The Pillar of Fire; or, Israel in Bondage

by J. H. Ingraham

LETTER VI.

Palace of the Pharaohs, City of On.

My dear and honored Mother:

This morning, as I was about leaving the palace, in order to spend several hours in traversing the city on foot, that I might see the citizens at their pursuits, and observe the manners and customs of this people, the Prince Remeses rode up in his silver-embossed chariot, himself his own charioteer, two footmen, carrying their sandals in their left hand, running by the side of his superb horses. With that absence of form and ceremony which belongs to true friendship, he did not wait for me to order my grand-chamberlain and other chief officers of my retinue to receive him, but came straight to the room "of the alabastron," so called from its alabaster columns, which was my reception-room, and in the window of which he had seen me from the street. I met him at the door of the ante-room, and when I would have saluted him by laying his hand against my heart and then raising it to my lips, he embraced me with affection.

"Nay, noble Sesostris, said I not we are friends and cousins, and therefore equals? I have come for you to go with me to Raamses, the treasure-city, built by Amunophis, my grandfather. I am planning a new palace, to be erected there for the governor of the treasures of the kingdom, and am to meet, to-day, the chief architect. Will you accompany me?"

"With pleasure, my prince," I said; "though I had just proposed to walk about the city among the people, and see them in their homes and domestic pursuits."

"You will find time for this always—come with me. You can stand with me in my chariot, or I will give you one to yourself, with a charioteer."

I replied that I would go with him, as I should wish to ask him many questions on the way. In a few moments we were moving rapidly through the superb streets of the city, and, passing through three grand pylones uniting as many courts, we came to the great gate of the city to the south. The towers on each side of it were ninety-nine feet high, and the pylon between them a wonder of beauty, for the elegance of its intaglio adornments.

At this gate stood a phalanx of dark Libyan soldiers, who form, everywhere, the guards of the gates, being noted both for faithfulness and for their gigantic size. They were armed with lances and swords, and as we passed through the gate paid to us the military salutation due to royalty; for though Remeses is not the ruler of Egypt, yet he wields an influence and power, both from his personal popularity and the confidence reposed in him by his queen mother, which is almost equal to the supreme dignity. And when he comes to the throne he will rule wisely, and, if possible, raise Egypt to still greater glory. I have already spoken of the remarkable air of dignity about him, combined with an infinite gracefulness. He has an excellent understanding, and the distinguished Egyptians with whom I have conversed, tell me that "no man ever more perfectly united in his own person the virtues of a philosopher with the talents of a general." Gentle in his manner, he is in temper rather reserved; in his morals irreproachable, and never known (a rare virtue in princes of Egypt) to exceed the bounds of the most rigid temperance. Candor, sincerity, affability, and simplicity, seem to be the striking features of his character; and when occasion offers, he displays, say the officers of his army, the most determined bravery and masterly soldiership.

Having passed the gate, the prince drew rein a little, to relieve the footmen, six of whom ran before and as many behind the chariot, besides the two "pages of the horse," who kept close to the heads of the horses. Once outside of the city, we were in a beautiful avenue, which led through groves and gardens, past villas and ornamental lakes, for half a mile,—the city, for this breadth, being inclosed by such a belt of verdure and rural luxury.

"Here," said Remeses, "dwell the nobles, in the intense heats of summer. The summer palace of my mother is on the island of Rhoda, between On and Memphis, in the Nile. I am yet to conduct you thither, and also to the pyramids. You see pavilions on small islets in these circular lakes. They are temples, or rather shrines for the private devotions of the families."

We left this lovely suburb, and entered upon a broad road, which, after crossing a plain on which stood the ruins of a palace of Osirtasen I., wound through a region of wheat-fields, which extended along the Nile as far as the eye could see. The laborers were chiefly Egyptian, and wore the loin-cloth, and short trowsers reaching half-way to the knee, which I have before described. They sang cheerful songs as they worked, and stopped to gaze after the rolling chariot which was passing across their lands like a meteor, its silver panels flashing in the sun.

About twenty stadia, or nearly four miles, from the city, we came suddenly upon a vast desolate field, upon which thousands of men seemed to be engaged in the occupation of making brick. As we drew near, for the royal road we were traversing passed directly through this busy multitude, I saw by their faces that the toilers were of that mysterious race, the Hebrew people.

I say "mysterious," dear mother; for though I have now been six weeks in Egypt, I have not yet found any of the Egyptians who can tell me whence came this nation, now in bondage to the Pharaohs! Either those whom I questioned were ignorant of their rise, or purposely refrained from talking with a foreigner upon the subject.

You will remember that I once inquired of Remeses as to their origin and present degradation, and he said he would at some other time reply to my question. Since then I have had no opportunity of introducing the subject again to him, other objects wholly absorbing our attention when we met. Yet in the interim I was forced irresistibly to notice these people and their hard tasks; for, though they were never seen in the streets mingling with the citizens (save only in palaces, where handsome Hebrew youths often serve as pages), yet where temples, and granaries, and walls, and arsenals, and treasure-houses were being erected, they were to be found in vast numbers. Old and young men, women, and children, without distinction, were engaged in the plain across which we moved.

