 | LETTER VIII. The pillar of fire, or, Israel in bondage |  |
8. LETTER VIII.
My last letter closed with the narration of a history
of the Hebrews, from the lips of Prince Remeses,
to which I listened as we walked to and fro on the terrace
of the temple. I will in this letter continue, or
rather conclude, the subject, feeling that it will have
interested you quite as deeply as it has engaged my
attention.
The governor of the queen's granaries having arrived,
mounted upon a handsomely caparisoned horse, and attended
by runners, the prince at once gave him the
orders for which he came, and then, dismissing him with
a waive of his hand, turned to me, as I was watching
the majestic flight of several eagles of prey, which,
circling above my head at a great height, with seemingly
immovable wings, through cutting the air so swiftly,
gradually diminished the circles of their flight, and
descended upon some object not far distant, on the road
leading to another treasure-city, called Pithom, many
leagues up the Nile, which the Hebrews had built for
Amunophis L., threescore years and more ago.
“I will now resume my history of the Hebrews, my
dear Sesostris,” said the prince, “and will be brief, as
said, obtained for his father and brethren all this fair
plain, the heart and beauty of Egypt. Here they dwelt
when the old man died, after seventeen years' residence
in Egypt; and the Hebrew prime minister of the king
made for his father a funeral such as few kings receive.
It is said to have been more magnificent than that of
Osirtasen I., of which our poets have sung. By Pharaoh's
command, as his favorite wished to bury his father
in Palestine, a vast army went up with the body,—
chariots, horsemen, and footmen,—so that to this day the
splendor and pomp of the funeral is a tradition throughout
the lands they traversed. Joseph then returned to
Egypt, and ruled sixty-one years, until both he and
Apophis the king were waxed in years. At length
he died, and was embalmed, and his body placed in the
second pyramid, which you behold a little to the right
of Memphis. There his body does not now rest, for,
after the expulsion of the Phœnician dynasty, the Hebrews
secretly removed it, and its place of concealment
is known only to themselves. There is a saying among
them that the bones of this prince shall rise again, and
that he shall go with them forth from Egypt to a new
and fair country beyond Arabia.”
“Then they have a hope of being one day delivered
from their present condition?” I asked.
“It is a part of their faith, and inborn, if I may so
speak. It is this hope, I think, which makes them bear
up so patiently under their servitude.”
“And how, noble Remeses, were they reduced to bondage
in the fair land wherein they once dwelt so peacefully,
under the benign sway of their mighty brother?”
“The answer to this question, my Sesostris,” said the
prince, “will involve a history of the overthrow of the
dynasty of the Phœnician conquerors, which lasted over
two hundred years, with a succession of six kings. Upon
the death of the Prince Joseph in his one hundred and
tenth year, Apophis the king, being also of great age, became
incapable of managing his kingdom, which he had
for sixty years intrusted to the hands of his Hebrew prime
minister. Ignorant of the true condition of his government—known
to but few of his subjects—aged and imbecile,
he was incapable of holding the reins of state, left by
the Hebrew in his hands. The ever-jealous and watchful
king of the Thebaïd, in Upper Egypt, did not delay
to take advantage of an opportunity like this to attempt
the restoration, in Lower Egypt, of the ancient throne
of the native Pharaohs, by the expulsion of the usurping
dynasty. But, my Sesostris, you know well the
subsequent history—how Pharaoh Amosis, with his Theban
hosts, drove them from city to city, and finally pursued
them into Arabia, whence they settled in the land
of the Philistines, and, capturing Salem, made it their
capital city—at least such is one of the traditions.”
“They held it for a time,” I answered, “but, being
driven from it by the King of Elam, they subsequently
fortified Askelon. They are still a powerful people,
under the name of Philistines; and, what is singular,
retain scarcely a custom derived from the two hundred
and twenty-five years' residence and reign in Egypt.”
