to me, "I will go forth and see my brethren who are at work on Lake
Mœris, that I may talk also with the old and young men, and inspire
their heavy hearts with hope." So he departed, and, crossing the
river, disguised as an Egyptian,--for no Hebrew dare now be seen
walking alone for fear of being challenged by the soldiers, who
garrison all the country, and stand guard at every corner, and at
every gate,--he came to the shores of Lake Amense, the beauty of
which, with its garden and palace-lined shores, so much pleased thee,
O king, when, five years ago, thou wast in Egypt. There he saw King
Mœris clothed in scarlet, a chain of gold across his breast,
standing in his chariot, as he slowly drove around the lake, giving
directions to the chief captains over the works. My brother was not
recognized by him, however, and went on his way, observing the severe
labors of his brethren. In the two hours that he was there, he saw
three strong men lie down in the foul water and die! At length, coming
to a place where several young and old men were working together, he
beheld such cruelty exercised upon them, that he groaned in spirit,
and prayed the Almighty to shorten the days of the four hundred years,
and come to their deliverance. Unable longer to behold sufferings that
he could not relieve, he walked sadly away, deeply meditating upon the
mysterious providence of the Almighty, in His dealings with the seed
of His servant Abraham. After a little time he found himself in a
narrow, sand-drifted lane, between two walls, when he was suddenly
aroused from his reflections by a cry of pain, accompanied by sharp
blows with a stick. He looked up, and spied an Egyptian taskmaster
dragging by the hair Izhur, a youth whom he greatly loved. The
Egyptian had pursued him, as he fled up the lane from his blows, and
was now plainly intent, in his great wrath, upon putting him to death.
My brother, indignant and grieved, commanded him in a tone of
authority to release him; whereupon the Egyptian, cursing him by his
gods, drew his knife from its sheath and would in revenge have driven
it into the heart of Izhur, when Moses caught his arm, and bade the
young man fly. The Egyptian, thereupon, would have slain my brother,
who, looking this way and that, and seeing they were alone, struck him
to the earth with one blow of his hand, in the name of the God of
Abraham, the Avenger of his people, so that he died on the spot! He
then hid the body in the sand, and returned home, where he made known
to me what he had done.
"Surely," I said, in amazement, "thou art the first Hebrew, my
brother, who hath slain an Egyptian. A divine motion must have moved
thee! Peradventure it is by _thy arm_ that he will yet deliver his
people!"
Thereupon my brother, with his characteristic modesty, said--
"Not mine! not mine, my brother! Breathe into my heart no such
ambitious pride! Yet I felt moved and animated by God to do this.
Therefore do I justify the act to man and my own conscience."
The next day, my brother visited the lake again, intending to make its
circuit, and see certain elders to whom he wished to make himself
known,--men wise and good, who were superintending the work of others
of their own people. On his way he perceived two Hebrews striving
together, and as he came up, one of them struck the other with his
working tool, so that he staggered from the blow.
"Sirs, ye are brethren," he said; "why do ye strive together, seeing
ye are brethren?"--and then added, sternly and sorrowfully, to the one
who had struck the blow--
"Friend, why hast thou done this wrong? He whom thou hast stricken is
a Hebrew. Do not your taskmasters beat you enough, that you must
strike each other?"
Whereupon the man who did the injury to his fellow, said fiercely,
looking narrowly upon my brother--
"Thou art Remeses, the Hebrew 'son of Pharaoh's daughter!' I remember
thee. Dost thou think that thou art still a Prince of Egypt? Mœris
is now our king. Who hath made _thee_ prince and judge over us? Thou
forgettest that thou art now a slave, like the rest of us. Intendest
thou to kill me as thou killedst the Egyptian yesterday?"
No sooner had the man thus spoken, than Moses, alarmed, perceived that
the thing was known, and beholding the eyes of the Egyptian officers,
and many of the Hebrews fastened upon him, he hastened to escape, for
he beheld several men run to a high officer of the king, as if with
the news, who at once drove rapidly away in his chariot, probably
seeking Mœris, whom my brother knew to be not far off, superintending
the placing of a statue of Horus upon a new terrace. Several Hebrews
would have interposed to arrest Moses, when they heard who he was, for
they look upon him more as an Egyptian than as one of their brethren.
But he succeeded in retiring unharmed, and at once hastened to recross
the Nile. When he had told us that what he had done to the Egyptian
was known, and that he was recognized, and that Mœris would surely
hear of it, his mother and I advised his immediate flight.
