Onuphis?"
For the third time the Egyptian turned pale.  "Are you certain," he said,
"that this man is still among the living?"

"I spoke to him myself yesterday.  He was formerly, you know, high-priest
at Heliopolis, and was initiated into all your mysteries there.  My wise
countryman, Pythagoras of Samos, came to Egypt, and after submitting to
some of your ceremonies, was allowed to attend the lessons given in the
schools for priests.  His remarkable talents won the love of the great
Onuphis and he taught him all the Egyptian mysteries, which Pythagoras
afterwards turned to account for the benefit of mankind.  My delightful
friend Rhodopis and I are proud of having been his pupils.  When the rest
of your caste heard that Onuphis had betrayed the sacred mysteries, the
ecclesiastical judges determined on his death.  This was to be caused by
a poison extracted from peach-kernels.  The condemned man, however, heard
of their machinations, and fled to Naukratis, where he found a safe
asylum in the house of Rhodopis, whom he had heard highly praised by
Pythagoras, and whose dwelling was rendered inviolable by the king's
letter.  Here he met Antimenidas the brother of the poet Alcarus of
Lesbos, who, having been banished by Pittakus, the wise ruler of
Mitylene, had gone to Babylon, and there taken service in the army of
Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Assyria.  Antimenidas gave him letters to the
Chaldians.  Onuphis travelled to the Euphrates, settled there, and was
obliged to seek for some means of earning his daily bread, as he had left
Egypt a poor man.  He is now supporting himself in his old age, by the
assistance which his superior knowledge enables him to render the
Chaldoeans in their astronomical observations from the tower of Bel.
Onuphis is nearly eighty, but his mind is as clear as ever, and when I
saw him yesterday and asked him to help me, his eyes brightened as he
promised to do so.  Your father was one of his judges, but he bears you
no malice and sends you a greeting."

Nebenchari's eyes were fixed thoughtfully on the ground during this tale.
When Phanes had finished, he gave him a penetrating look and said: "Where
are my papers?"

They are in Onuphis' hands.  He is looking among them for the document I
want."

"I expected to hear that.  Be so good as to tell me what the box is like,
which Hib thought proper to bring over to Persia?"

"It is a small ebony trunk, with an exquisitely-carved lid.  In the
centre is a winged beetle, and on the four corners .  .  ."

"That contains nothing but a few of my father's notices and memorandums,"
said Nebenchari, drawing a deep breath of relief.

"They will very likely be sufficient for my purpose.  I do not know
whether you have heard, that I stand as high as possible in Cambyses'
favor."

"So much the better for you.  I can assure you, however, that the paper.
which would have been most useful to you have all been left behind in
Egypt."

"They were in a large chest made of sycamore-wood and painted in colors."

"How do you know that?"

"Because--now listen well to what I am going to say, Nebenchari--because
I can tell you (I do not swear, for our great master Pythagoras forbade
oaths), that this very chest, with all it contained, was burnt in the
grove of the temple of Neith, in Sais, by order of the king "

Phanes spoke slowly, emphasizing every syllable, and the words seemed to
strike the Egyptian like so many flashes of lightning.  His quiet
coolness and deliberation gave way to violent emotion; his cheeks glowed
and his eyes flashed.  But only for one single minute; then the strong
emotion seemed to freeze, his burning cheeks grew pale.  "You are trying
to make me hate my friends, in order to gain me as your ally," he said,
coldly and calmly.  "I know you Greeks very well.  You are so intriguing
and artful, that there is no lie, no fraud, too base, if it will only
help to gain your purpose."

"You judge me and my countrymen in true Egyptian fashion; that is, they
are foreigners, and therefore must be bad men.  But this time your
suspicions happen to be misplaced.  Send for old Hib; he will tell you
whether I am right or not."

Nebenchari's face darkened, as Hib came into the room.

"Come nearer," said he in a commanding tone to the old man.

Hib obeyed with a shrug of the shoulders.

