Walter "Ramses" Emerson

**Walter "Ramses" Emerson** "Akhu el-Efreet" ("Brother of Demons")

Amelia Peabody and Radcliffe Emerson's only child, he is, at first a "catastrophically precocious" (The Mummy Case) child before developing a restrained reticence in his older years. Still waters, as they say, run deep.

> Really, I wonder if Ramses is not too precocious. Does he know what a harem is, I wonder? - Amelia Peabody in *The Curse of the Pharaohs*
>
>

Starting with *Seeing a Large Cat* portions of the novels are told in third-person from Ramses Point of View in sections from "Manuscript H".

> Rest assured, Mama, that my concern is no less profound for being rigidly controlled. - Ramses Emerson in *Deeds of the Disturber*
>
>

## Appears In

* *The Curse of the Pharaohs*
* *The Mummy Case*
* *Lion in the Valley*
* *Deeds of the Disturber*
* *The Last Camel Died at Noon*
* *The Snake, the Crocodile and the Dog*
* *The Hippopotamus Pool*
* *Seeing a Large Cat*
* *The Ape Who Guards the Balance*
* *Guardian of the Horizon*
* *A River in the Sky*
* *The Falcon at the Portal*
* *The Painted Queen*
* *He Shall Thunder in the Sky*
* *Lord of the Silent*
* *The Golden One*
* *Children of the Storm*
* *The Serpent on the Crown*
* *Tomb of the Golden Bird*

## Telling Descriptions

It was Emerson who gave the baby its nickname. He said that in its belligerent appearance and imperious disposition it strongly resembled the Egyptian pharaoh, the second of that name, who had scattered enormous statues of himself all along the Nile. I had to admit the resemblance. - Amelia Peabody in *The Curse of the Pharaohs*

### The Mummy Case

“Emerson, you underestimate Ramses. In the past weeks he has been taken in custody by the police, half-stifled in a sheet, and buried in the sand; he has stolen a lion and examined a body in an unpleasant state of disrepair, without turning a hair.” - Amelia Peabody in *The Mummy Case*

“I have long since given up trying to anticipate what Ramses can and cannot do,” I replied, with considerable heat. “Your second point has some merit; bur Ramses’ motives are as obscure as his capabilities are remarkable." Amelia Peabody in *The Mummy Case*

Ramses’ countenance, which seldom displayed emotion of any kind, darkened visibly. The wearing of the black velvet suit was one of the few things that stirred him to open rebellion … . I was forced to give way on this occasion, since the havoc that would have been wrecked on black velvet by an ascent of the pyramid would ruin the suit. A thoughtful expression crossed Ramses’ face when I expressed this opinion, but he did not, as I half-expected, offer to wear the suit after all. - Amelia Peabody

Furthermore--though I would be ashamed to confess such irrational thoughts except in the pages of my private journal--I had developed an almost superstitious confidence in Ramses’ ability not only to survive disasters of truly horrendous proportions, but to emerge from them undamaged and undaunted. - Amelia Peabody

“Emerson, calm yourself. He can’t have fallen off. It is not a straight drop; we would have heard him bounce from step to step, and surely even Ramses would have emitted a cry on finding himself falling.” - Amelia Peabody

“With all respect, Mrs. Emerson, I cannot imagine why you talk about the boy as if he were some sort of monster. He seems a decent little chap--frightfully long-winded--I don’t believe I have ever heard anyone use so many confounded polysyllabic words. Aside from that, he appears normal enough. Is there something you haven’t told me? Does he suffer from--forgive me--fits of hereditary madness?” - Mr. Nemo in Lion in the Valley

"…Ramses is quite sane–cold-bloodedly, terrifyingly sane." Amelia Peabody in *Lion in the Valley*

### Deeds of the Disturber

Of course, Ramses is a unique case; there are times when a superstitious person might well believe, as certain of our Egyptian workmen do believe, that he can hear through walls, and see through them too. - Amelia Peabody in *Deeds of the Disturber*

“Yet, like the young Mozart, he had one supreme gift--an ear for languages as remarkable as Mozart’s for music--and was, if anything, rather below average in other ways.” - Amelia Peabody in *Deeds of the Disturber*

