 | LETTER XVII. The pillar of fire, or, Israel in bondage |  |
17. LETTER XVII.
I have much of interest concerning which to
write to you in this letter; but will first redeem my
promise to give you the traditional story narrated by
the lovely Osiria, daughter of the pontiff of Memphis.
Her father came in as she commenced, and smilingly
said—
“Daughter, are you about to overthrow the prince's
faith in the true history of the pyramids, by a fanciful
legend?”
“No, my dear father,” she answered; “I only desire
him to know all he can about these mighty monuments
of a former world, and if he does not believe with me in
the legend, it will at least interest him.”
I assured the beautiful maiden that it would without
doubt interest me, and possibly upon hearing it I might
receive it “as the most reliable account of the origin of
the pyramids.”
“Not in opposition,” said the high-priest, with a smile,
“to the sacred books.”
“Not in opposition,” said Luxora, archly, “to my
emerald table.”
“Let the prince, dear father, and sister, hear and
judge,” said the youngest daughter; and commenced as
follows:
“A very long time ago—before the time of the vast
deluge, when all the oceans that roll around the world's
verge met in the centre and overflowed the highest
mountains—a king, whose name was Saurida Salhouhis,
was informed by his astrologers that seven stars had
fallen into the sea, betokening a great overflow thereof.
He answered, `The mountains of my kingdom are higher
than the ocean, and will defy its waves.'
“The next year his astrologers again came to him, and
said that the sun was covered with dark spots, and that
a comet was visible with a crest of fire, and threatened
evil to the earth. The same night the king dreamed
that the mountains became plains, and that all the stars
of heaven were extinguished. On awakening he called
his one hundred and forty-four priests, and commanding
them to consult the gods, received for answer, that the
earth was to be drowned. Thereupon he commenced
building the two pyramids, and ordered vaults to be
made under them, which he filled with the riches and
treasures of his kingdom. He prepared seven tables or
shields of pure gold, on which he engraved all the
sciences of the earth, all the knowledge he had learned
from his wise men, the names of the subtle alkalies, and
alakakirs, and the uses and hurts of them; and all the
mysteries of astrology, physics, geometry, and arithmetic.”
“These seven golden tables of my sister's legend,”
said Luxora, laughing, “are not near so wonderful as
my table of emerald.”
“Lest,” said Osiria, “you should imagine I am drawing
upon my fancy, I will read to you the remainder of
the tradition from the ancient book in the keeping of the
priests of Amun, in the Thebaïd, given me by my mother
who was the daughter of the priest of the sacred house
there.”
Having thus spoken the maiden retired, and, after a
few minutes absence, returned, followed by a Hebrew
woman carrying a pictured scroll, such as I had never
before seen. Aided by her attendant, she unrolled it
for several cubits, and having found the legend, commenced
to read (a rare art among Egyptian ladies, except
daughters of the learned priests) as follows,—the
tall and stately Hebrew supporting the roll rather with
an air of royal condescension than of submission:
“After the king, Saurida Salhouhis, had given orders
for the building of the pyramids, the workmen cut out
gigantic columns, vast stones, and wonderful pillars
hewn of single rocks. From the mountains of Ethiopia
they fetched enormous masses of granite, and from
Nubia of gray porphyry, and made with these the foundations
of the pyramids, fastening the stones together by
bars of lead and bands of iron. They built the gates
forty cubits under ground, and made the height of them
one hundred royal cubits, each of which is equal to six
of ours; and each side also was made a hundred royal
cubits in extent. The beginning of this undertaking
happened under a fortunate horoscope, and resulted
successfully. After he had finished the larger of the
pyramids, the king covered it with blue satin from the
top to the bottom, and appointed a solemn festival, at
which were present all the inhabitants of his kingdom.
