The Pharaoh And The Priest Part 51

From that time through a long series of days he gave himself to devotional exercises with faith and alacrity. In his cell he spent long hours over prayers, he had his head shaven, and put on priestly garments, and four times in twenty-four hours he took part in a chorus of the youngest priests.

His past life, taken up with amus.e.m.e.nts, roused in him aversion, and the disbelief which he had acquired amid foreigners and dissolute youth filled him with dread in that interval. And if that day the choice had been given him to take either the throne or the priestly office, he would have hesitated.

A certain day the great prophet of the temple summoned the prince, and reminded him that he had not entered for prayers exclusively, but to learn wisdom. The prophet praised his devotion, declared that he was purified then from worldly foulness, and commanded him to become acquainted with the schools connected with that temple.

Rather through obedience than curiosity, the prince went directly from him to the interior court, where the department of reading and writing was situated.

That was a great hall, lighted through an opening in the roof. On mats some tens of naked pupils were seated holding wax tablets in their hands. One wall was of smooth alabaster; before it stood a teacher who wrote characters with chalks of various colors.

When the prince entered, the pupils, almost all of the same age that he was, fell on their faces. The teacher bowed, and stopped his actual labor to explain to the youths the great meaning of knowledge.

"My beloved," said he, "a man who has no heart for wisdom must occupy himself with handwork and torment his eyesight. But he who understands the worth of knowledge and forms himself accordingly may gain all kinds of power and every court office. Remember this.[10]

[10] Authentic.

"Look at the wretched fate of men unacquainted with writing. A smith is black and grimy, his hands are full of lumps, and he toils night and day all his lifetime. The quarryman pulls his arms out to satisfy his stomach. The mason while forming a capital in lotus shape is hurled off by wind from the scaffold. A weaver has bent knees, a maker of weapons is ever travelling: barely does he come to his house in the evening when he must leave it. The fingers of a wall painter smell disagreeably, and his time pa.s.ses in tr.i.m.m.i.n.g up trifles. The courier when taking farewell of his family must leave a will, for he may have to meet wild beasts or Asiatics.

"I have shown you the lot of men of various labors, for I wish you to love writing, which is your mother, and now I will present to you its beauties. It is not an empty word on earth, it is the most important of all occupations. He who makes use of writing is respected from childhood; he accomplishes every great mission. But he who takes no part in it lives on in wretchedness. School sciences are as difficult as mountains, but one day of them lasts through eternity. So learn quickly and you will love them. The scribe has a princely position; his pen and his book win him wealth and acceptance."

After a sounding discourse on the dignity of knowledge, a discourse which Egyptian pupils had heard without change for three millenniums, the master took chalk and on the alabaster wall began to write the alphabet. Each letter was expressed through a number of hieroglyphs, or a number of demotic characters. The picture of an eye, a bird, or a panther signified _A_, a sheep or a pot _B_, a man standing or a boat _K_, a serpent _R_, a man sitting or a star _S_. The abundance of signs expressing each sound made the art of reading or writing extremely laborious.

Rameses was wearied by mere listening, during which the only relief was when the teacher commanded some pupil to draw, or to name some letter, and beat him with a cane when he failed in his effort.

Taking farewell of the teacher and the pupils, the prince from the school of scribes pa.s.sed to the school of surveyors. There they taught youth to draw plans of fields which were for the most part rectangular, also to take the elevation of land by means of two laths and a square. In this department also they explained the art of writing numbers no less involved in hieroglyphic or demotic characters. But pure arithmetical problems formed a higher course, and were solved by means of bullets.

Rameses had enough of this, and only after some days would he visit the school of medicine.

This was also a hospital, or rather great garden containing a mult.i.tude of fragrant plants and trees. Patients pa.s.sed whole days in the open air and in sunlight, on beds where strips of stretched canvas took the place of mattresses.

The greatest activity reigned when the prince entered. Some patients were bathing in a pond of running water; attendants were rubbing one man with fragrant ointments, and burning perfumes before another.

There were some whom they had put to sleep by looking at them and by stretching out their bodies; one patient was groaning while they were setting his sprained ankle.

To a certain woman who was grievously sick the priest was giving some mixture from a goblet, while uttering an enchantment which had power in connection with this remedy,--

"Go, cure, go, drive that out of my heart, out of my members."[11]

[11] Authentic.

Then the prince in company with a great leech went to the pharmacy, where one of the priests was preparing cures from plants, honey, olive oil, from the skins of serpents and lizards, from the bones and fat of beasts. When Rameses questioned him, the man did not take his eyes from the work. He looked continually, and ground the materials, uttering a prayer as he did so,--

"Thou hast cured Isis, thou hast cured Isis, thou hast cured Horus--O Isis, great enchantress, make me well, free me from all evil, from harmful red things, from fever of the G.o.d, from fever of the G.o.ddess[12]--

[12] Authentic.

