Chapter IV: Prologue (3)

But, while I slept, it seemed to me that I was wandering near the Treasury of Dreams which overlooks the meadows of Eäru in Duät of the gods. And the monotonous song of the slave still hummed in my ears. And anon, as my manner is in dreams, I found that I was all stark, without a single stitch of clothing on me, having naught but my wings and tail fixed to my arms and shoulders and legs at the back, wherewith I swam in the air[23] like a beautiful expert seagull, easily and enormously swooping. And I was flying finely balanced over my former (or future) home in the kingdom of Victory queen of the stalwart stately Anglicans. Which place I have well in memory, having known it, in the life from which I had come, and to which I infallibly shall return terribly and invincibly armed with the wisdom of ages. But I remembered the limpid river, and the little island with its precipitous cliffs save at one end which sloped gently to the water’s edge and the wide-stepped quay. And I recognized the distant river-banks, clothed with oak-forests and steep pine-woods, purifying the air. And I looked southward to see the rivermouth far away, kissing the lips of the innumerably smiling sea. But I knew, also, the small old perfect fortress of grey stone, which stood on the summit of that isle, where were velvet lawns bestarred with daisies, and gardens of quaint herbs and sweet old flowers, and the cedar-tree, and the ghent-azaleas, and the pergola furred with honeysuckle and white roses and passion-flowers and dripping with amethystine wistaria and asterial jasmine. And I saw the library of ancient books for solacing my mind in wintertime when pinecones burn upon the hearth. And I saw my three well-tailed kittens, the white and the yellow and the grey, frisking round my tame white peacocks trailing pearl-like prides indignantly across the pleasaunces and neatly cobbled paths which lead down to the boat-house. There also, I saw my electric gondogla, and my flat-bottomed huge-ruddered sailing bragozzetto. And, too, I saw my sailors, John Marcus and Ermenegildo Falier by name, the last telling horrible Venetian tales to my three servants, Bob and Bill and Roddy, having finished their day’s work in my house and gardens. But I swam in the air round and about the place, so near to the flag of Saint George and the ensign of the Cinque Ports which flew from my battlements that I could have touched the bunting with my hand; and yet I was unseen by any mortal eye. Wherefore I flew back to the Treasury of Dreams.[24]

And I saw the Master of Dreams summoning a certain blameless Dream, to whom he said: “Go thou to such and such a priest of Isis, who sleeps in a barge, near Koptos, on River Nile; and try whether he will receive thee.” And the Dream, having wrapped a cloak of pink and tinsel falsehood about him, leaped out through an ivory gate; and dived down toward me, asleep, in the cabin of my barge. But, because he could not find a foothold there (though he fought like a dog for it), he slank back to the Dream-Master, to whom he sulkily snarled: “Lord, there is that on that barge which prevents me.” Whereat, the Dream-Master (having smiled and having dismissed him to his place) summoned another Dream, to whom he gave a similar charge. And the second Dream donned a cloak which seemed to be woven of dewdrops and the eyes of kittens or babies; and he leaped out of another gate, and pounced like a robin on my brow. And, with him, there entered to me Belmarduk the god of Assyria, very brave with fringed vestments and well-curled love-locks, attended by winged bulls and sphynxes and cherubs; and the heroes Gilgamish and Eabani came flatly smirking sideways in his train. But Belmarduk addressed me, saying: “By favour of the gods of Khem, I come to thee in a land which is not mine; and my message is that thou shalt be a king in Armenia, that is to say in Moxoene which is called Magurturgadash in Naïri.” And, when he had said this, the traveller-god departed as he came. But, in my dream, I wondered very greatly, being overwhelmed with wave after wave of astonishment: even as a stranded ship is washed by waves pushed by azure-haired earth-shaking Nun, the lord of the ocean. For I was ignorant of the cause why any gods should visit me, specially a strange god, or why Assyrian gods should visit an Egyptian priest. And other doubts also assailed me. Wherefore, in my dream, I mentioned my perplexity to our holy Mother Isis, the wise goddess, whose priest I was, asking for news of these matters; and she instantly answered me by the mouth of Tefeu her messenger, saying: “_The god of Assyria came to thee: because the word hath gone forth in the hall of fate from the abode of The Supreme, the Dweller in the Innermost, Whose decrees nor god nor hero nor mortal can evade._” And the scorpion-headed god shewed the _Sign of Life_ in token that the Lady of the Marsh indeed had sent him. But, having done this, he fled on uplifting wings to Duät of the gods which is above Amentet. Whereat I awakened from my sleep.

Such was the dream which I dreamed in my barge on sacred Sihor.

FOOTNOTES:

[22] The title of this ballad is written in the French tongue in what I take to be Mr. Crabbe’s own hand. “Galatia” is rather interesting, perhaps. A. H.

[23] Of course I suppose that it is fairly well known, now, that Mr. C. was the first living man of our era actually to fly of himself like a bird or an angel, and not like a libellulan insect in an Antoinette. The story of his (shall we say--are we quite justified in saying) accidental discovery of the slight physical development which enables this, need not be iterated here, I fancy. A. H.

[24] There is quite a considerable number of words in this really singularly and exquisitely lovely pen-picture of the home of a hungry heart, of a lonely soul, which are written in English in what I unhesitatingly pronounce to be Mr. Crabbe’s own hand. It is quite unnecessary for me to indicate them. A. H.

