CHAPTER LVIII

After leaving Abydos, Rameses XIII. sailed up the Nile to the city of Tan-ta-ren (Dendera) and Keneh, which stood nearly opposite each other: one on the western, the other on the eastern bank of the river.

At Tan-ta-ren were two famous places: the pond in which crocodiles were reared, and the temple of Hator, where there was a school at which were taught medicine, sacred hymns, the methods of celebrating divine ceremonies, finally astronomy.

The pharaoh visited both places. He was irritated when they directed him to burn incense before the sacred crocodiles, which he considered as foul and stupid reptiles. And when one of these in time of offering pushed out too far and seized the sovereign's garment with its teeth, Rameses struck it on the head with a bronze ladle so violently that the reptile closed its eyes for a time, and spread its legs, then withdrew and crept into the water, as if understanding that the youthful sovereign did not wish to be familiar even with divinities.

"But have I committed sacrilege?" inquired Rameses of the high priest.

The dignitary looked around stealthily to see if any one were listening, and answered,--

"If I had known, holiness, that thou wouldst make it an offering in that way, I should have given thee a club, not a censer. That crocodile is the most unendurable brute in the whole temple. Once it seized a child--"

"And ate it?"

"The parents were satisfied!" said the priest.

"Tell me," said the pharaoh, after thinking, "how can ye sages render homage to beasts which, moreover, when there are no witnesses, ye beat with sticks?"

The high priest looked around again, and seeing no one near by, he answered,--

"Of course thou canst not suspect, sovereign, that worshippers of one G.o.d believe in the divinity of beasts. What is done is done for the people."

In the temple of Hator the pharaoh pa.s.sed quickly through the school of medicine, and listened without great interest to predictions given by astrologers concerning him. When the astrologer high priest showed him a tablet on which was engraved a map of heaven, he asked,--

"How often do these predictions come true which ye read in the stars?"

"They come true sometimes."

"But if ye predict from trees, stones, or running water, do those predictions come true also?"

The high priest was troubled.

"Holiness, do not consider us untruthful. We predict the future for people because it concerns them, and we tell them, indeed, what they can understand of astronomy."

"And what do ye understand?"

"We understand," said the priest, "the structure of the heavenly dome and the movement of the stars."

"What good is that to any one?"

"We have rendered no small service to Egypt. We indicate the main directions according to which edifices are built and ca.n.a.ls are dug.

Without the aid of our science vessels sailing on the sea could not go far from land. Finally we compose calendars and calculate future heavenly phenomena. For instance, the sun will be eclipsed within a short period."

Rameses was not listening; he had turned and gone out.

"How is it possible," thought the pharaoh, "to build a temple for such childish amus.e.m.e.nts, and besides to engrave the results on golden tablets? These holy men do not know what to s.n.a.t.c.h at from idleness."

After he had remained a short time in Tan-ta-ren, the sovereign crossed over to Keneh.

In that place were no celebrated temples, incensed crocodiles, or golden tablets with stars. But commerce and pottery flourished. From that city went two roads to ports on the Red Sea: Koseir and Berenice, also a road to the porphyry mountains, whence they brought statues and great sticks of timber.

Keneh was swarming with Phnicians who received the sovereign with great enthusiasm, and presented him with valuables to the amount of ten talents.

In spite of this, the pharaoh remained barely one day there, since they informed him from Thebes that the revered body of Rameses XII.

was already in the palace of Luxor awaiting its burial.

At that epoch Thebes was an immense city occupying about twelve square kilometres of area. It possessed the greatest temple in Egypt: that of Amon, also a mult.i.tude of edifices, private and public. The main streets were broad, straight, and paved with stone slabs, the banks of the Nile had their boulevards, the houses were four or five stories high.

Since every temple and palace had a great gateway with pylons Thebes was called "the city of a hundred gates." It was a city on the one hand greatly given to commerce and trade, and on the other, the threshold, as it were, of eternity. On the western bank of the Nile, in the hills and among them, was an incalculable number of tombs of pharaohs, priests, and magnates.