His intelligence, as such, is not a source of dissatisfaction. I had taken it for granted that any child of Emerson’s and mine would exhibit superior intelligence; but I confess I had no anticipated it would take such an extraordinary form. - Amelia Peabody in *Deeds of the Disturber*

### The Last Camel Died at Noon

It is impossible to give a proper impression of Ramses by describing his characteristics. One must observe him in action to understand how even the most admirable traits can be perverted or carried to such an extreme that they cease to be virtues and become the reverse. - Amelia Peabody in *The Last Camel Died at Noon*

“Ramses stood beside us at the rail, and his normally impassive countenance showed signs of suppressed emotion as he gazed upon the mightiest work of the monarch whose namesake he was. (In fact, he had been named for his uncle Walter; his father had proposed the nickname for him when he was an infant, claiming that the child’s imperious manner and single-minded selfishness suggested that most egotistical of pharaohs. The name had stuck, for reasons which should be apparent to all Readers of my chronicles.)” - Amelia Peabody in *The Last Camel Died at Noon*

Ramses distracted Emerson by climbing up on the trial, this prompting a stern lecture on the dangers of falling overboard. I rewarded my son with an approving smile; there had never been any danger of his falling, he could climb like a monkey. - Amelia Peabody in *The Last Camel Died at Noon*

“I imagine it was curiosity, rather than gallantry, that induced Ramses to try the experiment.” Emerson replied, still chuckling. “It is his most conspicuous character trait, and you will never change it; just be thankful that this adventure, unlike so many earlier ones, turned out to be harmless.” - Radcliffe Emerson in *The Last Camel Died at Noon*

Ramses looked around for something to sit on, his lips curling as he surveyed the mess on the floor. Though his personal habits left a great deal to be desired, in some ways he was as fastidious as a cat. (That is, he was intolerant of all messes except the ones he made.)

Even worse—would he be foolish enough to search for another way out of the maze? Knowing my son’s monstrous self-confidence, I feared the answer to that question was yes. - Amelia Peabody

### The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog

He … But to describe the eccentricities of Ramses would tax even my literary skill. - Amelia Peabody

## Disguises

### The Mummy Case

The street in front of the hotel teemed with the usual motley array of beggars, guides, donkeys and donkey boys, lying in wait for the tourists. Sure enough, Ramses was among them. Though I had expected to find him there, it took me several moments to recognize him. Barefoot and bareheaded, his white nightgown similar in design (and, by now, in filthiness) to the robes worn by the donkey boys, he blended admirably with the others, even to his tanned complexion and tousled black curls. - Amelia Peabody in *The Mummy Case*

### Lion in the Valley

“There are wonderful things in there,” he exclaimed, his eyes shinning. “Paints for the face and hands, pads to fit in the cheeks, wigs and beards and  . . . Oh Mama, may I have them? Please, Mama?” - Ramses Emerson

### Deeds of the Disturber

#### "a poor vagabond"

In the full glow of artificial illumination the effect of Ramses’ appearance was little less than breath-taking. I had to give him credit; when he did something, he did a thorough job of it. His bear feet were black and blue—black with dirt and blue with cold—for the evening had turned sharply cooler. He wore the most indescribably horrible rags I have ever seen, the great rents in shirt and pantaloons gaping wide or held precariously together by huge pins; the cloth was sodden with a vile mixture of rain, soot, and mud. He smelled as bad as he looked.

“I am practicing my disguises,” Ramses explained.

### The Last Camel Died at Noon

Here I stopped, and gazed with a wild surmise upon my son, who returned my stare with an expression so limpid-eyed and innocent it was practically tantamount to a confession. The art of disguise was one of Ramses’s hobbies. He was somewhat restricted in the practice of it, since his size limited him to imitating only the juvenile portion of the population, but I had a nasty feeling that as his height increased, so would his expertise.

