the young Egyptian noble; while the lady of the house left
me, to return and oversee her numerous servants in their occupation of
making confections and pastry, and preparing fruits for a festivity
that is to take place in the evening, I believe, in my honor; for,
were I a son, I could not be more cordially regarded than beneath the
hospitable roof of the hierarch of Memphis.
As I was proceeding along the corridor which leads past the "Hall of
Books," I saw through the open door the stately and handsome Hebrew
woman Miriam. She was engaged in coloring, with cakes of the richest
tints before her, a heading to a scroll of papyrus. Her noble profile
was turned to my view. I started with surprise and a half exclamation,
for I beheld in its grand and faultless outline the features of
Remeses! How wonderful it is that he so strikingly resembles two, nay
three, of this foreign race!--not only this woman, though much older
than Remeses, and the venerable under-gardener Amram, but also a third
Hebrew whom I have met under singular circumstances. I will defer,
however, my dear mother, to another letter the account of it, as well
as of my interview with Miriam; for, hearing my exclamation, she
looked up and smiled so courteously that I asked permission to enter
and examine the work she was so skilfully executing with her pencil.
The hierarch, the lady Nelisa, and their daughters Luxora and Osiria,
desire to unite with me in my regards to you.
Your affectionate son,
SESOSTRIS.
LETTER XVIII.
CITY OF MEMPHIS, PALACE OF THE HIERARCH.
MY DEAR MOTHER:
I have received from the Prince Remeses a letter informing me of the
arrival of each division of his army, chariots, horse, and footmen,
with the fleets under the viceroy Mœris, at the city of the
Thebaïd. They entered it, however, as conquerors, for the Ethiopian
king had already taken possession of it with his advanced guard.
I will quote to you from the letter of the prince:
"I trust, my dear Sesostris," he writes, "that you are passing your
time both with pleasure and profit, in visiting places of interest in
the valley of the Lower Nile, and in studying the manners and usages
of the people. You will find the pyramids an exhaustless source of
attraction. From the priests, who are the most intelligent and
learned class in Egypt, you will obtain all the information
respecting those mysterious monuments of the past, which is known,
besides many legends.
"The idea of their antediluvian origin is by no means an unlikely
one. As we travel down the past, at every epoch we find the pyramids
uplifting their lofty heads into the skies! Still we move down the
path of ages, and see the throne of the first mortal king
overshadowed by their hoary tops! Farther back, against their bases,
beat the receding waves of the deluge; for between the king of the
first dynasty and the flood, there seems to be no interval in which
they could have been upreared, even if there were time for a nation
to rise and advance in power, civilization, art, and wealth, adequate
to the product of such gigantic geometric works. Either our
chronology is at fault, or the pyramids must have been constructed by
the antediluvian demigods, and have outstood the strength of the
surging seas which rolled over the earth. You will, however, no
doubt, hear all that is to be said, and judge for yourself.
"My army is in fine order. You already have learned, by my courier to
the queen, how the dark-visaged, barbaric King Occhoris entered
Thebes the day of our arrival in the suburbs. Upon receiving
intelligence that the van of my forces, which was cavalry, had just
reached the sepulchres of the Pharaohs below the city, I pushed
forward, joined them, and, at their head, entered the city; while the
main body of the troops of the Ethiopian king was moving on from
Edfu. But Occhoris had already been driven from his position in the
palace of the Pharaohs, by an infuriated and insulted populace. The
barbarian monarch, after entering the city without opposition, at the
head of two hundred chariots, six hundred horse, and his gigantic
body-guard of Bellardines, consisting of a thousand men in iron
helmets, round shields, and heavy short-swords, in order to show his
contempt of our national religion, here in what has been called both
its cradle and its throne, commanded to be led into the temple of the
sacred Bull, a wild African buffalo,--a bull of a species as
ferocious as the lion,--and ordered him to be let loose against the
god. The fierce animal charged upon him as he stood in the holy
adytum with his curators, and, overthrowing him, gored him to death
in a few moments. Thereupon the priests raised the wild cry of
vengeance for sacrilege. It was caught up by the people, and borne
from tongue to tongue through the city in a few moments of time.