He said that he had no doubt the king would seek his destruction, and
that he ought to be cautious and consult his own preservation. "But,"
he added, "I do not fear the wrath of Pharaoh so far that, were I in
his power, I would either deny, excuse, or ask pardon for my act. What
I have done I will justify. The oppressor deserved to die! And so, one
day, will God, by the hand of a Hebrew, slay Pharaoh and all his
hosts!" This was spoken with the light of prophecy in his noble face,
as if his words were inspiration. When Amram, his father, came in, and
heard all, he said--
"The God of Jacob be glorified! There is one man in Israel to whom He
has given courage to smite the oppressor of his people! Fly, my son!
Fly not for fear, for thou art a brave man and hast been a tried
soldier; but fly to preserve a life which my spirit tells me will yet
be dear to our people!"
"My father," said Moses sorrowfully, "I believed that my brethren
would understand that God was with me, and would acknowledge me as
sent to be their friend, instead of joining the Egyptians against me!
I will fly! Mœris would rejoice to hold me in his power! But with
the hope, that even in a foreign land I may serve my people, at least
by prayer and supplication to God for them, I will keep my life out of
Pharaoh's hand."
In the garb of an Egyptian, with a store of provisions, and taking
gold in his purse, my brother embraced us all, and departed from the
house, my mother weeping and saying--
"A second time have I given up my son from the sword of Pharaoh,--once
to the waters and now to the desert sands!"
"And the waters, O woman," said my father, "gave him to be a prince of
Egypt, and from the sands of the desert God can call him to be king
over Israel!"
I looked into my venerable father's face, for often of late years he
is gifted with prophetic inspirations, and I saw that his aged eyes
shone with a supernatural lustre. My brother returned a few steps,
again embraced his mother, bowed his head before his father for his
blessing, arose, and went on his way eastward. I accompanied him for
an hour, when tenderly embracing we parted--he taking the way towards
Midian. Ru-el Jethro, the lord of that country, O king, which was
settled by Midian, son of Abram, by Keturah, thou didst meet at this
table of thy friend "Remeses," when thou wast in Egypt, at which time,
thou mayst remember, he invited my brother to visit his kingdom in
Arabia.
It was well for Moses that he so thoroughly knew the character of King
Mœris; for when I returned, I learned from my mother, that a party
of soldiers had been sent by Pharaoh to seize him. Another hour, and
he would have fallen into his hand.
At my mother's request, O king, I have written the foregoing, and now
inclose his letter to you. I had no sooner entered my house, than I
saw my parents and sister preparing to fly from the king, fearing his
vengeance when he should learn of the escape of Moses! Not that
Pharaoh cared for the life of the slain Egyptian, but he would gladly
seize upon the occasion, as a pretext to destroy his former rival.
May God long preserve thy life, O king.
Written in Egypt by thy servant,
AARON THE HEBREW.
AFTER AN INTERVAL OF FORTY YEARS,
REMESES, PRINCE OF TYRE AND OF DAMASCUS,
SON OF SESOSTRIS,
VISITS EGYPT, AND ADDRESSES THE FOLLOWING
_Series of Letters to his Father_.
LETTER I.
PALACE OF PHARAOH, LAKE MŒRIS
MY DEAR FATHER AND KING:
It is with emotions of no ordinary kind, that I find myself amid the
scenes familiar to your eyes, when forty-six years ago, a young man,
you visited Egypt. Every object upon which I gaze is invested with new
interest as I reflect--"And this my father also saw. On this pylon he
has stood and surveyed the landscape; and along these corridors, his
feet have awakened the echoes which respond to mine."
The letters which you wrote from Egypt, during the reign of the wise
Queen Amense, addressed to my royal grandmother, and which are now in
my possession, early familiarized my mind with this wonderful land;
and I recognize every place of interest, from your descriptions.
There are, however, some changes. Pharaoh-Mœris, who has been long
dead, and his son Meiphra-Thothmes, Thothmeses his grandson, and
Thothmeses IV., the present king, all inaugurated their reigns by
laying the foundations of temples, palaces, and pyramids; while the
ruins of others have been repaired. Mœris restored the ancient
temple of Thoth, in the Island of Rhoda, where Prince Remeses was
hidden three months, and also all other temples in Egypt. His reign,
though tyrannical, was distinguished by improvement in arts, in
letters, in astronomy, architecture, and arms. His pyramid is an
imposing one, and singularly pre-eminent, by having an obelisk at each
angle. His lake, however, is this Pharaoh's greatest monument, if I
may so term it.