## Like Mother...

“For pity’s sake, Ramses, don’t lecture! I cannot imagine whence you derive your unfortunate habit of loquacity. There is not need to go on and on when someone asks you a simple question. Brevity, my boy, is not only the soul of wit, it is the essence of literary and verbal efficiency. Model yourself on my example, I beg, and from now on--” - Amelia Peabody in *The Mummy Case*

## His Poor Parents

### Parenting in The Mummy Case

[Ramses helped distract Evelyn from her troubles] because it required the concentrated attention of every adult in the household to restrain Ramses from self-immolation and a widespread destruction of property. - Amelia Peabody in The Mummy Case

At the age of three Ramses had informed us that he did not need a nanny and would not have one…. I did not agree with him. He needed something–a stout healthy woman who had trained as a prison wardress, perhaps–but it had become more and more difficult to find nannies for Ramses. Presumably word had spread. - Amelia Peabody

The voyage from Brindisi to Alexandria was without incident. (I do not consider the halting of the ship, at Emerson’s frenzied insistence, as truly an incident in Ramses’ career; as I told Emerson at the time, there was almost no possibility that the boy could have fallen overboard. Indeed he was soon found, in the hold, examining the cargo--for reasons which I did not care then, or at a later time, to inquire into.) - Amelia Peabody in The Mummy Case
Ramses ran for the door. I sank into a chair. It was the first time—though certainly not the last—that I began to have serious doubts as to my capability of carrying out the task I had so unthinkingly assumed. I have dealt with murderers, thieves and brigands of all kinds; but I suspected Ramses might be too much even for me. - Amelia Peabody in *The Mummy Case*

[Emerson] looked tired, and admitted as much when I questioned him. When I questioned him further, he admitted that Ramses’ ‘boyish joie de vivre,’ as he put it, was responsible for his fatigue. Ramses had fallen out of a palm tree and into the river; he had been attacked and slightly trampled by a goat after attempting to loosen the rope around its neck, which he felt was too tight...; and concluded the afternoon by consuming several pints of date wine, forbidden by devout Muslims, but brewed on the sly by some of the villagers. - Amelia Peabody in *The Mummy Case*

I waved him away. Bad enough to be lectured on Egyptology by one’s husband; the smug and dogmatic pronouncements of my juvenile son were sometimes extremely trying to my nerves. - Amelia Peabody in The Mummy Case

### Parenting in Lion in the Valley

“How could you be so careless as to allow yourself to be abducted practically under our noses?” - Amelia Peabody

“I believe I have heard Mama say on several occasions that the relationships between the sexes were badly mishandled in our prudish society, and that young persons ought to be informed of the facts.”

“You did hear me say that,” I acknowledged, wondering what had ever possessed me to say such a thing in his hearing.

“I am ready to be informed,” said Ramses, his elbows on the table, his chin in his hands, and his great eyes fixed on me.

“I venture to say,” said Ramses, in his most pedantic manner, “that most people would forget their manners when confronted with someone as remarkable in appearance as yourself. However, I do not wish any opprobrium to attach to my mama. She has endeavored to correct my behavior, and if the result is not as it should be, the blame is mine, not hers.”

When I returned to the sitting room, Emerson was still trying to explain to Ramses about the horrors of opium addiction. He did not appear to have made much headway. Ramses remarked, “May I say, Papa, that the poignant description you have just delivered verges on the classic? However, you will permit me to point out that there is no danger whatever that I would succumb to the temptations you have so eloquently described, since mental lethargy is not one of my--”

Emerson shot me a look of agonized appeal. “Ramses,” I said, “you are not, under any circumstances whatever, to smoke, eat, or imbibe any form of opium.”

“Yes, Mama,” Ramses said resignedly.

Revising our sleeping arrangements was more complex than I had anticipated. I could not send Ramses up to sleep on the roof; he might decide to climb down the wall and go off on some peculiar errant of his own. Ramses seldom disobeyed a direct order, but he had a diabolical facility for finding a loophole in my commands. - Amelia Peabody

“There is no need for Abdullah to share the supervisory role, Papa, since I am entirely capable of managing by myself, and he might be better employed--”

“Be quiet, Ramses,” I said. “Yes, yes, my boy,” Emerson said.

“If I were allowed to case my vote on this matter, I would suggest we begin with the causeway. That line across the desert which is easily discernible from this slight elevation, surely marks its original course, and were we to follow it to its ultimate--”

“Emerson and I spoke at once. Emerson said, “Yes, yes, my boy.” I said, “Ramses, be quiet.”