Fearless, indifferent to the arms of the soldiers, the three hundred
and seventy priests of the temple, armed only with their sacrificial
knives, rushed upon the barbarian and his guard. The Ethiopians
rallied about their monarch, and for ten priests they slew, ten-score
filled their places. The floor of the temple became a battle-field.
Occhoris, and the sixty men who entered the temple with him, formed
themselves into a solid phalanx, facing their furious assailants, who
seemed to think they could not die. Gaining at length the door, the
king received reinforcements. But by this time the whole city was in
an uproar and under arms, and the people, who feared Occhoris in the
morning, and refused to oppose him, now knew no fear. The issue of
this fearful combat was, that the sacrilegious king was forced to
retire with the loss of two thirds of his body-guard, and nearly
every chariot and rider; for the avenging people with knives crept
beneath the horses and stabbed them to death; while others, leaping
upon horsemen and chariots, dragged them to the ground, and put them
to death. Not less than four thousand of the citizens of Thebes
perished in the act of pious vengeance. Before I entered the city I
heard the cries, the shouts, the ringing of weapons, and the whole
tumult of war; and, making my way over heaps of slain that lay in the
great 'avenue of the gods,' I pursued the retiring monarch beyond the
gates. He regained the head of his army, and came to a halt near the
ancient temple of Amun on the Nile. My whole army are now in advance
of Thebes, in order of battle, awaiting a threatened attack from the
Ethiopian king. My headquarters are at the palace of Amunophis I.,
from which he departed nearly a century ago to drive the foreign
kings from Memphis. I felt a deep interest in being in the house of
my great ancestor. I have also visited the palace of my father, the
Prince of Thebes, who was slain, not long before my birth, in battle
with the Ethiopians. I have paid a visit to his tomb; and as I stood
gazing upon the reposing dead in the royal mausoleum hewn from the
solid mountain, I wondered if his soul were cognizant that a son,
whom he had never seen to bless with a father's benediction, was
bending sorrowfully over the stone sarcophagus that held his remains.
"To-morrow we join battle with the barbaric king. From the tower of
the pylon which looks towards the south, I see his vast army, with
its battalion of elephants, its host of brazen chariots, its horsemen
and footmen as numerous as the leaves. But I feel confident of
victory. Prince Mœris has moved his galleys on the opposite side,
in order to ascend secretly by night and gain the rear of the enemy,
who are without boats. My chariots, some five hundred in number, have
been crossed over in safety to this side, to co-operate with the
Prince of Thebes. They are now drawn up in the wide, superb
serpentine avenue the 'sacred way' of Thebes, lined with sphinxes and
statues which adorn this vast circle of temples to the gods.
"You shall hear from me after the battle. If we defeat and pursue
Occhoris, we shall return to Memphis soon. If we are defeated and
driven back upon Thebes--which the great God of battles forbid!--I
know not how long the campaign will continue. I hope my mother, the
queen, is well. Convey to her my most respectful and tender
remembrances, and receive from me, beloved prince, the assurances of
my personal regard and friendship.
REMESES."
In the mean while, my dear mother, until I have further news from
Prince Remeses, I will give you an account of the conversation I held
with the papyrus-copier and decorator, Miriam, the Hebrewess.
"You are wonderfully skilled in the art," I said to her, as I surveyed
the piece before her, which she said was the commencement of a copy of
a funeral ritual for the priests of Athor.
"I have been many years engaged in transcribing," she answered with
modest dignity, without raising her eyes to my face.
"I have not seen you before in the palace, though I have often been in
this hall," I said, feeling awakened in me an interest to learn more
of the extraordinary people who toil for the crown of Egypt, and whose
ancestors have been princes.
"I have been at Raamses for a few days. My mother was ill, and I
hastened to her."
"I hope your return is a proof of her recovery," I said kindly.