"Tell me, have you taken a bribe from this man?  Yes or no?  I must know
the truth; it can influence my future for good or evil.  You are an old
and faithful servant, to whom I owe a great deal, and so I will forgive
you if you were taken in by his artifices, but I must know the truth.
I conjure you to tell me by the souls of your fathers gone to Osiris!"

The old man's sallow face turned ashy pale as he heard these words.  He
gulped and wheezed some time before he could find an answer, and at last,
after choking down the tears which had forced their way to his eyes,
said, in a half-angry, half-whining tone: "Didn't I say so? they've
bewitched him, they've ruined him in this wicked land.  Whatever a man
would do himself, he thinks others are capable of.  Aye, you may look as
angry as you like; it matters but little to me.  What can it matter
indeed to an old man, who has served the same family faithfully and
honestly for sixty years, if they call him at last a rogue, a knave, a
traitor, nay even a murderer, if it should take their fancy."

And the scalding tears flowed down over the old man's cheeks, sorely
against his will.

The easily-moved Phanes clapped him on the shoulder and said, turning to
Nebenchari:  "Hib is a faithful fellow.  I give you leave to call me a
rascal, if he has taken one single obolus from me."

The physician did not need Phanes' assurance; he had known his old
servant too well and too long not to be able to read his simple, open
features, on which his innocence was written as clearly as in the pages
of an open book.  "I did not mean to reproach you, old Hib," he said
kindly, coming up to him.  "How can any one be so angry at a simple
question?"

"Perhaps you expect me to be pleased at such a shameful suspicion?"

"No, not that; but at all events now you can tell me what has happened at
our house since I left."

"A pretty story that is!  Why only to think of it makes my mouth as
bitter, as if I were chewing wormwood."

"You said I had been robbed."

"Yes indeed: no one was ever so robbed before.  There would have been
some comfort if the knaves had belonged to the thieves' caste, for then
we should have got the best part of our property back again, and should
not after all have been worse off than many another; but when .  .  ."

[The cunning son of the architect, who robbed the treasure-house of
Rhampsinitus was, according to Herodotus, (II. 120), severely
punished; but in Diod. I. 80. we see that when thieves acknowledged
themselves to the authorities to be such, they were not punished,
though a strict watch was set over them.  According to Diodorus,
there was a president of the thieves' caste, from whom the stolen
goods could be reclaimed on relinquishment of a fourth part of the
same.  This strange rule possibly owed its rise to the law, which
compelled every Egyptian to appear once in each year before the
authorities of his district and give an account of his means of
subsistence.  Those who made false statements were punished with
death.  Diod. I. 77.  Thus no one who valued his life could escape
the watchful eye of the police, and the thief sacrificed the best
part of his gains in order to save his life.]

"Keep to the point, for my time is limited."

