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.
"Hast thou ever heard, in Midian, of a Hebrew called Moses?"
"Dost thou mean Moses the Egyptian?" he asked, quickly.
"He was educated an Egyptian, and was supposed to be the son of Pharaoh's daughter, but was only adopted by her; and being discovered to be a Hebrew, he left Egypt."
"This same Moses, once Prince Remeses, is now in Midian, where he hath been these forty years," answered the venerable chief-captain of the caravan. "He is son-in-law to our prince, who has made him ruler over all the companies of shepherds in the region that lieth between the city of Keturah and the sea, and even to the back of the desert, where, on the sides of Horeb and the valleys thereof, he feeds his flocks. Moreover, there also he meditates, and writes in a cave—for he is a man of vast learning, and greatly revered in Midian as a wise sage. He is married to the daughter of the Prince Ru-el Jethro, and by her hath had many sons, but two only—mere lads—remain, the rest having died early. Surely, what man in Midian knoweth not Moses, the wise shepherd of Horeb?"
Upon hearing this good news, dear father, I rejoiced, in anticipation, at the pleasure you would receive, when you should read my letter containing the pleasing tidings. I now asked the good Midianite when he would return. He said that in seven days he should depart, and that it would take him eleven days to reach that part of the country where Moses dwelt. Upon this, my dear father, after making sundry other inquiries about the route, I determined to accompany him; for I knew you would value one letter from me, saying I had seen and spoken with your friend face to face, more highly than many from the hundred-gated Thebes. I shall be gone but one month, and shall be well repaid, not only by seeing Moses, whose noble countenance I can just recollect as a pleasant remembrance of my childhood, but by conferring upon him the unexpected pleasure of hearing from you by your son, his namesake. Thus, for your sake, as well as for his, and also my own gratification in seeing a new and rarely visited country, I take my departure with the caravan. After I reach Midian, and have seen your old friend in the land of his long exile, I will write to you fully of all that may interest you.
May the God of Abraham and of Moses have you always in His sacred keeping.
Your loving son,
Remeses of Damascus.