 | LETTER VI. The pillar of fire, or, Israel in bondage |  |
6. LETTER VI.
This morning, as I was about leaving the palace,
in order to spend several hours in traversing the city
on foot, that I might see the citizens at their pursuits,
and observe the manners and customs of this people,
the Prince Remeses rode up in his silver-embossed
chariot, himself his own charioteer, two footmen, carrying
their sandals in their left hand, running by the side
of his superb horses. With that absence of form and
ceremony which belongs to true friendship, he did not
wait for me to order my grand-chamberlain and other
chief officers of my retinue to receive him, but came
straight to the room “of the alabastron,” so called from
its alabaster columns, which was my reception-room,
and in the window of which he had seen me from the
street. I met him at the door of the ante-room, and
when I would have saluted him by laying his hand
against my heart and then raising it to my lips, he embraced
me with affection.
“Nay, noble Sesostris, said I not we are friends and
cousins, and therefore equals? I have come for you to
Amunophis, my grandfather. I am planning a new
palace, to be erected there for the governor of the treasures
of the kingdom, and am to meet, to-day, the chief
architect. Will you accompany me?”
“With pleasure, my prince,” I said; “though I had
just proposed to walk about the city among the people,
and see them in their homes and domestic pursuits.”
“You will find time for this always—come with me.
You can stand with me in my chariot, or I will give you
one to yourself, with a charioteer.”
I replied that I would go with him, as I should wish
to ask him many questions on the way. In a few moments
we were moving rapidly through the superb
streets of the city, and, passing through three grand
pylones uniting as many courts, we came to the great
gate of the city to the south. The towers on each side
of it were ninety-nine feet high, and the pylon between
them a wonder of beauty, for the elegance of its intaglio
adornments.
At this gate stood a phalanx of dark Libyan soldiers,
who form, everywhere, the guards of the gates, being
noted both for faithfulness and for their gigantic size.
They were armed with lances and swords, and as we
passed through the gate paid to us the military salutation
due to royalty; for though Remeses is not the
ruler of Egypt, yet he wields an influence and power,
both from his personal popularity and the confidence
reposed in him by his queen mother, which is almost
equal to the supreme dignity. And when he comes to
the throne he will rule wisely, and, if possible, raise
Egypt to still greater glory. I have already spoken of
an infinite gracefulness. He has an excellent understanding,
and the distinguished Egyptians with whom
I have conversed, tell me that “no man ever more
perfectly united in his own person the virtues of a
philosopher with the talents of a general.” Gentle in
his manner, he is in temper rather reserved; in his
morals irreproachable, and never known (a rare virtue
in princes of Egypt) to exceed the bounds of the most
rigid temperance. Candor, sincerity, affability, and
simplicity, seem to be the striking features of his character;
and when occasion offers, he displays, say the
officers of his army, the most determined bravery and
masterly soldiership.
Having passed the gate, the prince drew rein a little,
to relieve the footmen, six of whom ran before and as
many behind the chariot, besides the two “pages of the
horse,” who kept close to the heads of the horses. Once
outside of the city, we were in a beautiful avenue, which
led through groves and gardens, past villas and ornamental
lakes, for half a mile,—the city, for this breadth,
being inclosed by such a belt of verdure and rural luxury.
“Here,” said Remeses, “dwell the nobles, in the
intense heats of summer. The summer palace of my
mother is on the island of Rhoda, between On and
Memphis, in the Nile. I am yet to conduct you thither,
and also to the pyramids. You see pavilions on small
islets in these circular lakes. They are temples, or
rather shrines for the private devotions of the families.”
We left this lovely suburb, and entered upon a broad
road, which, after crossing a plain on which stood the
ruins of a palace of Osirtasen I., wound through a
as far as the eye could see. The laborers were chiefly
Egyptian, and wore the loin-cloth, and short trowsers
reaching half-way to the knee, which I have before
described. They sang cheerful songs as they worked,
and stopped to gaze after the rolling chariot which was
passing across their lands like a meteor, its silver panels
flashing in the sun.