"You need not tell me that; I see old Hib can't do anything right here in
Persia.  Well, be it so, you're master; you must give orders; I am only
the servant, I must obey.  I won't forget it.  Well, as I was saying, it
was just at the time when the great Persian embassy came over to Sais to
fetch Nitetis, and made everybody stare at them as if they were monsters
or prodigies, that this shameful thing happened.  I was sitting on the
mosquito-tower just as the sun was setting, playing with my little
grandson, my Baner's eldest boy--he's a fine strapping little lad now,
wonderfully sharp and strong for his age.  The rogue was just telling me
how his father, the Egyptians do that when their wives leave the children
too much alone--had hidden his mother's shoes, and I was laughing
heartily, because my Baner won't let any of the little ones live with me,
she always says I spoil them, and so I was glad she should have the trick
played her--when all of a sudden there was such a loud knocking at the
house-door, that I thought there must be a fire and let the child drop
off my lap.  Down the stairs I ran, three steps at a time, as fast as my
long legs would carry me, and unbarred the door.  Before I had time to
ask them what they wanted, a whole crowd of temple-servants and
policemen--there must have been at least fifteen of them--forced their
way into the house.  Pichi,--you know, that impudent fellow from the
temple of Neith,--pushed me back, barred the door inside and told the
police to put me in fetters if I refused to obey him.  Of course I got
angry and did not use very civil words to them--you know that's my way
when I'm put out--and what does that bit of a fellow do--by our god
Thoth, the protector of knowledge who must know all, I'm speaking the
truth--but order them to bind my hands, forbid me--me, old Hib--to speak,
and then tell me that he had been told by the high-priest to order me
five-and-twenty strokes, if I refused to do his bidding.  He showed me
the high-priest's ring, and so I knew there was nothing for it but to
obey the villain, whether I would or no.  And what was his modest demand?
Why, nothing less than to give him all the written papers you had left
behind.  But old Hib is not quite so stupid as to let himself be caught
in that way, though some people, who ought to know better, do fancy he
can be bribed and is no better than the son of an ass.  What did I do
then?  I pretended to be quite crushed into submission by the sight of
the signet-ring, begged Pichi as politely as I could to unfasten my
hands, and told him I would fetch the keys.  They loosened the cords, I
flew up the stairs five steps at a time, burst open the door of your
sleeping-room, pushed my little grandson, who was standing by it, into
the room and barred it within.  Thanks to my long legs, the others were
so far behind that I had time to get hold of the black box which you had
told me to take so much care of, put it into the child's arms, lift him
through the window on to the balcony which runs round the house towards
the inner court, and tell him to put it at once into the pigeon-house.
Then I opened the door as if nothing had happened, told Pichi the child
had had a knife in his mouth, and that that was the reason I had run
upstairs in such a hurry, and had put him out on the balcony to punish
him.  That brother of a hippopotamus was easily taken in, and then he
made me show him over the house.  First they found the great sycamore-
chest which you had told me to take great care of too, then the papyrus-
rolls on your writing-table, and so by degrees every written paper in the
house.  They made no distinction, but put all together into the great
chest and carried it downstairs; the little black box, however, lay safe
enough in the pigeon-house.  My grandchild is the sharpest boy in all
Sais!

"When I saw them really carrying the chest downstairs, all the anger I'd
been trying so hard to keep down burst out again.  I told the impudent
fellows I would accuse them before the magistrates, nay, even before the
king if necessary, and if those confounded Persians, who were having the
city shown them, had not come up just then and made everybody stare at
them, I could have roused the crowd to take my side.  The same evening I
went to my son-in-law-he is employed in the temple of Neith too, you
know,--and begged him to make every effort to find out what had become of
the papers.  The good fellow has never forgotten the handsome dowry you
gave my Baner when he married her, and in three days he came and told me
he had seen your beautiful chest and all the rolls it contained burnt to
ashes.  I was so angry that I fell ill of the jaundice, but that did not
hinder me from sending in a written accusation to the magistrates.  The
wretches,--I suppose only because they were priests too,--refused to take
any notice of me or my complaint.  Then I sent in a petition to the king,
and was turned away there too with the shameful threat, that I should be
considered guilty of high treason if I mentioned the papers again.  I
valued my tongue too much to take any further steps, but the ground burnt
under my feet; I could not stay in Egypt, I wanted to see you, tell you
what they had done to you, and call on you, who are more powerful than
your poor servant, to revenge yourself.  And besides, I wanted to see the
black box safe in your hands, lest they should take that from me too.
And so, old man as I am, with a sad heart I left my home and my
grandchildren to go forth into this foreign Typhon's land.  Ah, the
little lad was too sharp!  As I was kissing him, he said: 'Stay with us,
grandfather.  If the foreigners make you unclean, they won't let me kiss
you any more.'  Baner sends you a hearty greeting, and my son-in-law told
me to say he had found out that Psamtik, the crown-prince, and your
rival, Petammon, had been the sole causes of this execrable deed.  I
could not make up my mind to trust myself on that Typhon's sea, so I
travelled with an Arabian trading caravan as far as Tadmor,--[Palmyra]--
the Phoenician palm-tree station in the wilderness," and then on to
Carchemish, on the Euphrates, with merchants from Sidon.  The roads from
Sardis and from Phoenicia meet there, and, as I was sitting very weary in
the little wood before the station, a traveller arrived with the royal
post-horses, and I saw at once that it was the former commander of the
Greek mercenaries."

