The Pillar of Fire; or, Israel in Bondage

by J. H. Ingraham

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.

"This was all he found, for beyond this small chamber the workmen 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