THE SEVENTH PAPYRUS

But now the sun was near his setting, swathing the vast dome of heaven with arras of green and lilac and rose and burning gold. And, on the floor by my couch, the slave had fallen asleep, with the fan still in his hand, and his gleaming limbs stretched out, smooth, brick-red, decently folded. But, the air being cooler, I did not disturb him, but remained lying on the couch, pondering my dream. And, the more I pondered, the less I knew of the manner in which I might assist the fulfilment of the Supreme Decree. But, above all things, I was anxious to avoid the vulgar error of confusing particulars with universals, so as not to lose the fruit of any revelations which the gods had intended.

And, while I was thus meditating, suddenly I remembered a certain magic, by which one may learn a very great deal of the future; and it seemed to me that, in this way, I might test the prediction of my dream. But, indeed, it was the well-made body of my slave, straight, quickening, and apparently spotless, meeting my eyes while I thought on these matters, which recalled this magic from my memory: for it may only be done with just such an innocent one. Wherefore, being awakened, Yokkho opened his fearless black eyes and listened: whom I commanded to slip into the river, and to return to me fresh and clean. This he did. But I inspected him with the most careful minuteness from head to foot; and, having found neither speck nor blemish anywhere upon him, and his teeth sound and perfect, then I knew that he was worthy of my purpose.

But, having seated him on the edge of the cabin roof, with his legs hanging down, for there the light was strongest, I placed his right hand on his knee, the palm being upward: whereon, with my Waterman’s Ideal Fountain Pen,[25] I drew two squares, a lesser inside a greater; and, in each corner of the outer square, I wrote the arabic numbers, Four Two Eight Six, with a Three between the Four and the Eight, and a One between the Eight and the Six, and a Seven between the Six and the Two, and a Nine between the Two and the Four; and, in the top of the inner square, I wrote the arabic number Five: but, under it, I put a fair large drop of pure dichroic ink, purple-black, having unscrewed the top of my pen. And, when all this had been well-done, I bade Yokkho to bend the ridge of his supple back, looking attentively into the drop of ink, and telling me what he should see therein. But, standing below him in the waist of the barge, I looked up into his downcast eyes, very long and lucid and fixed upon the drop of ink. And the black-fringed eyelids gently winked from time to time in the ordinary manner: but, being a very obedient slave, his gaze did not waver from the palm of his hand.

Then, there came a moment when the winking ceased, and the eyes became fixed wide open but still looking downward. And, when I, with a low voice, bade him again to speak, telling the things which he saw in the drop of ink, then, indeed, he spoke as one who at a long distance speaks to himself, very gravely, very slowly, very solemnly, saying: “_The silver god, pointing at the galley, slays._” Then his eyes wavered, and again became fixed. And his voice continued, speaking single sets of words divided by intervals as before; and he thus said: _The silver god, in the temple, taking the bow which sings.... The silver god, in the ship, speaking with the azure-haired god, on the white horses.... The silver god leading the golden goddess, from the dark.... The silver god, and the golden goddess, before many gods and goddesses.... The silver god, and the golden goddess on a throne.... The silver god, following the star._ Having said these words, which seemed to be nonsensical, he tired me. Whereat I smacked him, shaking his hand till the dark ink trickled over his thighs; and so I dismissed him to relieve Nesamun at the steering-oar.

Thus I did with Yokkho, without gaining the wisdom which I expected.

But, during the rest of the evening, while the boatman was sleeping, I made no more attempts at explaining the past or foreseeing the future: for it seemed that this was not permitted. But I myself took the steering-oar, dismissing the slave to seek more sleep in the waist, by the boatman. And, as we sailed along, I watched the sky turning violet with an after-glow of rose-colour fretted with green, which deepened into the clear dark heliotrope of night sown with innumerable constellations, surrounding the white-blazing serene moon. But, when the slaves had finished sleeping, they prepared a meal, and I refreshed my body with food and wine, while Yokkho returned to the steering-oar.

But I inquired of Nesamun the name of the city which we were passing on the right hythe, having seen a cluster of temples with their pylons and flagstaves and very many houses there.

“Lord,” he answered, “it is the city of Khenoboskis; and, on the left, should be the lesser Diospolis of the Lagidai which we used to call Mutio. But, in the morning we shall water at Ptolemais Hermii, another city of the Lagidai.”

“Our stay,” I said, “must be a short one: for I wish to come to Tanis without delay.”

“Lord, hast thou not heard of the mutineers at Antaiopolis, who bar the way?”

“Not my way, nor the way of the barge which bears me.”

“Nor the way of thy slaves, then, who attend thee:” added Nesamun very quietly.

“Thou art not afraid?” I responded, inquiring.

“Nay, lord, for who can see with his eyes a god, unwilling, going either here or there. But I also can fight, if fighting be toward.”

Now, when he spoke thus, I laughed without letting my memory be seen. For I remembered that his brother-in-law and partner had taken me for wing-footed Hermes, because of my strange aspect and the magic inchantment which I did with obsequious crocodiles; and I considered that the reputation of godship would do me no harm. But, looking also upon Nesamun, as he crouched before me in the open waist of the barge, more closely than I had looked hitherto, I was ware that he would fight well, as one born for fighting, being of a species different from that of other Egyptians. For he was a very mighty youth, in his prime, and his four bones were large and very long; and, although he had no muscles as youths of other races have, nevertheless his flesh was extremely firm and sinewy, and his skin healthily tanned and as smooth and polished as fine linen. Furthermore, I marked the immense force of his supple shoulders and thighs, and the strength of his loins and arms and deep-breathing breast. But, above all, I could read an indomitable character in the poise of his head and the carriage of his body, and specially in his fierce young eyes, which flashed so blackly and so whitely when his mind looked out on me. For which causes, I was not unwilling to have such an one on my side. And I opined that my own not-inconsiderable strength, and my wiliness, together with my magic and my arms, all assisted by the fearless obedience of little Yokkho and the intelligent force of Nesamun, needed not to worry about the resistance to be encountered.