"And I," interrupted Phanes, "recognized just as soon in you, the longest
and most quarrelsome old fellow that had ever come across my path.  Oh,
how often I've laughed to see you scolding the children, as they ran
after you in the street whenever you appeared behind your master with the
medicine-chest.  The minute I saw you too I remembered a joke which the
king once made in his own way, as you were both passing by.  'The old
man,' he said, reminds me of a fierce old owl followed by a flight of
small teazing birds, and Nebenchari looks as if he had a scolding wife,
who will some day or other reward him for healing other people's eyes by
scratching out his own!'"

"Shameful!"  said the old man, and burst into a flood of execrations.

Nebenchari had been listening to his servant's tale in silence and
thought.  He had changed color from time to time and on hearing that the
papers which had cost him so many nights of hard work had been burnt, his
fists clenched and he shivered as if seized by biting frost.  Not one of
his movements escaped the Athenian.  He understood human nature; he knew
that a jest is often much harder to bear than a grave affront, and
therefore seized this opportunity to repeat the inconsiderate joke which
Amasis had, it is true, allowed himself to make in one of his merry
moods.  Phanes had calculated rightly, and had the pleasure of seeing,
that as he uttered the last words Nebenchari pressed his hand on a rose
which lay on the table before him, and crushed it to pieces.  The Greek
suppressed a smile of satisfaction, and did not even raise his eyes from
the ground, but continued speaking: "Well, now we must bring the
travelling adventures of good old Hib to a close.  I invited him to share
my carriage.  At first he refused to sit on the same cushion with such a
godless foreigner, as I am, gave in, however, at last, had a good
opportunity at the last station of showing the world how many clever
processes of manipulation he had learnt from you and your father, in his
treatment of Oropastes' wounded brother; he reached Babylon at last safe
and sound, and there, as we could not get sight of you, owing to the
melancholy poisoning of your country-woman, I succeeded in obtaining him
a lodging in the royal palace itself.  The rest you knew already."

Nebenchari bowed assent and gave Hib a sign to leave the room, which the
old man obeyed, grumbling and scolding in a low tone as he departed.
When the door had closed on him, Nebenchari, the man whose calling was to
heal, drew nearer to the soldier Phanes, and said: "I am afraid we
cannot be allies after all, Greek."

"Why not?"

"Because I fear, that your revenge will prove far too mild when compared
with that which I feel bound to inflict."

"On that head there is no need for solicitude," answered the Athenian.
"May I call you my ally then?"

"Yes," answered the other; "but only on one condition."

"And that is--?"

"That you will procure me an opportunity of seeing our vengeance with my
own eyes."

"That is as much as to say you are willing to accompany Cambyses' army to
Egypt?"

"Certainly I am; and when I see my enemies pining in disgrace and misery
I will cry unto them, 'Ah ha, ye cowards, the poor despised and exiled
physician, Nebenchari, has brought this wretchedness upon you!'  Oh, my
books, my books!  They made up to me for my lost wife and child.
Hundreds were to have learnt from them how to deliver the blind from the
dark night in which he lives, and to preserve to the seeing the sweetest
gift of the gods, the greatest beauty of the human countenance, the
receptacle of light, the seeing eye.  Now that my books are burnt I have
lived in vain; the wretches have burnt me in burning my works.  O my
books, my books!"  And he sobbed aloud in his agony.  Phanes came up and
took his band, saying: "The Egyptians have struck you, my friend, but me
they have maltreated and abused--thieves have broken into your granaries,
but my hearth and home have been burnt to ashes by incendiaries.  Do you
know, man, what I have had to suffer at their hands?  In persecuting me,
and driving me out of Egypt, they only did what they had a right to do;
by their law I was a condemned man; and I could have forgiven all they
did to me personally, for I loved Amasis, as a man loves his friend.  The
wretch knew that, and yet he suffered them to commit a monstrous, an
incredible act--an act that a man's brain refuses to take in.  They stole
like wolves by night into a helpless woman's house--they seized my
children, a girl and boy, the pride, the joy and comfort of my homeless,
wandering life.  And how think you, did they treat them?  The girl they
kept in confinement, on the pretext that by so doing they should prevent
me from betraying Egypt to Cambyses.  But the boy--my beautiful, gentle
boy--my only son--has been murdered by Psamtik's orders, and possibly
with the knowledge of Amasis.  My heart was withered and shrunk with
exile and sorrow, but I feel that it expands--it beats more joyfully now
that there is a hope of vengeance."