“Then in this great pyramid he built thirty treasure-chambers,
which he filled with an immense store of
riches,—precious vessels, signatures of agates, bloodstones,
and cornelian, instruments of iron, earthen vases,
arms which rust not, and crystal which might be bended
yet not broken, strange shells, and deadly poisons, with
many other things besides. He made, in the west pyramid,
a subterranean hall with divers spheres and stars in
the vaulted roof, placed in their celestial houses, as they
appear in the sky, each in his own aspect; and he deposited
here the perfumes which are burned to them,
and the books that treat of their mysteries. He placed,
also, in the colored pyramid the scrolls of the priests, in
chests of black marble, every chest having upon it a
book with leaves of brass, in which were inscribed the
duties and wonders of the priesthood, its nature, and the
mode of worship in his time; and, in a chest of iron,
were seven books which revealed what was, and is, and
shall be from the beginning to the end of time.
“In every pyramid he placed a treasurer: the treasurer
of the western pyramid was a statue of red marblestone,
standing upright by the door of the treasure-house,
—a lance in his hand, and about his head a wreathed
serpent. Whosoever came near the door, and stood
still, the serpent entwined about the throat, and, killing
him, returned to its place.
“The treasurer of the colored pyramid was an idol of
black agate, sitting upon a throne, with a lance in its
hand, and its eyes open and shining. If any mortal
looked upon it, he heard a voice so terrible that his
senses fled away from him, and he fell prostrate upon
his face and died.
“The treasurer of his seven tables of gold was a statue
of stone, called Albutis, in a sitting posture: whosoever
looked towards it, was drawn to the statue till he was
pressed against it so hard that he died there. Over the
portal of each he caused to be written:
“`I, King Saurid, built the pyramids in six years. He
that comes after me, and says he is equal to me, let him
destroy them in six hundred years. It is easier to pluck
down than to build up. I also covered them, when I
had finished them, with satin; and let him cover them
with mats of grass.'
“Here ends the record on the scroll,” said the maiden.
“Miriam, thou wilt roll it up, and place it whence I
took it, in the sacred shrine of books.”
The Hebrew woman, whose appearance was so remarkable
for dignity and a certain air of command, that
I could not but regard her with interest, then rolled up
the book, and moved quietly, but with a stately step,
from the room. As she went out, attracted by my close
scrutiny, she fixed upon me a large pair of splendid
eyes, dark and beautiful, and lighted up by the inward
fire of an earnest spirit. Her age was about eight or
nine and forty. I do not know why, in looking at her, I
thought of Remeses, now at Thebes, waiting to assemble
his vast army; perhaps there was a style of face and
shape of the eye that recalled him.
“Who is this Hebrew woman?” I asked; for though
I have been several days a guest of the high-priest, I
had not before seen her.
“My assistant and copier of the scrolls and papyrus
leaves, in the Hall of the Sacred Books,” answered
Osiria; “for know, O prince, that I am my father's
“Nor can any temple,” interposed the hierarch, “boast
so orderly a chamber of books as mine; neither do I
see any copies of prayers and rites so beautifully done
as those by Osiria.”
“I do not deserve all the praise, my father,” answered
the maiden; “for the rich coloring of the heading car-touches
of chapters, as well as the graceful form of the
characters, is due to Miriam.”
“What the servant does the master is praised for,”
answered the priest, smilingly. “But you have not told
the prince the whole of the tradition.”
“It is true. I must now state how the pyramid was
opened by one of the Phœnician conqueror kings. This
Philistine warrior, whose barbaric name I have forgotten,
and do not wish to remember, on seeing the pyramids,
demanded to know what was within them. He
was answered by the priest of the sphinx, who is the
guardian of the two pyramids, that `they contained the
embalmed bodies of the ancient gods, and first kings of
men, the emerald and golden tablets, and all the treasures
of gold, silver, and works of art, and every thing
which appertained to the world before the deluge,—all
of which had been preserved by them from the waters,
and were now therein.'
“Hearing this, this king told them he would have
them opened. All the priests assured him that it could
not be done; but he replied, `I will have it certainly
done.' So the engineers of his army opened a place in
the great pyramid by means of fire and vinegar; smiths
aided the work with sharpened iron and copper wedges,
work, as the thickness of the wall was twenty cubits.
They were many months reaching an apartment within,
where they found a ewer made of bright-green emerald,
containing a thousand dinars, very weighty, one hundred
chœnixes of gold-dust, twenty blocks of ebony, a
hundred tusks of ivory, and a thousand ounces of rings
of Arabic gold.