“It is not more remarkable than the fact that their
domination here made no impression upon the people of
Egypt; they left no words of their own in our language,
and no customs of theirs were adopted by the Egyptians
living in fortified cities and levying tribute upon the
people for their support. The few monuments they
erected were defaced or overthrown by the victorious
Theban king and restorer, Amosis, my great ancestor,
or by his successor, Amunophis I.
“When these invaders were expelled from Lower
Egypt, then the two crowns of the Thebaïd and Memphitic
kingdoms became united in the person of Amunophis,
the son of `the Restorer,' and it is this Thebaïd
dynasty which now holds the sceptre of the two kingdoms,
and which is represented in the person of my
mother, the daughter of Amunophis, who died when
she was a young girl. She has ever since reigned with
the title of `the Daughter of Pharaoh,' being so called
by the people when she ascended the throne of Memphis
and Thebes. But my dear prince,” said Remeses,
with a smile, “I have been giving you the history of
the dynasty of my race, rather than of the Hebrew
people.”
“I am not the less interested, dear Remeses,” I said,
“and perceive that the two histories are naturally
united.”
“Yes. The new king, Amosis, called `Restorer,' upon
the obelisk at Memphis which bears his name, and upon
which the scenes of the expulsion of these Philistine soldier-monarchs
are depicted with great spirit and fidelity
—the new king, I say, upon driving out the invaders,
keeping the Phœnician king's fair daughter, Ephtha, as
his wife, turned his attention to the other class of strangers,
who had the fairest portion of Egypt for their pos
session. He accordingly visited, in state, the city of Succoth,
and beautified during the seventy years they had dwelt
there under Prince Joseph's mild and partial rule. It
was without walls, wholly unfortified, and had not even
a temple—for the Hebrews of the better class worship
only with the intellect, a spiritual Deity in his
unity.”
“Which, if I dare speak so boldly to you, O Remeses,”
I said, “appears to me to be the noblest species of worship,
and the purest sort of religion for an intellectual
being.”
“Sayest thou?” quickly demanded the prince, surveying
my face with his full bright gaze. “Thou art in
advance of the rest of mankind, my Sesostris! The same
feeling exists in my own bosom; but I believed myself
alone in experiencing it. Some day we will hold discourse
together on this high mystery. There seems to
come up from my childhood a voice which I can never
silence, and which I hear loudest when I am most solemnly
engaged in the sacred rites of the altars of our
gods, saying—
“`Son of earth, there is but one GOD, invisible, eternal,
uncreated, and whose glory He will not share with
another; worship Him with the spirit and with the understanding.”'
“This is remarkable,” I said, “for such also is the
mystery taught by the priests of Chaldea, of whom Melchisedec
was the first high-priest. I have read their
sacred books in Damascus.”
“I have never seen them; yet this voice forces itself
upon me everywhere, my Sesostris. All is dark and
inscrutable to us mortals. We hang our faith upon a
equal or superior to the deities we worship, and
find no repose in the observances our religion demands.
Would that I had the power to penetrate the blue
heavens above us and find out God, and know what life
means, and whence we came and whither we go.”
“Once across the Lake of the Dead,” I answered,
“and all will be revealed. Osiris in his vast judgment-hall
will give each soul the key of the past and the
future.”
“So say the priests, and so we believe. But to return
to the Hebrews. Another time we will discourse on these
themes. The new king hearing that two hundred thousand
and more foreigners dwelt here, called all the
elders and chief men before him; and when he had
questioned them and heard their history, and had learned
that the Prince Joseph, who had done so much to uphold
and consolidate the Phœnician rule, was one of their
ancestors, his wrath was presently kindled against them.
