LETTER XX.
Palace of Rhoda.
My dearly beloved Mother:
The excitement, which the return of the triumphant army from its brilliant Ethiopian campaign created, has now subsided, and the cities of Memphis and On, and the thousand villages in the valley of the Nile, have returned to their ordinary quiet, interrupted only by religious processions, the music of a banquet, or the festivities of a marriage. In this delicious climate, where there is no particular incentive to action, the general state of the people is one of indolence and leisure. The chief business, at the marts and quays, is over before the sun is at meridian; and during the remainder of the day, shade and repose are coveted. But when the sun sinks westward, and hangs low over the brown hills of Libya, this inaction ceases, and all classes, in their best apparel and most cheerful looks, fill the streets, the groves, the gardens, the walks and avenues along the river; and the spirit of enjoyment and life reigns.
One evening, not long since, I strolled along the banks of the Nile, beneath a row of mimosa-trees, to enjoy the gay and attractive scenes upon the river. It was covered with gayly painted barges, containing happy family parties, whose musicians played for them as the rowers slowly and idly propelled the boat; others, in sharp-prowed barisæ, darted in emulous races across the water; others were suspended upon the bosom of the stream, fishing for amusement; while others still moved about, with their beautifully pictured sails spread to the gentle breeze, as if enjoying the panorama of the shores they were gliding past.
I had rambled alone some distance up the river, without any vestige of my rank being apparent, in the plain Phœnician costume of a Tyrian merchant (which I often wear, to prevent constant interruption by the homage and prostrations of the deferent Egyptians), when I saw a small baris, containing a single person, coming close to the steps of the extensive terrace of one of the numerous temples of the image of Apis, which here faced the Nile, separated from it only by a double row of sphinxes. It was rowed by four Nubian slaves, clad in white linen vests and fringed loin-cloths, each having a red cap upon his head.
As the boat approached the marble steps, a decorated and unusually elegant galley, containing three young men of rank, as their dress and the emblems on their mast indicated, was coming swiftly down the stream, as if the owner strove to display the fleetness of his vessel before the eyes of the thousands who looked on. The pilot, at the lofty helm, called out to the baris to move quicker away from the line of his course; but either the rowers failed to hear or to comprehend, for they did not turn their heads. On like the wind came the galley. I called aloud to the person who sat in the stern of the baris, and who was intently engaged in reading a book, a portion of which lay unrolled at his feet.
He looked up quickly, and saw, first me, and then, by the direction of my finger, his danger. Before, however, he could give orders to his rowers, I heard one of the young men say to the pilot, who was changing his course a little—
"Keep right on! It is but a Hebrew; and it would be a favor to the gods to drown a thousand a day."
The pilot obeyed his lord, and the bronze hawk-head of the gilded galley struck the boat near the stern, nearly capsizing it, and then the whole armament of twelve oars passed over it, striking overboard two of the slaves, as the twenty-four oarsmen swept the galley along at the height of its speed. I expected to see the priest, for such his costume betrayed him, also pressed down by the long oars, under which, like a low roof of inclined rafters, he was entangled; but stooping low until his forehead touched the book on his knee, the sweeps passed harmlessly over him, and when the galley had gone by, he recovered his sitting posture, maintaining, the while, a composure and dignity that made me marvel. His dark, handsome, oriental face betrayed scarcely any emotion at the danger or the indignity. Seeing that one of the slaves was swimming ashore, and that the other rose no more, he waved his hand to the remaining two who had fallen into the bottom of the boat, and who, recovering their oars, pulled him to the steps.
"A Hebrew!" repeated I to myself. "Truly, and the very likeness of Remeses, save that his hair is of a browner hue, and his beard tinged with a golden light. A Hebrew! What philosophy under insult and peril! A Hebrew! What contempt of him and his life was evinced by the haughty Egyptian noble! A Hebrew, and a priest!"
Such were the reflections to which I gave utterance, in an under-tone.