Nebenchari's sullen but burning glance met the flashing eye of the
Athenian as he finished his tale; he gave him his hand and said: "We are
allies."

The Greek clasped the offered hand and answered: "Our first point now is
to make sure of the king's favor."

"I will restore Kassandane's sight."

"Is that in your power?"

"The operation which removed Amasis' blindness was my own discovery.
Petammon stole it from my burnt papers."

"Why did you not exert your skill earlier?"

"Because I am not accustomed to bestow presents on my enemies."

Phanes shuddered slightly at these words, recovered himself, however, in
a moment, and said: "And I am certain of the king's favor too.  The
Massagetan envoys have gone home to-day; peace has been granted them
and..."

While he was speaking the door was burst open and one of Kassandane's
eunuchs rushed into the room crying: "The Princess Nitetis is dying!
Follow me at once, there is not a moment to lose."

The physician made a parting sign to his confederate, and followed the
eunuch to the dying-bed of the royal bride.




ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

Blessings go as quickly as they come
Hast thou a wounded heart? touch it seldom
Nothing is perfectly certain in this world
Only two remedies for heart-sickness:--hope and patience
Remember, a lie and your death are one and the same
Scarcely be able to use so large a sum--Then abuse it
Whatever a man would do himself, he thinks others are capable of
When love has once taken firm hold of a man in riper years






AN EGYPTIAN PRINCESS.

By Georg Ebers

Volume 8.



CHAPTER VIII.

The sun was already trying to break a path for his rays through the thick
curtains, that closed the window of the sick-room, but Nebenchari had not
moved from the Egyptian girl's bedside.  Sometimes he felt her pulse, or
spread sweet-scented ointments on her forehead or chest, and then he
would sit gazing dreamily into vacancy.  Nitetis seemed to have sunk into
a deep sleep after an attack of convulsions.  At the foot of her bed
stood six Persian doctors, murmuring incantations under the orders of
Nebenchari, whose superior science they acknowledged, and who was seated
at the bed's head.

Every time he felt the sick girl's pulse he shrugged his shoulders, and
the gesture was immediately imitated by his Persian colleagues.  From
time to time the curtain was lifted and a lovely head appeared, whose
questioning blue eyes fixed at once on the physician, but were always
dismissed with the same melancholy shrug.  It was Atossa.  Twice she had
ventured into the room, stepping so lightly as hardly to touch the thick
carpet of Milesian wool, had stolen to her friend's bedside and lightly
kissed her forehead, on which the pearly dew of death was standing, but
each time a severe and reproving glance from Nebenchari had sent her back
again into the next room, where her mother Kassandane was lying, awaiting
the end.

Cambyses had left the sick-room at sunrise, on seeing that Nitetis had
fallen asleep; he flung himself on to his horse, and accompanied by
Phanes, Prexaspes, Otanes, Darius, and a number of courtiers, only just
aroused from their sleep, took a wild ride through the game-park.  He
knew by experience, that he could best overcome or forget any violent
mental emotion when mounted on an unmanageable horse.