But, nevertheless, I made my preparations. And, seeing another vessel coming up the river toward us, I bade my boatman to hail her and to ask for news of the rebels. Whereby I learned that, having been driven from Antaiopolis by Psalkos Memmaïdes (the Pharoah’s general and governour of the lower Thebaid), they had sacked Hisoris, and were now holding the very place which I was intending to pass in the morning, that is to say Ptolemais Hermii. And, having mentioned that the rebel-leader Pyrrhos was the mightiest warrior ever seen in Egypt, the strangers scurried fearfully toward Thebes, adjuring us to turn and follow them: for, said they, to go downstream was to court an evil and somewhat protracted death.

Having heard this, and having ordered my slaves to sleep by turns and not to come within sight of Ptolemais Hermii before dawn, I rested tranquilly in dreamless sleep. And, waking while it was yet dark, we three bathed one by one, not disturbing the sons of slime, and also refreshed our bodies with food and wine. Which having been done, I instructed Nesamun and Yokkho for the fray, saying that they were not to concern themselves with anything, excepting the swift manœuvring of the barge, instantly and implicitly obeying my commands. And my first stratagem was to lower the sail, lest it should be injured in the battle which I expected. But Yokkho was to stand by with the cordage, ready to hoist the yard immediately when we should have pierced our foes. And Nesamun was to govern our course with the steering-oar under my directions. But I buckled on my cartridge-belt and loaded my revolver. And, when Helios Hyperion had driven the chariot of the sun about an hour above the horizon, we drifted on the current in sight of Ptolemais Hermii.

But, between us and that city, I espied a long and lofty galley, propelled by forty oars, hissing toward us.

A glance at the alert eager faces of my slaves shewed me that all was as I would have it; and, stepping into the waist, I inspected the advancing enemy. The galley was crowded with mercenaries from stem to stern. Red horse-hair streamed from their helmets. The shields of some, who were Rhodians, bore the rose of Rhodes. The others, as I learned later, were Karians. All wore white and blue kirtles girt with well-made sword-belts: but owing to the heat of the land and the feebleness of those who hitherto had encountered them, they neglected their greaves and body-armour. The rebel Pyrrhos (most righteous of men) stood on the prow, wearing a scarlet kirtle and a short purple military cloak. His helmet gleamed with well-forged brass; and a plume of red horse-hair sprouted therefrom. But the oars of the galley were pulled by enormous portly Nubians, rolling-eyed, blubber-lipped; and fiercely they snorted coming on.

“Stop, stranger!” shouted the blameless Pyrrhos.

“In whose name?” I inquired, dallying with my victim.

“In my name:” he answered.

“On what penalty?”

“Death.”

“For whom?”

“For thee. Spear me this confounded babbler, O Orkhos:” he cried.

A spear hurtled toward me: but, at my quick command, Nesamun zigzagged the barge to let it pass, and held on a straight course as before. The galley swung athwart the stream twenty long paces distant. But I, raising my revolver and taking aim at the rebel-leader, bellowed: “Pyrrhos, I give thy carcase to the sons of slime.”

And dark doom leaped from my finger and pressing palm, and sank into the socket of his eye. And his life withered in the seat of wisdom, so that his soul fled gibbering to the netherworld. But the carcase, heavily lurching, fell, purple and bejewelled, dully splashing into sacred Sihor; and crocodiles dragged down the shreds and tatters of its fatness with bubbling swirlings.

But the blameless mercenaries sucked in their breath during a full minute, being appalled at the sight of their leader turned topsy-turvy by a noise like the yap of a small dog. But Nesamun held my barge still, stem on to the galley’s side and twenty long paces from it, ready to leap forward or backward at my word. But I said, very sternly: “Thus, O ye rebels, do I treat prepotence and audacity. And thus, also, will I deal with all, arrogant, who bar my passage.”

And, so saying, I paused, while I reloaded my revolver, that they might evacuate their sites if they were wise. But, recovering from their amazement, they took to hurling javelins; and the rowers bent to their sweeps, turning the galley upstream and driving the dreadful ram against me. Then, indeed, did Nesamun give proof of his quality, nimbly leaping to and fro on his narrow station to avoid the hissing darts and (at the same time) wielding the steering-oar so dexterously that we circled round the cumbrous galley, always maintaining our relative position. But I, partly sheltered by the bulwarks, fired into selected eyes or ear-holes of the rebels, as their destinies presented the same to me. For the pure lust of fighting, which never before had really inflamed me, had come upon me; and I laughed hideously in bloodthirsty glee as my enemies fell to my hand. And those, in whose wet eyes my bullets quenched their blunt-nosed heat in fizzling, tossed their useless limbs when Death entered to drive out Life; and their knees slackened as they flopped into the river, where crocodiles anxiously scrambled for morsels of them. But my last shot slew two Karians, passing through their ear-holes, and also a Nubian in whose it remained. And the current threw the sweep, slipping from his dead hands on to the oars of his fellows, causing a shocking confusion, in the midst of which I recharged my revolver a third time.