Mr. Nemo laughed. “Is that how it’s done?”

### Parenting in Deeds if the Disturber

In fact, if I kept a ledger, Walter Peabody Emerson, known to friends and foes alike as Ramses, would win the prize for the constancy and the degree of aggravation caused me. - Amelia Peabody

Amelia: Perhaps we ought not to take them, Emerson.

Emerson: I have not changed my mind, Peabody. Ramses is a good little chap—in his own way—I am sure he really was trying to be helpful, and perhaps I was a trifle harsh. But he is . . . He sometimes . . . He really is a trifle odd, Peabody, don’t you think? He has been too much in the company of adults. It will do him good to join the innocent games of ordinary youngsters. Cricket and –er—that sort of thing.

Amelia: Did you ever play cricket, Emerson?

Emerson: I? Good Gad, no! Can you picture me wasting my time with what is probably the most infernally illogical and pointless activity ever conceived by the human brain?

“Now Amelia, do let the dear child speak,” Evelyn said with a smile. “I cannot imagine that he could say anything that would distress me.”

Before I could refute this absurdly naive remark, Ramses took quick advantage.

I agreed with Emerson in opposing corporal punishment, though not for the same reasons; his were ethical and idealistic, mine were purely practical. A spanking would have hurt me more than it hurt Ramses, for he had extremely sharp, hard bones, and a high tolerance for pain. - Amelia Peabody

“Being a little gentleman,” he remarked, more to himself than to me, “seems hardly worth the trouble.” - Ramses Emerson

I held out my arms.

“Ramses, I owe you a profound apology. Come here to me.”

Emotion overcomes me when I recall that moment, and draws a veil over the tender scene that ensued. Emerson was frankly sniffing and rubbing his eyes with his sleeve (he never has a handkerchief).

One never truly appreciates one’s happiness until after one has lost it and then seen it restored; I had never fully appreciated Ramses until I met Percy. - Amelia Peabody

“Emerson,” I exclaimed, assisting the groaning youth back onto the seat of the carriage, “how can you speak so coolly? Ramses struck the first blow; it was unprovoked, and—”

“And inept,” said Emerson, frowning. “See here, Ramses; fold your thumb over your closed fingers—”

“Ramses,” I said wearily, “you are confined to your room until further notice.

“The historical exhibitions are quite educational. Ramses spends far too much time brooding over his morbid hobbies; it will do him good to learn something of modern history.”

“Something modern and cheerful, like the French Revolution,” Emerson said.

“Technically, I know, I am in violation of orders, Mama; however, I thought I might venture to emerge long enough to greet Papa, since I have not seen him since breakfast; and hearing what sounded very much like a death threat echo along the corridor--”

“You could not have heard it unless you were listening at the door,” I snapped.

The sermon, for all that it was clearly audible, had no noticeable effect. Violet whined all the way home about her frock and Ramses called Percy a confounded coprolite. - Amelia Peabody

Ramses, of course, wanted to know what Mr. Dickens meant by “the worst.” On my advice, Emerson refused to answer.

“You can thank your cousin for being let off so leniently.”

Ramses’ lips moved; but since he dd not pronounce the word aloud, I chose to take no notice of it.

I returned to the house early, for I felt I needed a brief time of repose and contemplation before the teatime encounter with the children. Mrs. Watson and Gargery were both waiting for me, Mrs. Watson to inform me that she had taken the liberty of confining Ramses to his room, for knocking Percy down and jumping on him, and Gargery to announce there was a gentleman waiting to see me. - Amelia Peabody

I am not so much concerned with educating Ramses as with preventing him from killing himself—or his cousin. - Amelia Peabody

### Parenting in The Last Camel Died at Noon

“We had better go on and . . . Ramses! Where the devil has he got to? Peabody, you were supposed to keep an eye on him.” - Radcliffe Emerson

> “I did everything I could to dissuade him.”
>
>
> I put my hand over his lips. “You will wake Ramses.”
>
>
> “Ramses is not asleep,” Emerson mumbled. “I don’t think he ever sleeps. Are you asleep, Ramses?”
>
>
>
> “No, Papa.”
>
>

Nevertheless we made excellent progress, not only because of certain mental attributes modesty prevents me from naming, but because Ramses had already picked up a good deal from Tarek-alias-Kemit even before we arrived. Needless to say he took full advantage of his position of instructor to his elders, and on several occasions I was sorely tempted to send him to his room.