“This was all he found, for beyond this small chamber
the workmen could not penetrate, by reason of the
three treasure-keepers, namely,—the awful statue, with
an enwreathed serpent upon his head; the statue of
agate, with the terrible voice; and the statue of stone,
with the power to draw every one to him, and press him
to death between his arm and his iron breast.”
“Then said the king, `Cast up the cost of making this
entrance.' So the money expended being computed,
lo! it was the same sum which they had found; it
neither exceeded nor was defective. So he closed up
the opening and went his ways, seeing that the gods
were against him.
“Many years afterwards, another king opened the
other pyramid, and found a passage which descended far
below in the earth, in the direction of the centre of the
pyramid. By it he reached a subterranean chamber far
beneath the level of the foundation, almost directly
under the apex. In it was a square well, on each side
of which were doors opening into subterranean passages;
these he followed, and at length reached a gate
of brass, which he perceived led into the foundations of
the greater pyramid. But he could not open it, nor has
any power been sufficient to do so to this day. Return
and so upward, to a vaulted room, containing the
mighty sarcophagus of the great Noah. This dead monarch
of two worlds, before and after the deluge, was
reposing in calm majesty in his colossal mummy-case,
which was covered with plates of gold. Upon his head
was a crown of emerald olive-leaves, each leaf an emerald;
and upon his breast, a white dove, made of one
pearl. Leaving with awe the father of the world to his
sublime and eternal repose, guarded only by the pure
white dove, the king, in retiring, found, to his great
joy, a narrow passage, which led upward towards the
top of the pyramid. It conducted him and his attendants
to a chamber with twelve sides, on each of which
was pictured one of the constellations in the path of the
precession of the equinoxes, in their motion towards the
west. The floor was of polished ivory, inlaid with silver
stars, dispersed over it as they appeared in their heavenly
places when the pyramid was completed. The
seven planets, including the sun and the moon, were
represented in the ceiling, each one in a panel of silver,
with its deity,—all inlaid with silver and precious stones.
“In the centre of this `Hall of the Universe,' was
a hollow stone: when the king entered the chamber,
the stone vanished at the pressure of his feet on the
floor, and a statue larger than life, of pure crystal, was
displayed to his sight. This statue represented a king
upon whom was a breastplate of gold set with jewels;
on his breast was a stone of incalculable price, and over
his head, a carbuncle of the shape and bigness of the
sacred egg of the phœnix, shining like the light of the
day. He held upon his left arm a shield formed of
with a pen, that neither the king, nor the wise men,
nor astrologers, nor magicians, nor the priests who knew
all languages, could interpret. Suddenly darkness filled
the place, their torches were extinguished, and save only
the king who had with him his diamond-set signet,
which shed light before his steps, no one ever returned
to the entrance; nor could he ever find the chamber
of the statue again. But the first passage to the subterranean
chamber remains open to this day, by which
men descend; and others are from time to time discovered;
the treasury-chambers, however, remain sealed to
the eyes of men!”
When the intelligent Osiria had ended her account, I
gratefully expressed to her my appreciation of her kindness
in giving me such interesting information. She
accepted my thanks in the graceful manner which characterizes
Egyptian ladies of rank. The magnificent
Luxora said, with a charming air of feigned provocation—
“With your brilliant tradition, sister, you have quite
thrown into the shade my poor solitary emerald table!”
“There is no doubt whatever, O Sesostris,” said their
father, who had listened to the tradition as he sat in his
ivory chair, in the rich undress vestments he wore
when not engaged in official acts in the temple, “or
rather, we of the priesthood do not doubt, that the pyramids,
at least the pair so nearly of a size and so close
together, were builded before the deluge, which, according
to our astrologers, took place under the dynasty
of the demigods, about one thousand five hundred and
forty years ago, when the world was nearly two thousand
give many more thousands of years! In the most ancient
temple of Thoth, at Thebes, which is the true
astronomical capital of the kingdom, as well as the
ecclesiastical one, there is a tablet in the ceiling of the
adytum, representing the configuration of the seven
planets as they existed on the first day after the creation.