About twenty stadia, or nearly four miles, from the
city, we came suddenly upon a vast desolate field, upon
which thousands of men seemed to be engaged in the
occupation of making brick. As we drew near, for the
royal road we were traversing passed directly through
this busy multitude, I saw by their faces that the toilers
were of that mysterious race, the Hebrew people.
I say “mysterious,” dear mother; for though I have
now been six weeks in Egypt, I have not yet found any
of the Egyptians who can tell me whence came this
nation, now in bondage to the Pharaohs! Either those
whom I questioned were ignorant of their rise, or purposely
refrained from talking with a foreigner upon the
subject.
You will remember that I once inquired of Remeses
as to their origin and present degradation, and he said
he would at some other time reply to my question.
Since then I have had no opportunity of introducing
the subject again to him, other objects wholly absorbing
our attention when we met. Yet in the interim
I was forced irresistibly to notice these people and
their hard tasks; for, though they were never seen in
the streets mingling with the citizens (save only in palaces,
where handsome Hebrew youths often serve as
arsenals, and treasure-houses were being erected, they
were to be found in vast numbers. Old and young
men, women, and children, without distinction, were
engaged in the plain across which we moved.
“Pardon me, noble prince,” I said; “permit me to
linger a moment to survey this novel scene.”
Remeses drew up his horses, and from the chariot I
cast my eyes over the vast level which embraced half a
square league.
“These fields, Sesostris,” said the prince, “are where
the brick are made which are to erect the walls of the
treasure-city, one of the towers of which you behold
two miles distant. The city itself will take the years of
a generation of this people to complete, if the grand
design is carried out. On the left of the tower you see
the old palace, for this is not a new city we are building
so much as an extension of the old on a new site, and
with greater magnificence. It is my mother's pride to
fill Egypt with monuments of architecture that will
mark her reign as an era.”
The scene that I beheld from the height of the chariot
I will attempt to describe, my dear mother. As far as I
could see, the earth was dark with people, some stooping
down and with wooden mattocks digging up the clay;
others were piling it into heaps; others were chopping
straw to mix with the clay; others were treading it
with their feet to soften it. Some with moulds were
shaping the clay into bricks. Another stood by with
the queen's mark, and stamped each brick therewith, or
the one which was to be the head of a course when laid.
There were also the strongest men employed in raising
which they bore to a flat open space to be dried in
the sun; and a procession of many hundreds was constantly
moving, performing this task. Some of the slaves
carried yokes, which had cords at each end, to which
bricks were fastened; and many of the young men
conveyed masses of clay upon their heads to the moulders.
Those who carried the brick to the smoothly swept
ground where they were to be dried, delivered them to
women, who, many hundreds in number, placed them
side by side on the earth in rows—a lighter task than
that of the men. The borders of this busy plain, where
it touched the fields of stubble wheat, were thronged
with women and children gathering straw for the men
who mixed the clay. It was an active and busy spectacle.
Yet throughout the vast arena not a voice was
heard from the thousands of toilers; only the sharp
authoritative tones of their taskmasters broke the stillness,
or the creaking of carts with wooden wheels,
as, laden with straw from distant fields, they moved
slowly over the plain.
The laborers were divided into companies or parties
of from a score to one hundred persons, over whom
stood, or was seated, an Egyptian officer. These task-masters
were not only distinguishable from the laborers
by their linen bonnet or cap with a cape descending to
the neck, but by a scarlet or striped tunic, and a rod or
whip of a single thong or of small cords. These men
watched closely the workmen, who, naked above the
waist, with only a loin-cloth upon many of them, worked
each moment in fear of the lash. The taskmasters
showed no mercy; but if the laborer sunk under his
if he were dying, and his burden transferred to the
shoulders of another. So vast was the multitude of
these people, that the death of a score a day would not
have been regarded. Indeed, their increase already
alarms the Egyptians, and their lives, therefore, are held
in little estimation.
