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diff --git a/5459.txt b/5459.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..145c946 --- /dev/null +++ b/5459.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2685 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook An Egyptian Princess, by Georg Ebers, v10 +#21 in our series by Georg Ebers + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: An Egyptian Princess, Volume 10. + +Author: Georg Ebers + +Release Date: April, 2004 [EBook #5459] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on May 7, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN EGYPTIAN PRINCESS, BY EBERS, V10 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +AN EGYPTIAN PRINCESS, Part 2. + +By Georg Ebers + +Volume 10. + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +The waters of the Nile had begun to rise again. Two months had passed +away since Phanes' disappearance, and much had happened. + +The very day on which he left Egypt, Sappho had given birth to a girl, +and had so far regained strength since then under the care of her +grandmother, as to be able to join in an excursion up the Nile, which +Croesus had suggested should take place on the festival of the goddess +Neith. Since the departure of Phanes, Cambyses' behavior had become so +intolerable, that Bartja, with the permission of his brother, had taken +Sappho to live in the royal palace at Memphis, in order to escape any +painful collision. Rhodopis, at whose house Croesus and his son, Bartja, +Darius and Zopyrus were constant guests, had agreed to join the party. + +On the morning of the festival-day they started in a gorgeously decorated +boat, from a point between thirty and forty miles below Memphis, favored +by a good north-wind and urged rapidly forward by a large number of +rowers. + +A wooden roof or canopy, gilded and brightly painted, sheltered them from +the sun. Croesus sat by Rhodopis, Theopompus the Milesian lay at her +feet. Sappho was leaning against Bartja. Syloson, the brother of +Polykrates, had made himself a comfortable resting-place next to Darius, +who was looking thought fully into the water. Gyges and Zopyrus busied +themselves in making wreaths for the women, from the flowers handed them +by an Egyptian slave. + +"It seems hardly possible," said Bartja, "that we can be rowing against +the stream. The boat flies like a swallow." + +"This fresh north-wind brings us forward," answered Theopompus. "And +then the Egyptian boatmen understand their work splendidly." + +"And row all the better just because we are sailing against the stream," +added Croesus. "Resistance always brings out a man's best powers." + +"Yes," said Rhodopis, "sometimes we even make difficulties, if the river +of life seems too smooth." + +"True," answered Darius. "A noble mind can never swim with the stream. +In quiet inactivity all men are equal. We must be seen fighting, to be +rightly estimated." + +"Such noble-minded champions must be very cautious, though," said +Rhodopis, "lest they become contentious, and quarrelsome. Do you see +those melons lying on the black soil yonder, like golden balls? Not one +would have come to perfection if the sower had been too lavish with his +seed. The fruit would have been choked by too luxuriant tendrils and +leaves. Man is born to struggle and to work, but in this, as in +everything else, he must know how to be moderate if his efforts are to +succeed. The art of true wisdom is to keep within limits." + +"Oh, if Cambyses could only hear you!" exclaimed Croesus. "Instead of +being contented with his immense conquests, and now thinking for the +welfare of his subjects, he has all sorts of distant plans in his head. +He wishes to conquer the entire world, and yet, since Phanes left, +scarcely a day has passed in which he has not been conquered himself by +the Div of drunkenness." + +"Has his mother no influence over him?" asked Rhodopis. "She is a noble +woman." + +"She could not even move his resolution to marry Atossa, and was forced +to be present at the marriage feast." + +"Poor Atossa!" murmured Sappho. + +"She does not pass a very happy life as Queen of Persia," answered +Croesus; "and her own naturally impetuous disposition makes it all the +more difficult or her to live contentedly with this husband and mother; +I am sorry to hear it said that Cambyses neglects her sadly, and treats +her like a child. But the marriage does not seem to have astonished the +Egyptians, as brothers and sisters often marry here." + +"In Persia too," said Darius, putting on an appearance of the most +perfect composure, "marriages with very near relations are thought to be +the best." + +"But to return to the king," said Croesus, turning the conversation for +Darius' sake. "I can assure you, Rhodopis, that he may really be called +a noble man. His violent and hasty deeds are repented of almost as soon +as committed, and the resolution to be a just and merciful ruler has +never forsaken him. At supper, for instance, lately, before his mind was +clouded by the influence of wine, he asked us what the Persians thought +of him in comparison with his father." + +"And what was the answer?" said Rhodopis. "Intaphernes got us out of +the trap cleverly enough," answered Zopyrus, laughing. "He exclaimed: +'We are of opinion that you deserve the preference, inasmuch as you have +not only preserved intact the inheritance bequeathed you by Cyrus, but +have extended his dominion beyond the seas by your conquest of Egypt.' +This answer did not seem to please the king, however, and poor +Intaphernes was not a little horrified to hear him strike his fist +on the table and cry, 'Flatterer, miserable flatterer!' He then turned +to Croesus and asked his opinion. Our wise friend answered at once: +'My opinion is that you have not attained to the greatness of your +father; for,' added he in a pacifying tone, 'one thing is wanting to you +--a son such as Cyrus bequeathed us in yourself." + +"First-rate, first-rate," cried Rhodopis clapping her hands and laughing. +"An answer that would have done honor to the ready-witted Odysseus +himself. And how did the king take your honeyed pill?" + +"He was very much pleased, thanked Croesus, and called him his friend." + +"And I," said Croesus taking up the conversation, "used the favorable +opportunity to dissuade him from the campaigns he has been planning +against the long lived Ethiopians, the Ammonians and the Carthaginians. +Of the first of these three nations we know scarcely anything but through +fabulous tales; by attacking them we should lose much and gain little. +The oasis of Ammon is scarcely accessible to a large army, on account of +the desert by which it is surrounded; besides which, it seems to me +sacrilegious to make war upon a god in the hope of obtaining possession +of his treasures, whether we be his worshippers or not. As to the +Carthaginians, facts have already justified my predictions. Our fleet is +manned principally by Syrians and Phoenicians, and they have, as might be +expected, refused to go to war against their brethren. Cambyses laughed +at my reasons, and ended by swearing, when he was already somewhat +intoxicated, that he could carry out difficult undertakings and subdue +powerful nations, even without the help of Bartja and Phanes." + +"What could that allusion to you mean, my son?" asked Rhodopis. + +"He won the battle of Pelusiam," cried Zopyrus, before his friend could +answer. "He and no one else!" + +"Yes," added Croesus, "and you might have been more prudent, and have +remembered that it is a dangerous thing to excite the jealousy of a man +like Cambyses. You all of you forget that his heart is sore, and that +the slightest vexation pains him. He has lost the woman he really loved; +his dearest friend is gone; and now you want to disparage the last thing +in this world that he still cares for,--his military glory." + +"Don't blame him," said Bartja, grasping the old man's hand. "My brother +has never been unjust, and is far from envying me what I must call my +good fortune, for that my attack arrived just at the right time can +hardly be reckoned as a merit on my part. You know he gave me this +splendid sabre, a hundred thorough-bred horses, and a golden hand-mill +as rewards of my bravery." + +Croesus' words had caused Sappho a little anxiety at first; but this +vanished on hearing her husband speak so confidently, and by the time +Zopyrus had finished his wreath and placed it on Rhodopis' head, all her +fears were forgotten. + +Gyges had prepared his for the young mother. It was made of snow-white +water-lilies, and, when she placed it among her brown curls, she looked +so wonderfully lovely in the simple ornament, that Bartja could not help +kissing her on the forehead, though so many witnesses were present. This +little episode gave a merry turn to the conversation; every one did his +best to enliven the others, refreshments of all kinds were handed round, +and even Darius lost his gravity for a time and joined in the jests that +were passing among his friends. + +When the sun had set, the slaves set elegantly-carved chairs, footstools, +and little tables on the open part of the deck. Our cheerful party now +repaired thither and beheld a sight so marvellously beautiful as to be +quite beyond their expectations. + +The feast of Neith, called in Egyptian "the lampburning," was celebrated +by a universal illumination, which began at the rising of the moon. The +shores of the Nile looked like two long lines of fire. Every temple, +house and but was ornamented with lamps according to the means of its +possessors. The porches of the country-houses and the little towers on +the larger buildings were all lighted up by brilliant flames, burning in +pans of pitch and sending up clouds of smoke, in which the flags and +pennons waved gently backwards and forwards. The palm-trees and +sycamores were silvered by the moonlight and threw strange fantastic +reflections on the red waters of the Nile-red from the fiery glow of the +houses on their shores. But strong and glowing as was the light of the +illumination, its rays had not power to reach the middle of the giant +river, where the boat was making its course, and the pleasure-party felt +as if they were sailing in dark night between two brilliant days. Now +and then a brightly-lighted boat would come swiftly across the river and +seem, as it neared the shore, to be cutting its way through a glowing +stream of molten iron. + +Lotus-blossoms, white as snow, lay on the surface of the river, rising +and falling with the waves, and looking like eyes in the water. Not a +sound could be heard from either shore. The echoes were carried away by +the north-wind, and the measured stroke of the oars and monotonous song +of the rowers were the only sounds that broke the stillness of this +strange night--a night robbed of its darkness. + +For a long time the friends gazed without speaking at the wonderful +sight, which seemed to glide past them. Zopyrus was the first to break +the silence by saying, as he drew a long breath: "I really envy you, +Bartja. If things were as they should be, every one of us would have his +dearest wife at his side on such a night as this." + +"And who forbade you to bring one of your wives?" answered the happy +husband. + +"The other five," said the youth with a sigh. "If I had allowed Oroetes' +little daughter Parysatis, my youngest favorite, to come out alone with +me to-night, this wonderful sight would have been my last; tomorrow there +would have been one pair of eyes less in the world." + +Bartja took Sappho's hand and held it fast, saying, "I fancy one wife +will content me as long as I live." The young mother pressed his hand +warmly again, and said, turning to Zopyrus: "I don't quite trust you, my +friend. It seems to me that it is not the anger of your wives you fear, +so much as the commission of an offence against the customs of your +country. I have been told that my poor Bartja gets terribly scolded in +the women's apartments for not setting eunuchs to watch over me, and for +letting me share his pleasures." + +"He does spoil you terribly," answered Zopyrus, "and our wives are +beginning to quote him as an example of kindness and indulgence, whenever +we try to hold the reins a little tight. Indeed there will soon be a +regular women's mutiny at the king's gate, and the Achaemenidae who +escaped the swords and arrows of the Egyptians, will fall victims to +sharp tongues and floods of salt tears." + +"Oh! you most impolite Persian!" said Syloson laughing. "We must make +you more respectful to these images of Aphrodite." + +"You Greeks! that's a good idea," answered the youth. "By Mithras, our +wives are quite as well off as yours. It's only the Egyptian women, that +are so wonderfully free." + +"Yes, you are quite right," said Rhodopis. "The inhabitants of this +strange land have for thousands of years granted our weaker sex the same +rights, that they demand for themselves. Indeed, in many respects, they +have given us the preference. For instance, by the Egyptian law it is +the daughters, not the sons, who are commanded to foster and provide for +their aged parents, showing how well the fathers of this now humbled +people understood women's nature, and how rightly they acknowledged that +she far surpasses man in thoughtful solicitude and self-forgetful love. +Do not laugh at these worshippers of animals. I confess that I cannot +understand them, but I feel true admiration for a people in the teaching +of whose priests, even Pythagoras, that great master in the art of +knowledge, assured me lies a wisdom as mighty as the Pyramids." + +"And your great master was right," exclaimed Darius. "You know that I +obtained Neithotep's freedom, and, for some weeks past, have seen him and +Onuphis very constantly, indeed they have been teaching me. And oh, how +much I have learnt already from those two old men, of which I had no idea +before! How much that is sad I can forget, when I am listening to them! +They are acquainted with the entire history of the heavens and the earth. +They know the name of every king, and the circumstances of every +important event that has occurred during the last four thousand years, +the courses of the stars, the works of their own artists and sayings of +their sages, during the same immense period of time. All this knowledge +is recorded in huge books, which have been preserved in a palace at +Thebes, called the "place of healing for the soul. Their laws are a +fountain of pure wisdom, and a comprehensive intellect has been shown in +the adaptation of all their state institutions to the needs of the +country. I wish we could boast of the same regularity and order at home. +The idea that lies at the root of all their knowledge is the use of +numbers, the only means by which it is possible to calculate the course +of the stars, to ascertain and determine the limits of all that exists, +and, by the application of which in the shortening and lengthening of the +strings of musical instruments, tones can be regulated. + + [We agree with Iamblichus in supposing, that these Pythagorean views + were derived from the Egyptian mysteries.] + +"Numbers are the only certain things; they can neither be controlled nor +perverted. Every nation has its own ideas of right and wrong; every law +can be rendered invalid by circumstances; but the results obtained from +numbers can never be overthrown. Who can dispute, for instance, that +twice two make four? Numbers determine the contents of every existing +thing; whatever is, is equal to its contents, numbers therefore are the +true being, the essence of all that is." + +"In the name of Mithras, Darius, do leave off talking in that style, +unless you want to turn my brain," interrupted Zopyrus. "Why, to hear +you, one would fancy you'd been spending your life among these old +Egyptian speculators and had never had a sword in your hand. What on +earth have we to do with numbers?" + +"More than you fancy," answered Rhodopis. "This theory of numbers +belongs to the mysteries of the Egyptian priests, and Pythagoras learnt +it from the very Onuphis who is now teaching you, Darius. If you will +come to see me soon, I will show you how wonderfully that great Samian +brought the laws of numbers and of the harmonies into agreement. But +look, there are the Pyramids!" + +The whole party rose at these words, and stood speechless, gazing at the +grand sight which opened before them. + +The Pyramids lay on the left bank of the Nile, in the silver moonshine, +massive and awful, as if bruising the earth beneath them with their +weight; the giant graves of mighty rulers. They seemed examples of man's +creative power, and