This was the beginning of the world, and since
that day the heavenly bodies have not stood thus again!
Upon the wall beneath it is a stele, portraying their position
at the time of the Noachic deluge, The arc of their
celestial motion, between the creation and the deluge,
being accurately measured in the progress of centuries,
by astrologers of the houses of the mysteries, compared
with the arc measured for one thousand years since the
deluge, shows that the fixed stars, between the creation
and the deluge, moved thirty spaces of the thousand
years along the zodiac westward. That is, the arc of
the zodiac was thirty times as large between the creation
and deluge, as between the deluge and the end of
a thousand years after it; while the seven planets
changed their places in the same proportions of time
and change. Hence, guided by the march of the
heavenly bodies, they teach that thirty thousand years
elapsed between the creation and the deluge; since it
would take that time to change the configuration of the
stars so greatly as to subtend so vast an arc as their precession
drew along the zodiacal path! But, as I have
said, the sacred books of the priests, who are governed
only by the planetary constellations, aided by tradition,
give the number of years I have previously stated.”
“Do not the Egyptian astrologers,” I asked, “give a
through the zodiac?”
“It is one of their mysteries. Finishing upon a chart
the arc of precession which they measure on the zodiac,
they measure the whole circle it will sweep, and calculate
a cycle or period of thirty-six thousand years, as
the duration of one grand year of the universe!”
“As, then, thirty thousand years of this year of the
stars passed before the deluge, if the astrologers are
correct in their sidereal calculations,” I remarked, “there
are but four thousand and four hundred and fifty years
to the end of the first celestial year of creation!”
“Which,” said Luxora, “they teach will terminate
time; and the earth will then be recreated, and there
will be a new starry world, and the year of the universe
will be doubled to seventy-two thousand years; and
when twelve of these vast years are completed, the
creation will be dissolved and all things return to nothing
as before the beginning of time, and the souls of
men will be absorbed in the Divine Essence!”
“You are remarkably well versed in astrology,” I said
to the noble-looking young women.
“We are priest's daughters,” she answered; “and
from our father we derive all our knowledge.”
“Can you, then,” I asked, “explain to me one thing
that has been alluded to in our conversation? I am desirous
of knowing something about the phœnix, which
I see even now represented, inlaid in ivory, upon this
table of vases.”
“I fear that I shall not be able, prince, to make you
understand, what, I confess, I am not well informed
upon. The phœnix has always been a mystery to me.”
“I understand the bird,” said Osiria, “to be the symbol
of a star. But I have never fully comprehended
it. I have doubts if there be such an extraordinary bird.
Will you, father, gratify us and the Prince of Tyre at
the same time?”
The kind and courteous hierarch, before replying, laid
down a beautiful fishing-rod which he was arranging—
it being a favorite pastime of his leisure to sit in the
pavilion before his windows, and amuse himself by fishing
in the oval lake that fills one of the areas of his
palace, and around which runs a columnar arcade, in
whose cool shade we take our walks for exercise in the
heat of the day. And this amusement, my dear mother,
is not only a favorite one with him, but with all Egyptian
gentlemen; who also delight in hunting the gazelle
and other animals—keeping for the purpose leashes of
trained dogs, some of them very beautiful, and as swift
as the winds. They are singularly fond of having dogs
accompany them in their walks, and adorn them with
gold or silver collars. The ladies also have pet dogs,
chosen either for their beauty, or—odd distinction—for
their peculiar ugliness. Luxora boasts a little dog, of
the rare and admired Osirtasen breed, which is as beautiful
and symmetrical as a gazelle, with soft, expressive
eyes, and graceful movements; while Osiria prides
herself on a pet animal, the ugliness of which, as it
seems to me, is its only recommendation. Remeses has
a noble, lion-like dog, that he admits into his private
sitting-room, and has for his attendant at all times when
he walks abroad. Nearly every lord has his hounds;
and to own a handsome dog is as much a mark of rank,
as is the slender acacia cane.
“The phœnix, according to the ancients,” said the
priest, “is a bird of which there exists but one specimen
in the world. It comes flying from the east once in
the course of six hundred and fifty-one years, many
other birds with dazzling wings bearing it company.
