The Pillar of Fire; or, Israel in Bondage

by J. H. Ingraham

"It is not pictorial, and therefore the priests, who are all artists and lovers of colors, reject it. It will be slowly introduced. Upon obelisks and tombs the brilliant and varied hieroglyphic writing will continue, even though the records and rolls may by and by be written with the Tyrian alphabet. You have seen my Chaldaic letter, which I have formed partly on the model of your great Kadmus, and partly on the sacred characters, reducing forms of things to outlines and strokes of the stylus. This I invented, hoping to introduce it into Egypt, if the Tyrian letter is opposed by our priests, on the score of being foreign cabalistic signs; for such do they see fit to regard them, and speak of them. But, my Sesostris, let me learn of you something of your mythology."

I was about to reply, when my attention was attracted to a "procession of the dead" crossing the river just above us, the body being placed in a gorgeous car which stood in a richly painted and gilded baris, with a curved prow carved with the head of Osiris. It was tied to a barge, with twenty rowers, which moved to a slow and solemn strain of music that came wildly floating across the waters to our ears, mingled with the wails of mourners who crowded the deck of the galley; chiefly women with long dishevelled hair and naked breasts, which they beat frantically at times, with piercing cries. Through a small window in the ark or car I could see the painted visage upon the head of the mummy case.

It soon landed, and we resumed our conversation.

"You are aware, O prince," I said, turning to him, "that Phœnicia was settled among the first of the nations, after Typhon sent the flood of waters to destroy Osiris upon earth. Of course you Egyptians believe in the universal inundation of the earth?"

"The tradition is well-founded," he answered. "We believe that mighty nations existed aforetime, beyond the history of any kingdom, and that for their evils the Divine Creator of men brought upon them as punishment a mighty unknown sea, which drowned the world: that Menes, a great and good king, also called Noe-Menes, was spared by the gods, he with all his family being saved in a ship of the old world, which sailed to the mountains of Arabia Deserta, where, guided by a dove, they landed and sacrificed to the gods. This Menes, descending from the mountain, founded Egypt, first building This, or Thebis, and then Memphthis, dividing Egypt into the Thinite and Memphite provinces; and so from Egypt all the world was repeopled.

"Such is our tradition, O Remeses," I said, smiling, "only instead of a mountain in Arabia, it was Libanus, in Syria, to which his galley was guided, not by a dove, but by a raven; and that his name was Ammon, or Hammun; and that the first city built was Sidon, and the next the city of the Island of Tyre."

Remeses returned my smile and said, "No doubt there was a disposition in all our forefathers to give the honor of being the oldest nation to their own. Hammun is also a person in our Egyptian tradition, but is called the son of Menes; who, rebelling against his father, was driven from This or Thebis into Africa, where he founded Libya, and erected to himself, as a god, the ancient temple and worship of Ammon. From him come the Nubians and Ethiopians."

"Then I will claim no traditionary alliance with him," I answered good-humoredly. "Our Ammon was called also Hercules, and the first temple of the earth was built to him on the rocky isle of ancient Tyre. Then Belus, the hero and warrior-god, and founder of Babylon, became the patron of Tyre; and a noble temple was also erected to Nimrod, who slew the wild beasts that swarmed in ancient Syria, and who became the protector of shepherds and agriculture. Thus came our first gods, being men deified; while yours are but attributes, or created celestial powers, high above men; or animated forms representing the Deity incarnate and comprehensible to the senses. Baalbec was a city built to Bel or Belus, who, like your Osiris, is the symbol of the sun, which, of burnished gold, he displayed upon his shield in battle. In Phœnicia we call him 'the Lord of the Sun,' and the 'Sun-God.' We pay him divine honors by sacrifices, libations, and offerings of incense. And this recalls a discovery I recently made in On, that the true meaning of Re and of On is not 'the City of the Sun,' but the 'Lord of the Sun's' city; that is, the city of Osiris, who is the lord of the sun. This meaning of the name at once removes from On the impression which was at first made upon my mind, that you, and the queen, and your whole court, worshipped the sun as the Persic and Parthian nations do; whereas it is Osiris, the Lord of the Sun, that is the Supreme god, generator, producer, and creator of the sun and all things that are. No sooner had I made this discovery, which I did by conversing with the high-priest of On, than I perceived that whatsoever grossness may be found in the religion of the lower castes of the people, who seldom see beyond the symbol, the theology of the wise and great is free from idolatry."

"I am glad you justify us in this matter, dear Sesostris," answered the prince. "We are not idolaters like the Persian and Barbara kings. Our sacred books teach an intellectual and spiritual theology. But, as I have before said to you, the Invisible is so veiled from the people, by the visible forms under which he is offered to them by the priesthood, that while we adore the God of power and strength in Apis, they worship the bull himself: while we in the form of Horus, with his uræus and disk, adore Him who made him a benefactor to men and a pursuer of evil, they bow down to the hawk-headed statue of porphyry and worship the sculptured colossus of stone. But I interrupt you. Proceed, if you please, with the account of the origin of your country's religion."

"I have not much more to add of interest," I answered, "save of Adonis and Astarte."