An Egyptian Princess, Volume 2.

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AN EGYPTIAN PRINCESS, Part 1.

By Georg Ebers

Volume 2.

CHAPTER III.

The guests were all gone. Their departing mirth and joy had been smitten
down by the drunkard's abusive words, like fresh young corn beneath a
hail storm. Rhodopis was left standing alone in the empty, brightly
decorated (supper-room). Knakias extinguished the colored lamps on the
walls, and a dull, mysterious half-light took the place of their
brilliant rays, falling scantily and gloomily on the piled-up plates and
dishes, the remnants of the meal, and the seats and cushions, pushed out
of their places by the retiring guests. A cold breeze came through the
open door, for the dawn was at hand, and just before sunrise, the air is
generally unpleasantly cool in Egypt. A cold chill struck the limbs of
the aged woman through her light garments. She stood gazing tearlessly
and fixedly into the desolate room, whose walls but a few minutes before
had been echoing with joy and gladness, and it seemed to her that the
deserted guest-chamber must be like her own heart. She felt as if a worm
were gnawing there, and the warm blood congealing into ice.

Lost in these thoughts, she remained standing till at last her old female
slave appeared to light her to her sleeping apartment.

Silently Rhodopis allowed herself to be undressed, and then, as silently,
lifted the curtain which separated a second sleeping apartment from her
own. In the middle of this second room stood a bedstead of maplewood,
and there, on white sheets spread over a mattress of fine sheep's wool,
and protected from the cold by bright blue coverlets's, lay a graceful,
lovely girl asleep; this was Rhodopis' granddaughter, Sappho. The
rounded form and delicate figure seemed to denote one already in opening
maidenhood, but the peaceful, blissful smile could only belong to a
harmless, happy child.

One hand lay under her head, hidden among the thick dark brown hair, the
other clasped unconsciously a little amulet of green stone, which hung
round her neck. Over her closed eyes the long lashes trembled almost
imperceptibly, and a delicate pink flush came and went on the cheek of
the slumberer. The finely-cut nostrils rose and fell with her regular
breathing, and she lay there, a picture of innocence, of peace, smiling
in dreams, and of the slumber that the gods bestow on early youth, when
care has not yet come.

Softly and carefully, crossing the thick carpets on tiptoe, the grey-
haired woman approached, looked with unutterable tenderness into the
smiling, childish face, and, kneeling down silently by the side of the
bed, buried her face in its soft coverings, so that the girl's hand just
came in contact with her hair. Then she wept, and without intermission;
as though she hoped with this flood of tears to wash away not only her
recent humiliation, but with it all other sorrow from her mind.

At length she rose, breathed a light kiss on the sleeping girl's
forehead, raised her hands in prayer towards heaven, and returned to her
own room, gently and carefully as she had come.

At her own bedside she found the old slave-woman, still waiting for her.

"What do you want so late, Melitta?" said Rhodopis, kindly, under her
breath. "Go to bed; at your age it is not good to remain up late, and
you know that I do not require you any longer. Good night! and do not
come to-morrow until I send for you. I shall not be able to sleep much
to-night, and shall be thankful if the morning brings me a short repose."

The woman hesitated; it seemed that she had some thing on her mind which
she feared to utter.

"There is something you want to ask me?" said Rhodopis.

Still the old slave hesitated.

"Speak!" said Rhodopis, "speak at once, and quickly."

"I saw you weeping," said the slave-woman, "you seem ill or sad; let me
watch this night by your bedside. Will you not tell me what ails you?
You have often found that to tell a sorrow lightens the heart and lessens
the pain. Then tell me your grief to-day too; it will do you good, it
will bring back peace to your mind."

"No," answered the other, "I cannot utter it." And then she continued,
smiling bitterly: "I have once more experienced that no one, not even a
god, has power to cancel the past of any human being, and that, in this
world, misfortune and disgrace are one and the same. Good night, leave
me; Melitta!"

At noon on the following day, the same boat, which, the evening before,
had carried the Athenian and the Spartan, stopped once more before
Rhodopis' garden.

