CHAPTER LIX
After the funeral of the pharaoh, Egypt returned to its usual life, and Ramses XIII to affairs of state. The new ruler in the month Epifi visited the cities of the Nile above Thebes. Hence he went to Sni, a city greatly devoted to trade and commerce. In Sni was the temple of Keph, or the "Soul of the World." He visited Edfu, whose temple had pylons a hundred and fifty feet high, and which possessed an immense library of papyruses, and on the walls of which were written and depicted, as it were, an encyclopedia of the geography, astronomy, and theology of that period. He visited the quarries in Chennu, in Nubia, or Kom-Ombo; he made offerings to Horus, the god of light, and to Sebek, the spirit of darkness. He was on the island Ab, which among dark cliffs seemed an emerald, produced the best dates, and was called the Capital of Elephants, Elephantina, for on that island the ivory trade was concentrated. He visited finally the city of Sunnu, situated at the first cataract of the Nile, and visited the immense quarries, granite and sienite, where rocks were split off with wooden wedges on which the quarrymen poured water which swelled them, and thus obelisks one hundred and thirty feet high were detached from the face of the quarry.
Wherever the new lord of Egypt appeared his subjects greeted him wildly. Even criminals, toiling in the quarries men whose bodies were covered with never-healing wounds experienced happiness since the pharaoh commanded to release them for the space of three days from their labor.
Ramses XIII might feel proud and well satisfied, for no pharaoh in time of triumph was received as he on his peaceful journey. So, nomarchs, scribes, and high priests, seeing this boundless attachment of the people, bent before the pharaoh and whispered,
"The people are like a herd of bulls, and we like prudent ants. Hence we will honor our new lord so that he may enjoy health and protect us from ruin."
In this way the opposition of dignitaries, very strong some mouths earlier, had grown silent and yielded to boundless obedience. The whole aristocracy, all the priests, fell on their faces before Ramses XIII; Mefres and Herhor alone were unshaken.
Hence when the pharaoh returned from Sunnu to Thebes the chief treasurer brought unfavorable news the first day to him.
"All the temples," said he, "refuse credit, and beg most obediently that thou, holiness, command to pay in the course of two years all sums which they have lent the treasury."
"I understand," said the pharaoh; "this is the work of holy Mefres. How much do we owe them?"
"About fifty thousand talents."