He debarked, and giving an order to the slaves, placed his scroll of papyrus beneath his robe, and, ascending the steps, bowed low, and with singular courtesy (for the Hebrews, mother, are naturally the most polished and benignant people in the world), said in the Phœnician tongue—
"I am indebted to you, sir merchant, for my life! Your timely voice enabled me to save myself, although I have lost one of the poor Nubian lads. Accept my gratitude!"
I could not remove my eyes from his face. It fascinated me! It seemed to be Remeses himself speaking to me; yet the hair of the prince is raven-black, and his beard also, while this man's is a rich brown, and his fine beard like a golden river. The eyes of Remeses are black, with a mild expression naturally, as if they were animated by a gentle spirit; while those of the priest are hazel, or rather a brilliant bronze, and full of the light of courage and of ardent fire. In person he is just the height of Remeses—carried his head in the same imperial manner, as if born to command; and the tones of his voice are marked by that rich emotional cadence—winning the ear and touching the heart—which characterizes the prince. His step is firm and commanding—his motions self-poised and dignified. He seems three or four years older than Remeses; but the likeness of the features, and the entire presence of the stranger recalled my royal friend so forcibly to my mind, on the occasion of which I speak, that I said mentally—"Were the Prince Remeses a Hebrew, or were this Hebrew an Egyptian, I should think them cousins, if not brothers!"
Pardon me, dear mother, for thus speaking of a royal personage; but I only make use of the language, to express to you how wonderful in every way, save in the color of hair and eyes, is the resemblance of this man to the prince.
"I did but a common duty to a fellow-being," was my reply. "But why did you address me in Syriac?"
"Are you not a Syrian merchant?" he asked, looking at me more closely, after I had spoken.
"I am from Tyre," I answered. "You are a Hebrew?"
"Yes," was his reply, casting down his eyes and moving past me towards the temple.
"Stay one moment," I said. He turned and regarded me with a look of surprise; just such an one as the Hebrew woman Miriam,—to whom also, dear mother, he bore a very striking resemblance,—gave me when I irresistibly addressed her, in the courteous tone I would have used towards any of her sex: such was my tone in speaking to this Hebrew; for although his dress showed that he was only a neophyte, or attendant with secular duties, yet the man himself commanded my respect.
"May I inquire, without offence, why I see a Hebrew in the service of religion?"
"When we are only degraded slaves, and brick and clay workers, and worship not the gods of Egypt?" he answered interrogatively; and I imagined I detected a haughty light in his eyes, and a movement of his lip, caused by a keen sense of the degradation of which he spake.
"You have expressed my motives," I replied. "If you are proceeding along the avenue of sphinxes, I will accompany you, as I am merely loitering."
"Will you be seen walking with a Hebrew, my lord prince?" he said, significantly.
"You know my rank, then?"
"Your language betrays you; merchants do not speak as you do. Besides, the signet of Prince Remeses, on your hand, designates your rank. I have, moreover, heard you described by one, who will never forget that the first words of kindness he ever received, save from his kinsfolk, fell upon his ears from your lips, O Prince of Tyre!"
"Who is he?" I asked with interest.
"The lad Israel, whom you assisted in restoring to animation by the well of Jacob the Shepherd!"
"At the strangers' fountain!" I repeated. "This little act seems to be known to all the Hebrews!"
"Not to all, but to a few," he answered; "yet it will be heard of by all of them; for kindness and sympathy from any one, especially from a foreign prince, is so strange an event that it will fly from lip to ear. Your name, O noble Sesostris, will be engraven in every memory, and the sound thereof warm hope in every heart!"
He spoke with deep feeling. We walked some distance side by side without speaking. After a few moments' silence I said—
"Where is the youth Israel?"
"With his people near Raamses."
"I am to receive him into my service."
"He will faithfully serve you, my lord prince. He is of my kindred, and I shall be grateful to you for protecting his weakness. Every shoulder in Israel cannot bear the burden!"
"Are you then of the family of Miriam?" I asked, recollecting that the ritual transcriber, in the palace of the hierarch, had also claimed kindred with the son of the venerable Ben Isaac.
"Miriam the scribe?"
"In the service of Luxora and Osiria, of Memphis."
