The Pillar of Fire; or, Israel in Bondage

by J. H. Ingraham

Among other events of the reign of Mœris, was the discovery, by him, that the tradition which represented the great sphinx as being hollowed into chambers was a true one. He found the entrance, which was beneath the small temple, between the fore-paws of the statue. What he discovered is known to no man; but it is certain that he suddenly displayed vast treasures of gold and silver, jewels and precious stones, with which he carried on his magnificent and expensive works.

You have not forgotten the Ethiopian captive king, Occhoris. He still exists, though his beard is snow white and his form bent. He remains a captive, each monarch in succession retaining so important a personage in chains, annually to grace their processions to the temples of the gods.

The condition, my dear father, of the Hebrew people, in whom you are so deeply interested, has enlisted all my sympathies also. Forty years have multiplied their number, notwithstanding all the ingenious efforts of the Pharaohs to destroy them by deadly labors, until they amount to three millions and a half of souls. The population of Egypt is only seven millions; and thus, for every two Egyptians there is one Hebrew. This alarming state of things fills the mind of Thothmeses IV. with ceaseless anxiety. He does not hesitate to confess to me, freely, his fears for the security of his crown.

I have not yet described this monarch to you. When I arrived and presented your letters, he received me with marked courtesy; inquired after your welfare and the prosperity of your reign; asked your age, and when I told him you were seventy-three, he said he knew of no king so aged, unless it was Jethro, king of Midian. He inquired why I had delayed coming to Egypt until I was forty-two (for I told him my age, which exactly corresponds with his own); and when I informed him that I had been engaged in improving and restoring my kingdom of Damascus, which I inherited from my mother, and which the Sabæans had thrice invaded and devastated before I came of age, he expressed his pleasure that peace was restored, and that I had come into Egypt, at last. He seems naturally superstitious, credulous, and irresolute. I think he possesses little or no stability of character, and that he is easily influenced to do evil. He is timid in his policy, yet rash; vain of his wisdom, yet constantly guilty of follies; a devout worshipper of his gods, yet a slave to the basest personal vices; jealous of his rights, yet, from want of courage, suffering them continually to be invaded, both by his subjects and tributary princes; a man whose word is kept, only so far as his present interest demands; who will pardon to-night a suppliant, from irresolution and morbid pity, and execute him in the morning when the coldness of his nature returns. Were he my friend, I should distrust him; were he my foe, I would not delay to place the sea between me and his sword.

Under such a prince, you may imagine that the condition of the Hebrew people is not less pitiable than under his predecessors. Fearing them, he doubles their tasks, and resorts to every device of destruction, short of open and indiscriminate slaughter. Yet even this infernal idea has been suggested by him to his private council; but it was opposed, on the ground that the burial of so many millions would be impossible, and that a plague would result fatal to the population of Egypt.

So the Hebrews still exist, feared, suspected, and crushed by additional burdens. I have been among them, and, as you directed, have made many cautious inquiries after the learned Hebrew, Moses. They are more enlightened than when you saw them. The idea of God is less obscure in their minds, while their hope of a deliverer is bright and ever present. Few of the old men remember Remeses, or Moses; and none of them know any thing of his present abode, but seem sure he is long since dead. I have become deeply interested in some of these venerable men, in whose majestic features, set off by flowing beards, I recognize the lineaments of Abram, their ancestor, as sculptured on the mausoleum of his servant, "Eliezer of Damascus." The beauty of the children and young women, amid all their degradation, is wonderful. I was struck with the seeming good feeling which existed among these and the women of Egypt. The latter, either from pity, or because the Hebrew women are gentle and attractive, hold kind intercourse with them; and at a marriage, which I witnessed in one of their huts, the Hebrew females, especially the bride, were decked with jewels loaned to them by their friends, the Egyptian maidens. I have also been struck with the patient, uncomplaining, and gentle manner in which the Hebrews speak of the Egyptians, excepting their task-officers—who are brutal soldiers—and the king. Generations of oppression have made them forbearing and submissive; and, besides, the Egyptians and Hebrews, who now know one another, knew each other as children, before either could understand their different positions.

Here and there I have met a lord who recalled your visit, dear father, with pleasure; but were you now here you would feel a stranger indeed.

Farewell, my honored and revered father. I will continue my inquiries after Prince Remeses. To my sister Amense, and her husband, Sisiris, king of Sidon, give my kindest greetings.

Your affectionate son,

Remeses of Damascus.