The vast revenue, however, accruing to the crown from
this enslaved nation of brick-makers, leads to regulations
which in a great measure check the destructive rigor
of the taskmasters; for not only are thousands building
cities, but tens of thousands are dispersed all over
Lower Egypt, who make brick to sell to nobles and
citizens, the crown having the monopoly of this branch
of labor. Interest alone has not prompted the queen to
make laws regulating their treatment, and lessening the
rigor of their lot; but also humanity, which is, however,
an attribute, in its form of pity, little cultivated in
Egypt. Under the preceding Pharaohs, for seventy
years, the condition of these Hebrews was far more
severe than it has been under the milder reign of the
queen. I am assured that she severely punishes all unnecessary
cruelty, and has lightened the tasks of the
women, who also may not be punished with blows.
I surveyed this interesting and striking scene with
emotions of wonder and commiseration. I could not behold,
without the deepest pity, venerable and august
looking old men, with gray heads and flowing white
beards, smeared with clay, stooping over the wooden
moulds, coarsely clad in the blue and gray loin-cloth,
which scarcely concealed their nakedness: or fine youths,
bareheaded and burned red with the sun, toiling like
naked shoulder visible a fresh crimson line where the
lash or the rod of an angered officer had left its mark!
There were young girls, too, whose beautiful faces,
though sun-burned and neglected, would have been the
envy of fair ladies in any court. These, as well as the
others of their sex, wore a sort of tight gown of coarse
material tied at the neck, with short close sleeves reaching
to the elbow. Their black or brown hair was tied
in a knot behind, or cut short. And occasionally I saw
a plain silver or other metallic ring upon a small hand,
showing that even bondage has not destroyed in woman
the love of jewels.
As we rode along, those Egyptians who were near the
road bowed the knee to the prince, and remained stationary
until he passed. We rode for a mile and a half
through this brick-field, when at its extremity we came
upon a large mean town of huts composed of reeds and
covered with straw.
“There,” said Remeses, “are the dwellings of the
laborers you have seen.”
These huts formed long streets or lanes which intersected
each other in all directions. There was not a tree
to shade them. The streets and doors were crowded
with children, and old Hebrew women who were left to
watch them while their parents were in the field. There
seemed to be a dozen children to every house, and some
of five and six years were playing at brick-making, one
of their number acting as a taskmaster, holding a whip
which he used with a willingness and frequency that
showed how well the Egyptian officers had taught the
lesson of severity and cruelty to the children of their
who were engaged either in making brick, or conveying
them to Raamses, close at hand, or in placing them in
mortar upon the walls.
We passed through the very midst of this wretched
village of bondmen, whose only food in their habitations
is garlic, and leeks, and fish or flesh, their drink the
turbid water of the Nile, unfiltered from its impurities
by means of porous stone and paste of almonds—a process
of art so well known to the Egyptians. On the
skirts of the village was a vast burial-place, without a
tomb or stone; for these Hebrews are too poor and
miserable to embalm their dead, even if customs of their
own did not lead them to place them in the earth. The
aspect of this melancholy place of sepulture was gloomy
enough. It had the look of a vast ploughed plain; but
infinitely desolate and hideous when the imagination
pictured the corruption that lay beneath each narrow
mound. I felt a sensation of relief when we left this
spot behind, and drove upon a green plateau which lay
between it and the treasure-city of the king. The place
we were crossing had once been the garden of Hermes
or Iosepf, the celebrated prince who about one hundred
and thirty years ago saved the inhabitants of Egypt from
perishing by famine, having received from the god
Osiris knowledge of a seven years' famine to befall the
kingdom, after seven years of plenty. This Prince Iosepf
or Joseph was also called Hermes, though he wrote not
all the books attributed to Hermes, as we in Phœnicia
understand of that personage.
“Was this Joseph an Egyptian?” I asked of the Prince
Remeses, as we dashed past the ruins of a palace in the
midst of the gardens.
“No, a Hebrew,” he answered. “He was the favorite
of the Phœnician Pharaoh who commenced the
palaces of this City of Treasure.”
“A Hebrew!” I exclaimed. “Not one of the race I
behold about me toiling towards the city with sun-dried
bricks upon their heads, and whom I have seen at work
on the plain of bricks?”
“Of the same,” he answered.