This lake was begun by former princes, and enlarged by Queen Amense,
in order to receive the surplus waters of the Nile, when the
inundations, as sometimes happen, arise and overflow the fields after
the corn is up. The lake, however, was not large enough wholly to
correct this evil, and King Mœris still further enlarged it, by
means of the services of the Hebrews, three hundred thousand of whom,
it is said, perished in the work, before it was completed. It is ample
enough in breadth and depth to contain the excess of the Nile. One of
the wonders of the world, it is only paralleled in grandeur by the
pyramids. In the midst of this magnificent inland sea--for such it
seems--arise two pyramids, upon the summit of each of which, three
hundred and eight feet in the air, stands upon a throne, shaped like a
chariot, a statue, one being that of Thoth, the other of Mœris.
Upon the former is inscribed--
"The god prospered;" on the other, "Pharaoh builded." Beneath this
inscription is written--
"This lake is three hundred and forty miles in circumference, and one
hundred and fifty feet in depth. Within its bounds it can contain all
the rivers of the earth."
This sublime work, my dear father, has upon the east side a canal
eighty feet broad, and four leagues in length. At its entrance are
seated two colossi, figures of Apis and Mnevis; and along its shores
are double rows of trees, bordering a terrace, upon which face
palaces, villas, temples, gardens, and squares. At the Nile
termination stands a single colossus, representing the god Nilus. He
is astride the canal, his feet upon the bases of pyramids, and beneath
him are great floodgates, that let in or exclude the waters of the
river. On the south of the lake, upon a plain of sand, Mœris
erected a vast temple to Serapis, dedicated it with great pomp, and
inclosed it by gardens a mile square, the earth of which was carried
by Hebrews in baskets, from the excavations of the lake. He commenced
a noble avenue of sphinxes, leading from the lake to the temple, and
which has been recently completed by Thothmeses IV., who last week
invited me to be present at its inauguration. It was a magnificent
spectacle, first the procession of priests and soldiers, nobles and
citizens, with the king and his court, in a thousand galleys, sailing
across the lake; then the landing at the majestic pylon, the march of
the procession for a mile between the double row of sphinxes, the
mighty temple terminating the vista, and the solemn invocations,
libations, and sacrifices before the god.
I marvel, my dear father, at such splendor having no other object than
a black bull; such glory leading to an enshrined brute, before whom
all this magnificence, power, and rank fall prostrate, as to God!
Happy am I, O my wise and good father, to have been early instructed
in the knowledge of the true God. I pity while I admire what I see in
Egypt. This king is an intelligent man, and I often feel like saying
to him, "O king, dost thou believe in thy heart that this bull is
God?"
The shores of this vast artificial sea are lined with groves, palaces,
and waving fields. The sides of the Libyan hills are terraced and
adorned with marble palaces and gardens. At one point, where the
cliffs stretch into the lake, are four temples, facing four ways,
respectively dedicated to Athor, Pthah, Apis, and Bubastis, the four
deities of Memphis; and their sides are covered with golden bronze, so
that, in the sunlight, nothing can be more gorgeous.
Upon a small island, opposite this gilded promontory, and left for the
purpose, Thothmeses II. erected, during his brief reign, a temple of
Syenite stone to the goddess Isis, before which is a recumbent figure
of Osiris, seventy feet in length. Its vestibule is enriched with
sculpture, and is the most splendid portico in Egypt. In the interior
it is surrounded by a peristyle of statues representing the twelve
constellations, each eighteen feet in height.
Besides all these, I have visited, my dear father, during the six
weeks I have been in Egypt, the "Plain of the Mummies," the Catacombs,
the Labyrinth--a marvel of mystery and perplexity to one not initiated
into the intricacies of its mazes--the chief pyramids, and that also
of Queen Amense, at the entrance of which I placed fresh flowers for
your sake.
Pharaoh-Mœris greatly extended the bounds of Memphis. It is not
less than twelve miles in circuit. He covered with it a large portion
of the plain westward of the pyramids; and where once was a barren
waste, are now streets, avenues, colonnades, temples, public edifices,
aqueducts, causeways, and all the splendor of metropolitan
magnificence. Avenues of sphinxes are almost innumerable; colossal
statues, obelisks, and pyramids meet the eye everywhere. Near the foot
of the hills he formed a chariot-course, that extends three miles
along the lake. In the rock of the cliff he caused to be hewn fourteen
sarcophagi of black marble, and of gigantic dimensions. In these he
entombed the bodies of as many tributary kings, when, in succession,
they died; commanding their mummies to be brought into Egypt for the
purpose. He has everywhere multiplied, with singular variety, his
statues; and in front of this tomb of kings stands one of them upon a
pedestal, the feet of which are fourteen sculptured crowns,
representatives of their own.
