"I will see if I can; but I fear my interposition will not be heeded in a case like this," he replied. At the same time he deprecatingly waved his hand to the infuriated populace, which had in a few moments increased to a thousand people.
"No, not even for the prince! He has killed a sacred animal. By our laws he also must die. We will sacrifice him to the gods!"
In vain I entreated, and Remeses interposed. The wretched man was torn from our presence by as many hands as could seize him, thrown down the steps of the temple, and trampled upon by the furious crowd, until nothing like a human shape remained. The formless mass was then divided into pieces, and carried to a temple where numerous sacred cats are kept, in order to be given to them to devour. Such is the terrible death they inflict upon one who by accident kills a cat or an ibis!
"The power of the State is weak when contending with the mad strength of superstition," remarked Remeses, as we entered the temple between two statues of brazen bulls. Entering through a majestic doorway, we came into an avenue of vast columns, the size of which impressed me with awe. The temple was originally erected to Pthah, anciently the chief deity of Memphis, and dedicated in the present reign to the sacred bull, whose apartment is the original adytum of the temple.
The worship of Apis and Mnevis, the bulls consecrated to Osiris, exhibits the highest point to which the worship of animals in Egypt has reached, and it was with no little interest I felt myself advancing into the presence of this deified animal. We were met, at the entrance of the avenue of columns, by two priests in white linen robes, over which was a crimson scarf, the sacred color of Apis. They had tall caps on their heads, and each carried a sort of crook. They received the prince with prostrations. Going one before and one behind us, they escorted us along the gloomy and solemn avenue of sculptured columns, until we came to a brazen door. A priest opened it, and we entered a magnificent peristyle court supported by caryatides twelve cubits in height, representing the forms of Egyptian women. We remained in this grand hall a few moments, when a door on the opposite side opened and the sacred bull appeared. He was conducted by a priest, who led him by a gold chain fastened to his horns, which were garlanded with flowers. The animal was large, noble-looking, and jet-black in color, with the exception of a square spot of white upon his forehead. Upon his shoulder was the resemblance of a vulture, and the hairs were double in his tail! These being the sacred marks of Apis, I observed them particularly: there should be also the mark of a scarabæeus on his tongue.
The deity stalked proudly forth, slowly heaving up and down his huge head and thick neck,—a look of barbaric power and grandeur glancing from his eye.
The curator of the sacred animal led him once around the hall, the Egyptians prostrating themselves as he passed them, and even Remeses, instinctively, from custom, bending his head. When he stopped, the prince advanced to him, and taking a jewelled collar from a casket which he brought with him, he said to the high-priest—who, with a censer of incense, prepared to invoke the god—
"My lord priest of Apis: I, Remeses the prince, as a token of my gratitude to the god, of whom the sacred bull is the emblem, for the restoration of my mother, the queen, do make to the temple an offering of this jewelled collar for the sacred bull."
"His sacred majesty, my lord prince, accepts, with condescension and grace, your offering," answered the gorgeously attired high-priest. He then passed the necklace through the cloud of incense thrice, and going up to the bull, fastened the costly gift about his neck, already decorated with the price of a kingdom, while his forehead glittered like a mass of diamonds. A cool draft of wind passing through the open hall, a priest (at least two hundred attendant priests were assembled there to witness the prince's offering) brought a covering or housing of silver and gold tissue, magnificently embroidered, and threw it over the god.
The prince now, at the request of the queen, proceeded to obtain an omen as to the success of his army. He therefore approached and offered the bull a peculiar cake, of which he is very fond, which the animal took from his palm and ate. At this good omen there was a murmur of satisfaction; for a refusal to eat is accounted a bad omen. Remeses smiled as if gratified. Could it be that he had faith in the omen? I know not. Much must be allowed to the customs of a lifetime! Trained to all these rituals from a child, had the philosophy of his later years wholly destroyed in him all faith and confidence in the gods of his mother and his country? The priest now asked a question aloud, addressed to the god: