The Pillar of Fire; or, Israel in Bondage

by J. H. Ingraham

"What is the punishment ordained?"

"To be led back to the gate of Truth and delivered to Justice, who, without a head, sits thereat. The goddess seals the sentence of Osiris upon the forehead of the unclean soul, and instantly it assumes the form of a pig, or some other base animal. The god Thoth then calls up two monkeys, who take the condemned soul to a boat and ferry it back to the world, while the bridge by which it came from the earth is cut down by Anubis, in the form of a man with an axe."

"As every thing in Egyptian mythology is symbolical, what is the signification of these monkeys?"

"Monkeys are emblems of Thoth, the god of time," he answered. "The books of our mysteries teach that the human race began with the monkey, and progressively advanced to man. Osiris, by his judgment, condemns the unclean soul to the level of the monkey again, but first commands it to enter a swine's body, the uncleanest of all beasts, and make its way through the whole circle of animal creation, back to the monkey, and up through the black, barbaric races of men, who have arms like apes, to true man himself. Then, practising virtue and rejecting his former vices, he may after death finally attain to the mansions of the blessed, in the presence of Osiris. But I should add, the souls of bodies unburied can never enter the Gate of Truth."

Here we came in sight of the gigantic pylon that opens to the Temple of the Pyramid of Cheops, and the hierarch ceased speaking. He had, however, but little to add, for his explanations covered all the ground of my inquiries.

Thus, dear mother, have I presented to you the system of worship in this wonderful land. I will now proceed to a description of my visit to the pyramids, which, in sublime majesty, occupied the whole horizon as we advanced beyond the plain of the tombs. At the extremity of the paved causeway of this stately "Avenue of the Dead," leading from the Nile to the pyramids, we beheld the three great triangular mountains of gigantic art obliquely, so that they were grasped by the eye in one grand view. But the lofty mass of Cheops immediately before us, at the end of the avenue, challenged the eye and whole attention of the observer. For a moment, as we dashed onward in our brilliantly painted chariot, our steeds tossing their plumed heads as if proud of their housings of gold and needle-work, we lost sight of the pyramid by the interposition of the gigantic wings of the Gate of the Pyramids. These wings were towers of Syenite rock, one hundred and twenty feet in height, looking down from their twelfth painted and sculptured story upon the tops of the loftiest palms that grew on each side of the entrance. The gate was guarded by priests, who wore a close silver helmet, and held in their hands a short sword, the sheath of which hung to a belt of leopard's skin. They were young men, numbering in all three hundred and sixty, corresponding to the days of the former Egyptian year; while their five captains typify five days added by the gods.

"These young men," said the high-priest, "are all sons of warlike fathers. They desire to become priests, and are now in their novitiate; but after a year's service as guards to the greatest of temples, they will be advanced to a higher degree, and exchange the sword for the shepherd's crook; and thence they rise to be bearers of libation vases, and assistants in sacrifices."

We passed under the lofty pylon, which was spanned by a bronze winged sun, saluted by sixty of the guard on duty; this being the number of each of the six bodies into which they are divided. As soon as we entered the court of the gate, a sight of inconceivable grandeur burst upon me. Imagine a double colonnade of the most magnificent pillars which art could create, extending on each side of an open way a thousand cubits in length. At the end of the grand vista, behold crouched at full length, on the eastern edge of the elevated table on which the pyramids stand, and in an attitude of eternal repose, with an aspect of majesty and benignity inconceivable in the human lineaments, an andro-sphinx of colossal size, having the face of a warrior. Although stretched on the earth, with its fore-paws extended, the summit of the brow is seventy feet above the earth. This sublime image is emblematical, like all Egyptian sphinxes, and represents strength or power combined with intellect. The face I at once recognized to be that of Chephres, as seen upon his obelisk at Rhoda, aggrandized by the vastness of its proportions to the aspect of a god.

From my companion, the prince-hierarch, I learned it was begun by an ancient Pharaoh of the same name, one of the kings of the oldest dynasty, who conceived the idea of chiselling into these grand proportions a mass of rock, which, projecting from the Libyan hills, nearly obstructed the view of the principal pyramid.

We were here forbidden to advance in our chariot, and the footmen, who had never left the side of the horses, however swiftly our charioteer might drive, caught them by the head, and we alighted.