The Irish standard., 1889-10-05

What, then, is a man} He is q feather,
but feather blown by the wind He is a
fire, but fire born OF the fuel He is a
spirit, bUba spirit having wings wherewith
70 sail to either destiny. He may choose
the good, and on him doth rest the evil
that he does He is the helm unto the boat
Of Fate; he is the shadow that goes before
the sword he is the dream that pDesages
the truth There is no Chance; for man in
his hour doth direct the Chance, and, as
with stylus doth r115 upon the tablet of
the world the thing that he brought about.
SO hath the Invisible decreed, and 50 for
aver to ever shall it be. And woe to him
who faileth!
Even as I write, beyond the fertile fields
khe 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, wiJhin the temples, still do the
priests make. orison, but me they know no
moro; 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, |, the Word OF
Shame, watch thy futtering banners, 0
AboUthis, Haunting from thy pylon walls
winds from sanctuary to sanctuary
Q Abouthis, lost ABouthis! my heart goes
out toward theel For the day comes when
tbe desert sands shall fin thy holy places!
Thy gods are doomed, 0 Abouthisl New
faiths shall make d mock Of all thy holes,
snd centurion shall call unto centurion
across thy fortress walls l Weep--I weep
tears Of blood; for mine is the weakness
that brought about these evits and mine
forever Il their shame.
Behold it is written hereafter:
Here in Aboutfis was | born, |, Har-
naehis, aud my father, the justified in
Osiris, was High Priest Of the Temple Of
Sethi. And on that same day Of my birth
was corn also Cleopatra the Queen Of
Egypt. In those fields passed my youth
watching the baser people at their labors,
and gong in and out at will among the great
courts Of the temples. Of my mother
knew naught, for she died when yet hung
All The breast. But ere she died, 50 the old
wife, Atoua, told TO me, she took from a
Golfer Of ivory an ureus of pure gold and
laid it On my brow. And those who saw her
10 this thing believed that she was dis
traught Of the divinity, and that in her mad
oess she foreshadowed that the day Of
The Macedonian LagidR was ended
Tor Ptolemy Auletes (the Piper) then wore
the double orown-and that Egypts scepter
should once again pass to the hand Of one
of Egypt's true and royal race. But when
my father, the High Priest Amenelnhat,
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, tor what crimo know not, cursed by
Sehhet with the curse Of barrenness} I say
tvrEsg e.
dying woman bad done, he lifted up his
nand toward the vault OF heaven and adored
the Invisible, because Of the sign that had
0een sent And even as he adored, behold |!
the Hathors filed my dying nlother with the
Spirit Of Prophecy, and she rose IN strength
from the couch and thrice FRUSTRATED her.
self before the cradle where I 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
thatshalt bel Hail to thee, God that shalt
purge the land, Diyineseed Of Nelxt-neb the
oslcian. Keep. thou pure, and thou shalt
rule and deliver Egypt aud 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, ne justified who ruled the
lann before thee, even from the age of
Horusi then in life mayest thou be wretch
ed, and after death may Osiris refuse thee,
and the Judges of AmenM give Judgment
against thee, and Set and Sekhet torment
thee, even until such time as thy sin is
pnrged, and the Gods Of Egypt, called by
strange lInes, once more are Worshped
in the temples Of Egypt, and the staff Of
the Oppressor is broken, and the footsteps
Of tho foreignerrare swept clean, and the
thihg 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 felt
dead across the cradle where slept, so that
awoke with a cry.
But my father Amenemhat, the High
Priest, trempled, 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 ne knew that if the matter should come
to the ears off 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 theholy 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 theold wife,
Atoua, who had been the nurse of my moth
sr, and loved her well; and in these days,
though / know not how it hath been in the
past nor how it 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
ia the desert carrying food to the husband
OF the daughter, who was sculptor, and
shaped the pictures of the holy gods in the
$on1bs that are fashioned ia the rock-tell-
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 the 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 1t to him, and thereby COM
passed her own destruction, and the de-
struction Of her child, my foster-brotber.
For the man told his friend, and the friend
was a spy of Ptolemy's, and TINS the tale