He saw in them the friends and adherents of the overthrown
dynasty; both as allied by blood to the great
Hebrew prime-minister, and as originating from the
same country with the expelled Phœnician king. He,
therefore, perceiving they were not a warlike people,
and could not be dreaded as an army, instead of declaring
war against them and driving them out of Egypt, as
he had done the Syrian kings, resolved to reduce them
to servitude like captives taken in war. Having come
to this resolution, he held as prisoners the chief men
before him, and placed the whole people under the yoke
of bondage, enrolling them under task-officers, and putting
them to work upon the cities, temples, palaces, and
suffered to fall into ruin. This was the beginning, my
Sesostris, of the subjugation to perpetual labor of these
Syrians or Hebrews in the very land where one of their
family had ruled next to the throne. They have been
engaged since in building cities, and walls, and in cultivating
and irrigating the royal wheat-fields; aiding in
hewing stone in the quarries, and in all other works of
servitude: but as the making of bricks requires no intelligence,
and as it was not the policy of Amunophis-Pharaoh
to elevate their intellects, but the contrary, lest
they should prove troublesome, they have chiefly been
kept to this, the most degrading of all labor.”
“How long is it that they have been in this condition?”
I asked.
“About one hundred and five or six years have
elapsed since the death of Prince Joseph. But they
were gradually reduced to their present state. During
the latter years only of Amunophis were their tasks increased.
They, nevertheless, multiplied in such numbers
that the king began to apprehend danger to his
crown from their multitude.”
“Were there men among them who sought to free
their fellows?” I inquired.
“Always, and to this hour. They are a proud,
haughty, resolute, and stubborn race. They bend to the
yoke, indeed, but with hatred of the oppressor, not with
the willing submission of the Libyan or Nubian captive.
The king had reason to fear from the increase of their
numbers, when he found the census of this people gave
more than a million of souls, while the number of his
own subjects in both provinces did not exceed six millions;
the Hebrews numbered. Upon this he became alarmed,
for he was about entering into a war with the kings of
Syro-Arabia, and apprehended that being of the same
Syrian stock they might join themselves to his enemies.
He, therefore, increased their burdens and taskmasters
in order to keep them in closer subjugation; but the
more he oppressed them the more they multiplied. In
relating these facts, O prince, do not think I approve
of cruelty even in my royal ancestor. It was, no
doubt, a great wrong in the beginning inflicted upon
them, in making them servants, and the subsequent
series of oppressions were but the natural results of the
first act. It was one unmixed evil throughout. Having
committed the manifest error in the outset, of enslaving
them to the crown, it now became a necessary policy
to prevent their dangerous increase. He would not
send them with his army into Arabia lest they should
join his enemies. He, therefore, to keep down their
numbers, ordered all the male infants as soon as born to
be put to death by the Egyptian women.”
“A dreadful alternative!” I exclaimed.
“Yes, and one not to be defended,” answered Remeses,
in a decided tone. “But Amunophis, having caught
the lion by the jaws, was compelled either to destroy
him, or be destroyed himself. The result of the edict
was, that many perished. The Nile, it is said, was constantly
bearing down upon its bosom corpses of new-born
Hebrew babes,”
“Dreadful!” I ejaculated.
“It became so to the king. But he felt that one or
the other must perish, and that these innocent infants
were sad and tragic scenes! Many a Hebrew mother
fought to save her infant, or perished with it clasped to
her heart! Many a desperate father resisted the soldiers
who sought his hut for his concealed child, and died on
the threshold, in the ineffectual effort to save his son!
You perceive, Sesostris, that I speak with emotion. I
have heard the scenes of that era described by those
who witnessed them. I was an infant at the time, and
do not speak of my own knowledge; but many live who
then saw tragedies of horror such as few lands have witnessed.
Had I been Amunophis I think I should have
devised some other way to ward off the anticipated danger
from my kingdom. But this sanguinary edict was
unsuccessful. The Egyptian nurses were tenderer of
heart than the king, and saved many to the tears and
entreaties of mothers. Thousands of mothers, stifling
every cry of nature, gave birth secretly, and in silence, to
their babes, and the fathers or friends stood ready to fly
with it to some prepared concealment. Thousands were
thus saved, as the innumerable multitudes of men you
have beheld this day toiling in the fields, making brick
to build up Raamses, bear witness. The edict continued
in force for two years, when Amunophis died. After
the seventy days of mourning were ended, his daughter
Amense, who had been married to the prince of the
Thebaïd, a nephew of Amunophis, but had been left a
widow about the time of her father's death, came to the
throne as the next in succession to the double crown.