"Pardon me, noble prince," I said; "permit me to linger a moment to survey this novel scene."

Remeses drew up his horses, and from the chariot I cast my eyes over the vast level which embraced half a square league.

"These fields, Sesostris," said the prince, "are where the brick are made which are to erect the walls of the treasure-city, one of the towers of which you behold two miles distant. The city itself will take the years of a generation of this people to complete, if the grand design is carried out. On the left of the tower you see the old palace, for this is not a new city we are building so much as an extension of the old on a new site, and with greater magnificence. It is my mother's pride to fill Egypt with monuments of architecture that will mark her reign as an era."

The scene that I beheld from the height of the chariot I will attempt to describe, my dear mother. As far as I could see, the earth was dark with people, some stooping down and with wooden mattocks digging up the clay; others were piling it into heaps; others were chopping straw to mix with the clay; others were treading it with their feet to soften it. Some with moulds were shaping the clay into bricks. Another stood by with the queen's mark, and stamped each brick therewith, or the one which was to be the head of a course when laid. There were also the strongest men employed in raising upon the shoulders of others a load of these bricks, which they bore to a flat open space to be dried in the sun; and a procession of many hundreds was constantly moving, performing this task. Some of the slaves carried yokes, which had cords at each end, to which bricks were fastened; and many of the young men conveyed masses of clay upon their heads to the moulders. Those who carried the brick to the smoothly swept ground where they were to be dried, delivered them to women, who, many hundreds in number, placed them side by side on the earth in rows—a lighter task than that of the men. The borders of this busy plain, where it touched the fields of stubble wheat, were thronged with women and children gathering straw for the men who mixed the clay. It was an active and busy spectacle. Yet throughout the vast arena not a voice was heard from the thousands of toilers; only the sharp authoritative tones of their taskmasters broke the stillness, or the creaking of carts with wooden wheels, as, laden with straw from distant fields, they moved slowly over the plain.

The laborers were divided into companies or parties of from a score to one hundred persons, over whom stood, or was seated, an Egyptian officer. These taskmasters were not only distinguishable from the laborers by their linen bonnet or cap with a cape descending to the neck, but by a scarlet or striped tunic, and a rod or whip of a single thong or of small cords. These men watched closely the workmen, who, naked above the waist, with only a loin-cloth upon many of them, worked each moment in fear of the lash. The taskmasters showed no mercy; but if the laborer sunk under his burden, he was punished on the spot, and left to perish, if he were dying, and his burden transferred to the shoulders of another. So vast was the multitude of these people, that the death of a score a day would not have been regarded. Indeed, their increase already alarms the Egyptians, and their lives, therefore, are held in little estimation.

The vast revenue, however, accruing to the crown from this enslaved nation of brick-makers, leads to regulations which in a great measure check the destructive rigor of the taskmasters; for not only are thousands building cities, but tens of thousands are dispersed all over Lower Egypt, who make brick to sell to nobles and citizens, the crown having the monopoly of this branch of labor. Interest alone has not prompted the queen to make laws regulating their treatment, and lessening the rigor of their lot; but also humanity, which is, however, an attribute, in its form of pity, little cultivated in Egypt. Under the preceding Pharaohs, for seventy years, the condition of these Hebrews was far more severe than it has been under the milder reign of the queen. I am assured that she severely punishes all unnecessary cruelty, and has lightened the tasks of the women, who also may not be punished with blows.

I surveyed this interesting and striking scene with emotions of wonder and commiseration. I could not behold, without the deepest pity, venerable and august looking old men, with gray heads and flowing white beards, smeared with clay, stooping over the wooden moulds, coarsely clad in the blue and gray loin-cloth, which scarcely concealed their nakedness: or fine youths, bareheaded and burned red with the sun, toiling like cattle under heavy burdens, here and there upon a naked shoulder visible a fresh crimson line where the lash or the rod of an angered officer had left its mark! There were young girls, too, whose beautiful faces, though sun-burned and neglected, would have been the envy of fair ladies in any court. These, as well as the others of their sex, wore a sort of tight gown of coarse material tied at the neck, with short close sleeves reaching to the elbow. Their black or brown hair was tied in a knot behind, or cut short. And occasionally I saw a plain silver or other metallic ring upon a small hand, showing that even bondage has not destroyed in woman the love of jewels.

As we rode along, those Egyptians who were near the road bowed the knee to the prince, and remained stationary until he passed. We rode for a mile and a half through this brick-field, when at its extremity we came upon a large mean town of huts composed of reeds and covered with straw.

"There," said Remeses, "are the dwellings of the laborers you have seen."