“Your reply reminds me, O Remeses, that you have
promised to relate to me the history of this remarkable
people, who evidently, from their noble physiognomies,
belong to a superior race.”
“I will redeem my promise, my dear Sesostris, he
said, smiling, “as soon as I have left the chariot by yonder
ruined well, where I see the architect and his people,
whom I have come hither to meet, await me with their
drawings and rules.”
We soon drove up to the spot, having passed several
fallen columns, which had once adorned the baths of the
house of this Hebrew prince, who had once been such a
benefactor to Egypt; but, as he was the favorite of a
Phœnician king, the present dynasty neglect his monuments,
as well as deface all those which the Shepherd
Kings erected to perpetuate their conquest. Hence, it
is, dear mother, I find scarcely a trace of the dominion
in Lower Egypt of this race of kings.
The ruined well was a massive quadrangle of stone,
and was called the “Fountain of the Strangers.” It was
in ruins, yet the well itself sparkled with clear water as
in its ancient days. Grouped upon a stone platform, beneath
the shade of three palms, stood the party of artists
who awaited the prince. Their horses, and the cars
near, held by slaves, who were watering the animals
from the fountain.
Upon the approach of the prince these persons, the
chief of whom was attired handsomely, as a man of
rank (for architects in Egypt are nobles, and are in
high place at court), bowed the knee reverently before
him. He alighted from his chariot, and at once began
to examine their drawings. Leaving him engaged in a
business which I perceived would occupy him some
time, I walked about, looking at the ancient fountain.
In order to obtain a view of the country, I ascended a
tower at one of its angles, which elevated me sixty feet
above the plain. From this height I beheld the glorious
City of the Sun, a league and a half to the north, rising
above its girdle of gardens in all its splendor. In the
mid-distance lay the plain of brick-workers, covered
with its tens of thousands of busy workers in clay.
Then, nearer still, stretched their squalid city of huts,
and the gloomy burial-place, bordering on the desert at
the farther boundary.
Turning to the south, the treasure-city of Raamses
lay before me, the one half ancient and ruinous, but the
other rising in grand outlines and vast dimensions,
stretching even to the Nile, which, shining and majestic,
flowed to the west of it. Further still the pyramids of
Memphis, the city itself of Apis, and the walls and temples
of Jisah towered in noble perspective. The Nile
was lively with galleys ascending and descending;
and upon the road that followed its banks many people
were moving, either on foot, in palanquins, chariots,
or upon horseback. Over the whole scene the bright
To the east the illimitable desert stretched far away,
and I could trace the brown line of road along which the
caravans travel between the Nile cities and the port of
Suez, on the sea of Ezion-Geber, in order to unlade
there for ships from Farther Ind that are awaiting
them.
Almost beneath the crumbling tower, on which I
stood taking in this wide view of a part of the populous
valley of the Nile, wound a broad path, well trodden by
thousands of naked feet. It was now crowded with
Hebrew slaves, some going to the city with burdens of
brick slung at the extremities of wooden yokes laid
across the shoulder, or borne upon their heads, and
others returning to the plain after having deposited their
burdens. It was a broad path of tears and sighs, and no
loitering step was permitted by the overseers; for even
if one would stop to quench his thirst at the fountain, he
was beaten forward, and the blows accompanied with
execrations. Alas, mother, this cruel bondage of the
Hebrews is the only dark spot which I have seen in
Egypt,—the only shadow of evil upon the brilliant reign
of Queen Amense!
I took one more survey of the wide landscape, which
embraces the abodes of one million of souls; for in the
valley of Egypt are fourteen thousand villages, towns,
and cities, and a population of nearly seven millions.
Yet the valley of the Nile is a belt of verdure only a few
miles wide, bounded by the Libyan and Arabian hills.
Every foot of soil seems occupied, and every acre teems
with population. In the streets, in the gardens, in the
field, or on the river, one can never be alone, for he sees
human beings all about him, thronging every place,
and engaged either in business or pleasure, or the enjoyment
of the luxury of idleness in the shade of a column
or a tree.