Nebenchari started on hearing the sound of horses' hoofs in the distance.
In a waking dream he had seen Cambyses enter his native land at the head
of immense hosts; he had seen its cities and temples on fire, and its
gigantic pyramids crumbling to pieces under the powerful blows of his
mighty hand.  Women and children lay in the smouldering ruins, and
plaintive cries arose from the tombs in which the very mummies moved like
living beings; and all these-priests, warriors, women, and children--the
living and the dead--all had uttered his,--Nebenchari's,--name, and had
cursed him as a traitor to his country.  A cold shiver struck to his
heart; it beat more convulsively than the blood in the veins of the dying
girl at his side.  Again the curtain was raised; Atossa stole in once
more and laid her hand on his shoulder.  He started and awoke.
Nebenchari had been sitting three days and nights with scarcely any
intermission by this sick-bed, and such dreams were the natural
consequence.

Atossa slipped back to her mother.  Not a sound broke the sultry air of
the sick-room, and Nebenchiari's thoughts reverted to his dream.  He told
himself that he was on the point of becoming a traitor and a criminal,
the visions he had just beheld passed before him again, but this time it
was another, and a different one which gained the foremost place.  The
forms of Amasis, who had laughed at and exiled him,--of Psamtik and the
priests,--who had burnt his works,--stood near him; they were heavily
fettered and besought mercy at his hands.  His lips moved, but this was
not the place in which to utter the cruel words which rose to them.  And
then the stern man wiped away a tear as he remembered the long nights, in
which he had sat with the reed in his hand, by the dull light of the
lamp, carefully painting every sign of the fine hieratic character in
which he committed his ideas and experience to writing.  He had
discovered remedies for many diseases of the eye, spoken of in the sacred
books of Thoth and the writings of a famous old physician of Byblos as
incurable, but, knowing that he should be accused of sacrilege by his
colleagues, if he ventured on a correction or improvement of the sacred
writings, he had entitled  his  work, "Additional  writings on the
treatment of diseases of the eye, by the great god Thoth, newly
discovered by the oculist Nebenchari."

He had resolved on bequeathing his works to the library at Thebes, that
his experience might be useful to his successors and bring forth fruit
for the whole body of sufferers.  This was to be his reward for the long
nights which he had sacrificed to science--recognition after death, and
fame for the caste to which he belonged.  And there stood his old rival
Petammon, by the side of the crown-prince in the grove of Neith, and
stirred the consuming fire, after having stolen his discovery of the
operation of couching.  Their malicious faces were tinged by the red glow
of the flames, which rose with their spiteful laughter towards heaven, as
if demanding vengeance.  A little further off he saw in his dream Amasis
receiving his father's letters from the hands of the high-priest.
Scornful and mocking words were being uttered by the king; Neithotep
looked exultant.--In these visions Nebenchari was so lost, that one of
the Persian doctors was obliged to point out to him that his patient was
awake.  He nodded in reply, pointing to his own weary eyes with a smile,
felt the sick girl's pulse, and asked her in Egyptian how she had slept.

"I do not know," she answered, in a voice that was hardly audible.  "It
seemed to me that I was asleep, and yet I saw and heard everything that
had happened in the room.  I felt so weak that I hardly knew whether I
was awake or asleep.  Has not Atossa been here several times?"

"Yes."

"And Cambyses stayed with Kassandane until sunrise; then he went out,
mounted his horse Reksch, and rode into the game-park."

"How do you know that?"

"I saw it."

Nebenchari looked anxiously into the girl's shining eyes.  She went on:
"A great many dogs have been brought into the court behind this house."

"Probably the king has ordered a hunt, in order to deaden the pain which
he feels at seeing you suffer."

"Oh, no.  I know better what it means.  Oropastes taught me, that
whenever a Persian dies dogs' are brought in, that the Divs may enter
into them."

"But you are living, my mistress, and .  .  ."

"Oh, I know very well that I shall die.  I knew that I had not many hours
more to live, even if I had not seen how you and the other physicians
shrugged your shoulders whenever you looked at me.  That poison is
deadly."

"You are speaking too much, my mistress, it will hurt you."

"Oh let me speak, Nebenchari! I must ask you to do something for me
before I die."