These huts formed long streets or lanes which intersected each other in all directions. There was not a tree to shade them. The streets and doors were crowded with children, and old Hebrew women who were left to watch them while their parents were in the field. There seemed to be a dozen children to every house, and some of five and six years were playing at brick-making, one of their number acting as a taskmaster, holding a whip which he used with a willingness and frequency that showed how well the Egyptian officers had taught the lesson of severity and cruelty to the children of their victims. In these huts dwelt forty thousand Hebrews, who were engaged either in making brick, or conveying them to Raamses, close at hand, or in placing them in mortar upon the walls.

We passed through the very midst of this wretched village of bondmen, whose only food in their habitations is garlic, and leeks, and fish or flesh, their drink the turbid water of the Nile, unfiltered from its impurities by means of porous stone and paste of almonds—a process of art so well known to the Egyptians. On the skirts of the village was a vast burial-place, without a tomb or stone; for these Hebrews are too poor and miserable to embalm their dead, even if customs of their own did not lead them to place them in the earth. The aspect of this melancholy place of sepulture was gloomy enough. It had the look of a vast ploughed plain; but infinitely desolate and hideous when the imagination pictured the corruption that lay beneath each narrow mound. I felt a sensation of relief when we left this spot behind, and drove upon a green plateau which lay between it and the treasure-city of the king. The place we were crossing had once been the garden of Hermes or Iosepf, the celebrated prince who about one hundred and thirty years ago saved the inhabitants of Egypt from perishing by famine, having received from the god Osiris knowledge of a seven years' famine to befall the kingdom, after seven years of plenty. This Prince Iosepf or Joseph was also called Hermes, though he wrote not all the books attributed to Hermes, as we in Phœnicia understand of that personage.

"Was this Joseph an Egyptian?" I asked of the Prince Remeses, as we dashed past the ruins of a palace in the midst of the gardens.

"No, a Hebrew," he answered. "He was the favorite of the Phœnician Pharaoh who commenced the palaces of this City of Treasure."

"A Hebrew!" I exclaimed. "Not one of the race I behold about me toiling towards the city with sun-dried bricks upon their heads, and whom I have seen at work on the plain of bricks?"

"Of the same," he answered.

"Your reply reminds me, O Remeses, that you have promised to relate to me the history of this remarkable people, who evidently, from their noble physiognomies, belong to a superior race."

"I will redeem my promise, my dear Sesostris," he said, smiling, "as soon as I have left the chariot by yonder ruined well, where I see the architect and his people, whom I have come hither to meet, await me with their drawings and rules."

We soon drove up to the spot, having passed several fallen columns, which had once adorned the baths of the house of this Hebrew prince, who had once been such a benefactor to Egypt; but, as he was the favorite of a Phœnician king, the present dynasty neglect his monuments, as well as deface all those which the Shepherd Kings erected to perpetuate their conquest. Hence, it is, dear mother, I find scarcely a trace of the dominion in Lower Egypt of this race of kings.

The ruined well was a massive quadrangle of stone; and was called the "Fountain of the Strangers." It was in ruins, yet the well itself sparkled with clear water as in its ancient days. Grouped upon a stone platform, beneath the shade of three palms, stood the party of artists who awaited the prince. Their horses, and the cars in which they came, or brought their instruments, stood near, held by slaves, who were watering the animals from the fountain.

Upon the approach of the prince these persons, the chief of whom was attired handsomely, as a man of rank (for architects in Egypt are nobles, and are in high place at court), bowed the knee reverently before him. He alighted from his chariot, and at once began to examine their drawings. Leaving him engaged in a business which I perceived would occupy him some time, I walked about, looking at the ancient fountain. In order to obtain a view of the country, I ascended a tower at one of its angles, which elevated me sixty feet above the plain. From this height I beheld the glorious City of the Sun, a league and a half to the north, rising above its girdle of gardens in all its splendor. In the mid-distance lay the plain of brick-workers, covered with its tens of thousands of busy workers in clay. Then, nearer still, stretched their squalid city of huts, and the gloomy burial-place, bordering on the desert at the farther boundary.

Turning to the south, the treasure-city of Raamses lay before me, the one half ancient and ruinous, but the other rising in grand outlines and vast dimensions, stretching even to the Nile, which, shining and majestic, flowed to the west of it. Further still the pyramids of Memphis, the city itself of Apis, and the walls and temples of Jisah towered in noble perspective. The Nile was lively with galleys ascending and descending, and upon the road that followed its banks many people were moving, either on foot, in palanquins, chariots, or upon horseback. Over the whole scene the bright sun shone, giving life and brightness to all I beheld.

To the east the illimitable desert stretched far away, and I could trace the brown line of road along which the caravans travel between the Nile cities and the port of Suez, on the sea of Ezion-Geber, in order to unlade there for ships from Farther Ind that are awaiting them.

Almost beneath the crumbling tower, on which I stood taking in this 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