Descending the tower, and seeing the prince still engaged
with his builders, pointing to the unfinished
towers of Raamses, and the site of the new palace he
proposed erecting near by, I went down the steps to the
fountain, to quaff its cool waters. Here I beheld an old
and majestic-looking man bending over a youth, a wound
in whose temple he was bathing tenderly with water
from the well. I perceived at a glance, by the acquiline
nose and lash-shaded dark, bright eye, that they
were Hebrews.
The old man had one of those Abrahamic faces I
have described as extant on the tomb of Eliezer of
Damascus: a broad, extensive, and high forehead; a
boldly-shaped eagle nose; full lips; and a flowing beard,
which would have been white as wool but that it was
stained yellow by the sun and soil. He wore the coarse,
short trowsers, and body cloth of the bond-slave, and old
sandals bound upon his feet with ropes. The young man
was similarly dressed. He was pale and nearly lifeless.
His beautiful head lay upon the edge of the fountain, and
as the old man poured, from the palm of his hand, water
upon his face he repeated a name, perhaps the youth's.
I stood fixed with interest by the scene. At this moment
an Egyptian taskmaster entered, and with his
rod struck the venerable man several sharp blows and
ordered him to rise and go to his task. He made no
his eyes tearfully upon the marble face before him, with
his fingers softly removed the warm drops of blood that
stained the temples.
“Nay,” I said, quickly, to the Egyptian, “do not
beat him! See, he is old, and is caring for this poor
youth!”
The Egyptian looked at me with an angry glance, as
if he would also chastise the speaker for interfering;
when seeing from my appearance that I was a man of
rank, and perceiving, also, the prince through a passage
in the ruined wall, he bent his forehead low and said:
“My lord, I did not see you, or I would have taken
the idle graybeard out and beaten him.”
“But why beat him?” I asked.
“His load awaits him on the road where he dropped
it, when my second officer struck down this young
fellow, who stopped to gaze at a chariot!”
“What relation do they bear to each other?” said I.
“This is the old man's youngest son. He is a weak
fool, my lord, about him, and though, as you see, he can
hardly carry a full load for himself, he will try and add
to his own, a part of the bricks the boy should bear.
Come, old man, leave the boy and on to your work!”
The aged Hebrew raised to my face a look of despair
trembling with mute appeal, as if he expected no interposition,
yet had no other hope left.
“Leave them here,” I said. “I will be responsible
for the act.”
“But I am under a chief captain who will make me
account to him for every brick not delivered. The tale
of bricks that leaves the plain and that which is received
men and boys under me, and they have to make up in
their loads a given tale of bricks between sun and
sun. If they fail, I lose my wages!” This was spoken
sullenly.
“What is thy day's wages?” I demanded.
“A quarter of a scarabæus,” he answerd. This is
the common cheap coin, bearing the sacred beetle cut in
stone, copper, lead, and even wood. Higher values are
represented by silver, bronze, brass, and gold rings.
Money in disk-form I have not yet heard of in Egypt.
An Egyptian's purse is a necklace of gold rings of
greater or less value. The scarabæus is often broken in
four pieces, each fraction containing a hieroglyphic.
The value is about equal to a Syrian neffir.
I placed in his hand a copper scarabæus, and said:
“Go thy way! This shall justify thee to thy conscience.
These Hebrews are too helpless to be of further service
to thee this day.”
The taskmaster took the money with a smile of gratification,
and at once left the court of the fountain. The
old Hebrew looked at me with grateful surprise, caught
my hand, pressed it to his heart, and then covered it
with kisses. I smiled upon him with friendly sympathy,
and, stooping down, raised the head of the young man
upon my knee. By our united aid he was soon restored
to sensibility.
But, my dear mother, I will, with your permission,
continue my narrative in another letter. The trumpets,
which from the temple of Osiris proclaim that the last
rays of the setting sun are disappearing from its summit,
also warn me to draw my letter to a close. The
and typifies prayer. I will receive the lesson it teaches,
and retire to my oratory and pray, O mother, for thy
health and happiness and the prosperity of thy reign.
| LETTER VI. The pillar of fire, or, Israel in bondage | |