at the same time warnings of the vanity and +mutability of earthly greatness. For where was Chufu now,--the king who +had cemented that mountain of stone with the sweat of his subjects? +Where was the long-lived Chafra who had despised the gods, and, defiant +in the consciousness of his own strength, was said to have closed the +gates of the temples in order to make himself and his name immortal by +building a tomb of superhuman dimensions? + + [Herodotus repeats, in good faith, that the builders of the great + Pyramids were despisers of the gods. The tombs of their faithful + subjects at the foot of these huge structures prove, however, that + they owe their bad repute to the hatred of the people, who could not + forget the era of their hardest bondage, and branded the memories of + their oppressors wherever an opportunity could be found. We might + use the word "tradition" instead of "the people," for this it is + which puts the feeling and tone of mind of the multitude into the + form of history.] + +Their empty sarcophagi are perhaps tokens, that the judges of the dead +found them unworthy of rest in the grave, unworthy of the resurrection, +whereas the builder of the third and most beautiful pyramid, Menkera, who +contented himself with a smaller monument, and reopened the gates of the +temples, was allowed to rest in peace in his coffin of blue basalt. + +There they lay in the quiet night, these mighty pyramids, shone on by the +bright stars, guarded by the watchman of the desert--the gigantic +sphinx,--and overlooking the barren rocks of the Libyan stony mountains. +At their feet, in beautifully-ornamented tombs, slept the mummies of +their faithful subjects, and opposite the monument of the pious Menkera +stood a temple, where prayers were said by the priests for the souls of +the many dead buried in the great Memphian city of the dead. In the +west, where the sun went down behind the Libyan mountains, where the +fruitful land ended and the desert began--there the people of Memphis had +buried their dead; and as our gay party looked towards the west they felt +awed into a solemn silence. + +But their boat sped on before the north-wind; they left the city of the +dead behind them and passed the enormous dikes built to protect the city +of Menes from the violence of the floods; the city of the Pharaohs came +in sight, dazzlingly bright with the myriads of flames which had been +kindled in honor of the goddess Neith, and when at last the gigantic +temple of Ptah appeared, the most ancient building of the most ancient +land, the spell broke, their tongues were loosed, and they burst out into +loud exclamations of delight. + +It was illuminated by thousands of lamps; a hundred fires burnt on its +Pylons, its battlemented walls and roofs. Burning torches flared between +the rows of sphinxes which connected the various gates with the main +building, and the now empty house of the god Apis was so surrounded by +colored fires that it gleamed like a white limestone rock in a tropical +sunset. Pennons, flags and garlands waved above the brilliant picture; +music and loud songs could be heard from below. + +"Glorious," cried Rhodopis in enthusiasm, "glorious! Look how the +painted walls and columns gleam in the light, and what marvellous figures +the shadows of the obelisks and sphinxes throw on the smooth yellow +pavement!" + +"And how mysterious the sacred grove looks yonder!" added Croesus. "I +never saw anything so wonderful before." + +"I have seen something more wonderful still," said Darius. "You will +hardly believe me when I tell you that I have witnessed a celebration of +the mysteries of Neith." + +"Tell us what you saw, tell us!" was the universal outcry. + +"At first Neithotep refused me admission, but when I promised to remain +hidden, and besides, to obtain the freedom of his child, he led me up to +his observatory, from which there is a very extensive view, and told me +that I should see a representation of the fates of Osiris and his wife +Isis. + +"He had scarcely left, when the sacred grove became so brightly +illuminated by colored lights that I was able to see into its innermost +depths. + +"A lake, smooth as glass, lay before me, surrounded by beautiful trees +and flower-beds. Golden boats were sailing on this lake and in them sat +lovely boys and girls dressed in snow-white garments, and singing sweet +songs as they passed over the water. There were no rowers to direct +these boats, and yet they moved over the ripples of the lake in a +graceful order, as if guided by some magic unseen hand. A large ship +sailed in the midst of this little fleet. Its deck glittered with +precious stones. It seemed to be steered by one beautiful boy only, and, +strange to say, the rudder he guided consisted of one white lotusflower, +the delicate leaves of which seemed scarcely to touch the water. A very +lovely woman, dressed like a queen, lay on silken cushions in the middle +of the vessel; by her side sat a man of larger stature than that of +ordinary mortals. He wore a crown of ivy on his flowing curls, a +panther-skin hung over his shoulders and he held a crooked staff in the +right hand. In the back part of the ship was a roof made of ivy, lotus- +blossoms and roses; beneath it stood a milk-white cow with golden horns, +covered with a cloth of purple. The man was Osiris, the woman Isis, the +boy at the helm their son Horus, and the cow was the animal sacred to the +immortal Isis. The little boats all skimmed over the water, singing glad +songs of joy as they passed by the ship, and receiving in return showers +of flowers and fruits, thrown down upon the lovely singers by the god and +goddess within. Suddenly I heard the roll of thunder. It came crashing +on, louder, and louder, and in the midst of this awful sound a man in the +skin of a wild boar, with hideous features and bristling red hair, came +out of the gloomiest part of the sacred grove, plunged into the lake, +followed by seventy creatures like himself, and swam up to the ship of +Osiris. + + [We have taken our description of this spectacle entirely from the + Osiris-myth, as we find it in Plutarch, Isis and Orisis 13-19. + Diod. I. 22. and a thousand times repeated on the monuments. Horus + is called "the avenger of his father," &c. We copy the battle with + all its phases from an inscription at Edfu, interpreted by Naville.] + +"The little boats fled with the swiftness of the wind, and the trembling +boy helmsman dropped his lotusblossom. + +"The dreadful monster then rushed on Osiris, and, with the help of his +comrades, killed him, threw the body into a coffin and the coffin into +the lake, the waters of which seemed to carry it away as if by magic. +Isis meanwhile had escaped to land in one of the small boats, and was now +running hither and thither on the shores of the lake, with streaming +hair, lamenting her dead husband and followed by the virgins who had +escaped with her. Their songs and dances, while seeking the body of +Osiris, were strangely plaintive and touching, and the girls accompanied +the dance by waving black Byssus scarfs in wonderfully graceful curves. +Neither were the youths idle; they busied themselves in making a costly +coffin for the vanished corpse of the god, accompanying their work with +dances and the sound of castanets. When this was finished they joined +the maidens in the train of the lamenting Isis and wandered on the shore +with them, singing and searching. + +"Suddenly a low song rose from some invisible lips. It swelled louder +and louder and announced, that the body of the god had been transported +by the currents of the Mediterranean to Gebal in distant Phoenicia. This +singing voice thrilled to my very heart; Neithotep's son, who was my +companion, called it 'the wind of rumor.' + +"When Isis heard the glad news, she threw off her mourning garments and +sang a song of triumphant rejoicing, accompanied by the voices of her +beautiful followers. Rumor had not lied; the goddess really found the +sarcophagus and the dead body of her husband on the northern shore of the +lake. + + [It is natural, that Isis should find the body of her husband in the + north. The connection between Phoenicia and Egypt in this myth, as + it has been handed down to us by Plutarch, is very remarkable. We + consider the explanation of the close affinity between the Isis and + Osiris and the Adonis myths to be in the fact, that Egyptians and + Phoenicians lived together on the shores of the Delta where the + latter had planted their colonies. Plutarch's story of the finding + of Osiris' dead body is very charming. Isis and Osiris. Ed. Parth. + 15.] + +"They brought both to land with dances; Isis threw herself on the beloved +corpse, called on the name of Osiris and covered the mummy with kisses, +while the youths wove a wonderful tomb of lotus-flowers and ivy. + +"When the coffin had been laid under this beautiful vault, Isis left the +sad place of mourning and went to look for her son. She found him at the +east end of the lake, where for a long time I had seen a beautiful youth +practising arms with a number of companions. + +"While she was rejoicing over her newly-found child, a fresh peal of +thunder told that Typhon had returned. This time the monster rushed upon +the beautiful flowering grave, tore the body out of its coffin, hewed it +into fourteen pieces, and strewed them over the shores of the lake. + +"When Isis came back to the grave, she found nothing but faded flowers +and an empty coffin; but at fourteen different places on the shore +fourteen beautiful colored flames were burning. She and her virgins ran +to these flames, while Horus led the youths to battle against Typhon on +the opposite shore. + +"My eyes and ears hardly sufficed for all I had to see and hear. On the +one shore a fearful and interesting struggle, peals of thunder and the +braying of trumpets; on the other the sweet voices of the women, singing +the most captivating songs to the most enchanting dances, for Isis had +found a portion of her husband's body at every fire and was rejoicing. + +"That was something for you, Zopyrus! I know of no words to describe the +grace of those girls' movements, or how beautiful it was to see them +first mingling in intricate confusion, then suddenly standing in +faultless, unbroken lines, falling again into the same lovely tumult and +passing once more into order, and all this with the greatest swiftness. +Bright rays of light flashed from their whirling ranks all the time, for +each dancer had a mirror fastened between her shoulders, which flashed +while she was in motion, and reflected the scene when she was still. + +"Just as Isis had found the last limb but one of the murdered Osiris, +loud songs of triumph and the flourish of trumpets resounded from the +opposite shore. + +"Horus had conquered Typhon, and was forcing his way into the nether +regions to free his father. The gate to this lower world opened on the +west side of the lake and was guarded by a fierce female hippopotamus. + +"And now a lovely music of flutes and harps came nearer and nearer, +heavenly perfumes rose into the air, a rosy light spread over the sacred +grove, growing brighter every minute, and Osiris came up from the lower +world, led by his victorious son. Isis hastened to embrace her risen and +delivered husband, gave the beautiful Horus his lotus-flower again +instead of the sword, and scattered fruits and flowers over the earth, +while Osiris seated himself under a canopy wreathed with ivy, and +received the homage of all the spirits of the earth and of the Amenti." + + [The lower world, in Egyptian Amenti, properly speaking, the West or + kingdom of death, to which the soul returns at the death of the + body, as the sun at his setting. In a hieroglyphic inscription of + the time of the Ptolemies the Amenti is called Hades.] + +Darius was silent. Rhodopis began: + +"We thank you for your charming account; but this strange spectacle must +have a higher meaning, and we should thank you doubly if you would +explain that to us." + +"Your idea is quite right," answered Darius, "but what I know I dare not +tell. I was obliged to promise Neithotep with an oath, not to tell tales +out of school." + +"Shall I tell you," asked Rhodopis, "what conclusions various hints from +Pythagoras and Onuphis have led me to draw, as to the meaning of this +drama? Isis seems to me to represent the bountiful earth; Osiris, +humidity or the Nile, which makes the earth fruitful; Horus, the young +spring; Typhon, the scorching drought. The bounteous earth, robbed of +her productive power, seeks this beloved husband with lamentations in the +cooler regions of the north, where the Nile discharges his waters. At +last Horus, the young springing power of nature, is grown up and conquers +Typhon, or the scorching drought. Osiris, as is the case with the +fruitful principle of nature, was only apparently dead, rises from the +nether regions and once more rules the blessed valley of the Nile, in +concert with his wife, the bounteous earth." + +"And as the murdered god behaved properly in the lower regions," said +Zopyrus, laughing, "he is allowed, at the end of this odd story, to +receive homage from the inhabitants of Hamestegan, Duzakh and Gorothman, +or whatever they call these abodes for the Egyptian spirit-host." + +"They are called Amenti," said Darius, falling into his friend's merry +mood; but you must know that the history of this divine pair represents +not only the life of nature, but also that of the human soul, which, like +the murdered Osiris, lives an eternal life, even when the body is dead." + +"Thank you," said the other; "I'll try to remember that if I should +chance to die in Egypt. But really, cost what it may, I must see this +wonderful sight soon." + +"Just my own wish," said Rhodopis. "Age is inquisitive." + +"You will never be old," interrupted Darius. "Your conversation and your +features have remained alike beautiful, and your mind is as clear and +bright as your eyes." + +"Forgive me for interrupting you," said Rhodopis, as if she had not heard +his flattering words, "but the word 'eyes' reminds me of the oculist +Nebenchari, and my memory fails me so often, that I must ask you what has +become of him, before I forget. I hear nothing now of this skilful +operator to whom the noble Kassandane owes her sight." + +"He is much to be pitied," replied Darius. "Even before we reached +Pelusium he had begun to avoid society, and scorned even to speak with +his countryman Onuphis. His gaunt old servant was the only being allowed +to wait on or be with him. But after the battle his whole behavior +changed. He went to the king with a radiant countenance, and asked +permission to accompany him to Sais, and to choose two citizens of that +town to be his slaves. Cambyses thought he could not refuse anything to +the man, who had been such a benefactor to his mother, and granted him +full power to do what he wished. On arriving at Amasis' capital, he went +at once to the temple of Neith, caused the high-priest (who had moreover +placed himself at the head of the citizens hostile to Persia), to be +arrested, and with him a certain oculist named Petammon. He then +informed them that, as punishment for the burning of certain papers, they +would be condemned to serve a Persian to whom he should sell them, for +the term of their natural lives, and to perform the most menial services +of slaves in a foreign country. I was present at this scene, and I +assure you I trembled before the Egyptian as he said these words to his +enemies. Neithotep, however, listened quietly, and when Nebenchari had +finished, answered him thus: If thou, foolish son, hast betrayed thy +country for the sake of thy burnt manuscripts, the deed has been neither +just nor wise. I preserved thy valuable works with the greatest care, +laid them up in our temple, and sent a complete copy to the library at +Thebes. Nothing was burnt but the letters from Amasis to thy father, +and a worthless old chest. Psamtik and Petammon were present, and it was +then and there resolved that a new family tomb in the city of the dead +should be built for thee as a compensation for the loss of papers, which, +in order to save Egypt, we were unfortunately forced to destroy. On its +walls thou canst behold pleasing paintings of the gods to whom thou hast +devoted thy life, the most sacred chapters from the book of the dead, and +many other beautiful pictures touching thine own life and character." + +"The physician turned very pale--asked first to see his books, and then +his new and beautifully-fitted-up tomb. He then gave his slaves their +freedom, (notwithstanding which they were still taken to Memphis as +prisoners of war), and went home, often passing his hand across his +forehead on the way, and with the uncertain step of one intoxicated. +On reaching his house he made a will, bequeathing all he possessed to the +grandson of his old servant Hib, and, alleging that he was ill, went to +bed. The next morning he was found dead. He had poisoned himself with +the fearful strychnos-juice." + +"Miserable man" said Croesus. "The gods had blinded him, and he reaped +despair instead of revenge, as a reward for his treachery." + +"I pity him," murmured Rhodopis. "But look, the rowers are taking in +their oars. We are at the end of our journey; there are your litters and +carriages waiting for you. It was a beautiful trip. Farewell, my dear +ones; come to Naukratis soon, I shall return at once with Theopompus and +Syloson. Give little Parmys a thousand kisses from me, and tell Melitta +never to take her out at noon. It is dangerous for the eyes. Good- +night, Croesus; good-night, friends, farewell my dear son." + +The Persians left the vessel with many a nod and farewell word, and +Bartja, looking round once more, missed his footing and fell on the +landing-pier. + +He sprang up in a moment without Zopyrus' help, who came running back, +calling out, "Take care, Bartja! It's unlucky to fall in stepping +ashore. I did the very same thing, when we left the ship that time at +Naukratis." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +While our friends were enjoying their row on the Nile, Cambyses' envoy, +Prexaspes, had returned from a mission to the long-lived Ethiopians. He +praised their strength and stature, described the way to their country as +almost inaccessible to a large army, and had plenty of marvellous tales +to tell. How, for instance; they always chose the strongest and +handsomest man in their nation for their king, and obeyed him +unconditionally: how many of them reached the age of 120 years, and some +even passed it: how they ate nothing but boiled flesh, drank new milk and +washed in a spring the waters of which had the scent of violets, gave a +remarkable lustre to their skins, and were so light that wood could not +swim in them: how their captives wore golden fetters, because other +metals were rare and dear in their country; and lastly, how they covered +the bodies of the dead with plaster or stucco, over which a coating of +some glass-like material was poured, and kept the pillars thus formed one +year in their houses, during which time sacrifices were offered them, and +at the year's end they were placed in rows around the town. + +The king of this strange people had accepted Cambyses' presents, saying, +in a scornful tone, that he new well his friendship was of no importance +to the Persians, and Prexaspes had only been sent to spy out the land. +If the prince of Asia were a just man, he would be contented with his own +immense empire and not try to subjugate a people who had done him no +wrong. "Take your king this bow," he said, "and advise him not to begin +the war with us, until the Persians are able to bend such weapons as +easily as we do. Cambyses may thank the gods, that the Ethiopians have +never taken it into their heads to conquer countries which do not belong +to them." + +He then unbent his mighty bow of ebony, and gave it to Prexaspes to take +to his lord. + +Cambyses laughed at the bragging African, invited his nobles to a trial +of the bow the next morning, and awarded Prexaspes for the clever way in +which he had overcome the difficulties of his journey and acquitted +himself of his mission. He then went to rest, as usual intoxicated, and +fell into a disturbed sleep, in which he dreamed that Bartja was seated +on the throne of Persia, and that the crown of his head touched the +heavens. + +This was a dream, which he could interpret without the aid of soothsayer +or Chaldean. It roused his anger first, and then made him thoughtful. + +He could not sleep, and such questions as the following came into his +mind: "Haven't you given your brother reason to feel revengeful? Do you +think he can forget that you imprisoned and condemned him to death, when +he was innocent? And if he should raise his hand against you, would not +all the Achaemenidae take his part? Have I ever done, or have I any +intention of ever doing anything to win the love of these venal +courtiers? Since Nitetis died and that strange Greek fled, has there +been a single human being, in whom I have the least confidence or on +whose affection I can rely?" + +These thoughts and questionings excited him so fearfully, that he sprang +from his bed, crying: "Love and I have nothing to do with one another. +Other men maybe kind and good if they like; I must be stern, or I shall +fall into the hands of those who hate me--hate me because I have been +just, and have visited heavy sins with heavy chastisements. They whisper +flattering words in my ear; they curse me when my back is turned. The +gods themselves must be my enemies, or why do they rob me of everything +I love, deny me posterity and even that military glory which is my just +due? Is Bartja so much better than I, that everything which I am forced +to give up should be his in hundred-fold measure? Love, friendship, +fame, children, everything flows to him as the rivers to the sea, while +my heart is parched like the desert. But I am king still. I can show +him which is the stronger of us two, and I will, though his forehead may +touch the heavens. In Persia there can be only one great man. He or I, +--I or he. In a few days I'll send him back to Asia and make him satrap +of Bactria. There he can nurse his child and listen to his wife's songs, +while I am winning glory in Ethiopia, which it shall not be in his power +to lessen. Ho, there, dressers! bring my robes and a good morning- +draught of wine. I'll show the Persians that I'm fit to be King of +Ethiopia, and can beat them all at bending a bow. Here, give me another +cup of wine. I'd bend that bow, if it were a young cedar and its string +a cable!" So saying he drained an immense bowl of wine and went into the +palace-garden, conscious of his enormous strength and therefore sure of +success. + +All his nobles were assembled waiting for him there, welcomed him with +loud acclamations, and fell on their faces to the ground before their +king. + +Pillars, connected by scarlet cords, had been quickly set up between the +closely-cut hedges and straight avenues. From these cords, suspended by +gold and silver rings, yellow and dark blue hangings fluttered in the +breeze. Gilded wooden benches had been placed round in a large circle, +and nimble cup-bearers handed wine in costly vessels to the company +assembled for the shooting-match. + +At a sign from the king the Achaemenidae rose from the earth. + +Cambyses glanced over their ranks, and his face brightened on seeing +that Bartja was not there. Prexaspes handed him the Ethiopian bow, and +pointed out a target at some distance. Cambyses laughed at the large +size of the target, weighted the bow with his right hand, challenged his +subjects to try their fortune first, and handed the bow to the aged +Hystaspes, as the highest in rank among the Achaemenidae. + +While Hystaspes first, and then all the heads of the six other highest +families in Persia, were using their utmost efforts to bend this monster +weapon in vain, the king emptied goblet after goblet of wine, his spirits +rising as he watched their vain endeavors to solve the Ethiopian's +problem. At last Darius, who was famous for his skill in archery, took +the bow. Nearly the same result. The wood was inflexible as iron and +all his efforts only availed to move it one finger's breadth. The king +gave him a friendly nod in reward for his success, and then, looking +round on his friends and relations in a manner that betokened the most +perfect assurance, he said: "Give me the bow now, Darius. I will show +you, that there is only one man in Persia who deserves the name of king; +--only one who can venture to take the field against the Ethiopians;-- +only one who can bend this bow." + +He grasped it tightly with his left hand, taking the string, which was as +thick as a man's finger and made from the intestines of a lion, in his +right, fetched a deep breath, bent his mighty back and pulled and pulled; +collected all his strength for greater and greater efforts, strained his +sinews till they threatened to break, and the veins in his forehead were +swollen to bursting, did not even disdain to use his feet and legs, but +all in vain. After a quarter of an hour of almost superhuman exertion, +his strength gave way, the ebony, which he had succeeded in bending even +farther than Darius, flew back and set all his further endeavors at +nought. At last, feeling himself thoroughly exhausted, he dashed the bow +on to the ground in a passion, crying: "The Ethiopian is a liar! no +mortal man has ever bent that bow. What is impossible for my arm is +possible for no other. In three days we will start for Ethiopia. I will +challenge the impostor to a single combat, and ye shall see which is the +stronger. Take up the bow, Prexaspes, and keep it carefully. The black +liar shall be strangled with his own bow-string. This wood is really +harder than iron, and I confess that the man who could bend it, would +really be my master. I should not be ashamed to call him so, for he must +be of better stuff than I." + +As he finished speaking, Bartja appeared in the circle of assembled +Persians. His glorious figure was set off to advantage by his rich +dress, his features were bright with happiness and a feeling of conscious +strength. He passed through the ranks of the Achaemenidae with many a +friendly nod, which was warmly returned, and going straight to his +brother, kissed his robe, looked up frankly and cheerfully into his +gloomy eyes, and said: "I am a little late, and ask your forgiveness, my +lord and brother. Or have I really come in time? Yes, yes, I see +there's no arrow in the target yet, so I am sure you, the best archer in +the world, cannot have tried your strength yet. But you look so +enquiringly at me. Then I will confess that our child kept me. The +little creature laughed to-day for the first time, and was so charming +with its mother, that I forgot how time was passing while I watched them. +You have all full leave to laugh at my folly; I really don't know how to +excuse myself. See, the little one has pulled my star from the chain. +But I think, my brother, you will give me a new one to-day if I should +hit the bull's eye. Shall I shoot first, or will you begin, my +Sovereign?" + +"Give him the bow, Prexaspes," said Cambyses, not even deigning to look +at his brother. + +Bartja took it and was proceeding to examine the wood and the string, +when Cambyses suddenly called out, with a mocking laugh: "By Mithras, I +believe you want to try your sweet looks on the bow, and win its favor in +that fashion, as you do the hearts of men. Give it back to Prexaspes. +It's easier to play with beautiful women and laughing children, than with +a weapon like this, which mocks the strength even of real men." + +Bartja blushed with anger and annoyance at this speech, which was uttered +in the bitterest tone, picked up the giant arrow that lay before him, +placed himself opposite the target, summoned all his strength, bent the +bow, by an almost superhuman effort, and sent the arrow into the very +centre of the target, where its iron point remained, while the wooden +shaft split into a hundred shivers. + + [Herodotus tells this story (III, 30.), and we are indebted to him + also for our information of the events which follow. The following + inscription, said to have been placed over the grave of Darius, and + communicated by Onesikritus, (Strabo 730.) proves that the Persians + were very proud of being reputed good archers: "I was a friend to my + friends, the best rider and archer, a first-rate hunter; I could do + everything."] + +Most of the Achaemenidae burst into loud shouts of delight at this +marvellous proof of strength; but Bartja's nearest friends turned pale +and were silent; they were watching the king, who literally quivered with +rage, and Bartja, who was radiant with pride and joy. + +Cambyses was a fearful sight at that moment. It seemed to him as if that +arrow, in piercing the target, had pierced his own heart, his strength, +dignity and honor. Sparks floated before his eyes, in his ears was a +sound like the breaking of a stormy sea on the shore; his cheeks glowed +and he grasped the arm of Prexaspes who was at his side. Prexaspes only +too well understood what that pressure meant, when given by a royal hand, +and murmured: "Poor Bartja!" + +At last the king succeeded in recovering his presence of mind. Without +saying a word, he threw a gold chain to his brother, ordered his nobles +to follow him, and left the garden, but only to wander restlessly up and +down his apartments, and try to drown his rage in wine. Suddenly he +seemed to have formed a resolution and ordered all the courtiers, except +Prexaspes, to leave the hall. When they were alone, he called out in a +hoarse voice and with a look that proved the extent of his intoxication: +"This life is not to be borne! Rid me of my enemy, and I will call you +my friend and benefactor." + +Prexaspes trembled, threw himself at the king's feet and raised his hands +imploringly; but Cambyses was too intoxicated, and too much blinded by +his hatred to understand the action. He fancied the prostration was +meant as a sign of devotion to his will, signed to him to rise, and +whispered, as if afraid of hearing his own words: "Act quickly and +secretly; and, as you value your life, let no one know of the upstart's +death. Depart, and when your work is finished, take as much as you like +out of the treasury. But keep your wits about you. The boy has a strong +arm and a winning tongue. Think of your own wife and children, if he +tries to win you over with his smooth words." + +As he spoke he emptied a fresh goblet of pure wine, staggered through the +door of the room, calling out as he turned his back on Prexaspes: "Woe be +to you if that upstart, that woman's hero, that fellow who has robbed me +of my honor, is left alive." + +Long after he had left the hall, Prexaspes stood fixed on the spot where +he had heard these words. The man was ambitious, but neither mean nor +bad, and he felt crushed by the awful task allotted to him. He knew that +his refusal to execute it would bring death or disgrace on himself and on +his family; but he loved Bartja, and besides, his whole nature revolted +at the thought of becoming a common, hired murderer. A fearful struggle +began in his mind, and raged long after he left the palace. On the way +home he met Croesus and Darius. He fancied they would see from his looks +that he was already on the way to a great crime, and hid himself behind +the projecting gate of a large Egyptian house. As they passed, he heard +Croesus say: "I reproached him bitterly, little as he deserves reproach +in general, for having given such an inopportune proof of his great +strength. We may really thank the gods, that Cambyses did not lay +violent hands on him in a fit of passion. He has followed my advice now +and gone with his wife to Sais. For the next few days Bartja must not +come near the king; the mere sight of him might rouse his anger again, +and a monarch can always find unprincipled servants . . ." + +The rest of the sentence died away in the distance, but the words he had +heard were enough to make Prexaspes start, as if Croesus had accused him +of the shameful deed. He resolved in that moment that, come what would, +his hands should not be stained with the blood of a friend. This +resolution restored him his old erect bearing and firm gait for the time, +but when he reached the dwelling which had been assigned as his abode in +Sais his two boys ran to the door to meet him. They had stolen away from +the play-ground of the sons of the Achaemenidae, (who, as was always the +case, had accompanied the king and the army), to see their father for a +moment. He felt a strange tenderness, which he could not explain to +himself, on taking them in his arms, and kissed the beautiful boys once +more on their telling him that they must go back to their play-ground +again, or they should be punished. Within, he found his favorite wife +playing with their youngest child, a sweet little girl. Again the same +strange, inexplicable feeling of tenderness. He overcame it this time +for fear of betraying his secret to his young wife, and retired to his +own apartment early. + +Night had come on. + +The sorely-tried man could not sleep; he turned restlessly from side to +side. The fearful thought, that his refusal to do the king's will would +be the ruin of his wife and children, stood before his wakeful eyes in +the most vivid colors. The strength to keep his good resolution forsook +him, and even Croesus' words, which, when he first heard them had given +his nobler feelings the victory, now came in as a power on the other +side. "A monarch can always find unprincipled servants." Yes, the words +were an affront, but at the same time a reminder, that though he might +defy the king's command a hundred others would be ready to obey it. No +sooner had this thought become clear to him, than he started up, examined +a number of daggers which hung, carefully arranged, above his bed, and +laid the sharpest on the little table before him. + +He then began to pace the room in deep thought, often going to the +opening which served as a window, to cool his burning forehead and see +if dawn were near. + +When at last daylight appeared, he heard the sounding brass calling the +boys to early prayer. That reminded him of his sons and he examined the +dagger a second time. A troop of gaily-dressed courtiers rode by on +their way to the king. He put the dagger in his girdle; and at last, on +hearing the merry laughter of his youngest child sound from the women's +apartments, he set the tiara hastily on his head, left the house without +taking leave of his wife, and, accompanied by a number of slaves, went +down to the Nile. There he threw himself into a boat and ordered the +rowers to take him to Sais. + + ......................... + +A few hours after the fatal shooting-match, Bartja had followed Croesus' +advice and had gone off to Sais with his young wife. They found Rhodopis +there. She had yielded to an irresistible impulse and, instead of +returning to Naukratis, had stopped at Sais. Bartja's fall on stepping +ashore had disturbed her, and she had with her own eyes seen an owl fly +from the left side close by his head. These evil omens, to a heart which +had by no means outgrown the superstitions of the age, added to a +confused succession of distressing dreams which had disturbed her +slumbers, and her usual wish to be always near Bartja and Sappho, +led her to decide quickly on waiting for her granddaughter at Sais. + +Bartja and Sappho were delighted to find such a welcome guest, and +after she had dandled and played with her great grandchild, the little +Parmys, to her heart's content, they led her to the rooms which had been +prepared for her. + + [Herodotus states, that beside Atossa, &c.. Darius took a daughter + of the deceased Bartja, named Parmys, to be his wife. Herod. III. + 88. She is also mentioned VII. 78.] + +They were the same in which the unhappy Tachot had spent the last months +of her fading existence. Rhodopis could not see all the little trifles +which showed, not only the age and sex of the former occupant, but her +tastes and disposition, without feeling very sad. On the dressing-table +were a number of little ointment-boxes and small bottles for perfumes, +cosmetics, washes and oils. Two larger boxes, one in the form of a Nile- +goose, and another on the side of which a woman playing on a lute had +been painted, had once contained the princess's costly golden ornaments, +and the metal mirror with a handle in the form of a sleeping maiden, had +once reflected her beautiful face with its pale pink flush. Everything +in the room, from the elegant little couch resting on lions' claws, to +the delicately-carved ivory combs on the toilet-table, proved that the +outward adornments of life had possessed much charm for the former owner +of these rooms. The golden sisirum and the delicately-wrought nabla, +the strings of which had long ago been broken, testified to her taste for +music, while the broken spindle in the corner, and some unfinished nets +of glass beads shewed that she had been fond of woman's usual work. + +It was a sad pleasure to Rhodopis to examine all these things, and the +picture which she drew in her own mind of Tachot after the inspection, +differed very little from the reality. At last interest and curiosity +led her to a large painted chest. She lifted the light cover and found, +first, a few dried flowers; then a ball, round which some skilful hand +had wreathed roses and leaves, once fresh and bright, now, alas, long ago +dead and withered. Beside these were a number of amulets in different +forms, one representing the goddess of truth, another containing spells +written on a strip of papyrus and concealed in a little golden case. +Then her eyes fell on some letters written in the Greek character. She +read them by the light of the lamp. They were from Nitetis in Persia to +her supposed sister, and were written in ignorance of the latter's +illness. When Rhodopis laid them down her eyes were full of tears. The +dead girl's secret lay open before her. She knew now that Tachot had +loved Bartja, that he had given her the faded flowers, and that she had +wreathed the ball with roses because he had thrown it to her. The +amulets must have been intended either to heal her sick heart, or to +awaken love in his. + +As she was putting the letters back in their old place, she touched some +cloths which seemed put in to fill up the bottom of the chest, and felt a +hard round substance underneath. She raised them, and discovered a bust +made of colored wax, such a wonderfully-exact portrait of Nitetis, that +an involuntary exclamation of surprise broke from her, and it was long +before she could turn her eyes away from Theodorus' marvellous work. + +She went to rest and fell asleep, thinking of the sad fate of Nitetis, +the Egyptian Princess. + +The next morning Rhodopis went into the garden--the same into which we +led our readers during the lifetime of Amasis-and found Bartja and Sappho +in an arbor overgrown with vines. + +Sappho was seated in a light wicker-work chair. Her child lay on her +lap, stretching out its little hands and feet, sometimes to its father, +who was kneeling on the ground before them, and then to its mother whose +laughing face was bent down over her little one. + +Bartja was very happy with his child. When the little creature buried +its tiny fingers in his curls and beard, he would draw his head back to +feel the strength of the little hand, would. kiss its rosy feet, its +little round white shoulders and dimpled arms. Sappho enjoyed the fun, +always trying to draw the little one's attention to its father. + +Sometimes, when she stooped down to kiss the rosy baby lips, her forehead +would touch his curls and he would steal the kiss meant for the little +Parmys. + +Rhodopis watched them a long time unperceived, and, with tears of joy in +her eyes, prayed the gods that they might long be as happy as they now +were. At last she came into the arbor to wish them good-morning, and +bestowed much praise on old Melitta for appearing at the right moment, +parasol in hand, to take her charge out of the sunshine before it became +too bright and hot, and put her to sleep. + +The old slave had been appointed head-nurse to the high-born child, and +acquitted herself in her new office with an amount of importance which +was very comical. Hiding her old limbs under rich Persian robes, she +moved about exulting in the new and delightful right to command, and kept +her inferiors in perpetual motion. + +Sappho followed Melitta into the palace, first whispering in her +husband's ear with her arm round his neck: "Tell my grandmother +everything and ask whether you are right." + +Before he could answer, she had stopped his mouth with a kiss, and then +hurried after the old woman who was departing with dignified steps. + +The prince smiled as he watched her graceful walk and beautiful figure, +and said, turning to Rhodopis: "Does not it strike you, that she has +grown taller lately." + +"It seems so," answered Rhodopis. "A woman's girlhood has its own +peculiar charm, but her true dignity comes with motherhood. It is the +feeling of having fulfilled her destiny, which raises her head and makes +us fancy she has grown taller." + +"Yes," said Bartja, "I think she is happy. Yesterday our opinions +differed for the first time, and as she was leaving us just now, she +begged me, privately, to lay the question before you, which I am very +glad to do, for I honor your experience and wisdom just as much, as I +love her childlike inexperience." + +Bartja then told the story of the unfortunate shooting-match, finishing +with these words: "Croesus blames my imprudence, but I know my brother; I +know that when he is angry he is capable of any act of violence, and it +is not impossible that at the moment when he felt himself defeated he +could have killed me; but I know too, that when his fierce passion has +cooled, he will forget my boastful deed, and only try to excel me by +others of the same kind. A year ago he was by far the best marksman in +Persia, and would be so still, if drink and epilepsy had not undermined +his strength. I must confess I feel as if I were becoming stronger every +day." + +"Yes," interrupted Rhodopis, "pure happiness strengthens a man's arm, +just as it adds to the beauty of a woman, while intemperance and mental +distress ruin both body and mind far more surely even than old age. My +son, beware of your brother; his strong arm has become paralyzed, and his +generosity can be forfeited too. Trust my experience, that the man who +is the slave of one evil passion, is very seldom master of the rest; +besides which, no one feels humiliation so bitterly as he who is sinking +--who knows that his powers are forsaking him. I say again, beware of +your brother, and trust the voice of experience more than that of your +own heart, which, because it is generous itself, believes every one else +to be so." + +"I see," said Bartja, "that you will take Sappho's side. Difficult as it +will be for her to part from you, she has still begged me to return with +her to Persia. She thinks that Cambyses may forget his anger, when I am +out of sight. I thought she was over-anxious, and besides, it would +disappoint me not to take part in the expedition against the Ethiopians." + +"But I entreat you," interrupted Rhodopis, "to follow her advice. The +gods only know what pain it will give me to lose you both, and yet I +repeat a thousand times: Go back to Persia, and remember that none but +fools stake life and happiness to no purpose. As to the war with +Ethiopia, it is mere madness; instead of subduing those black inhabitants +of the south, you yourselves will be conquered by heat, thirst and all +the horrors of the desert. In saying this I refer to the campaigns in +general; as to your own share in them, I can only say that if no fame is +to be won there, you will be putting your own life and the happiness of +your family in jeopardy literally for nothing, and that if, on the other +hand, you should distinguish yourself again, it would only be giving +fresh cause of jealousy and anger to your brother. No, go to Persia, as +soon as you can." + +Bartja was just beginning to make various objections to these arguments, +when he caught sight of Prexaspes coming up to them, looking very pale. + +After the usual greeting, the envoy whispered to Bartja, that he should +like to speak with him alone. Rhodopis left them at once, and he began, +playing with the rings on his right hand as he spoke, in a constrained, +embarrassed way. "I come from the king. Your display of strength +irritated him yesterday, and he does not wish to see you again for some +time. His orders are, that you set out for Arabia to buy up all the +camels that are to be had. + + [Camels are never represented on the Egyptian monuments, whereas + they were in great use among the Arabians and Persians, and are now + a necessity on the Nile. They must have existed in Egypt, however. + Hekekyan-Bey discovered the bones of a dromedary in a deep bore. + Representations of these creatures were probably forbid We know this + was the case with the cock, of which bird there were large numbers + in Egypt: It is remarkable, that camels were not introduced into + Barbary until after the birth of Christ.] + +"As these animals can bear thirst very long, they are to be used in +conveying food and water for our army on the Ethiopian campaign. There +must be no delay. Take leave of your wife, and (I speak by the king's +command) be ready to start before dark. You will be absent at least a +month. I am to accompany you as far as Pelusium. Kassandane wishes to +have your wife and child near her during your absence. Send them to +Memphis as soon as possible; under the protection of the queen mother, +they will be in safety." + +Prexaspes' short, constrained way of speaking did not strike Bartja. +He rejoiced at what seemed to him great moderation on the part of his +brother, and at receiving a commission which relieved him of all doubt +on the question of leaving Egypt, gave his friend, (as he supposed him +to be), his hand to kiss and an invitation to follow him into the palace. + +In the cool of the evening, he took a short but very affectionate +farewell of Sappho and his child, who was asleep in Melitta's arms, told +his wife to set out as soon as possible on her journey to Kassandane, +called out jestingly to his mother-in-law, that at least this time she +had been mistaken in her judgment of a man's character, (meaning his +brother's), and sprang on to his horse. + +As Prexaspes was mounting, Sappho whispered to him, "Take care of that +reckless fellow, and remind him of me and his child, when you see him +running into unnecessary danger." + +"I shall have to leave him at Pelusium," answered the envoy, busying +himself with the bridle of his horse in order to avoid meeting her eyes. + +"Then may the gods take him into their keeping!" exclaimed Sappho, +clasping her husband's hand, and bursting into tears, which she could not +keep back. Bartja looked down and saw his usually trustful wife in +tears. He felt sadder than he had ever felt before. Stooping down +lovingly from his saddle, he put his strong arm round her waist, lifted +her up to him, and as she stood supporting herself on his foot in the +stirrup, pressed her to his heart, as if for a long last farewell. He +then let her safely and gently to the ground, took his child up to him on +the saddle, kissed and fondled the little creature, and told her +laughingly to make her mother very happy while he was away, exchanged +some warm words of farewell with Rhodopis, and then, spurring his horse +till the creature reared, dashed through the gateway of the Pharaohs' +palace, with Prexaspes at his side. + +When the sound of the horses' hoofs had died away in the distance, Sappho +laid her head on her grandmother's shoulder and wept uncontrollably. +Rhodopis remonstrated and blamed, but all in vain, she could not stop her +tears. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +On the morning after the trial of the bow, Cambyses was seized by such a +violent attack of his old illness, that he was forced to keep his room +for two days and nights, ill in mind and body; at times raging like a +madman, at others weak and powerless as a little child. + +On the third day he recovered consciousness and remembered the awful +charge he had laid on Prexaspes, and that it was only too possible he +might have executed it already. At this thought he trembled, as he had +never trembled in his life before. He sent at once for the envoy's +eldest son, who was one of the royal cup-bearers. The boy said his +father had left Memphis, without taking leave of his family. He then +sent for Darius, Zopyrus and Gyges, knowing how tenderly they loved +Bartja, and enquired after their friend. On hearing from them that he +was at Sais, he sent the three youths thither at once, charging them, if +they met Prexaspes on the way, to send him back to Memphis without delay. +This haste and the king's strange behavior were quite incomprehensible to +the young Achaemenidae; nevertheless they set out on their journey with +all speed, fearing that something must be wrong. + +Cambyses, meanwhile, was miserably restless, inwardly cursed his habit of +drinking and tasted no wine the whole of that clay. Seeing his mother in +the palace-gardens, he avoided her; he durst not meet her eye. + +The next eight days passed without any sign of Prexaspes' return; they +seemed to the king like a year. A hundred times he sent for the young +cup-bearer and asked if his father had returned; a hundred times he +received the same disappointing answer. + +At sunset on the thirteenth day, Kassandane sent to beg a visit from him. +The king went at once, for now he longed to look on the face of his +mother; he fancied it might give him back his lost sleep. + +After he had greeted her with a tenderness so rare from him, that it +astonished her, he asked for what reason she had desired his presence. +She answered, that Bartja's wife had arrived at Memphis under singular +circumstances and had said she wished to present a gift to Cambyses. He +gave Sappho an audience at once, and heard from her that Prexaspes had +brought her husband an order to start for Arabia, and herself a summons +to Memphis from the queen-mother. At these words the king turned very +pale, and his features were agitated with pain as he looked at his +brother's lovely young wife. She felt that something unusual was passing +in his mind, and such dreadful forebodings arose in her own, that she +could only offer him the gift in silence and with trembling hands. + +"My husband sends you this," she said, pointing to the ingeniously- +wrought box, which contained the wax likeness of Nitetis. Rhodopis had +advised her to take this to the king in Bartja's name, as a propitiatory +offering. + +Cambyses showed no curiosity as to the contents of the box, gave it in +charge to a eunuch, said a few words which seemed meant as thanks to his +sister-in law, and left the women's apartments without even so much as +enquiring after Atossa, whose existence he seemed to have forgotten. + +He had come to his mother, believing that the visit would comfort and +calm his troubled mind, but Sappho's words had destroyed his last hope, +and with that his last possibility of rest or peace. By this time either +Prexaspes would already have committed the murder, or perhaps at that +very moment might be raising his dagger to plunge it into Bartja's heart. + +How could he ever meet his mother again after Bartja's death? how could +he answer her questions or those of that lovely Sappho, whose large, +anxious, appealing eyes had touched him so strangely? + +A voice within told him, that his brother's murder would be branded as a +cowardly, unnatural, and unjust deed, and he shuddered at the thought. +It seemed fearful, unbearable, to be called an assassin. He had already +caused the death of many a man without the least compunction, but that +had been done either in fair fight, or openly before the world. He was +king, and what the king did was right. Had he killed Bartja with his own +hand, his conscience would not have reproached him; but to have had him +privately put out of the way, after he had given so many proofs of +possessing first-rate manly qualities, which deserved the highest praise +--this tortured him with a feeling of rage at his own want of principle, +-a feeling of shame and remorse which he had never known before. He +began to despise himself. The consciousness of having acted, and wished +to act justly, forsook him, and he began to fancy, that every one who had +been executed by his orders, had been, like Bartja, an innocent victim of +his fierce anger. These thoughts became so intolerable, that he began to +drink once more in the hope of drowning them. But now the wine had +precisely the opposite effect, and brought such tormenting thoughts, +that, worn out as he was already by epileptic fits and his habit of +drinking, both body and mind threatened to give way to the agitation +caused by the events of the last months. Burning and shivering by turns, +he was at last forced to lie down. While the attendants were disrobing +him, he remembered his brother's present, had the box fetched and opened, +and then desired to be left alone. The Egyptian paintings on the outside +of the box reminded him of Nitetis, and then he asked himself what she +would have said to his deed. Fever had already begun, and his mind was +wandering as he took the beautiful wax bust out of the box. He stared in +horror at the dull, immovable eyes. The likeness was so perfect, and his +judgment so weakened by wine and fever, that he fancied himself the +victim of some spell, and yet could not turn his eyes from those dear +features. Suddenly the eyes seemed to move. He was seized with terror, +and, in a kind of convulsion, hurled what he thought had become a living +head against the wall. The hollow, brittle wax broke into a thousand +fragments, and Cambyses sank back on to his bed with a groan. + +From that moment the fever increased. In his delirium the banished +Phanes appeared, singing a scornful Greek song and deriding him in such +infamous words, that his fists clenched with rage. Then he saw his +friend and adviser, Croesus, threatening him in the very same words of +warning, which he had used when Bartja had been sentenced to death by his +command on account of Nitetis: "Beware of shedding a brother's blood; the +smoke thereof will rise to heaven and become a cloud, that must darken +the days of the murderer, and at last cast down the lightnings of heaven +upon his head." + +And in his delirious fancy this figure of speech became a reality. A +rain of blood streamed down upon him from dark clouds; his clothes and +hands were wet with the loathsome moisture. He went down to the Nile to +cleanse himself, and suddenly saw Nitetis coming towards him. She had +the same sweet smile with which Theodorus had modelled her. Enchanted +with this lovely vision, he fell down before her and took her hand, but +he had scarcely touched it, when drops of blood appeared at the tips of +her delicate fingers, and she turned away from him with every sign of +horror. He humbly implored her to forgive him and come back; she +remained inexorable. He grew angry, and threatened her, first with his +wrath, and then with awful punishments. At last, as she only answered +his threats by a low scornful laugh, he ventured to throw his dagger at +her. She crumbled at once into a thousand pieces, like the wax statue. +But the derisive laughter echoed on, and became louder. Many voices +joined in it, each trying to outbid the other. And the voices of Bartja +and Nitetis were the loudest,--their tone the most bitter. At last he +could bear these fearful sounds no longer and stopped his ears; this was +of no use, and he buried his head, first in the glowing desert-sand and +then in the icy cold Nile-water, until his senses forsook him. On +awaking, the actual state of things seemed incomprehensible to him. He +had gone to bed in the evening, and yet he now saw, by the direction of +the sun's rays which fell on his bed, that, instead of dawning as he had +expected, the day was growing dark. There could be no mistake; he heard +the chorus of priests singing farewell to the setting Mithras. + +Then he heard a number of people moving behind a curtain, which had been +hung up at the head of his bed. He tried to turn in his bed, but could +not; he was too weak. At last, finding it impossible to discover whether +he was in real life or still in a dream, he called for his dressers and +the courtiers, who were accustomed to be present when he rose. They +appeared in a moment, and with them his mother, Prexaspes, a number of +the learned among the Magi, and some Egyptians who were unknown to him. +They told him, that he had been lying in a violent fever for weeks, and +had only escaped death by the special mercy of the gods, the skill of the +physicians, and the unwearied nursing of his mother. He looked +enquiringly first at Kassandane, then at Prexaspes, lost consciousness +again, and fell into a deep sleep, from which he awoke the next morning +with renewed strength. + +In four days he was strong enough to sit up and able to question +Prexaspes on the only subject, which occupied his thoughts. + +In consideration of his master's weakness the envoy was beginning an +evasive reply, when a threatening movement of the king's gaunt, worn +hand, and a look which had by no means lost its old power of awing into +submission, brought him to the point at once, and in the hope of giving +the king a great pleasure and putting his mind completely at rest, he +began: "Rejoice, O King! the youth, who dared to desire the +disparagement of thy glory, is no more. This hand slew him and buried +his body at Baal-Zephon. The sand of the desert and the unfruitful waves +of the Red Sea were the only witnesses of the deed; and no creature knows +thereof beside thyself, O King, thy servant Prexaspes, and the gulls and +cormorants, that hover over his grave." + +The king uttered a piercing shriek of rage, was seized by a fresh +shivering-fit, and sank back once more in raving delirium. + +Long weeks passed, every day of which threatened its death. At last, +however, his strong constitution gained the day, but his mind had given +way, and remained disordered and weak up to his last hour. + +When he was strong enough to leave the sick-room and to ride and shoot +once more, he abandoned himself more than ever to the pleasure of +drinking, and lost every remnant of self-control. + +The delusion had fixed itself in his disordered mind, that Bartja was not +dead, but transformed into the bow of the King of Ethiopia, and that the +Feruer (soul) of his father Cyrus had commanded him to restore Bartja to +its original form, by subjugating the black nation. + +This idea, which he confided to every one about him as a great secret, +pursued him day and night and gave him no rest, until he had started for +Ethiopia with an immense host. He was forced, however, to return without +having accomplished his object, after having miserably lost the greater +part of his army by heat and the scarcity of provisions. An historian, +who may almost be spoken of as contemporary, tells us that the wretched +soldiers, after having subsisted on herbs as long as they could, came to +deserts where there was no sign of vegetation, and in their despair +resorted to an expedient almost too fearful to describe. Lots were drawn +by every ten men, and he on whom the lot fell was killed and eaten by the +other nine. + + [Herodotus visited Egypt some 60 years after the death of Cambyses, + 454 B.C. He describes the Ethiopian campaign, III. 25.] + +At last things went so far, that his subjects compelled this madman to +return, but only, with their slavish Asiatic feelings, to obey him all +the more blindly, when they found themselves once more in inhabited +regions. + +On reaching Memphis with the wreck of his army, he found the Egyptians in +glorious apparel celebrating a festival. They had found a new Apis and +were rejoicing over the reappearance of their god, incarnate in the +sacred bull. + +As Cambyses had heard at Thebes, that the army he had sent against the +oasis of Ammon in the Libyan desert, had perished miserably in a Khamsin, +or Simoom, and that his fleet, which was to conquer Carthage, had refused +to fight with a people of their own race, he fancied that the Memphians +must be celebrating a festival of joy at the news of his misfortunes, +sent for their principal men, and after reproaching them with their +conduct, asked why they had been gloomy and morose after his victories, +but joyous at hearing of his misfortunes. The Memphians answered by +explaining the real ground for their merry-making, and told him, that +the appearance of the sacred bull was always celebrated in Egypt with the +greatest rejoicings. Cambyses called them liars, and, as such, sentenced +them to death. He then sent for the priests; received, however, exactly +the same answer from them. + +With the bitterest irony he asked to be allowed to make the acquaintance +of this new god, and commanded them to bring him. The bull Apis was +brought and the king told that he was the progeny of a virgin cow and a +moonbeam, that he must be black, with a white triangular spot on the +forehead, the likeness of an eagle on his back, and on his side the +crescent moon. There must be two kinds of hair on his tail, and on his +tongue an excrescence in the form of the sacred beetle Scarabaeus. + +When Cambyses saw this deified creature he could discover nothing +remarkable in him, and was so enraged that he plunged his sword into its +side. As the blood streamed from the wound and the animal fell, he broke +out into a piercing laugh, and cried: "Ye fools! so your gods are flesh +and blood; they can be wounded. Such folly is worthy of you. But ye +shall find, that it is not so easy to make a fool of me. Ho, guards! +flog these priests soundly, and kill every one whom you find taking part +in this mad celebration." The command was obeyed and fearfully +exasperated the Egyptians. + + [According to Herod. III. 29. Cambyses' sword slipped and ran into + the leg of the sacred bull. As the king died also of a wound in the + thigh, this just suits Herodotus, who always tries to put the + retribution that comes after presumptuous crime in the strongest + light; but it is very unlikely that the bull should have died of a + mere thigh wound.] + +Apis died of his wound; the Memphians buried him secretly in the vaults +belonging to the sacred bulls, near the Serapeum, and, led by Psamtik, +attempted an insurrection against the Persians. This was very quickly +put down, however, and cost Psamtik his life,--a life the stains and +severities of which deserve to be forgiven, in consideration of his +unwearied, ceaseless efforts to deliver his people from a foreign yoke, +and his death in the cause of freedom. + +Cambyses' madness had meanwhile taken fresh forms. After the failure of +his attempt to restore Bartja, (transformed as he fancied into a bow) to +his original shape, his irritability increased so frightfully that a +single word, or even a look, was sufficient to make him furious. Still +his true friend and counsellor, Croesus, never left him, though the king +had more than once given him over to the guards for execution. But the +guards knew their master; they took good care not to lay hands on the old +man, and felt sure of impunity, as the king would either have forgotten +his command, or repented of it by the next day, Once, however, the +miserable whip bearers paid a fearful penalty for their lenity. +Cambyses, while rejoicing that Croesus was saved, ordered his deliverers +to be executed for disobedience without mercy. + +It would be repugnant to us to repeat all the tales of barbarous +cruelties, which are told of Cambyses at this insane period of his life; +but we cannot resist mentioning a few which seem to us especially +characteristic. + +While sitting at table one day, already somewhat intoxicated, he asked +Prexaspes what the Persians thought of him. The envoy, who in hopes of +deadening his tormenting conscience by the performance of noble and +dangerous acts, let no opportunity pass of trying to exercise a good +influence over his sovereign, answered that they extolled him on every +point, but thought he was too much addicted to wine. + +These words, though spoken half in jest, put the king into a violent +passion, and he almost shrieked: "So the Persians say, that the wine has +taken away my senses, do they? on the contrary, I'll show them that +they've lost their own." And as he spoke he bent his bow, took aim for a +moment at Prexaspes' eldest son, who, as cup-bearer, was standing at the +back of the hall waiting for and watching every look of his sovereign, +and shot him in the breast. He then gave orders that the boy's body +should be opened and examined. The arrow had pierced the centre of his +heart. This delighted the senseless tyrant, and he called out with a +laugh: "Now you see, Prexaspes, it's the Persians who have lost their +judgment, not I. Could any one have hit the mark better?" + +Prexaspes stood there, pale and motionless, compelled to watch the horrid +scene, like Niobe when chained to Sipylus. His servile spirit bowed +before the ruler's power, instead of arming his right hand with the +dagger of revenge, and when the frantic king asked him the same question +a second time, he actually answered, pressing his hand on his heart: "A +god could not have hit the mark more exactly." + +A few weeks after this, the king went to Sais, and there was shown the +rooms formerly occupied by his bride. This brought back all the old +painful recollections in full force, and at the same time his clouded +memory reminded him, though without any clearness of detail, that Amasis +had deceived both Nitetis and himself. He cursed the dead king and +furiously demanded to be taken to the temple of Neith, where his mummy +was laid. There he tore the embalmed body out of its sarcophagus, caused +it to be scourged, to be stabbed with pins, had the hair torn off and +maltreated it in every possible way. In conclusion, and contrary to the +ancient Persian religious law, which held the pollution of pure fire by +corpses to be a deadly sin, he caused Amasis' dead body to be burnt, and +condemned the mummy of his first wife, which lay in a sarcophagus