But the rebel-helmsman was already a refection for the sons of slime. And, the galley having swung right round so that it now lay between me and Thebes, I saw that the mercenaries desired to escape upstream, being no longer inclined to have dealings with me. Wherefore, having sent fourteen in all of them to Osiris, I gave a word to Nesamun and Yokkho. And, instantly, the sail ascended to the top of the mast, while the boatman brought us about into a favouring breeze; and, as an eagle spreads his pinions having satiated his hunger with a prey, so we sped on toward Ptolemais Hermii.

In this manner I disposed of an impediment on sacred Sihor.

FOOTNOTES:

[25] English. A. H.

THE EIGHTH PAPYRUS

But, as soon as the barge was going swiftly with wind and stream, Nesamun fixed the steering-oar, and came forward with Yokkho to adore me. And, having laid their two bodies (gleaming with wholesome sweat) at length at my feet, then they praised me in the Egyptian mode. But, when they rose up, we refreshed ourselves with cups of wine; and the boatman collected spears and javelins which were sticking in various parts of the barge, and stacked them in tidy bundles near the prow. But the slave brought sweet water for bathing a wound in my left forearm, which had appeared to be a deep one: but, when the drying blood was washed away, it was seen to be merely a scratch. And he bound it up, using the nimble tender fingers which had waited so patiently, during the fight, to hoist the sail at the very moment when I commanded afterward. But, when I had rewarded them each with a handful of Egyptian silver, I retired to my cabin, the radiant sun being near its height; and, anon, dark sleep embraced me.

And, once again I was disturbed by conceptions not of a restful nature. For, while my body slept, the mind in my dear breast concerned itself about innumerable ideas, asking unanswerable questions. It was quite clear to me that I indeed was living a new life: but I was not certain as to whether I was still a man, or really (as people opined) a god. And I laughed at the latter notion: because I never before had heard of a Yacht Club member (as I am, having compounded my subscription and never having been expelled), who also was a god of sorts. But, god or man, I supposed that I still had the right to put the address of the club on my visiting-card. And once more I laughed at the notion of leaving visiting-cards on Gajus Julius Cæsar, and Marcus Tullius Cicero, and the whole blameless gang of venal (but Roman) old-fogeydom, whom I actually might see in the flesh within a month, simply by crossing the unvintaged sea. But the scratch on my arm smarted, in what I took to be an ungodly manner: for I knew not then that the blessed gods are ever so much more sensible to pain than your mere man, having made men in a godlike image, but having given them only the sorriest fraction of a godlike nature. And the Whole is naturally greater than a Part of a Whole. But I persuaded myself that I was a man, at least so far. And, yet again, I laughed at the notions that I, a subject of Victory, queen of the stalwart stately Anglicans, was also an Egyptian master of magic, and, that I, a catholic of the Apostolic Latin Obedience, on whose agonies of cold and hunger and thirst and mind-maddening loneliness the foundations of Westminster Cathedral were laid, was also a priest of Isis. And a doubt came to me from I know not where, as to whether there were in fact any gods at all, beside those which men are wont to make in their own idiotic image,[26] and (if, perchance, there ever had been gods), whether they had not all retired from business, to die at their ease, having grown so feeble that mortals could handle them rudely even before windy Ilion far back in the morning of time. Or, perhaps, the gods of the Argives had gone into partnership with the gods of the barbarians. For there certainly were gods in barbaric places, and my eyes had seen them; and I began to contrive new wiles for seeing them again one after the other, asking them to send me back to my own time, if I had a time. But I became displeased with the frivolous manner of the thought of visiting immortal gods who inhabit olympian palaces. And yet, I asked myself, why should I not visit gods, who had been visited by a strange god, even Belmarduk the god of Assyria with his attendant heroes. And that notion, that a god should have taken the trouble to come from distant Assyria to visit me in the land of Khem, convinced me that (if indeed I was not in truth a god) I was extremely important as a man, being certainly the sole representative of The Great Queen Victory, queen of the stalwart stately Anglicans, in the Egypt over which the Pharoah Ptolemaios Ayletes ruled. And that idea reminded me of my Foreign Office Passport, and of the risk (which I was running) of being arrested as the possessor of an undecypherable document. But I scorned that; and began to contrive yet newer plans for going to see the Kolossos of Rhodes when I should have finished my business with Amenemhat at Tanis. And the last notion made me think of South Africa,[27] and the colossal man Umgugondlhovu (as the Zulus name the rumble of an elephant) whom I had left overshadowing that country, with the hybrid horde of I.D.Bs. and polemic georgics,[28] all the most righteous of men, who infested his vicinity. And the notion of an elephant reminded of a circus. And the notion of a circus gave me a foresight of the green and blue factions of Purity and Holy Wisdom striving in the circus at Constantinople. And, from Constantinople onward, notions came to me in crowds, notions of Turks, Bulgarian and Albanian atrocities, the traitors Gladstone and Asquith, the treaties of The Hague and Berlin, the German Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, Karl the Great, Rome, Pontifex Maximus, Saint Peter, strange gods, with whom I had no time to deal separately owing to a pressing engagement, but merely checked off their names as the procession hurried by. And, then, having come back to the notion of strange gods with which I had started, I bounded out of my dream.

And, instantly, to me there came the last words of my dream, namely “strange gods,” said in a fat phlegmatic voice near by.

To which the strong tones of Nesamun firmly answered, saying: “I have said that my lord is indeed a god. I myself am loyal to the Pharoah; but I dare not stop until my lord the god bids me. And he is asleep.”