The sun was shining so brightly, so warmly and genially in the dark blue
Egyptian sky, the air was so pure and light, the beetles were humming so
merrily, the boatmen singing so lustily and happily, the shores of the
Nile bloomed in such gay, variegated beauty, and were so thickly peopled,
the palm-trees, sycamores, bananas and acacias were so luxuriant in
foliage and blossom, and over the whole landscape the rarest and most
glorious gifts seemed to have been poured out with such divine
munificence, that a passer-by must have pronounced it the very home of
joy and gladness, a place from which sadness and sorrow had been forever
banished.

How often we fancy, in passing a quiet village hidden among its orchards,
that this at least must be the abode of peace, and unambitious
contentment! But alas! when we enter the cottages, what do we find?
there, as everywhere else, distress and need, passion and unsatisfied
longing, fear and remorse, pain and misery; and by the side of these, Ah!
how few joys! Who would have imagined on coming to Egypt, that this
luxuriant, laughing sunny land, whose sky is always unclouded, could
possibly produce and nourish men given to bitterness and severity? that
within the charming, hospitable house of the fortunate Rhodopis, covered
and surrounded, as it was, with sweet flowers, a heart could have been
beating in the deepest sadness? And, still more, who among all the
guests of that honored, admired Thracian woman, would have believed that
this sad heart belonged to her? to the gracious, smiling matron, Rhodopis
herself?

She was sitting with Phanes in a shady arbor near the cooling spray of a
fountain. One could see that she had been weeping again, but her face
was beautiful and kind as ever. The Athenian was holding her hand and
trying to comfort her.

Rhodopis listened patiently, and smiled the while; at times her smile was
bitter, at others it gave assent to his words. At last however she
interrupted her well-intentioned friend, by saying:

"Phanes, I thank you. Sooner or later this last disgrace must be
forgotten too. Time is clever in the healing art. If I were weak I
should leave Naukratis and live in retirement for my grandchild alone; a
whole world, believe me, lies slumbering in that young creature. Many
and many a time already I have longed to leave Egypt, and as often have
conquered the wish. Not because I cannot live without the homage of your
sex; of that I have already had more than enough in my life, but because
I feel that I, the slave-girl and the despised woman once, am now useful,
necessary, almost indispensable indeed, to many free and noble men.
Accustomed as I am, to an extended sphere of work, in its nature
resembling a man's, I could not content myself in living for one being
alone, however dear. I should dry up like a plant removed from a rich
soil into the desert, and should leave my grandchild desolate indeed,
three times orphaned, and alone in the world. No! I shall remain in
Egypt.

"Now that you are leaving, I shall be really indispensable to our friends
here. Amasis is old; when Psamtik comes to the throne we shall have
infinitely greater difficulties to contend with than heretofore. I must
remain and fight on in the fore-front of our battle for the freedom and
welfare of the Hellenic race. Let them call my efforts unwomanly if they
will. This is, and shall be, the purpose of my life, a purpose to which
I will remain all the more faithful, because it is one of those to which
a woman rarely dares devote her life. During this last night of tears I
have felt that much, very much of that womanly weakness still lingers in
me which forms at once the happiness and misery of our sex. To preserve
this feminine weakness in my granddaughter, united with perfect womanly
delicacy, has been my first duty; my second to free myself entirely from
it. But a war against one's own nature cannot be carried on without
occasional defeat, even if ultimately successful. When grief and pain
are gaining the upperhand and I am well nigh in despair, my only help
lies in remembering my friend Pythagoras, that noblest among men, and his
words: 'Observe a due proportion in all things, avoid excessive joy as
well as complaining grief, and seek to keep thy soul in tune and harmony
like a well-toned harp.'"

[There is no question that Pythagoras visited Egypt during the reign
of Amasis, probably towards the middle of the 6th century (according
to our reckoning, about 536 B. C.) Herod. II. 81-123. Diod. I. 98.
Rich information about Pythagoras is to be found in the works of the
very learned scholar Roeth, who is however occasionally much too
bold in his conjectures. Pythagoras was the first among Greek
thinkers (speculators). He would not take the name of a wise man or
"sage," but called himself "Philosophos," or a "friend of wisdom."]

"This Pythagorean inward peace, this deep, untroubled calm, I see daily
before me in my Sappho; and struggle to attain it myself, though many a
stroke of fate untunes the chords of my poor heart. I am calm now! You
would hardly believe what power the mere thought of that first of all
thinkers, that calm, deliberate man, whose life acted on mine like sweet,
soft music, has over me. You knew him, you can understand what I mean.
Now, mention your wish; my heart is as calmly quiet as the Nile waters
which are flowing by so quietly, and I am ready to hear it, be it good or
evil."