But, my dear father, Egypt is so familiar to you, that I will not
weary you with any more descriptions, unless, indeed, I should visit
the City of a Hundred Gates, as you were not able to go thither. I
will speak, however, of a visit that I paid yesterday to the sphinx
that stands before Chephres, and near Cheops. I was impressed, as you
were, with the grandeur of the whole. But the great ancient temple,
which you spoke of as ruinous, has, in forty-five years, become still
more defaced. Indeed, the reigning Pharaoh has expressed his intention
of removing it altogether, so that the pyramids may stand forth in
solitary majesty.
Among other events of the reign of Mœris, was the discovery, by
him, that the tradition which represented the great sphinx as being
hollowed into chambers was a true one. He found the entrance, which
was beneath the small temple, between the fore-paws of the statue.
What he discovered is known to no man; but it is certain that he
suddenly displayed vast treasures of gold and silver, jewels and
precious stones, with which he carried on his magnificent and
expensive works.
You have not forgotten the Ethiopian captive king, Occhoris. He still
exists, though his beard is snow white and his form bent. He remains a
captive, each monarch in succession retaining so important a personage
in chains, annually to grace their processions to the temples of the
gods.
The condition, my dear father, of the Hebrew people, in whom you are
so deeply interested, has enlisted all my sympathies also. Forty years
have multiplied their number, notwithstanding all the ingenious
efforts of the Pharaohs to destroy them by deadly labors, until they
amount to three millions and a half of souls. The population of Egypt
is only seven millions; and thus, for every two Egyptians there is one
Hebrew. This alarming state of things fills the mind of Thothmeses IV.
with ceaseless anxiety. He does not hesitate to confess to me, freely,
his fears for the security of his crown.
I have not yet described this monarch to you. When I arrived and
presented your letters, he received me with marked courtesy; inquired
after your welfare and the prosperity of your reign; asked your age,
and when I told him you were seventy-three, he said he knew of no king
so aged, unless it was Jethro, king of Midian. He inquired why I had
delayed coming to Egypt until I was forty-two (for I told him my age,
which exactly corresponds with his own); and when I informed him that
I had been engaged in improving and restoring my kingdom of Damascus,
which I inherited from my mother, and which the Sabæans had thrice
invaded and devastated before I came of age, he expressed his pleasure
that peace was restored, and that I had come into Egypt, at last. He
seems naturally superstitious, credulous, and irresolute. I think he
possesses little or no stability of character, and that he is easily
influenced to do evil. He is timid in his policy, yet rash; vain of
his wisdom, yet constantly guilty of follies; a devout worshipper of
his gods, yet a slave to the basest personal vices; jealous of his
rights, yet, from want of courage, suffering them continually to be
invaded, both by his subjects and tributary princes; a man whose word
is kept, only so far as his present interest demands; who will pardon
to-night a suppliant, from irresolution and morbid pity, and execute
him in the morning when the coldness of his nature returns. Were he my
friend, I should distrust him; were he my foe, I would not delay to
place the sea between me and his sword.
Under such a prince, you may imagine that the condition of the Hebrew
people is not less pitiable than under his predecessors. Fearing them,
he doubles their tasks, and resorts to every device of destruction,
short of open and indiscriminate slaughter. Yet even this infernal
idea has been suggested by him to his private council; but it was
opposed, on the ground that the burial of so many millions would be
impossible, and that a plague would result fatal to the population of
Egypt.
So the Hebrews still exist, feared, suspected, and crushed by
additional burdens. I have been among them, and, as you directed, have
made many cautious inquiries after the learned Hebrew, Moses. They are
more enlightened than when you saw them. The idea of God is less
obscure in their minds, while their hope of a deliverer is bright and
ever present. Few of the old men remember Remeses, or Moses; and none
of them know any thing of his present abode, but seem sure he is long
since dead. I have become deeply interested in some of these venerable
men, in whose majestic features, set off by flowing beards, I
recognize the lineaments of Abram, their ancestor, as sculptured on
the mausoleum of his servant, "Eliezer of Damascus." The beauty of the
children and young women, amid all their degradation, is wonderful. I
was struck with the seeming good feeling which existed among these and
the women of Egypt. The latter, either from pity, or because the
Hebrew women are gentle and attractive, hold kind intercourse with
them; and at a marriage, which I witnessed in one of their huts, the
Hebrew females, especially the bride, were decked with jewels loaned
to them by their friends, the Egyptian maidens. I have also been
struck with the patient, uncomplaining, and gentle manner in which the
Hebrews speak of the Egyptians, excepting their task-officers--who are
brutal soldiers--and the king. Generations of oppression have made
them forbearing and submissive; and, besides, the Egyptians and
Hebrews, who now know one another, knew each other as children, before
either could understand their different positions.