“Let us see this strange god who journeys in a hired barge. Awaken thy god, O slave, and let us see him:” the fat voice wheezed.

But I, slinging on my revolver again, stepped out of the cabin. And, at sight of me, the boatman shut his full red lips; and leaned easily upon the steering-oar, as one whose part is well-done. But I perceived that a royal galley lay alongside, which bore a very inquisitive negro, richly garbed and of hideously inconvenient obesity. Whom I austerely addressed, demanding his generalities.

“I,” he said, in a quieter tone, “am the Pharoah’s private detective; and I stop all boats which come downstream to satisfy myself that they are not sent by the rebel-mercenaries.”

“These spears and javelins,” I answered him, shewing the stacks, “are branded with the Rose of Rhodes and the Crane of the Karians; and they were drawn out of the holes which thou mayst see among my bulwarks: into which holes they first were hurled by the rebels. Judge, therefore, whether the rebels would thus have assailed their friends, or their foes.”

“But, if ye be foes of the rebels, ye must have passed them by.”

“That is true,” I said: “for I encountered them above Ptolemais Hermii, where I slew Pyrrhos and thirteen of his gang; and so I passed them by.”

“Dost thou say that thou hast slain Pyrrhos and thirteen of the mercenaries? Either thou art indeed a god, or a hero, or a very great liar. And, as I take thee for the last, I shall detain thee while I inquire into the truth of thy story. If it be true, thou shalt be compensated. If it be false, prepare to suffer certain torments.”

Thus rashly he spoke, beating his ceruminous belly: but I, glowing with anger, said: “And dost thou, O mountain of impudence, think that I, who have outfaced a whole galley full of armed Greeks, will be stayed by any emasculate slaves of the Lagidai?”

“Hear the voice of the god, and give ear to long-armed Psammy lord of apes:” the fat phlegmatic negro exclaimed in a tone of derision.

But my blood boiled because my rather-long arms were mocked by a blameless black man; and the lust of battle inflamed me again, making my great strength as the strength of nineteen; and the ferocity of the long-curving fiercely-clutching claws of a crab inflamed the hands of me. For which causes, and knowing that it would take a better man than a bloated nigger to stand up to me, I bounded from my bulwark to the galley, terribly bellowing. And, alighting near my scoffer, I rent the well-toothed jaw from the head of him, and smashed the rest of his face to a purple pudding therewith. Also, tearing his fingers asunder like a rag, I split his right hand up to the wrist; and, so, I tossed him, devoutly hiccoughing his physical agony, as an offering to the sons of slime.

But I turned swiftly to seek another victim. And, on the prow, an archer stood balanced on long slim straddling legs, drawing a brass-tipped arrow to his ear: but its point was toward me. And him, complaining bitterly, I also sacrificed to the inchanted crocodiles.

But, being now well in the way of fighting, I snatched at my revolver; and, by chance, my hand touched the magic staff hanging from my belt. And the potency of it caused certain admirable events. For, first, my wrath cooled, and instantly died away: but I myself began to utter wily words in my usual manner, pointing the staff at the crew of the Pharoah’s galley, and saying: “Ye have seen the dire fate which overtakes those who temerariously oppose me. Be wise, therefore. Stand not in my way: nor follow me too far.[29] But draw off speedily, lest a like doom should afflict you also.”

But, when I had spoken thus with my mouth, I added the _Spell Which Binds_ with my mind. And, being bound, they remained whimpering, but as still as stones: but I, returning to my barge, washed my hands and resumed my journey.

After this manner I did with the Pharoah’s objectionable private detective.

FOOTNOTES:

[26] I really cannot resist preserving this most pleasing pleonasm. A. H.

[27] It is perhaps unnecessary for me to mention that this papyrus simply bristles with words neatly written in English of course by Mr. C. himself. A. H.

[28] This is the most cryptic allusion in the present fragment; and I must confess that it puzzles me sadly. I am given to understand that “Iota Delta Beta” sometimes signifies “Illicit Diamond Buyer,” an obsolete species of South African criminal. But what kind of thing a “Military Agriculturist” is (for that is what Mr. Crabbe’s Greek means), passes my comprehension. I have therefore rendered the expression by a simple transliteration of the original. A. H.

[29] I simply can’t help lifting this sentence clean out of Meredith’s _Harry Richmond_; and I defy anyone to give a neater version of Mr. Crabbe’s original, “ὉΠΩΣ ΜΗΤΕ ΑΝΤΙϹΤΗϹΕΙ ΜΟΙ; ΜΗΤΕ ΕΨΕΙ ΠΟΡΡΩΤΕΡΩ.” A. H.

THE NINTH PAPYRUS

Now it seemed to me, when I pondered the thing, that it was a misfortune. For, when a wily stranger desires to pass through a foreign country for a certain secret purpose, it is but prudent for him to refrain from marking his road with homicides. Even my victory over Pyrrhos, though the Pharoah would pension me for slaying his enemies, gave me notoriety instead of the oblivion which I preferred. But the matter of the face-marred negro was indeed grave: for he was an officer of the Pharoah. For which cause, I perceived that the blessed gods would have me in Tanis without delay, that I might find my friend there and perform my business in seclusion. For a man may seclude himself far more easily in a city (excepting in a certain city) than in the open country. So, for three days, I sailed in peace, resting my body, but contriving many new wiles.

