Thomas County cat., 1889-11-28

Even As WrlLe, OeyOuO tue IerCle 0ekQ9,
the Nile is running red as though with
blood. Bright before me beats the light
upon the far Arabian hills, and bright IT
falls upon the piles Of Abouthis. At Alb
outhis, within the temples, still do the
priests make orison, but me they know no
more; still tue sacrifice is offered, and the
stony roofs echo down the prayers Of those
who pray. Still from here, from this lone
cell within my prison tower, I, the Word of
Shame, watch thy futtering banners, o
Abouthis. Haunting from thy pylon walls
and hear the chants as the long procession
winds from sanctuary to sanctuary.
o Abouthis, lost Abouthisl my heart goes
out toward theel For the day comes when
the desert sands shall fill thy holy placesl
Thy gods are doomed, o Abouthis! New
faiths shall make mock of all thy holies,
and centurion shall call unto centurion
across thy fortress walls. I weep-I weep
tears Of blood; for mine is the weakness
that brought about these evils and mine
forever is their shame
Behold it is written hereafter:
! Here in Abouthis was l born, I, Har-
machis, and my father, the justified in
Osiris, was High Priest of the Temple Of
Seth. And on tn 1t SINE day of my birth
Egypt. In those fields passed my youth
watching the baser people at their labors,
and going in and out at will among the great
courts of the temples. or my mother
knew naught, for she died when yet hung
at the breast. But ere she died, so the old
wife, Atoua, told 10 me, she took from a
Golfer Of ivory an ur8us Of pure gold and
laid it on my brow. And those who saw her
do this thing believed that she was dis
traught of the divinity, and that in her mad
ness she foreshadowed that the day of
the Macedonian Lagid8 was ended
for Ptolemy Auletes (the Piper) then wore
the double crown-and that Egypt's scepter
should once again pass to the hand Of one
of Egypts true and royal race. But when
my father, the High Priest Amenemhat,
who even then was full of years, for was
his only child and the child of his age (she
who was his wife before my mother having
been, for what crime know not, cursed by
Sekhet with the curse of barrenness) /; say
when my father ca me in and saw what the
dying woman had done, he lifted up his
hand toward the vault of heaven and adored
the Invisible, because Of the sign that had
been sent And even as he adored, behold!
the Hathors filled my dying mother with the
Spirit of Prophecy, and she rose in strength
from the couch and thrice prostrated her.
self before the cradle where lay asleep,
the Royal asp upon my brow, and cried
aloud:
'Hail to thee, fruit of my womb Hail to
thee, Royal child! Hail to thee, Pharaoh
that shalt be! Hail to thee, God that shalt
purge the land, Divine seed of n ekt-neb, the
Osirian. Keep thou pure, and thou shalt
rule and deliver Egypt and not be broken.
But if in the hour of trial thou dost fail,
then may the curse of all the Gods of Egypt
rest upon thee, and the curse of thy Royal
forefathers, the justified, who ruled the
land before thee, even from the age of
Horus; then in life mayest thou be wretch
ed, and after death may Osiris refuse thee,
and the judges of Amenti give judgment
against thee, and Set and Sekhet torment
thee, even until such time as thy sin is
purged, and the Gods of Egypt, called by
strange .meS, once more are worshiped
in the temples Of Egypt, and the staff of
the Oppressor is broken, and the footsteps
OF the foreigner are swept clean, and the |
thing is accomplished as thou in thy weak |
ness shalt cause it to be done"
And when she had spoken thus, the Spirit |
Of Prophecy went out of her, and she fell |
dead across the cradle where slept, so that |
Iawoke with cry.
But my father, Amcnemhat, the High |
Priest, trembled. and was very fearful both |
because of the words which had been said |
by the Spirit of the Hathors through the
mouth OF my mother, and because what had |
been uttered was treason against Ptolemy.
For he knew that if the matter should come
to the ears of Ptolemy. Pharaoh would send
his guards to destroy the life of the child
Of whom such things were prophesied.
Therefore, my father shut the doors, and
caused all those who were there to swear
upon the holy symbol of his Office, and by the
name Of the Divine Three, and by the soul
Of her who lay dead upon the stones beside
them, that naught of what they had seen
and heard should pass their lips.
But among the company was the old wife,
Atoua, who had been the nurse of my moth
or, and loved her we'll; and in these days,
though know not how it hath been in the
past, nor howit shall be in the future, there
Is no oath that can bind woman's tongue
And so it came about that by and by, when
the matter had become homely in her mind,
and her fear had fallen from her, she spoke
of the prophecy to her daughter, who nursed
me at the breast now that my mother was
dead This she did as they walked together
in the desert carrying food to the husband
Of the daughter, who was a sculptor, and
shaped the pictures Of the holy gods in the
tombs that are fashioned in the rock-te.l.
ing the daughter, my nurse, how great
should be her care and love toward the child
that one day should be Pharaoh and drive
the Ptolemies from Egypt But tn, daugh-
ter, my nurse, was so filled with wonder at
what she heard that She could not keep the
tale locked within her breast, and in the
night she awoke her husband, and, in turn,
whispered Of it to him, and thereby conl-
passed her own destruction, and the de-
Of her child, my foster-brother.
For the man told his friend, and the friend
was spy of Ptolemy's, and thus the ta!e
came to Pharaoh's ears. Now, Pharaoh was
much troubled thereat, for though when I've
was full of wine he would make mock of
the Gods Of the Egyptians, and swear that
the Roman Senate was the only God to
whom he bowed the knee, yet in his heart .
was he terribly afraid, as 1 have learned d,
from one who was his physician; for when
l J.