"I am glad to see you thus," said the Athenian. "If you had remembered
the noble friend of wisdom, as Pythagoras was wont to call himself a
little sooner, your soul would have regained its balance yesterday. The
master enjoins us to look back every evening on the events, feelings and
actions of the day just past.

"Now had you done this, you would have felt that the unfeigned admiration
of all your guests, among whom were men of distinguished merit,
outweighed a thousandfold the injurious words of a drunken libertine;
you would have felt too that you were a friend of the gods, for was it
not in your house that the immortals gave that noble old man at last,
after his long years of misfortune, the greatest joy that can fall to the
lot of any human being? and did they not take from you one friend only in
order to replace him in the same moment, by another and a better? Come,
I will hear no contradiction. Now for my request.

"You know that people sometimes call me an Athenian, sometimes a
Halikarnassian. Now, as the Ionian, AEolian and Dorian mercenaries have
never been on good terms with the Karians, my almost triple descent (if I
may call it so) has proved very useful to me as commander of both these
divisions. Well qualified as Aristomachus may be for the command, yet
in this one point Amasis will miss me; for I found it an easy matter to
settle the differences among the troops and keep them at peace, while he,
as a Spartan, will find it very difficult to keep right with the Karian
soldiers.

"This double nationality of mine arises from the fact that my father
married a Halikarnassian wife out of a noble Dorian family, and, at the
time of my birth, was staying with her in Halikarnassus, having come
thither in order to take possession of her parental inheritance. So,
though I was taken back to Athens before I was three months old, I must
still be called a Karian, as a man's native land is decided by his
birthplace.

"In Athens, as a young nobleman, belonging to that most aristocratic and
ancient family, the Philaidae, I was reared and educated in all the pride
of an Attic noble. Pisistratus, brave and clever, and though of equal,
yet by no means of higher birth, than ourselves, for there exists no
family more aristocratic than my father's, gained possession of the
supreme authority. Twice, the nobles, by uniting all their strength,
succeeded in overthrowing him, and when, the third time, assisted by
Lygdamis of Naxos, the Argives and Eretrians, he attempted to return, we
opposed him again. We had encamped by the temple of Minerva at Pallene,
and were engaged in sacrificing to the goddess, early, before our first
meal, when we were suddenly surprised by the clever tyrant, who gained an
easy, bloodless victory over our unarmed troops. As half of the entire
army opposed to the tyrant was under my command, I determined rather to
die than yield, fought with my whole strength, implored the soldiers to
remain steadfast, resisted without yielding a point, but fell at last
with a spear in my shoulder.

"The Pisistratidae became lords of Athens. I fled to Halikarnassus, my
second home, accompanied by my wife and children. There, my name being
known through some daring military exploits, and, through my having once
conquered in the Pythian games, I was appointed to a command in the
mercenary troops of the King of Egypt; accompanied the expedition to
Cyprus, shared with Aristomachus the renown of having conquered the
birthplace of Aphrodite for Amasis, and finally was named commander-in-
chief of all the mercenaries in Egypt.

"Last summer my wife died; our children, a boy of eleven and a girl of
ten years, remained with an aunt in Halikarnassus. But she too has
followed to the inexorable Hades, and so, only a few days ago I sent for
the little ones here. They cannot, however, possibly reach Naukratis in
less than three weeks, and yet they will already have set out on their
journey before a letter to countermand my first order could reach them.

"I must leave Egypt in fourteen days, and cannot therefore receive them
myself.

"My own intentions are to go to the Thracian Chersonese, where my uncle,
as you know, has been called to fill a high office among the Dolonki.
The children shall follow me thither; my faithful old slave Korax will
remain in Naukratis on purpose to bring them to me.

"Now, if you will show to me that you are in deed and truth my friend,
will you receive the little ones and take care of them till the next ship
sails for Thrace? But above all, will you carefully conceal them from
the eyes of the crown-prince's spies? You know that Psamtik hates me
mortally, and he could easily revenge himself on the father through the
children. I ask you for this great favor, first, because I know your
kindness by experience; and secondly, because your house has been made
secure by the king's letter of guarantee, and they will therefore be safe
here from the inquiries of the police; notwithstanding that, by the laws
of this most formal country, all strangers, children not excepted, must
give up their names to the officer of the district.