Well, my boy, I am proud of you, and I know your mama is too. That you should have pursued your archaeological research under those conditions is really splendid. - Radcliffe Emerson

### Parenting in The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog

Ten years of Ramses had convinced me that my inability to have more children was not, as I had first viewed it, a sad disappointment, but rather a kindly disposition of all-knowing Providence. One Ramses was enough. Two or more would have finished me. - Amelia Peabody

“I would be the first to admit that I am not a maternal woman. I venture to remark, however, that the Divine Mother herself might have found her maternal instincts weakened by prolonged exposure to my son.” - Amelia Peabody

> I started to push my chair back from my desk, and then stopped. “Should I go to her, do you think?”
>
>
> The question astonished me as much as it did Ramses. I had not meant to ask his advice. I never had before. His eyes, of so dark a brown they looked black, opened very wide. “Are you asking me, Mama?”
>
>
> “So it seems,” I replied. “Though I can’t imagine why.”
>
>
>
> “Were not the situation one of some urgency,” said Ramses, “I would express at length my appreciation of your confidence in me. It pleases me and touches me more than I can say.”
>
>

“We have often discussed the one-sidedness of Ramses’s education. In some ways he is as ignorant as Nefret. Oh, I grant you, no one mummifies mice or mixes explosives better than Ramses, but those skills have limited utility.”

“Given Emerson’s opinion of institutionalized learning, it is not surprising to find that Ramses was not sent away to school. He was educated, not by tutors or governesses (most of them fled after a few days with Ramses), but by his parents. Early on, Amelia noticed his enormous talent for languages: ‘Linguistically Ramses was a juvenile genius. He had mastered the hieroglyphic language of ancient Egypt before his eight birthday; he spoke Arabic with appalling fluency (the adjective refers to certain elements of his vocabulary); and even his command of his native tongue was marked at an early age by a ponderous pomposity of style more suitable to a venerable scholar than a small boy.’ (Peters 1988:3)” - Seen by Not Heard: A Sympathetic Scrutiny of the Victorian Philosophy of Childrearing

## Still Waters Run Deep

### The Last Camel Died at Noon

As a young child he had been given to extravagant displays of affection, but in the last year or two these had become infrequent, owing, I suppose, to his notion that he was getting too old for such things. On this occasion he quite forgot his dignity, and rushed at me with such impetuosity that Emerson was forced to remonstrate. “Gently, Ramses, if you please; your mama is still weak.”

## The Little Ship that Could

### The Last Camel Died at Noon

The first sound that broke the stillness came from somewhere in the region of my left shoulder blade. It resembled the last drops of water gurgling from a hose. - Amelia Peabody
I was about to follow my husband when I realized that Ramses was still standing, rigid as a block of wood, in the exact spot he had occupied throughout the interview.

“Ramses!” I said sharply. “What the devil—Come here at once.”

Ramses jumped. When he turned I saw that his face was as blank and withdrawn as that of a sleepwalker. I seized him and shook him briskly. “Get down there!” I ordered.

He obeyed without so much as a “Yes, Mama.” A hideous foreboding gripped me.

“Please, Mama,” said Ramses in tones of freezing dignity. “I am deeply hurt that such a thought should enter your mind. The happiness of—of”—he choked, but managed to get the words out—“of Miss Nefret is as vital to me as my own. I would—I would—er—do anything to ensure it.”

We were free! Ahead lay the desert with all its perils, and civilization—with even greater perils. The strange foreboding that had seized me had nothing to do with perils of any kind. There was one consolation, though. Nefret was the only individual I had ever saw who could strike Ramses dumb. One could only hope that state of things would endure. - Amelia Peabody

### The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog

From time to time Nefret looked up, smiling as she watched the children play, but Ramses’s steady dark eyes never left her face. - Amelia Peabody