But the possession of the barge and of the two slaves weighed upon me. For, having considered that I was going to a strange place, in search of one of whose existence in the flesh I had no actual knowledge, I determined that it is well (in all warfare) to provide a base for operations, and one which can be moved upon occasion. And it seemed to me that the barge and the slaves were precisely what I wanted. Yet I did not know whether they would serve me willingly at the end of the voyage for which they had been engaged; and, in a delicate matter, I will have none but willing and (indeed) devoted assistants. With these notions in my mind, therefore, I used winged words, questioning Nesamun and Yokkho while they piously shaved each other’s heads. And I elicited that, when Nesamun’s sister married the Argive bargeman at Thebes, the two mariners joined together in partnership, Nesamun being owner of the barge which I had on hire, and the three barges which we had left at Thebes being the property of his brother-in-law. Also, I learned that Yokkho was the son of another sister of Nesamun, both his parents being some time guests of the Divine Osiris in Amentet. Moreover, I learned that both were perfectly free to dispose of themselves as they pleased, and that on reaching Tanis nothing remained expected but that I should dismiss the youth and the boy with a gift, for they refused to take hire from a god: they, then, in the ordinary way, would convey another passenger upstream, returning to Thebes while I went back to heaven to attend to my godly affairs.

But, after I had heard all these things, and while I was weighing them in my mind, Nesamun and Yokkho crept nearer, laying themselves out at length on their faces very straight at my feet, and begging me not to send them away. And I, having considered their intelligence and fidelity not less than their agility and strength and quite singular comeliness, did not peremptorily deny them. For, in fact, the Nesamunity of Nesamun and the Yokkhoism of Yokkho were far from displeasing me.[30] Moreover, the words which Yokkho had intoned, when he looked into the palm-mirror, suddenly climbed out of my memory and buzzed at me. He, indeed, had chaunted: “_The silver god, pointing at the galley, slays_:” and undoubtedly I (not old but silver-haired, and a god as they called me) had slain Pyrrhos and certain few on a galley, pointing my death-spitter at his eye. But that was only one of the things which the clear-seeing slave had predicted, being the first of his utterances; and, perchance, the others also would be fulfilled in their order. And I became sorrowful because I had smacked the clear-seer nor paid due heed to his sayings. But, calling on Memory for a really violent effort, I recollected the seven predictions, each in its turn, writing them in my hand-book; and I perceived that, next, the silver god would take a singing bow in a temple. Now, supposing myself to be the silver god, it was quite certain that I was about to visit a temple, seeking Amenemhat; and I opined that, there, I should engage in some adventure of a singing bow at the pleasure of the gods. Which adventure I began very eagerly to anticipate. But, meanwhile, Nesamun and Yokkho lay stretched at length before me in supplication.

And I determined that it would be greatly to my advantage to have the commodious barge at hand, as a base of operations, as a retreat, or as a means of retirement, should such be desirable. And I also determined that good slaves, who are willing slaves, are very hard to find, and (when found) ought to be cherished and used rather than rejected and wasted. And, lastly, I determined that these two, being well-made in mind and body, were very proper subjects for my magic arts, and likely to be of inestimable value. For which causes, I granted their petition. And, having bought their persons from themselves, paying two gold quarter-ounces to Nesamun for himself and one to Yokkho for himself, I bought also the barge and its apparatus from Nesamun for another gold quarter-ounce, all in the coinage of Victory queen of the stalwart stately Anglicans. And so we came nearer to Tanis.

But, during the last hour of my journey, I cut (from one of the Rhodian javelins) the little wooden emblem which none know save only the priests of Isis, without which none may penetrate the sanctuaries of temples. And I added it to the implements which I was to take with me on my quest of Amenemhat. And, having concealed all my other gear beneath the floor of my cabin in the presence of my slaves, in their view also (using my magic staff) I summoned the sons of slime, committing the charge of my goods to Nesamun and Yokkho, with a crowd of inchanted crocodiles for witnesses, whom anon I dismissed with the _Word_.

Thus we came to the last reach leading to Tanis which sits on both hythes of the river. But, skimming onward, we passed the little fane of Pasht, marking the site of the old city-wall which the hordes of Okhos had destroyed in the days when Nekt-Nebf was the Pharoah. And we found a small quay below the city, secluded and abandoned, very suitable for a voyager desirous of privacy. But here my journey ended.

And, as soon as the barge was anchored, I sent Nesamun girded into the city to buy a length of fine linen, and to replenish my store of victuals and drink. Furthermore, I bade him to buy for me a necklace of heliotrope stones and a posy of fresh marigolds, for a new wile which I had invented. And, when the slave returned, I made a priest’s surplice of fine linen, wherewith I vested my body, placing beneath it various convenient matters. But, when I appeared as a priest to them, I bade the slaves to clean the barge, and to pitch it within and without with pitch of Zakynthos (which pitch is the best), and also to keep it ready to start on a new voyage at a moment’s notice either by day or by night.

Thus I spoke; and instantly I stepped ashore. But, when the two slaves popped their heads above the bulwark to observe my going, then, indeed, I rubbed the marigolds in my hand against the necklace of bloodstones which I wore, moistening the beads with the flower-juice; and, having made the proper _Act of Will_, I forthwith vanished away, simply becoming invisible at two paces’ distance, and all in broad daylight. And this I did as very becoming to a god, and also to confirm them in fidelity, for a slave will not play his lord falsely when he has no certainty whether his said lord is here, or there.

In this manner, I came to Tanis.