"You can now judge of the depth of my esteem, Rhodopis; I am committing
into your hands all that makes life precious to me; for even my native
land has ceased to be dear while she submits so ignominiously to her
tyrants. Will you then restore tranquillity to an anxious father's
heart, will you--?"

"I will, Phanes, I will!" cried the aged woman in undisguised delight.
"You are not asking me for any thing, you are presenting me with a gift.
Oh, how I look forward already to their arrival! And how glad Sappho
will be, when the little creatures come and enliven her solitude! But
this I can assure you, Phanes, I shall not let my little guests depart
with the first Thracian ship. You can surely afford to be separated from
them one short half-year longer, and I promise you they shall receive the
best lessons, and be guided to all that is good and beautiful."

"On that head I have no fear," answered Phanes, with a thankful smile.
"But still you must send off the two little plagues by the first ship; my
anxiety as to Psamtik's revenge is only too well grounded. Take my most
heartfelt thanks beforehand for all the love and kindness which you will
show to my children. I too hope and believe, that the merry little
creatures will be an amusement and pleasure to Sappho in her lonely
life."

"And more," interrupted Rhodopis looking down; "this proof of confidence
repays a thousand-fold the disgrace inflicted on me last night in a
moment of intoxication.--But here comes Sappho!"

CHAPTER IV.

Five days after the evening we have just described at Rhodopis' house, an
immense multitude was to be seen assembled at the harbor of Sais.

Egyptians of both sexes, and of every age and class were thronging to the
water's edge.

Soldiers and merchants, whose various ranks in society were betokened by
the length of their white garments, bordered with colored fringes, were
interspersed among the crowd of half-naked, sinewy men, whose only
clothing consisted of an apron, the costume of the lower classes. Naked
children crowded, pushed and fought to get the best places. Mothers in
short cloaks were holding their little ones up to see the sight, which by
this means they entirely lost themselves; and a troop of dogs and cats
were playing and fighting at the feet of these eager sight-seers, who
took the greatest pains not to tread on, or in any way injure the sacred
animals.

[According to various pictures on the Egyptian monuments. The
mothers are from Wilkinson III. 363. Isis and Hathor, with the
child Horus in her lap or at her breast, are found in a thousand
representations, dating both from more modern times and in the Greek
style. The latter seem to have served as a model for the earliest
pictures of the Madonna holding the infant Christ.]

The police kept order among this huge crowd with long staves, on the
metal heads of which the king's name was inscribed. Their care was
especially needed to prevent any of the people from being pushed into the
swollen Nile, an arm of which, in the season of the inundations, washes
the walls of Sais.

On the broad flight of steps which led between two rows of sphinxes down
to the landing-place of the royal boats, was a very different kind of
assembly.

The priests of the highest rank were seated there on stone benches. Many
wore long, white robes, others were clad in aprons, broad jewelled
collars, and garments of panther skins. Some had fillets adorned with
plumes that waved around brows, temples, and the stiff structures of
false curls that floated over their shoulders; others displayed the
glistening bareness of their smoothly-shaven skulls. The supreme judge
was distinguished by the possession of the longest and handsomest plume
in his head-dress, and a costly sapphire amulet, which, suspended by a
gold chain, hung on his breast.

The highest officers of the Egyptian army wore uniforms of gay colors,97
and carried short swords in their girdles. On the right side of the
steps a division of the body-guard was stationed, armed with battleaxes,
daggers, bows, and large shields; on the left, were the Greek
mercenaries, armed in Ionian fashion. Their new leader, our friend
Aristomachus, stood with a few of his own officers apart from the
Egyptians, by the colossal statues of Psamtik I., which had been erected
on the space above the steps, their faces towards the river.

In front of these statues, on a silver chair, sat Psamtik, the heir to
the throne: He wore a close-fitting garment of many colors, interwoven
with gold, and was surrounded by the most distinguished among the king's
courtiers, chamberlains, counsellors, and friends, all bearing staves
with ostrich feathers and lotus-flowers.