Thebes was indebted for its splendor to two pharaohs: Amenophis III.

or Memnon, who found it a "city of mud and left it a city of stone,"

and Rameses II., who finished, and perfected the edifices begun by Amenophis.

On the eastern bank of the Nile, in the southern part of the city, was an entire quarter of immense regal edifices: palaces, villas, temples, on the ruins of which the small town of Luxor stands at present. In that quarter the remains of Rameses XII. were placed for the last ceremonies.

When Rameses XIII. arrived all Thebes went forth to greet him, only old men and cripples remained in the houses, and thieves in the alleys. Here, for the first time, the people took the horses from the pharaoh's chariot and drew it themselves. Here for the first time the pharaoh heard shouts against the abuses of priests. This comforted him; also cries that every seventh day should be for rest. He desired to make that gift to toiling Egypt, but he knew not that his plans had become known, and that the people were waiting to see them accomplished.

His journey of five miles lasted a couple of hours amid dense crowds of people. The pharaoh's chariot was stopped very often in the midst of a throng, and did not move till the guard of his holiness had raised those who lay prostrate before it.

When at last he reached the palace gardens where he was to occupy one of the smaller villas, the pharaoh was so wearied that he did not occupy himself with affairs of state on his arrival. Next day, however, he burnt incense before the mummy of his father, which was in the main royal chamber, and informed Herhor that they might conduct the remains to the tomb prepared for them.

But this ceremony was not performed immediately.

They conveyed the late pharaoh to the temple of Rameses, where it remained a day and a night. Then they bore the mummy with boundless magnificence to the temple of Amon-Ra.

The details of the funeral ceremony were the same as in Memphis, though incomparably grander.

The royal palaces on the right bank of the Nile were on the southern end of the city, while the temple of Amon-Ra was in the northern part of it. These were connected by a road unique in character. This was an avenue two kilometres long, very broad, lined not only with immense trees, but with two rows of sphinxes. Some of these with lions' bodies had human heads, others had rams' heads. There were several hundreds of these statues on the avenue, at both sides of which countless throngs of people had a.s.sembled from Thebes and the surrounding region. Along the middle of the avenue moved the funeral procession.

Advancing to the music of various regiments were detachments of female wailers, choruses of singers, all the guilds of artisans and merchants, deputations from some tens of provinces with their G.o.ds and banners, deputations from more than ten nations which kept up relations with Egypt. And again wailers' music and priestly choruses.

This time the mummy of the pharaoh advanced in a golden boat also, but incomparably richer than that in Memphis. The car which bore it was drawn by eight pair of white bulls; this car, two stories high, was almost concealed under garlands, bouquets, ostrich plumes, and precious woven stuffs. It was surrounded by a dense cloud of smoke from censers, which produced the impression that Rameses XII. was appearing to his people in clouds like a divinity.

From the pylons of all Theban temples came thunder-like outbursts and with them loud and rapid sounds from the clashing of bronze disks.

Though the avenue of sphinxes was free and wide; though the procession took place under the direction of Egyptian generals, and therefore with the greatest order, the procession spent three hours in pa.s.sing those two kilometres between the palace and the edifices of Amon.

Only when the mummy of Rameses XII. was borne into the temple did Rameses XIII. drive forth from the palace in a golden chariot drawn by a pair of splendid horses. The people standing along the avenue, who during the time of the procession had held themselves quietly, burst out at sight of the beloved sovereign into a shout so immense that the thunders and sounds from the summits of all the temples were lost in it.

There was a moment when that mighty throng, borne away by excitement, would have rushed to the middle of the avenue and surrounded their sovereign. But Rameses, with one motion of his hand, restrained the living deluge and prevented the sacrilege.

In the course of some minutes the pharaoh pa.s.sed over the road and halted before the immense pylons of the n.o.blest temple in Egypt.

As Luxor was the quarter of palaces in the south, so Karnak was the quarter of divinities on the northern side of the city. The temple of Amon-Ra formed the main centre of Karnak.