"She is my sister."
"I would have said it!" I answered. "Is your father living?"
"He is in charge of the queen's flower-garden in On."
"I know him," I answered.
"It is he who has spoken of you to me, as well as the aged Ben Isaac, young Israel, and Miriam. Therefore did I at once recognize you, when your polished words led me to see that you were in rank above chief pilots and governors of galleys."
"Will you reply to my inquiry? for, as we know each other's friends, we need not now discourse wholly as strangers. How came you, being a Hebrew, to become a priest? Do not you Hebrews worship the One Infinite Maker and Upholder of worlds?"
"There are a few who retain, unmixed with superstition and idol-worship, the knowledge of the one God of our ancestors Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph; but this knowledge is confined, chiefly, to the descendants of one man, Levi; and only to a few of these. The residue are little better than the Egyptians."
"Art thou of the family of this Levi?" I asked.
"I am. We are more given to study than our brethren, and seek knowledge and wisdom. Hence it is, that some of our tribe are taken from the labor of the field to serve the priests. We are ready writers, skilful with the stylus and the coloring pencil, and our lot is preferable to that of others, who are more ignorant. Hence you behold me a servitor in an Egyptian temple!"
"Hast thou long been in this service?" I asked, as we stopped in the shade of the pyramidion of an obelisk, in front of the temple porch.
"From a child."
"So early! Then thou hast not borne the toils of thy people."
"I was discovered upon the banks of the Nile, in my fourth year, near the Island of Rhoda, weeping bitterly; for I had seen my mother commit my infant brother to a basket and launch it upon the river; and observing it borne down by the current, young as I was, I so felt all its danger, that I ran as well as I could along the shore crying piteously, when a priest (who has made known to me the incident) seeing me, took pity upon me, and noticing that I was a Hebrew child led me away, pacifying me by saying that I should see my brother. From that time I have been an inmate of the temple; for my mother seeing him take me away followed, and as he promised he would rear me as his own son, and that I should see her weekly, she yielded me up to him with reluctant gladness; for, my lord prince, in that day the children of Hebrew parents were not safe even at home, an edict having been published commanding all male infants to be strangled or drowned. Mothers held their children by a slight tenure, and seeing that the protection of a priest would insure my safety, and spare me the toils to which the little ones of our nation were early condemned, my parents readily acquiesced in the wishes of the priest."
"Was thy infant brother lost?" I asked with interest.
"Yes, without doubt. Like hundreds of other innocents, he perished."
"Might he not have been saved by some one as compassionate as your friendly priest?"
"Who would dare to save a child from the king's edict of death? Not one, unless it had been the king's daughter! All his subjects trembled at his power."
"I have heard of that cruel command of Pharaoh Amunophis," I answered. "What is your office in this noble temple?" I asked, surveying the majestic edifice, before which stood a black statue of Apis, the size of life.
"My office is not that of a priest, though it is priestly. I write books of papyrus for the dead. I cast images, in gold, of the young calf Apis. I interpret hieroglyphics, make copies of the tables of rituals, and keep a list of the sacred scrolls. I also study foreign tongues, and transcribe from their books the wisest codes and most solemn forms of worship."
"Yours is an office of trust and honor," I said.
"It is, through the favor of the venerable priest, who is my benefactor, and to whom I am as a son," he answered. "If you will now enter the temple with me, I will show you the casting-room of sacred images; for my duty is there, during the next four hours."
I thanked the courteous Hebrew, and ascending the steps of the portico, entered the vestibule of the temple. By a side corridor, we reached a small court lined with alabastron, in which three priests were pacing up and down, reading and meditating.
Not being noticed at all by them, I was conducted by the stately Hebrew into a chamber, which was the vestibule to a large apartment, whither we descended by eight steps, that led to a large brazen door with two leaves. This was secured; but a small side door admitted us into a vast subterranean room, which I saw was a place for casting. Numerous workmen were busy about heated furnaces: some blowing the fire beneath crucibles for melting gold, some weighing gold and delivering it to the smiths; and others washing gold. Some were casting small images of Apis in moulds, while a superintendent moved up and down, dressed in the close robes of vesture priests wear, when not performing duties at the altar. It was a scene of busy toil and constant activity.