The multitude gave vent to their impatience by shouting, singing, and
quarrelling; but the priests and magnates on the steps preserved a
dignified and solemn silence. Each, with his steady, unmoved gaze, his
stiffly-curled false wig and beard, and his solemn, deliberate manner,
resembled the two huge statues, which, the one precisely similar to the
other, stood also motionless in their respective places, gazing calmly
into the stream.

At last silken sails, chequered with purple and blue, appeared in sight.

The crowd shouted with delight. Cries of, "They are coming! Here they
are!" "Take care, or you'll tread on that kitten," "Nurse, hold the
child higher that she may see something of the sight." "You are pushing
me into the water, Sebak!" "Have a care Phoenician, the boys are
throwing burs into your long beard." "Now, now, you Greek fellow, don't
fancy that all Egypt belongs to you, because Amasis allows you to live on
the shores of the sacred river!" "Shameless set, these Greeks, down with
them!" shouted a priest, and the cry was at once echoed from many mouths.
"Down with the eaters of swine's flesh and despisers of the gods!"

[The Egyptians, like the Jews, were forbidden to eat swine's flesh.
This prohibition is mentioned in the Ritual of the Dead, found in a
grave in Abd-el-Qurnah, and also in other places. Porphyr. de
Abstin. IV. The swine was considered an especially unclean animal
pertaining to Typhon (Egyptian, Set) as the boar to Ares, and
swineherds were an especially despised race. Animals with bristles
were only sacrificed at the feasts of Osiris and Eileithyia. Herod.
I. 2. 47. It is probable that Moses borrowed his prohibition of
swine's flesh from the Egyptian laws with regard to unclean
animals.]

From words they were proceeding to deeds, but the police were not to be
trifled with, and by a vigorous use of their staves, the tumult was soon
stilled. The large, gay sails, easily to be distinguished among the
brown, white and blue ones of the smaller Nile-boats which swarmed around
them, came nearer and nearer to the expectant throng. Then at last the
crown-prince and the dignitaries arose from their seats. The royal band
of trumpeters blew a shrill and piercing blast of welcome, and the first
of the expected boats stopped at the landing-place.

It was a rather long, richly-gilded vessel, and bore a silver sparrow-
hawk as figure-head. In its midst rose a golden canopy with a purple
covering, beneath which cushions were conveniently arranged. On each
deck in the forepart of the ship sat twelve rowers, their aprons attached
by costly fastenings.

[Splendid Nile-boats were possessed, in greater or less numbers, by
all the men of high rank. Even in the tomb of Ti at Sakkara, which
dates from the time of the Pyramids, we meet with a chief overseer
of the vessels belonging to a wealthy Egyptian.]

Beneath the canopy lay six fine-looking men in glorious apparel; and
before the ship had touched the shore the youngest of these, a beautiful
fair-haired youth, sprang on to the steps.

Many an Egyptian girl's mouth uttered a lengthened "Ah" at this glorious
sight, and even the grave faces of some of the dignitaries brightened
into a friendly smile.

The name of this much-admired youth was Bartja.

[This Bartja is better known under the name of Smerdis, but on what
account the Greeks gave him this name is not clear. In the
cuneiform inscriptions of Bisitun or Behistun, he is called Bartja,
or, according to Spiegel, Bardiya. We have chosen, for the sake of
the easy pronunciation, the former, which is Rawlinson's simplified
reading of the name.]

He was the son of the late, and brother of the reigning king of Persia,
and had been endowed by nature with every gift that a youth of twenty
years could desire for himself.

Around his tiara was wound a blue and white turban, beneath which hung
fair, golden curls of beautiful, abundant hair; his blue eyes sparkled
with life and joy, kindness and high spirits, almost with sauciness; his
noble features, around which the down of a manly beard was already
visible, were worthy of a Grecian sculptor's chisel, and his slender but
muscular figure told of strength and activity. The splendor of his
apparel was proportioned to his personal beauty. A brilliant star of
diamonds and turquoises glittered in the front of his tiara. An upper
garment of rich white and gold brocade reaching just below the knees, was
fastened round the waist with a girdle of blue and white, the royal
colors of Persia. In this girdle gleamed a short, golden sword, its hilt
and scabbard thickly studded with opals and sky-blue turquoises. The
trousers were of the same rich material as the robe, fitting closely at
the ankle, and ending within a pair of short boots of light-blue leather.

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