FOOTNOTES:

[30] This sentence is exquisite in its justice. If we moderns only had the gumption to let ourselves be guided by the great natural law of Sympathy and Antipathy as naïvely as Mr. Crabbe appears to have done, how many failures, and (one can even say) tragedies, would be avoided. A. H.

THE TENTH PAPYRUS

But I wended my way through the city, having taken my visible shape again in a dark entry. And I passed the walls and the gates, and the temples with their pylons, and quays thronged with merchants of all nations and slaves of all human colour. And I saw the galleys of the Sidonians, and the light barks of the Sikels, with heavy merchant-ships from Rome, and Argive biremes and trading sloops. But a great quinquereme lay in the fairway of the mighty river; and it flew the royal purple standard of the Lagidai, denoting that a prince of Egypt was on board. And, everywhere about me were the insolent mercenaries of the flute-playing Pharoah, standing in crowds: nor did any soldier stand alone, save the sentry on the great ship which swang at anchor in the current of the Tanitic branch of life-giving Sihor. Yet, great and busy as it appeared, Tanis had but a small part of the shadow of its former greatness when it was the chief city of the Lower Land. Slowly and surely had that greatness faded, as a well-painted wall fades unsheltered from the stress of storms in some northern land, when wind and rain wipe away the fresh pigment, leaving a tasteless thing behind.

But heavenly Ra poured down very hot radiance from the turquoise-coloured vault of heaven; and the streets were crowded with evil-stenched mongrel folk, half-Argive, half-sons of Khem, mingled with the Hebrew hawkers who trot everywhere. And, because the mind in my lordly breast desired to pass a word with articulately-speaking men, I looked about for one with whom I might suitably address myself. And I selected a haughty Roman, wrapped in pride and a purple-bordered paludament, who surveyed the quays and the market-place, while a slave sheltered his bare head with a sunshade of ostrich feathers. Whom I approached, intending to converse with him. And, coming nearer, while a squadron of Makedonians passed by, I heard the blameless creature muttering to himself in his own tongue, saying: “Gods! That men calling themselves soldiers should slouch in that manner! Perpol! But a cohort of ours would outmatch a legion of theirs!”

But I let the pride of race inflate me also, most superbly; and thus, in the Argive tongue, I saluted him, saying: “Hail, O senator. And how likest thou these mercenaries of the Lagidai?”

But he began to grow black fastidiously, because one unknown should have addressed him without introduction: but, when he saw how large I was and how assured my gait, he answered me in Latin, saying: “O man of the vast shoulders, whoever thou art, speak to me (I pray) in the language of Rome.”

To whom I repeated my question as he wished. And he responded: “Indifferent well. But tell me, why dost thou (a stranger) dare to address me?”

“Thou,” I said, “art not a god, that I should worship thee.”

“But,” he answered, “I am a Roman citizen.”

Him I immediately coughed at, saying: “Never yet have I been told that Roman citizens are the gods whom men ought to worship.”

Whereat, having blown off a little indignation, he laughed hugely; and would have known more of me; but I indifferently turned away to hire a litter in which I caused myself to be borne to the great temple of Isis.

But, when I reached that place, I began to walk very warily, making inquiry of the priest on duty in the portico. And, because the most wily way of dealing with earth-walking men, enmeshed with stupid petty deceits, is to be quite truthful and quite straight and never anything but bold, therefore, I instantly asked for my friend Amenemhat, priest of Tanis, who, being bound to me by sacred spells, would (with me) enjoy a mutual pleasure from a meeting. And, Amenemhat not being an uncommon name among Tanitic priests, if (perchance) my inquiry should bring to me one who was not the Amenemhat whom I desired to see, then I still possessed sufficient wisdom and magic apparatus for disposing of him in a suitable manner. On this account, I openly inquired for Amenemhat in the portico of the temple at Tanis.

And the watcher-priest answered, saying that Amenemhat was engaged in celebrating mysteries, and could not be seen at the moment. To whom I shewed the _Sign of the Peeping Thumb_, saying that I (also being a priest) would enter and pontificate with my friend. But the other still delayed me with gentle words, saying: “Sir, I do perceive that thou art a very notable mage and also an initiate priest possessing singular and admirable secrets: for, up thy sleeve, I see the silver chain which binds a master’s staff to thy wrist. Nevertheless, our rites are so sacrosanct and so solemn that not even the high priest of Ra at Thebes may intervene in them. Wherefore, O master-mage, be propitious; and be pleased to repose thyself awhile in a cool room, refreshing thy body with fruit and wine: for the day is hot, and thou seemest to have come from very far.”

But I agreed with alacrity, for my throat was twisted with thirst. Moreover, I saw something; and, beside, I well-knew the ways of priests, who always may be led by the nose by anyone wily enough to agree with them. And together we strolled into a cool antechamber, having an apsidal recess wherein we seated ourselves on cushions. And, over the recess, was carven a winged image of the Divine Ma, as above the Pharoah’s throne, deep graven in the black rock of Syene and filled with fine red gold. But the watcher-priest, having named himself to me as Mensau, tapped the floor with his white ivory walking-staff; and acolyths of the temple, very straightly formed but plump, robed in fine linen, with their shaven heads roundly-shining and increasing the long blackness of their eyes,--these, indeed, brought trays of fruits and wines and a excellent beer of their own brewing. And, having laid these before us, they flitted away, leaving me alone with the priest. He seemed to be about my own age, whatever that may be: but he was straight in figure as the fragile Egyptians are, and his face was like smooth ivory, well-carved, wise and gentle of mien. And, having filled a cup of Korinthic bronze (which is platinum)[31] to the brim with good red wine from a well-chased Alexandrian flagon, he offered it to me. But I chose beer: so he took it for himself; and, leaning toward me watching him very warily, he began to speak, saying: “Health to thee, O expected Wanderer.”