"I am your servant."

"No, Nebenchari, you must be my friend and priest.  You are not angry
with me for having prayed to the Persian gods?  Our own Hathor was always
my best friend still.  Yes, I see by your face that you forgiven me.
Then you must promise not to allow my corpse to be torn in pieces by dogs
and vultures.  The thought is so very dreadful.  You will promise to
embalm my body and ornament it with amulets?"

"If the king allows."

"Of course he will.  How could Cambyses possibly refuse my last request?"

"Then my skill is at your service."

"Thank you; but I have still something else to ask."

"You must be brief.  My Persian colleagues are already making signs to
me, to enjoin silence on you."

"Can't you send them away for a moment?"

"I will try to do so."

Nebenchari then went up and spoke to the Magi for a few minutes, and they
left the room.  An important incantation, at which no one but the two
concerned might be present, and the application of a new and secret
antidotal poison were the pretexts which he had used in order to get rid
of them.

When they were alone, Nitetis drew a breath of relief and said: "Give me
your priestly blessing on my long journey into the nether world, and
prepare me for my pilgrimage to Osiris."

Nebenchari knelt down by her bed and in a low voice repeated hymns,
Nitetis making devotional responses.

The physician represented Osiris, the lord of the nether world--Nitetis
the soul, justifying itself before him.

When these ceremonies were ended the sick girl breathed more freely.
Nebenchari could not but feel moved in looking at this young suicide.  He
felt confident that he had saved a soul for the gods of his native land,
had cheered the last sad and painful hours of one of God's good
creatures.  During these last moments, compassion and benevolence had
excluded every bitter feeling; but when he remembered that this lovely
creature owed all her misery to Amasis too, the old black cloud of
thought darkened his mind again.--Nitetis, after lying silent for some
time, turned to her new friend with a pleasant smile, and said: "I shall
find mercy with the judges of the dead now, shall not I?"

"I hope and believe so."

"Perhaps I may find Tachot before the throne of Osiris, and my father..."

"Your father and mother are waiting for you there.  Now in your last hour
bless those who begot you, and curse those who have robbed you of your
parents, your crown and your life."

"I do not understand you."

"Curse those who robbed you of your parents, crown and life, girl!"
cried the physician again, rising to his full height, breathing hard as
he said the words, and gazing down on the dying girl.  "Curse those
wretches, girl! that curse will do more in gaining mercy from the judges
of the dead, than thousands of good works!"  And as he said this he
seized her hand and pressed it violently.

Nitetis looked up uneasily into his indignant face, and stammered in
blind obedience, 'I curse."

"Those who robbed my parents of their throne and lives!"

"Those who robbed my parents of their throne and their lives," she
repeated after him, and then crying, "Oh, my heart!"  sank back exhausted
on the bed.

Nebenchari bent down, and before the royal physicians could return,
kissed her forehead gently, murmuring: "She dies my confederate.  The
gods hearken to the prayers of those who die innocent.  By carrying the
sword into Egypt, I shall avenge king Hophra's wrongs as well as my own."

When Nitetis opened her eyes once more, a few hours later, Kassandane was
holding her right hand, Atossa kneeling at her feet, and Croesus standing
at the head of her bed, trying, with the failing strength of old age, to
support the gigantic frame of the king, who was so completely overpowered
by his grief, that he staggered like a drunken man.  The dying girl's
eyes lighted up as she looked round on this circle.  She was wonderfully
beautiful.  Cambyses came closer and kissed her lips; they were growing
cold in death.  It was the first kiss he had ever given her, and the
last.  Two large tears sprang to her eyes; their light was fast growing
dim; she murmured Cambyses' name softly, fell back in Atossa's arms, and
died.