"O Shauagat, eenagate, synie! Erukate! Kauaruchagate! Paparauka paparaka paparura."

"What is he saying?" asked the prince.

"A secret," answered the leech, putting his finger on his lips.

When they came out to an empty court, Rameses said to the great leech,--

"Tell me, holy father, what is the art of curing, and what are its methods. For I have heard that sickness is an evil spirit which settles in a man and torments him, because it is hungry, until it receives the food that it wishes. And that one evil spirit or sickness feeds on honey, another on olive oil, and a third on the excreta of animals. A leech, therefore, should know first what spirit has settled in the sick man, and then what kind of nourishment is required by that spirit, so that it should not torture the patient."

The priest thought awhile and then answered,--

"What sickness is and in what way it falls on the human body, I cannot tell, O Rameses. But to thee I will explain, for thou hast been purified, how we govern ourselves in giving medicine.

"Suppose a given man to be sick in the liver. We priests know that the liver is under the star Peneter-Deva,[13] that the cure must depend on that star.

[13] Planet Venus.

"But here the sages are divided into two schools. Some a.s.sert that it is necessary to give the man who is sick in his liver things over which Peneter-Deva has influence, therefore copper, lapis lazuli, extract of flowers, above all verbena and valerian, finally, various parts of the body of the turtle-dove and the goat. Other leeches consider that when the liver is diseased it is necessary to cure it with just the opposite remedies, and the opponent of Peneter-Deva being Sebek,[14] to give quicksilver, emerald, and agate, hazel-wood and coltsfoot, also parts of the body of a toad and an owl rubbed into powder.

[14] Planet Mercury.

"But this is not all, for it is necessary to think of the day, the month, and the hour of the day, for each of these s.p.a.ces of time are under the influence of a star which must support or weaken the action of the medicine. Besides, it is needful to remember what star and what sign of the Zodiac rules the sick person. Only when the leech considers all these can he prescribe an infallible remedy."

"And do ye help all sick people in the temple?"

The priest shook his head.

"No. The mind of man, which should take in all these details of which I have spoken, makes mistakes very easily. And what is worse, envious spirits, the geniuses of other temples, jealous of their fame, frequently hinder the leech and destroy the effect of his medicines.

The result, therefore, may be that one patient will return to perfect health, another simply grows better, while a third remains without change, though there happen some who become still sicker, or even die-- This is as the G.o.ds will!"

The prince listened with attention, but confessed in soul that he did not understand greatly. All at once he recalled the object of his visit to the temple, and inquired of the great leech unexpectedly,--

"Ye were to show me, holy father, the secret of the treasure of the pharaoh. Was it those things which we have seen?"

"By no means. We know nothing of state affairs. But when the great seer comes, the holy priest Pentuer, he will remove from thy eyes the curtain."

Rameses took leave of the leech with increased curiosity as to what they were to show him.

CHAPTER XXVII

The temple received Pentuer with great honor, and the inferior priests went out half an hour's journey to greet him. From all the wonderful places of Lower Egypt many prophets had a.s.sembled with the intent to hear words of wisdom. A couple of days later came the high priest Mefres and the prophet Mentezufis. These two rendered honor to Pentuer, not only because he was a counsellor of Herhor and notwithstanding his youth a member of the supreme college, but because this priest enjoyed favor throughout Egypt. The G.o.ds had given him a memory which seemed more than human; they had given him eloquence, and above all a marvellous gift of clear vision. In every affair he saw points hidden from others, and was able to explain them in a way understood by all listeners.

More than one nomarch, or high official of the pharaoh, on learning that Pentuer was to celebrate a religious solemnity in the temple of Hator, envied the humblest priest, since he would hear a man inspired by divinities.

The priests who went forth to greet Pentuer felt sure that that dignitary would show himself in a court chariot, or in a litter borne by eight slaves. What was their amazement at beholding a lean ascetic, bareheaded, wearing a coa.r.s.e garment, riding on a she a.s.s, and unattended! He greeted them with great humility, and when they conducted him to the temple he made an offering to the divinity and went straightway to examine the place of the coming festival.

Thenceforth no one saw Pentuer, but in the temple and the adjoining courts there was an uncommon activity. Men brought costly furniture, grain, garments. A number of hundreds of pupils and workmen were freed from their employments; with these Pentuer shut himself up in the court and worked at preparations.

After eight days of hard labor he informed the high priest of Hator that all things were ready.