But my wile was to lead him on, secretly compelling him to shew me the way to the very root of the mystery, which I had suspected, and now was assured of. Wherefore I, all unmoved, responded, saying: “Health also to thee, O Mensau, priest of Isis, who wearest the garb of a priest of Ptah perchance for coolness’ sake. And, as I perceive that thou knowest me, tell me now how long will that other deny himself to me.”

“Dost thou then know me, O Nicholas?” he asked, surprized, but smiling.

“Yea: I know well the Amenemhat who looketh out of thine eye-holes. But thy form is strange to me:” I responded magniloquently.

Thus I spoke. But the mind in my noble breast began all of a sudden to tell me all sorts of things: so that I knew that the form, in which I had known Amenemhat at Thebes, was a form which I myself had given him by the merest haphazard and in something like a violent hurry, having summoned him from tiresome Amentet, to be my familiar, and being unable to use him in the form of hot eyes and a jelly. And, also, I knew that I never had seen him in his own form, which his father and mother had made for him by the help of the gods of his stars. And, having understood all these things, I fell into a muse, because of the infinite number of causes and effects which a seeker after wisdom must acquire, and arrange in his mind ready for use at any moment.

But, even now, weighted and bedazzled as I was with unthought-of wisdom, all was not quite clear to me. I, therefore, continued to speak, saying: “Nevertheless, O Amenemhat, though I know thee, and though I am beginning to know thy real form which is other than that which I gave to thee at Thebes, still, my mind is doubtful, not of the What, nor of the Where. The dimension of Space is known to me: but what of Time? I understand the Categories, of Substance, of Quantity, of Quality, of Relation, of Action, of Passion, of Place, of Position, of Possession: but I do not understand the When. Have I already lived and summoned thee from Amentet nineteen hundred years hence? Am I living now another life nineteen centuries before I was born? Or is this all some dream and some weird vision in those secret halls of Thebes? Or what?”

“Nay,” Amenemhat answered: “this is neither dream nor vision, but a special disposition of The Supreme, whereby thou, O Seeker after Wisdom, art granted experiences granted to no other man, as a reward for thy well-endured pains, and as a means of perfecting thee for some enormous purpose. And, to this end, I, whom thou hast known as a Sahu and an Osirian, have a message for thee, O Wanderer through the Ages. Doubt, then, no more: but take all things as the immortal gods are pleased to send them, always going onward cheerfully from one step to the next. For, know, that in Amentet, and in the Outer Immensities of Immeasurable Space, where The Supreme is, there is no such limitation as Time, nor any Impossibility to Him, or to Them His uncountable forms.”

Thus he spoke; and again was silent. But I sat still, drinking the beer of Osiris, letting the wisdom of his words take root in my lordly mind. And anon I said: “This, then, indeed is the meeting of thy Theban prediction. But tell me, O Amenemhat, though thou didst expect me, by what means did these eyes of thine recognize me whom, formerly, thou didst see at Thebes with other eyes?”

“I recognized thee, O Nicholas,” he said, “even at a distance, by thy stride and by the self-assurance of thy gait of the straightened knees: for no other man walketh as dost thou, as the owner and scorner of all worlds old and new. But, also, I saw the shape of the orb of divination in the folds of thy robe; and thou didst make the _Sign_ and shew the staff of power.”

And so we fell into more intimate conversation; and I told him all which had befallen me during my voyage down the river, of the slaying of that Pyrrhos (the most righteous of men), of the blameless[32] Ethiopian whose face I had spoiled, tearing also his hand (like a dirty rag) in twain; and I spoke of my two trusty slaves, and of all other matters which it was necessary for him to know. But, when I saw that he was not minded to make revelations to me on the instant, then, indeed, I determined to stay awhile with him, as a guest of the temple, pursuing my studies in the magic arts among holy mages whose business was none other, and waiting the pleasure of the blessed gods inhabiting olympian palaces.

Thus, then, I found Amenemhat in his body as he lived.

But, during this month of waiting on the will of the gods (for it was no more than that), a certain thing was done by me, at the suggestion and with the aid of Amenemhat, which I will set down here in its place. For, it being evident to both of us that my lot was to move through time, getting wisdom by living many lives in various circumstances, Amenemhat used to speak of the comfort which I should derive from constant companions throughout my wanderings. But I, knowing the sort of man which I am, and not by any means loving, used to respond to him saying, that it was not the perpetual companionship of an equal which would delight me, so much as the perpetual readiness of comely and trustworthy and affectionate slaves, whose services I could command at pleasure or neglect if I thought well so to do. But Amenemhat, having perceived the alert intelligent faithful minds and the pleasing and powerful bodies of Nesamun and Yokkho, inquired whether such as these would suit me. To whom I answered, saying, that I had them in my mind when thus speaking. Wherefore, Amenemhat suggested that I should perform the two magics called _The Soul-Loosening_ and _The Life-Binding_, whereby the silver cords which tied the said Nesamun and Yokkho to their present forms might be loosed, so that (at a moment’s notice) they might migrate to other forms of my invention, and, also, that by binding their lives to my life, the said slaves might accompany me into whatsoever other lives The Supreme might have in store for me and them.