We shall not give a detailed account of the next few hours: it would be
an unpleasant task to describe how, at a signal from the principal
Persian doctor, every one, except Nebenchari and Croesus, hastily left
the room; how dogs were brought in and their sagacious heads turned
towards the corpse in order to scare the demon of death;--how, directly
after Nitetis' death, Kassandane, Atossa and their entire retinue moved
into another house in order to avoid defilement;--how fire was
extinguished throughout the dwelling, that the pure element might be
removed from the polluting spirits of death;--how spells and exorcisms
were muttered, and how every person and thing, which had approached or
been brought into contact with the dead body, was subjected to numerous
purifications with water and pungent fluids.

The same evening Cambyses was seized by one of his old epileptic attacks.
Two days later he gave Nebenchari permission to embalm Nitetis' body in
the Egyptian manner, according to her last wish.  The king gave way to
the most immoderate grief; he tore the flesh of his arms, rent his
clothes and strewed ashes on his head, and on his couch.  All the
magnates of his court were obliged to follow his example.  The troops
mounted guard with rent banners and muffled drums.  The cymbals and
kettle-drums of the "Immortals" were bound round with crape.  The horses
which Nitetis had used, as well as all which were then in use by the
court, were colored blue and deprived of their tails; the entire court
appeared in mourning robes of dark brown, rent to the girdle, and the
Magi were compelled to pray three days and nights unceasingly for the
soul of the dead, which was supposed to be awaiting its sentence for
eternity at the bridge Chinvat on the third night.

Neither the king, Kassandane, nor Atossa shrank from submitting to the
necessary purifications; they repeated, as if for one of their nearest
relations, thirty prayers for the dead, while, in a house outside the
city gates Nebenchari began to embalm her body in the most costly manner,
and according to the strictest rules of his art.


[Embalming was practised in three different ways.  The first cost a
talent of silver (L225.); the second 20 Minae (L60.) and the third
was very inexpensive.  Herod. II.  86-88.  Diod.  I. 9.  The brain
was first drawn out through the nose and the skull filled with
spices.  The intestines were then taken out, and the body filled in
like manner with aromatic spices.  When all was finished, the corpse
was left 70 days in a solution of soda, and then wrapped in bandages
of byssus spread over with gum.  The microscopical examinations of
mummy-bandages made by Dr. Ure and Prof. Czermak have proved that
byssus is linen, not cotton.  The manner of embalming just described
is the most expensive, and the latest chemical researches prove that
the description given of it by the Greeks was tolerably correct.  L.
Penicher maintains that the bodies were first somewhat dried in
ovens, and that then resin of the cedar-tree, or asphalte, was
poured into every opening.  According to Herodotus, female corpses
were embalmed by women.  Herod. II. 89.  The subject is treated in
great detail by Pettigrew, History of Egyptian Mummies.  London.
1834.  Czermak's microscopical examinations of Egyptian mummies show
how marvellously the smallest portions of the bodies were preserved,
and confirm the statements of Herodotus on many points.  The
monuments also contain much information in regard to embalming, and
we now know the purpose of nearly all the amulets placed with the
dead.]

For nine days Cambyses remained in a condition, which seemed little short
of insanity.  At times furious, at others dull and stupefied, he did not
even allow his relations or the high-priest to approach him.  On the
morning of the tenth day he sent for the chief of the seven judges and
commanded, that as lenient a sentence as possible should be pronounced on
Gaumata.  Nitetis, on her dying-bed, had begged him to spare the life of
this unhappy youth.

One hour later the sentence was submitted to the king for ratification.
It ran thus: "Victory to the king!  Inasmuch as Cambyses, the eye of the
world and the sun of righteousness, hath, in his great mercy, which is as
broad as the heavens and as inexhaustible as the great deep, commanded us
to punish the crime of the son of the Magi, Gaumata, with the indulgence
of a mother instead of with the severity of a judge, we, the seven judges
of the realm, have determined to grant his forfeited life.  Inasmuch,
however, as by the folly of this youth the lives of the noblest and best
in this realm have been imperilled, and it may reasonably be apprehended
that he may again abuse the marvellous likeness to Bartja, the noble son
of Cyrus, in which the gods have been pleased in their mercy to fashion
his form and face, and thereby bring prejudice upon the pure and