With the sceptre was bequeathed to her the iron chain
that bound the Hebrews. Young, inexperienced in rule,
without advisers, my mother knew not how to solve the
woman, she felt that she could originate no new policy.
But prompted by humanity, the first act of her power
was to repeal the edict commanding the death of the
infants. This act alone kindled in the hearts of the
whole of the oppressed people a sentiment of gratitude.
On the contrary, her lords, generals, chief princes of the
nomes, and dukes of cities, with one voice assured her
that this act of clemency would destroy her throne.
But you see, my Sesostris, that it still stands. For
thirty-four years she has reigned over the empire of
Egypt, and it has never before reached so high a degree
of prosperity, power, and strength. Her armies of the
east, and of the south, and of Libya, are superior to
those of all nations.”
“Yet is the problem more intricate, and farther from
solution than ever,” I said to the prince. “The Hebrew
is still in the land, still increasing in numbers, and
now far more formidable than in the reign of your
grandsire, Amunophis.”
“This is true. My mother and I have talked for
hours together upon the theme. She, with her woman's
gentler nature, would not oppress them, yet has
she been compelled by necessity to hold them in strict
subjugation, lest they become a formidable element
of insurrection in the kingdom. So far as is consistent
with safety to her two crowns, she mitigates the severity
of their condition; and as you have understood, has forbidden
the women to be struck with blows, or put to heavy
toil. Still it is not easy, among so many thousand task-masters,
and so many myriads of bondmen, to oversee
all individual acts of oppression; but when brought to
the Hebrew is an incubus upon the soul of my noble
mother, and if it were in her power, with safety to her
subjects, to release them to-morrow from their bondage,
she would do so. But state policy demands imperatively,
rigid supervision, severe discipline, and constant
labor, lest being idle, and at liberty to go where they
choose, they conspire against us. Several times agents
from the King of Ethiopia, our natural and hereditary
foe, with whom we are almost always at war, have been
discovered among them; and arms have been placed in
their possession by the spies of the Queen of Arabia.
They have, moreover, among them men of courage and
talent, who, like their ancestor, Prince Abraham, possess
warlike fire, and, like the Prime Minister Joseph, have
wisdom in council, to advise and rule. Such persons,
among slaves, are to be feared, and there is necessary a
certain severity, you would call it oppression, to keep
down all such spirit.”
“The burdens of these Hebrews still seem very
heavy, O Remeses,” I said.
“They doubtless are; but their condition is far lighter
than it has been. They are allotted certain tasks, according
to their strength, and if these are done early
they have the rest of the day to themselves.”
“And if late?”
“They must complete their tale of bricks, unless disabled
by sickness. Blows are not given to men unless
they are wilful and insubordinate. Once a year the
queen visits all the Hebrews in the country of Avaris,
of which Goshen forms but a part, and regulates abuses.
The Hebrew always has the right of appealing to the
treated. All that the queen can do is to execute
with severity the laws against oppressing them.”
“This Hebrew people, O Remeses,” I said, as he
ceased speaking, “are the cloud which overshadows
Egypt. I foresee danger to the dynasty from it.”
“I have in vain tried to settle upon some policy, to
be pursued—when I come to the throne, if it please
Heaven that my mother depart this life before me, (I
pray the god to keep her to a good old age)—in reference
to them. But my wisdom is at fault. When I
take the sceptre I shall feel that the bondage of the
Hebrew, which I inherit with it, will make it lead in
my hand.”
While he was speaking, the impatient pawing of his
spirited chariot-horses, restrained with difficulty by three
footmen, reminded him that we were delaying at Raamses
when we ought to be on our way back to On.
“Come, Sesostris, let us get upon the chariot and
return, for I promised to dine with my mother and the
Lord Prince Mœris to-day; and it is already past noon
by the shadow of that obelisk.”
