“Not surprised that you reject the brute-origin of mankind,” returned the Greek; “for that seems to be contrary to the feeling and faith of all nations; but rather surprised that you do not share what I have supposed to be the fashionable opinion among Egyptians as to their immense antiquity, and what would naturally be to you a very pleasant opinion.”
“No opinion is pleasant to me,” replied the old man, slowly shaking his head, “for which I can see no reasonable foundation. Manetho, our only extant historian, was an ancestor of mine. I have his original manuscripts, entire, and am satisfied by the careful study of them and of the palace registers of Thebes that his earlier dynasties were largely cotemporaneous. No; from two thousand to three thousand years are enough to account for our whole history, monuments and all, if we suppose the nation to have been originally gifted and far advanced in civilization on their coming into the land.”
“May I ask from whence you suppose them to have come?” inquired Aleph.
“That is a very broad question at its broadest; and the broadest is what I see in the depths of your eyes. There has been but one tradition among us on the subject, and it is like the traditions of all these western peoples. They look toward the sun-rising. Our fathers entered the land from the north, after journeying from the east. From what part of the great east, do you say? My answer is that Seti the aged is the son of the youth who now stands before me. His is the primitive stock. Caucasian Chaldea is the cradle of the nations. And if you go on to ask whence that cradle and primitive stock, I have to tell you what primitive Egypt thought and said—that Amun Re, the eternal, almighty, and all-wise Spirit, made the stars and the world, and the first parents of us all. That your Democritus and Epicurus,” added the Egyptian, looking archly at Cimon, “should have taught differently! They should have visited us three thousand years ago and taken lessons. They would have steered their way more successfully among the snags and breakers of thought. For, the stream of history is like the Nile—broad with us, and not without its monsters as well as fertilities, but beginning small and beginning very high among mysterious mountains. I speak with confidence; for I feel that, owing to certain circumstances, I stand on higher ground than most observers do, and can see farther across the centuries. The horizon is distant, but I can see that there is a horizon, and that it sweeps high among the clouds.”
At this moment a Roman officer, who had been lying intoxicated behind some boxes, but was now sufficiently recovered to be miserable and quarrelsome, came somewhat unsteadily toward them. They were standing with their backs toward him; and, noticing their plain garbs, he was, perhaps, encouraged in his thought of mischief. Coming up to the Egyptian, he struck him a smart blow on the back with the flat of his sheathed sword which he carried in his hand.
“Ha, old mummy, did you never see a Roman before?” as Seti turned suddenly toward him. “Improve your opportunity. But you will have an opportunity to feel a Roman as well as to see him if you do not at once find the skipper for me. Come, hurry off, old fellow!” and he raised his sword as if for another blow.
Aleph stepped between. “It is more fitting that I should do your errand, if it must be done. You see that I am a young man,” said he, fixing a steady eye on the haughty and inflamed face before him.
“Who are you who dare to stand between a Roman and his will?” cried the officer furiously, his hand still uplifted.
“Let it suffice you that we are peaceable people, moving quietly about on our own private affairs, as Roman law and custom entitle us to do. Do you understand?”