at +Thebes, her native place, to the same fate. + +On his return to Memphis, Cambyses did not shrink from personally ill- +treating his wife and sister, Atossa. + +He had ordered a combat of wild beasts to take place, during which, +amongst other entertainments of the same kind, a dog was to fight with a +young lion. The lion had conquered his antagonist, when another dog, the +brother of the conquered one, broke away from his chain, attacked the +lion, and with the help of the wounded dog, vanquished him. + +This scene delighted Cambyses, but Kassandane and Atossa, who had been +forced by the king's command to be present, began to weep aloud. + +The tyrant was astonished, and on asking the reason for their tears, +received as answer from the impetuous Atossa, that the brave creature who +had risked its own life to save its brother, reminded her of Bartja. She +would not say by whom he had been murdered, but his murder had never been +avenged. + +These words so roused the king's anger, and so goaded his conscience, +that in a fit of insane fury he struck the daring woman, and might +possibly have killed her, if his mother had not thrown herself into his +arms and exposed her own body to his mad blows. + +Her voice and action checked his rage, for he had not lost reverence for +his mother; but her look of intense anger and contempt, which he clearly +saw and could not forget, begot a fresh delusion in his mind. He +believed from that moment, that the eyes of women had power to poison +him; he started and hid himself behind his companions whenever he saw a +woman, and at last commanded that all the female inhabitants of the +palace at Memphis, his mother not excepted, should be sent back to +Ecbatana. Araspes and Gyges were appointed to be their escort thither. + + ...................... + +The caravan of queens and princesses had arrived at Sais; they alighted +at the royal palace. Croesus had accompanied them thus far on their way +from Egypt. + +Kassandane had altered very much during the last few years. Grief and +suffering had worn deep lines in her once beautiful face, though they had +had no power to bow her stately figure. + +Atossa, on the contrary, was more beautiful than ever, notwithstanding +all she had suffered. The refractory and impetuous child, the daring +spirited girl, had developed into a dignified, animated and determined +woman. The serious side of life, and three sad years passed with her +ungovernable husband and brother, had been first-rate masters in the +school of patience, but they had not been able to alienate her heart from +her first love. Sappho's friendship had made up to her in some measure +for the loss of Darius. + +The young Greek had become another creature, since the mysterious +departure of her husband. Her rosy color and her lovely smile were both +gone. But she was wonderfully beautiful, in spite of her paleness, her +downcast eyelashes and languid attitude. She looked like Ariadne waiting +for Theseus. Longing and expectation lay in every look, in the low tone +of her voice, in her measured walk. At the sound of approaching steps, +the opening of a door or the unexpected tones of a man's voice, she would +start, get up and listen, and then sink back into the old waiting, +longing attitude, disappointed but not hopeless. She began to dream +again, as she had been so fond of doing in her girlish days. + +She was her old self only when playing with her child. Then the color +came back to her cheeks, her eyes sparkled, she seemed once more to live +in the present, and not only in the past or future. + +Her child was everything to her. In that little one Bartja seemed to be +still alive, and she could love the child with all her heart and +strength, without taking one iota from her love to him. With this little +creature the gods had mercifully given her an aim in life and a link with +the lower world, the really precious part of which had seemed to vanish +with her vanished husband. Sometimes, as she looked into her baby's blue +eyes, so wonderfully like Bartja's, she thought: Why was not she born a +boy? He would have grown more like his father from day to day, and at +last, if such a thing indeed could ever be, a second Bartja would have +stood before me. + +But such thoughts generally ended soon in her pressing the little one +closer than ever to her heart, and blaming herself for ingratitude and +folly. + +One day Atossa put the same idea in words, exclaiming: "If Parmys were +only a boy! He would have grown up exactly like his father, and have +been a second Cyrus for Persia." Sappho smiled sadly at her friend, and +covered the little one with kisses, but Kassandane said: "Be thankful to +the gods, my child, for having given you a daughter. If Parmys were a +boy, he would be taken from you as soon as he had reached his sixth year, +to be brought up with the sons of the other Achaemenidae, but your +daughter will remain your own for many years." + +Sappho trembled at the mere thought of parting from her child; she +pressed its little fair curly head close to her breast, and never found, +fault with her treasure again for being a girl. + +Atossa's friendship was a great comfort to her poor wounded heart. With +her she could speak of Bartja as much and as often as she would, and was +always certain of a kind and sympathizing listener. Atossa had loved her +vanished brother very dearly. And even a stranger would have enjoyed +hearing Sappho tell of her past happiness. Her words rose into real +eloquence in speaking of those bright days; she seemed like an inspired +poetess. Then she would take her lyre, and with her clear, sweet, +plaintive voice sing the love-songs of the elder Sappho, in which all her +own deepest feelings were so truly expressed, and fancy herself once more +with her lover sitting under the sweet-scented acanthus in the quiet +night, and forget the sad reality of her present life. And when, with a +deep sigh, she laid aside the lyre and came back out of this dream- +kingdom, the tears were always to be seen in Kassandane's eyes, though +she did not understand the language in which Sappho had been singing, +and Atossa would bend down and kiss her forehead. + +Thus three long years had passed, during which Sappho had seldom seen her +grandmother, for, as the mother of Parmys, she was by the king's command, +forbidden to leave the harem, unless permitted and accompanied either by +Kassandane or the eunuchs. + +On the present occasion Croesus, who had always loved, and loved her +still, like a daughter, had sent for Rhodopis to Sais. He, as well as +Kassandane, understood her wish to take leave of this, her dearest and +most faithful friend, before setting out for Persia; besides which +Kassandane had a great wish to see one in whose praise she had heard so +much. When Sappho's tender and sad farewell was over therefore, Rhodopis +was summoned to the queen-mother. + +A stranger, who saw these two women together, would have thought both +were queens; it was impossible to decide which of the two had most right +to the title. + +Croesus, standing as he did in as close a relation to the one as to the +other, undertook the office of interpreter, and the ready intellect of +Rhodopis helped him to carry on an uninterrupted flow of conversation. + +Rhodopis, by her own peculiar attractions, soon won the heart of +Kassandane, and the queen knew no better way of proving this than by +offering, in Persian fashion, to grant her some wish. + +Rhodopis hesitated a moment; then raising her hands as if in prayer, she +cried: "Leave me my Sappho, the consolation and beauty of my old age." + +Kassandane smiled sadly. "It is not in my power to grant that wish," she +answered. "The laws of Persia command, that the children of the +Achaemenidae shall be brought up at the king's gate. I dare not allow +the little Parmys, Cyrus' only grandchild, to leave me, and, much as +Sappho loves you, you know she would not part from her child. Indeed, +she has become so dear to me now, and to my daughter, that though I well +understand your wish to have her, I could never allow Sappho to leave +us." + +Seeing that Rhodopis' eyes were filling with tears, Kassandane went on: +"There is, however, a good way out of our perplexity. Leave Naukratis, +and come with us to Persia. There you can spend your last years with us +and with your granddaughter, and shall be provided with a royal +maintenance." + +Rhodopis shook her head, hoary but still so beautiful, and answered +in a suppressed voice: "I thank you, noble queen, for this gracious +invitation, but I feel unable to accept it. Every fibre of my heart +is rooted in Greece, and I should be tearing my life out by leaving it +forever. I am so accustomed to constant activity, perfect freedom, and a +stirring exchange of thought, that I should languish and die in the +confinement of a harem. Croesus had already prepared me for the gracious +proposal you have just made, and I have had a long and difficult battle +to fight, before I could decide on resigning my dearest blessing for my +highest good. It is not easy, but it is glorious, it is more worthy of +the Greek name--to live a good and beautiful life, than a happy one--to +follow duty rather than pleasure. My heart will follow Sappho, but my +intellect and experience belong to the Greeks; and if you should ever +hear that the people of Hellas are ruled by themselves alone, by their +own gods, their own laws, the beautiful and the good, then you will know +that the work on which Rhodopis, in league with the noblest and best of +her countrymen, has staked her life, is accomplished. Be not angry with +the Greek woman, who confesses that she would rather die free as a beggar +than live in bondage as a queen, though envied by the whole world." + +Kassandane listened in amazement. She only understood part of what +Rhodopis had said, but felt that she had spoken well and nobly, and at +the conclusion gave her her hand to kiss. After a short pause, +Kassandane said: "Do what you think right, and remember, that as long as +I and my daughter live, your granddaughter will never want for true and +faithful love." + +"Your noble countenance and the fame of your great virtue are warrant +enough for that." answered Rhodopis. + +"And also," added the queen, "the duty which lies upon me to make good +the wrong, that has been done your Sappho." + +She sighed painfully and went on: "The little Parmys shall be carefully +educated. She seems to have much natural talent, and can sing the songs +of her native country already after her mother. I shall do nothing to +check her love of music, though, in Persia the religious services are the +only occasions in which that art is studied by any but the lower +classes." + +At these words Rhodopis' face glowed. "Will you permit me to speak +openly, O Queen?" she said. "Speak without fear," was Kassandane's +answer. "When you sighed so painfully just now in speaking of your dear +lost son, I thought: Perhaps that brave young hero might have been still +living, if the Persians had understood better how to educate their sons. +Bartja told me in what that education consisted. To shoot, throw the +spear, ride, hunt, speak the truth, and perhaps also to distinguish +between the healing and noxious properties of certain plants: that is +deemed a sufficient educational provision for a man's life. The Greek +boys are just as carefully kept to the practice of exercises for +hardening and bracing the body; for these exercises are the founders and +preservers of health, the physician is only its repairer and restorer. +If, however, by constant practice a Greek youth were to attain to the +strength of a bull, the truth of the Deity, and the wisdom of the most +learned Egyptian priest, we should still look down upon him were he +wanting in two things which only early example and music, combined with +these bodily exercises, can give: grace and symmetry. You smile because +you do not understand me, but I can prove to you that music, which, from +what Sappho tells me, is not without its moving power for your heart, is +as important an element in education as gymnastics, and, strange as it +may sound, has an equal share in effecting the perfection of both body +and mind. The man who devotes his attention exclusively to music will, +if he be of a violent disposition, lose his savage sternness at first; he +will become gentle and pliable as metal in the fire. But at last his +courage will disappear too; his passionate temper will have changed into +irritability, and he will be of little worth as a warrior, the calling +and character most desired in your country. If, on the other hand, he +confines himself to gymnastics only, he will, like Cambyses, excel in +manliness and strength; but his mind--here my comparison ceases--will +remain obtuse and blind, his perceptions will be confused, He will not +listen to reason, but will endeavor to carry everything by force, and, +lacking grace and proportion, his life will probably become a succession +of rude and violent deeds. On this account we conclude that music is +necessary not only for the mind, and gymnastics not only for the body, +but that both, working together, elevate and soften the mind and +strengthen the body--give manly grace, and graceful manliness." + + [The fundamental ideas of this speech are drawn from + Plato's ideal "State."] + +After a moment's pause Rhodopis went on: "The youth who has not received +such an education, whose roughness has never been checked even in +childhood, who has been allowed to vent his temper on every one, +receiving flattery in return and never hearing reproof; who has been +allowed to command before he has learnt to obey, and who has been brought +up in the belief that splendor, power and riches are the highest good, +can never possibly attain to the perfect manhood, which we beseech the +gods to grant our boys. And if this unfortunate being happens to have +been born with an impetuous disposition, ungovernable and eager passions, +these will be only nourished and increased by bodily exercise +unaccompanied by the softening influence of music, so that at last a +child, who possibly came into the world with good qualities, will, merely +through the defects in his education, degenerate into a destructive +animal, a sensual self-destroyer, and a mad and furious tyrant." + +Rhodopis had become animated with her subject. She ceased, saw tears in +the eyes of the queen, and felt that she had gone too far and had wounded +a mother's heart,--a heart full of noble feeling. She touched her robe, +kissed its border, and said softly: "Forgive me." + +Kassandane looked her forgiveness, courteously saluted Rhodopis and +prepared to leave the room. On the threshold, however, she stopped and +said: "I am not angry. Your reproaches are just; but you too must +endeavor to forgive, for I can assure you that he who has murdered the +happiness of your child and of mine, though the most powerful, is of all +mortals the most to be pitied. Farewell! Should you ever stand in need +of ought, remember Cyrus' widow, and how she wished to teach you, that +the virtues the Persians desire most in their children are magnanimity +and liberality." + +After saying this she left the apartment. + +On the same day Rhodopis heard that Phanes was dead. He had retired to +Crotona in the neighborhood of Pythagoras and there passed his time in +reflection, dying with the tranquillity of a philosopher. + +She was deeply affected at this news and said to Croesus: "Greece has +lost one of her ablest men, but there are many, who will grow up to be +his equals. The increasing power of Persia causes me no fear; indeed, I +believe that when the barbarous lust of conquest stretches out its hand +towards us, our many-headed Greece will rise as a giant with one head of +divine power, before which mere barbaric strength must bow as surely as +body before spirit." + +Three days after this, Sappho said farewell for the last time to her +grandmother, and followed the queens to Persia. Notwithstanding the +events which afterwards took place, she continued to believe that Bartja +would return, and full of love, fidelity and tender remembrance, devoted +herself entirely to the education of her child and the care of her aged +mother-in-law, Kassandane. + +Little Parmys became very beautiful, and learnt to love the memory of her +vanished father next to the gods of her native land, for her mother's +tales had brought him as vividly before her as if he had been still alive +and present with them. + +Atossa's subsequent good fortune and happiness did not cool her +friendship. She always called Sappho her sister. The hanging-gardens +were the latter's residence in summer, and in her conversations there +with Kassandane and Atossa one name was often mentioned--the name of her, +who had been the innocent cause of events which had decided the destinies +of great kingdoms and noble lives--the Egyptian Princess. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +Here we might end this tale, but that we feel bound to give our readers +some account of the last days of Cambyses. We have already described the +ruin of his mind, but his physical end remains still to be told, and also +the subsequent fate of some of the other characters in our history. + +A short time after the departure of the queens, news reached Naukratis +that Oroetes, the satrap of Lydia, had, by a stratagem, allured his old +enemy, Polykrates, to Sardis and crucified him there, thus fulfilling +what Amasis had prophecied of the tyrant's mournful end. This act the +satrap had committed on his own responsibility, events having taken place +in the Median kingdom which threatened the fall of the Achaemenidaean +dynasty. + +The king's long absence in a foreign country had either weakened or +entirely dissipated, the fear which the mere mention of his name had +formerly inspired in those who felt inclined to rebel. The awe that his +subjects had formerly felt for him, vanished at the tidings of his +madness, and the news that he had wantonly exposed the lives of thousands +of their countrymen to certain death in the deserts of Libya and +Ethiopia, inspired the enraged Asiatics with a hatred which, when +skilfully fed by the powerful Magi, soon roused, first the Medes and +Assyrians, and then the Persians, to defection and open insurrection. +Motives of self-interest led the ambitious high-priest, Oropastes, whom +Cambyses had appointed regent in his absence, to place himself at the +head of this movement. He flattered the people by remitting their taxes, +by large gifts and larger promises, and finding his clemency gratefully +recognized, determined on an imposture, by which he hoped to win the +crown of Persia for his own family. + +He had not forgotten the marvellous likeness between his brother Gaumata +(who had been condemned to lose his ears) and Bartja, the son of Cyrus, +and on hearing that the latter, the universal favorite, as he well knew, +of the Persian nation, had disappeared, resolved to turn this to account +by passing off his brother as the vanished prince, and setting him on the +throne in place of Cambyses. The hatred felt throughout the entire +kingdom towards their insane king, and the love and attachment of the +nation to Bartja, made this stratagem so easy of accomplishment, that +when at last messengers from Oropastes arrived in all the provinces of +the empire declaring to the discontented citizens that, notwithstanding +the rumor they had heard, the younger son of Cyrus was still alive, had +revolted from his brother, ascended his father's throne and granted to +all his subjects freedom from tribute and from military service during a +period of three years, the new ruler was acknowledged throughout the +kingdom with rejoicings. + +The pretended Bartja, who was fully aware of his brother's mental +superiority, had obeyed his directions in every particular, had taken up +his residence in the palace of Nisaea,--in the plains of Media, placed +the crown on his head, declared the royal harem his own, and had shown +himself once from a distance to the people, who were to recognize in him +the murdered Bartja. After that time, however, for fear of being at last +unmasked, he concealed himself in his palace, giving himself up, after +the manner of Asiatic monarchs, to every kind of indulgence, while his +brother held the sceptre with a firm hand, and conferred all the +important offices of state on his friends and family. + +No sooner did Oropastes feel firm ground under his feet, than he +despatched the eunuch Ixabates to Egypt, to inform the army of the change +of rulers that had taken place and persuade them to revolt in favor of +Bartja, who he knew had been idolized by the Soldiers. + +The messenger had been well chosen, fulfilled his mission with much +skill, and had already won over a considerable part of the army for the +new king, when he was taken prisoner by some Syrians, who brought him to +Memphis in hopes of reward. + +On arriving in the city of the Pyramids he was brought before the king, +and promised impunity on condition of revealing the entire truth. + +The messenger then confirmed the rumor, which had reached Egypt, that +Bartja had ascended the throne of Cyrus and had been recognized by the +greater part of the empire. + +Cambyses started with terror at these tidings, as one who saw a dead man +rise from his grave. He was by this time fully aware that Bartja had +been murdered by Prexaspes at his own command, but in this moment he +began to suspect that the envoy had deceived him and spared his brother's +life. The thought had no sooner entered his mind than he uttered it, +reproaching Prexaspes so bitterly with treachery, as to elicit from him a +tremendous oath, that he had murdered and buried the unfortunate Bartja +with his own hand. + +Oropastes' messenger was next asked whether he had seen the new king +himself. He answered that he had not, adding that the supposed brother +of Cambyses had only once appeared in public, and had then shown himself +to the people from a distance. On hearing this, Prexaspes saw through +the whole web of trickery at once, reminded the king of the unhappy +misunderstandings to which the marvellous likeness between Bartja and +Gaumata had formerly given rise, and concluded by offering to stake his +own life on the correctness of his supposition. The explanation pleased +the king, and from that moment his diseased mind was possessed by one new +idea to the exclusion of all others--the seizure and slaughter of the +Magi. + +The host was ordered to prepare for marching. Aryandes,--one of the +Achaemenidae, was appointed satrap of Egypt, and the army started +homeward without delay. Driven by this new delusion, the king took no +rest by day or night, till at last his over-ridden and ill-used horse +fell with him, and he was severely wounded in the fall by his own dagger. + +After lying insensible for some days, he opened his eyes and asked first +to see Araspes, then his mother, and lastly Atossa, although these three +had set out on their journey home months before. From all he said it +appeared that during the last four years, from the attack of fever until +the present accident, he had been living in a kind of sleep. He seemed +astonished and pained at hearing what had happened during these years. +But of his brother's death he was fully aware. He knew that Prexaspes +had killed him by his--the king's--orders and had told him that Bartja +lay buried on the shores of the Red Sea.--During the night which followed +this return to his senses it became clear to himself also, that his mind +had been wandering for along time. Towards morning he fell into a deep +sleep, and this so restored his strength, that on waking he called for +Croesus and required an exact relation of the events that had passed +during the last few years. + +His old friend and adviser obeyed; he felt that Cambyses was still +entrusted to his care, and in the hope, faint as it was, of bringing him +back to the right way, he did not suppress one of the king's acts of +violence in his relation. + +His joy was therefore great at perceiving, that his words made a deep +impression on the newly-awakened mind of the king. With tears in his +eyes, and with the ashamed look of a child, he grieved over his wrong +deeds and his madness, begged Croesus to forgive him, thanked him for +having borne so long and faithfully with him, and commissioned him to ask +Kassandane and Sappho especially for forgiveness, but also, Atossa and +all whom he had unjustly offended. + +The old man wept too, but his tears were tears of joy and he repeatedly +assured Cambyses that he would recover and have ample opportunity of +making amends for the past. But to all this Cambyses shook his head +resolutely, and, pale and wan as he looked, begged Croesus to have his +couch carried on to a rising ground in the open air, and then to summon +the Achaemenidae. When these orders, in spite of the physicians, had +been obeyed, Cambyses was raised into an upright sitting position, and +began, in a voice which could be heard at a considerable distance: + +"The time to reveal my great secret has arrived, O ye Persians. Deceived +by a vision, provoked and annoyed by my brother, I caused him to be +murdered in my wrath. Prexaspes wrought the evil deed by my command, but +instead of bringing me the peace I yearned for, that deed has tortured me +into madness and death. By this my confession ye will be convinced, that +my brother Bartja is really dead. The Magi have usurped the throne of +the Achaemenidae. Oropastes, whom I left in Persia as my vicegerent and +his brother Gaumata, who resembles Bartja so nearly that even Croesus, +Intaphernes and my uncle, the noble Hystaspes, were once deceived by the +likeness, have placed themselves at their head. Woe is me, that I have +murdered him who, as my nearest kinsman, should have avenged on the Magi +this affront to my honor. But I cannot recall him from the dead, and I +therefore appoint you the executors of my last will. By the Feruer of my +dead father, and in the name of all good and pure spirits, I conjure you +not to suffer the government to fall into the hands of the unfaithful +Magi. If they have obtained possession thereof by artifice, wrest it +from their hands in like manner; if by force, use force to win it back. +Obey this my last will, and the earth will yield you its fruits +abundantly; your wives, your flocks and herds shall be blessed and +freedom shall be your portion. Refuse to obey it, and ye shall suffer +the corresponding evils; yea, your end, and that of every Persian shall +be even as mine." + +After these words the king wept and sank back fainting, on seeing which, +the Achaemenidae rent their clothes and burst into loud lamentations. A +few hours later Cambyses died in Croesus' arms. Nitetis was his last +thought; he died with her name on his lips and tears of penitence in his +eyes. When the Persians had left the unclean corpse, Croesus knelt down +beside it and cried, raising his hand to heaven: "Great Cyrus, I have +kept my oath. I have remained this miserable man's faithful adviser +even unto his end." + +The next morning the old man betook himself, accompanied by his son +Gyges, to the town of Barene, which belonged to him, and lived there many +years as a father to his subjects, revered by Darius and praised by all +his contemporaries. + + ........................ + +After Cambyses' death the heads of the seven Persian tribes held a +council, and resolved, as a first measure, on obtaining certain +information as to the person of the usurper. With this view, Otanes sent +a confidential eunuch to his daughter Phaedime, who, as they knew, had +come into the possession of the new king with the rest of Cambyses' +harem. + + [The names of the seven conspiring chiefs, given by Herodotus agree + for the most part with those in the cuneiform inscriptions. The + names are: Otanes, Intaphernes, Gobryas, Megabyzus, Aspatines, + Hydarnes and Darius Hystaspis. In the inscription Otana: + Vindafrand, Gaubaruva, Ardumams, Vidarna, Bagabukhsa and Darayavus.] + +Before the messenger returned, the greater part of the army had +dispersed, the soldiers seizing this favorable opportunity to return to +their homes and families, after so many years of absence. At last, +however, the long-expected messenger came back and brought for answer, +that the new king had only visited Phaedime once, but that during that +visit she had, at great personal risk, discovered that he had lost both +ears. Without this discovery, however, she could assert positively that +though there were a thousand points of similarity between the usurper and +the murdered Bartja, the former was in reality none other than Gaumata, +the brother of Oropastes. Her old friend Boges had resumed his office of +chief of the eunuchs, and had revealed to her the secrets of the Magi. +The high-priest had met the former keeper of the women begging in the +streets of Susa, and had restored him to his old office with the words: +"You have forfeited your life, but I want men of your stamp." In +conclusion. Phaedime entreated her father to use every means in his +power for the overthrow of the Magi, as they treated her with the +greatest contempt and she was the most miserable of women. + +Though none of the Achaemenidae hall really for a moment believed; that +Bartja was alive and had seized on the throne, so clear an account of the +real person of the usurper was very welcome to them, and they resolved at +once to march on Nisaea with the remnant of the army and overthrow the +Magi either by craft or force. + +They entered the new capital unassailed, and finding that the majority of +the people seemed content with the new government, they also pretended to +acknowledge the king as the son of Cyrus, to whom they were prepared to +do homage. The Magi, however, were not deceived; they shut themselves up +in their palace, assembled an army in the Nisaean plain, promised the +soldiers high pay, and used every effort to strengthen the belief of the +people in Gaumata's disguise. On this point no one could do them more +injury, or, if he chose, be more useful to them, than Prexaspes. He was +much looked up to by the Persians, and his assurance, that he had not +murdered Bartja, would have been sufficient to tame the fast-spreading +report of the real way in which the youth had met his death. Oropastes, +therefore, sent for Prexaspes, who, since the king's dying words, had +been avoided by all the men of his own rank and had led the life of an +outlaw, and promised him an immense sum of money, if he would ascend a +high tower and declare to the people, assembled in the court beneath, +that evil-disposed men had called him Bartja's murderer, whereas he had +seen the new king with his own eyes and had recognized in him the younger +son of his benefactor. Prexaspes made no objection to this proposal, +took a tender leave of his family while the people were being assembled, +uttered a short prayer before the sacred fire-altar and walked proudly to +the palace. On his way thither he met the chiefs of the seven tribes and +seeing that they avoided him, called out to them: "I am worthy of your +contempt, but I will try to deserve your forgiveness." + +Seeing Darius look back, he hastened towards him, grasped his hand and +said: "I have loved you like a son; take care of my children when I am no +more, and use your pinions, winged Darius." Then, with the same proud +demeanor he ascended the tower. + +Many thousands of the citizens of Nisaea were within reach of his voice, +as he cried aloud: "Ye all know that the kings who have, up to the +present time, loaded you with honor and glory, belonged to the house of +the Achaemenidae. Cyrus governed you like a real father, Cambyses was a +stern master, and Bartja would have guided you like a bridegroom, if I, +with this right hand which I now show you, had not slain him on the +shores of the Red Sea. By Mithras, it was with a bleeding heart that I +committed this wicked deed, but I did it as a faithful servant in +obedience to the king's command. Nevertheless, it has haunted me by day +and night; for four long years I have been pursued and tormented by the +spirits of darkness, who scare sleep from the murderer's couch. I have +now resolved to end this painful, despairing existence by a worthy deed, +and though even this may procure me no mercy at the bridge of Chinvat, +in the mouths of men, at least, I shall have redeemed my honorable name +from the stain with which I defiled it. Know then, that the man who +gives himself out for the son of Cyrus, sent me hither; he promised me +rich rewards if I would deceive you by declaring him to be Bartja, the +son of the Achaemenidae. But I scorn his promises and swear by Mithras +and the Feruers of the kings, the most solemn oaths I am acquainted with, +that the man who is now ruling you is none other than the Magian Gaumata, +he who was deprived of his ears, the brother of the king's vicegerent and +high-priest, Oropastes, whom ye all know. If it be your will to forget +all the glory ye owe to the Achaemenidae, if to this ingratitude ye +choose to add your own degradation, then acknowledge these creatures and +call them your kings; but if ye despise a lie and are ashamed to obey +worthless impostors, drive the Magi from the throne before Mithras has +left the heavens, and proclaim the noblest of the Achaemenidae, Darius, +the exalted son of Hystaspes, who promises to become a second Cyrus, as +your king. And now, in order that ye may believe my words and not +suspect that Darius sent me hither to win you over to his side, I will +commit a deed, which must destroy every doubt and prove that the truth +and glory of the Achaemenidae are clearer to me, than life itself. +Blessed be ye if ye follow my counsels, but curses rest upon you, if ye +neglect to reconquer the throne from the Magi and revenge yourselves upon +them.--Behold, I die a true and honorable man!" + +With these words he ascended the highest pinnacle of the tower and cast +himself down head foremost, thus expiating the one crime of his life by +an honorable death. + +The dead silence with which the people in the court below had listened to +him, was now broken by shrieks of rage and cries for vengeance. They +burst open the gates of the palace and were pressing in with cries of +"Death to the Magi," when the seven princes of the Persians appeared in +front of the raging crowd to resist their entrance. + +At sight of the Achaemenidae the citizens broke into shouts of joy, and +cried more impetuously than ever, "Down with the Magi! Victory to King +Darius!" + +The son of Hystaspes was then carried by the crowd to a rising ground, +from which he told the people that the Magi had been slain by the +Achaemenidae, as liars and usurpers. Fresh cries of joy arose in answer +to these words, and when at last the bleeding heads of Oropastes and +Gaumata were shown to the crowd, they rushed with horrid yells through +the streets of the city, murdering every Magian they could lay hold of. +The darkness of night alone was able to stop this awful massacre. + +Four days later, Darius, the son of Hystaspes, was chosen as king by the +heads of the Achaemenidae, in consideration of his high birth and noble +character, and received by the Persian nation with enthusiasm. Darius +had killed Gaumata with his own hand, and the highpriest had received his +death-thrust from the hand of Megabyzus, the father of Zopyrus. While +Prexaspes was haranguing the people, the seven conspiring Persian +princes, Otanes, Intaphernes, Gobryas, Megabyzus, Aspatines, Hydarnes and +Darius, (as representative of his aged father Hystaspes), had entered the +palace by a carelessly-guarded gate, sought out the part of the building +occupied by the Magi, and then, assisted by their own knowledge of the +palace, and the fact that most of the guards had been sent to keep watch +over the crowd assembled to hear Prexaspes easily penetrated to the +apartments in which at that moment they were to be found. Here they were +resisted by a few eunuchs, headed by Boges, but these were overpowered +and killed to a man. Darius became furious on seeing Boges, and killed +him at once. Hearing the dying cries of these eunuchs, the Magi rushed +to the spot and prepared to defend themselves. Oropastes snatched a +lance from the fallen Boges, thrust out one of Intaphernes' eyes and +wounded Aspatines in the thigh, but was stabbed by Megabyzus. Gaumata +fled into another apartment and tried to bar the door, but was followed +too soon by Darius and Gobryas; the latter seized, threw him, and kept +him down by the weight of his own body, crying to Darius, who was afraid +of making a false stroke in the half-light, and so wounding his companion +instead of Gaumata, "Strike boldly, even if you should stab us both." +Darius obeyed, and fortunately only hit the Magian. + +Thus died Oropastes, the high-priest, and his brother Gaumata, better +known under the name of the "pseudo" or "pretended Smerdis." + +A few weeks after Darius' election to the throne, which the people said +had been marvellously influenced by divine miracles and the clever +cunning of a groom, he celebrated his coronation brilliantly at +Pasargadae, and with still more splendor, his marriage with his beloved +Atossa. The trials of her life had ripened her character, and she proved +a faithful, beloved and respected companion to her husband through the +whole of that active and glorious life, which, as Prexaspes had foretold, +made him worthy of the names by which he was afterwards known--Darius the +Great, and a second Cyrus. + + [Atossa is constantly mentioned as the favorite wife of Darius, and + be appointed her son Xerxes to be his successor, though he had three + elder sons by the daughter of Gobryas. Herodotus (VII. 3.) speaks + with emphasis of the respect and consideration in which Atossa was + held, and Aeschylus, in his Persians, mentions her in her old age, + as the much-revered and noble matron.] + +As a general he was circumspect and brave, and at the same time +understood so thoroughly how to divide his enormous realm, and to +administer its affairs, that he must be classed with the greatest +organizers of all times and countries. That his feeble successors were +able to keep this Asiatic Colossus of different countries together for +two hundred years after his death, was entirely owing to Darius. He was +liberal of his own, but sparing of his subjects' treasures, and made +truly royal gifts without demanding more than was his due. He introduced +a regular system of taxation, in place of the arbitrary exactions +practised under Cyrus and Cambyses, and never allowed himself to be led +astray in the carrying out of what seemed to him right, either by +difficulties or by the ridicule of the Achaemenidae, who nicknamed him +the "shopkeeper," on account of what seemed, to their exclusively +military tastes, his petty financial measures. It is by no means one of +his smallest merits, that he introduced one system of coinage through his +entire empire, and consequently through half the then known world. + +Darius respected the religions and customs of other nations. When the +writing of Cyrus, of the existence of which Cambyses had known nothing, +was found in the archives of Ecbatana, he allowed the Jews to carry on +the building of their temple to Jehovah; he also left the Ionian cities +free to govern their own communities independently. Indeed, he would +hardly have sent his army against Greece, if the Athenians had not +insulted him. + +In Egypt he had learnt much; among other things, the art of managing the +exchequer of his kingdom wisely; for this reason he held the Egyptians in +high esteem, and granted them many privileges, amongst others a canal to +connect the Nile with the Red Sea, which was greatly to the advantage of +their commerce. + + [Traces of this canal can be found as early as the days of Setos I; + his son Rameses II. caused the works to be continued. Under Necho + they were recommenced, and possibly finished by Darius. In the time + of the Ptolemies, at all events, the canal was already completed. + Herod. II. 158. Diod. I. 33. The French, in undertaking to + reconstruct the Suez canal, have had much to encounter from the + unfriendly commercial policy of the English and their influence over + the internal affairs of Egypt, but the unwearied energy and great + talent of Monsr. de Lesseps and the patriotism of the French nation + have at last succeeded in bringing their great work to a successful + close. Whether it will pay is another question. See G. Ebers, Der + Kanal von Suez. Nordische Revue, October 1864. The maritime canal + connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea has also been + completed since 1869. We were among those, who attended the + brilliant inauguration ceremonies, and now willingly recall many of + the doubts expressed in our work 'Durch Gosen zum Sinai'. The + number of ships passing through the canal is constantly increasing.] + +During the whole of his reign, Darius endeavored to make amends for the +severity with which Cambyses had treated the Egyptians; even in the later +years of his life he delighted to study the treasures of their wisdom, +and no one was allowed to attack either their religion or customs, as +long as he lived. The old high-priest Neithotep enjoyed the king's favor +to the last, and Darius often made use of his wise old master's +astrological knowledge. + +The goodness and clemency of their new ruler was fully acknowledged by +the Egyptians; they called him a deity, as they had called their own +kings, and yet, in the last years of his reign, their desire for +independence led them to forget gratitude and to try to shake off his +gentle yoke, which was only oppressive because it had originally been +forced on them. + + [The name of Darius occurs very often on the monuments as Ntariusch. + It is most frequently found in the inscriptions on the temple in the + Oasis el-Khargah, recently photographed by G. Rohlfs. The Egypto- + Persian memorial fragments, bearing inscriptions in the hieroglyphic + and cuneiform characters are very interesting. Darius' name in + Egyptian was generally "Ra, the beloved of Ammon." On a porcelain + vessel in Florence, and in some papyri in Paris and Florence he is + called by the divine titles of honor given to the Pharaohs.] + +Their generous ruler and protector did not live to see the end of this +struggle. + + [The first rebellion in Egypt, which broke out under Aryandes, the + satrap appointed by Cambyses, was put down by Darius in person. He + visited Egypt, and promised 100 talents (L22,500.) to any one who + would find a new Apis. Polyaen. VII. ii. 7. No second outbreak + took place until 486 B.C. about 4 years before the death of Darius. + Herod. VI i. Xerxes conquered the rebels two years after his + accession, and appointed his brother Achaemenes satrap of Egypt.] + +It was reserved for Xerxes, the successor and son of Darius and Atossa, +to bring back the inhabitants of the Nile valley to a forced and +therefore insecure obedience. + +Darius left a worthy monument of his greatness in the glorious palace +which he built on Mount Rachmed, the ruins of which are the wonder and +admiration of travellers to this day. Six thousand Egyptian workmen, +who had been sent to Asia by Cambyses, took part in the work and also +assisted in building a tomb for Darius and his successors, the rocky and +almost inaccessible chambers of which have defied the ravages of time, +and are now the resort of innumerable wild pigeons. + +He caused the history of his deeds to be cut, (in the cuneiform character +and in the Persian, Median and Assyrian languages), on the polished side +of the rock of Bisitun or Behistan, not far from the spot where he saved +Atossa's life. The Persian part of this inscription can still be +deciphered with certainty, and contains an account of the events related +in the last few chapters, very nearly agreeing with our own and that of +Herodotus. The following sentences occur amongst others: "Thus saith +Darius the King: That which I have done, was done by the grace of +Auramazda in every way. I fought nineteen battles after the rebellion of +the kings. By the mercy of Auramazda I conquered them. I took nine +kings captive. One was a Median, Gaumata by name. He lied and said: +'I am Bardiya (Bartja), the son of Cyrus.' He caused Persia to rebel." + +Some distance lower down, he names the chiefs who helped him to dethrone +the Magi, and in another place the inscription has these words: "Thus +saith the King Darius: That which I have done was done in every way by +the grace of Auramazda. Auramazda helped me, and such other gods as +there be. Auramazda and the other gods gave me help, because I was not +swift to anger, nor a liar, nor a violent ruler, neither I nor my +kinsmen. I have shown favor unto him who helped my brethren, and I have +punished severely him who was my enemy. Thou who shalt be king after me, +be not merciful unto him who is a liar or a rebel, but punish him with a +severe punishment. Thus saith Darius the King: Thou who shalt hereafter +behold this tablet which I have written, or these pictures, destroy them +not, but so long as thou shalt live preserve them, &c." + +It now only remains to be told that Zopyrus, the son of Megabyzus, +continued to the last the king's most faithful friend. + +A courtier once showed the king a pomegranate, and asked him of what one +gift of fortune he would like so many repetitions, as there were seeds in +that fruit. Without a moment's hesitation Darius answered, "Of my +Zopyrus."--[Plutarch] + +The following story will prove that Zopyrus, on his part, well understood +how to return his royal friend's kindness. After the death of Cambyses, +Babylon revolted from the Persian empire. Darius besieged the city nine +months in vain, and was about to raise the siege, when one day Zopyrus +appeared before him bleeding, and deprived of his ears and nose, and +explained that he had mutilated himself thus in order to cheat the +Babylonians, who knew him well, as he had formerly been on intimate terms +with their daughters. He said he wished to tell the haughty citizens, +that Darius had thus disfigured him, and that he had come to them for +help in revenging himself. He thought they would then place troops at +his disposal, with which he intended to impose upon them by making a few +successful sallies at first. His ultimate intention was to get +possession of the keys, and open the Semiramis gate to his friends. + +These words, which were spoken in a joking tone, contrasted so sadly with +the mutilated features of his once handsome friend, that Darius wept, and +when at last the almost impregnable fortress was really won by Zopyrus' +stratagem, he exclaimed: "I would give a hundred Babylons, if my Zopyrus +had not thus mutilated himself." + +He then appointed his friend lord of the giant city, gave him its entire +revenues, and honored him every year with the rarest presents. In later +days he used to say that, with the exception of Cyrus, who had no equal, +no man had ever performed so generous a deed as Zopyrus. + + [Herod. III. 160. Among other presents Zopyrus received a gold + hand-mill weighing six talents, the most honorable and distinguished + gift a Persian monarch could bestow upon a subject. According to + Ktesias, Megabaezus received this gift from Xerxes.] + +Few rulers possessed so many self-sacrificing friends as Darius, because +few understood so well how to be grateful. + +When Syloson, the brother of the murdered Polykrates, came to Susa and +reminded the king of his former services, Darius received him as a +friend, placed ships and troops at his service, and helped him to recover +Samos. + +The Samians made a desperate resistance, and said, when at last they were +obliged to yield: "Through Syloson we have much room in our land." + +Rhodopis lived to hear of the murder of Hipparchus, the tyrant of Athens, +by Harmodius and Aristogiton, and died at last in the arms of her best +friends, Theopompus the Milesian and Kallias the Athenian, firm in her +belief of the high calling of her countrymen. + +All Naukratis mourned for her, and Kallias sent a messenger to Susa, to +inform the king and Sappho of her death. + +A few months later the satrap of Egypt received the following letter from +the hand of the king: + + "Inasmuch as we ourselves knew and honored Rhodopis, the Greek, who + has lately died in Naukratis,--inasmuch as her granddaughter, as + widow of the lawful heir to the Persian throne, enjoys to this day + the rank and honors of a queen,--and lastly, inasmuch as I have + lately taken the great-grandchild of the same Rhodopis, Parmys, the + daughter of Bartja and Sappho, to be my third lawful wife, it seems + to me just to grant royal honors to the ancestress of two queens. I + therefore command thee to cause the ashes of Rhodopis, whom we have + always esteemed as the greatest and rarest among women, to be buried + in the greatest and rarest of all monuments, namely, in one of the + Pyramids. The costly urn, which thou wilt receive herewith, is sent + by Sappho to preserve the ashes of the deceased." + + Given in the new imperial palace at Persepolis. + + DARIUS, son of Hystaspes. + + King. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A noble mind can never swim with the stream +Age is inquisitive +Apis the progeny of a virgin cow and a moonbeam +Be not merciful unto him who is a liar or a rebel +Canal to connect the Nile with the Red Sea +I was not swift to anger, nor a liar, nor a violent ruler +Introduced a regular system of taxation-Darius +Numbers are the only certain things +Resistance always brings out a man's best powers + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN EGYPTIAN PRINCESS, BY EBERS, V10 *** + +************This file should be named 5459.txt or 5459.zip ************* + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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