We stood upon the silver-chased chariot, and taking
the leopard-skin reins in his left hand, he made a sign to
his footmen, who, springing away from the heads of the
fretting and frothing horses, let them fly. Away, like
the wind, we swept the plain in front of the treasure-city;
along the plateau where had stood the palace
and gardens of Joseph, the lord of Egypt; past the
ruined strangers' fountain, where I had talked with the
venerable Ben Isaac and his handsome son; past a well
beside which Jacob had his great house, during the
were visible a little ways off to the east. On we rolled,
preceded and followed by the fleet-footed runners,
across the plain of the Hebrew brick-makers, who still
bent to their labors. Women and children, with dark
fine eyes and raven hair, gathering straw by the wayside
or in the stubble-fields, were passed in vast numbers.
Crossing an open space, I saw before me a black mass
on the ground, which, as we advanced, proved to be a
crowd of vultures or carrion eagles, that slowly and reluctantly
moved aside at our coming; and the next
moment our horses shied at the dead body of a man,
around which they had been gathered feasting upon the
flesh. The long beard and dark hair, the coarse blue
loin-cloth, and the pile of bricks at his side, told the
whole tale. It was an emaciated Hebrew, who had
perished on the road-side under his burden.
I did not look at Remeses. I knew that he saw and
felt. He reined up, and sternly commanded two of
his footmen to remain and bury the body.
“Sesostris,” he said, as we went forward again, “what
can be done? Humanity, piety, and every element of
the soul call for the deepest commiseration of this unhappy
people. I sometimes feel that it would be better
to send them in a mass out of Egypt into Arabia, and
follow them with an army to see that they went beyond
our boundaries, and then establish a cordon of military
posts from Ezion-Geber, on the Arabian Sea, to the
shores of the Great Sea, north. But how could we
provide food for such a host, now amounting to two and
a half millions of people? Thousands would perish in
the wilderness for want of water and food. Only a
and children, from a lingering death. And would not
this be more cruel than the edict of Amunophis; only
executing it in an indirect way, and on a gigantic scale?
I would, were I Pharaoh to-day, give the half of my
kingdom to the wise man who could devise a practicable
way of freeing Egypt from the Hebrews, without destroying
them or suffering them to die in the wilderness.
If men are ever deified, such a benefactor would deserve
the honor.”
These words, my dear mother, were spoken with deep
feeling, and showed me that the heart of Remeses is
manly and tender, that his sentiments are always elevated
and noble, and that the oppression of the Hebrew
is not so much the fault of himself or of the queen
mother, as it is the irresistible sequence of causes which
were in action before they were born; and to the effects
of which they must yield, until the gods in their wisdom
and power make known to them the way to remove
from the land so great an evil: for none but the Deity
Supreme is wise enough to solve this intricate problem
of Egypt. Certain it is, that if the Hebrews go on multiplying
and growing as they now do, in another generation
they will outnumber the Egyptians, and will need only
a great leader like their warlike ancestor Prince Abram,
or the hero king of Philistia, who established the Phœ
nician dynasty, to enable them to subvert the kingdom,
and upon its ruins establish another Syro-Hebraic
dynasty. One of their ancestors has already ruled
Egypt, and another may yet sit in the very seat of the
Pharaohs.
As we re-entered the City of the Sun, we passed by
to mark the era and acts of her long reign. Upon it
were sculptured representations of her battles with the
Ethiopians, her wars with Libya, and her conquest of
Arabia. The work was executed by Phœnician and
Egyptian artists; and I am rejoiced to see that the
painters of Tyre and the sculptors of Sidon are greatly
esteemed for the delicacy and perfection of their work.
When these persons saw me, they dropped their pencils
and chisels, and with their hands upon their bosoms,
manifested every sign of delight. You may suppose I
responded with more than usual gratification to the
homage thus paid me; for in a foreign land the sight of
the humblest of one's own countrymen, refreshes the
eye and warms the heart.
But I have too long occupied your time, dearest
mother, with one letter.
| LETTER VIII. The pillar of fire, or, Israel in bondage | |