Here and there I have met a lord who recalled your visit, dear father,
with pleasure; but were you now here you would feel a stranger indeed.
Farewell, my honored and revered father. I will continue my inquiries
after Prince Remeses. To my sister Amense, and her husband, Sisiris,
king of Sidon, give my kindest greetings.
Your affectionate son,
REMESES OF DAMASCUS.
MY DEAREST FATHER:
I unseal this epistle to inform you, that while it has been lying
three days, waiting for the galley of the Lord of Sarepta to depart, I
have had intelligence of your old friend Remeses. He lives, and is in
Midian, as you suspected, and is well, though, of course, far advanced
in years. This is all that I can now add to my letter, as the
secretary of the Sareptan noble is in my reception-room, and lingers
only to take this letter, the wind being now favorable.
Your faithful son,
REMESES.
LETTER II.
REMESES OF DAMASCUS, TO HIS FATHER, KING SESOSTRIS OF PHŒNICIA.
CITY OF ON, EGYPT.
Having an opportunity, my dearest father, to send this letter the day
after to-morrow, I will herewith make known to you, how I obtained the
intelligence, that your ancient friend Remeses is still in the kingdom
of Midian, whither he fled from King Mœris.
In obedience to your last instructions, I have diligently made all
inquiries that were likely to obtain the information which your lively
friendship prompts you to seek. There is something, dear father, very
beautiful in this undying attachment, which has survived a period of
forty years, and which still looks forward to behold the beloved face
of thy cherished friend once more!
Learning yesterday that a caravan had arrived from Ezion-geber (by the
Edomites called Ekkaba), which lies near the head of the orient arm of
the Red or Arabian Sea, and not far from which are the borders of
peninsular Midian, I crossed the Nile to the suburbs of the City of
the Sun, where the caravan had found quarters in the quadrangle of the
Serail.
Having found the governor of the company of merchants, I made myself
known to him as a foreign prince, travelling for knowledge, and sight
of men and scenes. He courteously received me, and I asked him many
questions about his country, his journey, and the articles he brought,
until he was at his ease with me, when I inquired if he had ever been
in Midian. He answered that he himself was a Midianite, and that
twenty days before he had left Midian to join the caravan, part of
which belonged to Jethro, prince and priest of that country. Upon
hearing this name, dear father, I was struck by its similarity to that
mentioned in the last letter of Aaron the Hebrew, as being that of the
king of the country who had invited Moses, while prince, to visit him.
"Dost thou know this Prince Jethro?" I asked.
"I have sat at his feet--his hand has often rested upon my head when I
was a lad," he answered.
"You call him a priest," I said; "what is his religion?"
"That of our progenitor, Abram the Chaldean."
"The Hebrews sprung from Abram," I replied.
"Yes, by Sara, his first wife. The Midianites are the sons of Midian,
a son of Abram by Keturah, the wife he took after Sara died. The
cities of Epher, Ephah, and Hanoch, in Midian, were founded by princes
who were this same Abram's grandsons, and sons of Midian."
"Do you worship the God of Abram--or Abraham, as the Hebrews call
their ancestor?" I asked.
"Hast thou ever heard, O prince," he said, with feeling, "that we were
idolaters, or fire-worshippers, or that we pray to bulls, and beasts,
and creeping things, as these Egyptians do? We worship one God--the
Lord of Heaven--the Almighty Creator, who revealed Himself to our
father Abram."
When I told him that I also worshipped the same God, he took my hand,
kissed it reverently, and said solemnly--
"There is but one God!"
"What is your form of worship, that your king is also your priest?" I
inquired.
"By sacrifices. Morning and evening, the priests offer up to God
incense, and oblations, and sacrifices of lambs. Hence we have large
flocks and herds. On great days, the king himself officiates, lays his
hand upon the head of the victim, and asks the Almighty to take the
life of the sacrifice instead of that of the people, and to visit upon
its head the wrath which the kingdom had incurred."
"Did Abram thus sacrifice?"
"Not only Abram, but Noah, the first father, and all the fathers of
the old world. Our worship, therefore, O prince, consists in offering
the life of a victim, to preserve our own!"
"Yes, if the great Lord of Heaven will so receive it! For who can
weigh the life of a man with that of his lamb?" I said.
"None but God, who, in His goodness and glory, wills it so to be!"
answered the Midianite.