The Pillar of Fire; or, Israel in Bondage

by J. H. Ingraham

I repeat this conversation, dear mother, in order to show you that the high-born daughters of Egypt are not only affable and sensible, but that they possess no little knowledge of other lands, and take an interest in countries friendly to their own. The grace and beauty of this maiden, as well as her modesty, rendered her conversation attractive and pleasing. She is to become the wife of a brave young captain of the chariot battalion, when he returns from the Ethiopian war.

My visit to the pyramids I will now describe, dear mother, although in a letter to the Princess Thamonda I have given a very full account of it. Accompanied by the hierarch and a few young lords—his friends and mine—we rode in chariots out of the gate of the city, passed the guards, who made obeisance to the high-priest, and entered upon an avenue (what noble avenues are everywhere!) of trees growing upon a raised and terraced mound which bounded each side of it. The mound was emerald-green with verdancy, and the color of the foliage of the palms, acacias, and tamarisk trees was enriched by the bright sunshine as seen through the pure atmosphere. At intervals we passed a pair of obelisks, or through a grand pylon of granite. Then we came to a beautiful lake—the Lake of the Dead—where we passed a procession of shrines. Every nome and all large cities have such a lake. I will here state its use, which, like every thing in Egypt, is a religious one. It is connected with the passage of the dead from this world to the next; for the Egyptians not only believe in a future state, but that rewards or punishments await the soul. When a person of distinction dies, after the second or third day his body is taken charge of by embalmers, a class of persons whose occupation it is to embalm the dead. They have houses in a quarter of the city set apart for this purpose. Here the friends of the dead are shown three models of as many different modes of embalmment, of which they choose one, according to the expense they are willing to incur. "The most honorable and most costly," said the high-priest to me, as we were surveying the Lake of the Dead, towards which a procession was moving from the city, when we came before it, "is that in which the body is made to resemble Osiris. And a custom prevails among us, that the operator who first wounds the body with the sharp embalming flint, preparatory to embalming, is odious by the act, and is compelled to take to flight, pursued with execrations and pelted with stones. No doubt the man we saw flying out of a house this morning, as we passed, was one of these incisors."

The body remains seventy days, if that of a person of rank, at the embalmers. It is then either taken to the house, to be detained a longer or shorter time—according to the attachment of relatives, and their reluctance to part with it—or is prepared for entombment. During the interval of seventy days, the mourners continue their signs of lamentation, which often are excessive in degree, such as tearing off raiment, beating the breast, and pouring dust upon the head. The pomp of the burial of the Pharaohs, I am informed, is inconceivably grand and imposing. The whole realm joins in the rites and processions, and every temple is crowded with sacrificers and incense-burners.

We stopped our chariots to witness the funeral procession advance to the shore of the lake, from the wide street leading from Memphis.

First came seven musicians, playing a solemn dirge upon lyres, flutes, and harps with four chords. Then servants carrying vases of flowers; and others followed, bearing baskets containing gilded cakes, fruit, and crystal goblets of wine. Two boys led a red calf for sacrifice in behalf of the dead, and two others carried in a basket three snow-white geese, also for sacrifice. Others bore beautiful chairs, tablets, napkins, and numerous articles of a household description; while others still, held little shrines, containing the household gods or effigies of their ancestors. Seven men carrying daggers, fans, sandals, and bows, each having a napkin on his shoulder, followed. Next I saw eight men appear, supporting a table; and lying upon it, as offerings, were embroidered couches and lounges, richly inlaid boxes, and an ivory chariot with silver panels, which, with the foregoing articles, the high priest informed me had belonged to the deceased, who, from the cartouch on the chariot, was Rathmes, "lord of the royal gardens."

Behind this chariot came the charioteer, with a pair of horses caparisoned with harness for driving, but which he led on foot out of respect to his late master.

Then came a venerable man, with the features and beard of the Hebrew race. Surprised to see one of these people anywhere, save with an implement of toil in his hand, or bowed down to the earth under a burden, I looked more closely, and recognized the face of the head gardener, Amrami, or Amram, whom I had often seen in the queen's garden, and whom Remeses had taken, as it were, into his service, as he was his foster-father: for it is no uncommon thing with the nobles to have Hebrew nurses for their infants; on the contrary, they are preferred. When Remeses was an infant, it seems, therefore, that the wife of this fine-looking old Hebrew was his foster-mother, or nurse. I have before spoken of the striking resemblance he bears to Remeses. Were he his father (if I may so speak of a prince in connection with a slave), there could not be a much greater likeness.

This venerable man, who must be full seventy years of age, bore in his hand a bunch of flowers, inverted and trailing, in token that his lord was no more. He was followed by not less than fifty under-gardeners, four or five of whom had Hebrew lineaments, but the rest were Egyptians and Persians,—the latter celebrated for the culture of flowers, which are so lavishly used here in all the ceremonies of society and rites of religion.

After them followed four men, each bearing aloft a vase of gold, upon a sort of canopy, with other offerings; then came a large bronze chest, borne by priests, containing the money left to their temple by the deceased. Then, in succession, one who bore his arms; another, a pruning-hook of silver; another, his fans; a fourth, his signets, jewelled collars, and necklaces, displayed upon a cushion of blue silk, adorned with needle-work; and a fifth, the other insignia peculiar to a noble who had been intrusted with the supervision of all the royal gardens in the Memphite kingdom.

Now came four trumpeters and a cymbal-player, performing a martial air, in which voices of men mingled, called "The Hymn of Heroes."