"This," said my guide, "is the casting-chamber of the temple. Each of us has his departments. It is mine, to oversee the mixing of gold with the proper alloy, and I have a scribe who records the results. Here, you see, is a life-size image of Apis, when he was a calf. It is for the temple at Bubastis, of the Delta. There you behold a mould for one of larger size, ordered for the shrine at Osymandyes."
"Do you never cast any figures of the size of Apis?" I asked, looking about me in amazement at this extraordinary scene.
"Not of gold," he answered, conducting me through the vast room in which fourscore men were at work "Those are cast of bronze, not here, but at a temple near the pyramid Dendara. The gods of this temple are in great repute throughout all Egypt. They are consecrated here before they are sent away, with ancient rites, known only to the priesthood of this shrine. Come with me into this side apartment."
I followed him through a passage having double-doors of brass, and found myself in a room full of vases, each one of which contained a quantity of jewelry, consisting of rings for the fingers and thumb, ear-rings, bracelets, flower-holders of gold, necklaces, and signets, all of gold.
"These are sent here from various temples in the different nomes, out of which, after melting them, we cast images of the size demanded."
In another room the intelligent Hebrew exhibited to me a great number of small figures of Apis, of gold of Havilah, which is remarkably beautiful from its deep orange-color. These figures, though not a palm long, were valued at a talent. On all these images of the sacred calf, I perceived that the mark of the crescent between the shoulders was distinctly imitated, as well as the other peculiarities. Upon the head of some of them was a sun enwreathed by the sacred uræus.
"Does your temple derive a revenue from all this?" I asked the Hebrew.
"There is a tithe retained from all the gold that is sent hither, for the expenses of the temple," he answered.
We now turned aside to see men grinding to powder an old image of Apis, of solid gold of Ophir. The image had been in the hands of the Ethiopians, and being recaptured, was sent here to be ground to dust; for it was regarded as accursed until this were done. This process is effected by the free use of natron, and is an art known only to the Egyptians. The dust is then washed in consecrated water. In taste, I am told, it is exceeding bitter and nauseous. Thus gold, as a drink, would not be coveted by men.
We next came to a flight of stairs which led to a paved hall surrounded by columns, and thence a door led into a small garden, where three majestic palms towered high above the columns that inclosed it; while a fountain ceaselessly let fall its refreshing rain, in a vast shallow vase, wherein gold and silver fishes glanced in the light.
It was now near the close of day, and I began to thank him for his courtesy, when he said—
"Do not leave now, O prince. This is my apartment, and the one opposite is that of the aged priest, my benefactor. Enter, and let me have water for thy feet and hands, and place before thee some refreshment; for it is a long walk back to the palace where thou art sojourning."
Willing to learn all I could of the remarkable Hebrew people, who seem to be a nation of princes as well as of bondmen, I accepted his invitation, and entered a cool porch, from which opened a handsome but simply furnished apartment, where he lodged. I seated myself upon a stone bench, when, at a signal made by him, two black slaves approached with ewers of water, one for the hands, and the other with a silver basin for my feet. Each of them had thrown over his shoulder a napkin of the finest linen. But upon the vessels, the vestures, the slaves, and the napkins, I saw the crescent, which showed that they were all the property of the temple.
At length fruit, and wheaten bread, and fish, were laid before me. The Hebrew stood while I partook, declining to eat with me, saying that his nation never broke bread with any but their own people; adding, "and the Egyptians regard it as infamy to sit down with us."
"I have no such prejudices," I said, with a smile. When I had eaten, and laved my fingers in a crystal vase, which the priest placed before me, and the Nubians had retired, I said, "My meeting with you has been a source of great pleasure to me. I am deeply interested in your nation. As a Syrian we are not far from a kindred origin, and as a foreigner I have none of the feelings which, as masters, the Egyptians entertain towards a Hebrew. I have witnessed the working of the deep-seated prejudice in a variety of ways, and cannot but wonder at it. From all I can learn of your history, you have never been at war with them, nor wronged them."
"We are unfortunate, unarmed, and weak; and the greater ever oppress the helpless," he answered.
"Do you feel no resentment?"
"The bondage of one hundred and seventy years has graven the lines of patience deep in our hearts. Forbearance has become a second nature to the Hebrew. But, my lord prince, I feel that this will not always be," he added. "The time cannot be far off, when Egypt, for her own safety, will give us our liberty and the privileges of citizens. We are not a race of bondmen, like Nubia's children. We were once free! Our fathers were princes in Syria; and was not Joseph the ruler of Egypt for sixty-one years, during the long reign of Pharaoh-Apophis? Not long after the Theban dynasty, which now rules the two Egypts, assumed the double crown, did our degradation begin."
"Doubtless a change in your condition must ere long take place," I said. "There must be leaders among you. Not all the suffering of your oppression has destroyed the princely air among many of your people."
"But not one Hebrew is trained to war, or knows the use of any sort of weapon. For three generations, we have been a laboring, patient, unarmed people. If, here and there, one rises above the masses, it is by accident or favor, or from interest on the part of those who employ us. I have said that the family from which I spring is skilled in letters and art, and is ambitious of the learning of the Egyptians, and of becoming scribes and copyists to the priests. Others among us, of the sons of Dan, are skilful boatmen; others are builders; while others prefer the culture of the field, or the tending of flocks. We were twelve princes—brethren—in the ancient days, and the descendants of each are remarkable for some special skill; and the Egyptian taskmasters having discerned this aptitude, distribute them to their work accordingly. We are not all brick-makers, though four fifths of the nation are reduced to that degraded toil—all, of every tribe or family, who are not skilful in some art, being driven into the field. Of late years, the Egyptian artificers have made such great outcries, to the effect that the Hebrews were filling the places of their own workmen, that the chief governor of the Hebrews in Lower Egypt has, in order to preserve peace, sent thousands into the brick-fields, who had never before encountered such heavy toil. The result is, that hundreds perish, and that youths like Israel sink hourly under their unendurable sufferings."
"Have you no gods—no ear to hear your prayers?" I asked impulsively, as I am apt to do, dear mother, when my feelings are deeply moved. "Have you no worship? I hear of no altar or temple."
"A few among us have mysteries, such as the existence of One God; that He is a spirit; that all men are His offspring; and that we must be just in order to please Him. But I must confess, O prince," he said, sadly, "that we have very little knowledge, even the best among us, of the God in whose existence we profess to believe. It is easier to serve and trust to the visible gods of Egypt; and our people, from the depths of their misery, stretch forth their clay-soiled hands to Osiris, to Pthah, to the images of Apis, and cry, 'Deliver us, O gods of Egypt, deliver us from our bondage!' They have cried to the invisible God of Abraham in vain, and they now cry in vain to the gods of the land, also. Neither hear—neither answer; and they sink into blank despair, without any hope left in a god—a nation of infidel slaves!"
"Can this be a true picture?" I said.
"Nearly so. Even I, O prince, under the ever-present power of the religion to which this temple is upreared,—I, from the influence of example, from ignorance of the worship of the Hebrew God of Isaac, from the education of my life, am half an Egyptian. The religion of Egypt appeals to the senses, and these, in most men, are far stronger than the imagination; and we Hebrews know nothing of a God, except that our fathers had one, but that He has deserted and left us, their miserable descendants, under the yoke of oppressors. Is it any wonder that the wisest of us turn to the gods of Egypt? If the Egyptians can be happy, and cherish hope, and die in peace under their faith, let us also seek its shelter, and let their gods be our gods! Such is the prevailing language and growing feeling of our people."
This was all said in a tone of sadness and bitterness; while that despair of which he spoke, cast its shadow heavily over his noble countenance. I arose soon afterwards, and took my leave of him, more and more deeply interested, dear mother, in the history and condition of this singular people.
Your affectionate son,
Sesostris