It reaches the City of the Sun about the time of the
vernal equinox, where it burns itself upon the roof of
the temple, in the fire of the concentrated rays of the
sun, as they are reflected from the golden shield thereon
with consuming radiance. No sooner is it consumed to
ashes, than an egg appears in the funeral pyre, which
the heat that consumed the parent warms instantly
into life, and out of it the same phœnix comes forth, in
full plumage, and spreading its wings it flies away
again, to return no more until the expiration of six hundred
and fifty-one years!”
“This is a very extraordinary story,” I said.
“It is,” answered the high-priest; “yet it has a simple
explanation.”
“I should be gratified to hear it,” I answered.
“Do you believe, dear father,” asked Osiria, “there
ever was such a bird?”
“I have seen it,” answered the priest, mysteriously.
“But I will gratify your curiosity. The first recorded
appearance of this phœnix was nineteen hundred and
two years ago, in the reign of Sesostris, a king of the
twelfth Egyptian dynasty.”
“The Pharaoh for whom I am named,” I said.
“How came you, O prince, to have an Egyptian
name?” asked Luxora.
“The memory of Sesostris the Great was highly
venerated by my father, and hence his selection of
kings.”
I had no sooner made this unlucky confession, than
the two sisters looked at their father, then interchanged
glances, and appeared quite embarrassed. I at once
reflected that the memory of the Phœnician dynasty is
distasteful to the Egyptians; and that, by confessing my
alliance with them, I had risked their good-will. But
the surprise passed off instantly, for they were too well-bred
to show any continued feeling, and the priest
resumed—
“The last appearance was six hundred years ago,
and in fifty-one years he will reappear, to consume
himself in the burning rays of the sun.”
“I hope I shall be alive to see it,” said Osiria, with
animation.
“This singular myth,” pursued the hierarch, “signifies
to us of the priests who are initiated into these
astrological mysteries, nothing more than the transit of
the planet Mercury across the disk of the sun. The
fabulous bird, the phœnix, is an emblem of Mercury, as
Osiris is of the Sun, according to the teaching of the
books of Isis.”
“I perceive the whole truth now,” I answered.
“What is it, my lord prince?” asked the sisters.
“There is but one planet Mercury, as there was but
one phœnix. The City of the Sun, or the Temple of the
Sun, on which the phœnix was said to consume himself,
is simply the Sun, or the house of the god Sun, in
which Mercury, during his passage across the disk, may
be said to be consumed by fire. As the phœnix consumes
himself once every six hundred and fifty-one years,
the Temple of Hercules at Tyre,—Mercury once every
six hundred and fifty-one years enters the flames of the
sun on nearly the same days of the year! As the
phœnix flies from the east westward to the City of the
Sun, so the course of Mercury is from east to west
athwart the sun. While the phœnix in its passage to
the City of the Sun is attended by a flight of dazzling
birds, so Mercury in its passage across the disk of the
sun is accompanied by bright, scintillating stars in the
heavens around. As the phœnix came forth anew out
of the flames which had consumed him to ashes, so
Mercury, while in the direct line of the sun, is lost to
the vision as if consumed, but, having crossed its disk,
reappears and flies away on his course again, resuming
all his former splendor! Is not this a full solution, my
lord priest?” I asked.
“You have well solved the riddle,” he answered;
“and I must compliment you on your knowledge of
astrology, O prince. In Egypt we are acquainted with
this science, but it is not expected of strangers. In all
the years in which the phœnix, according to the `Books
of the Stars,' is said to have destroyed himself with fire
in the City of On, Mercury has likewise performed his
transits over the sun, according to the calculations of
our hierogrammatists, whose duty it is to keep records
of descriptions of the world, the course of the sun, moon,
and planets, and the condition of the land of Egypt,
and the Nile.”
When I had expressed my thanks to the noble and
intelligent priest, his wife, Nelisa, who entered a few
moments before, said to him playfully:
“What a beautiful mystery you have destroyed with
your science and learning, my lord! I have from a child
delighted in the mysterious story of the phœnix.”
“We have mysteries enough left in our mythology
and astrology, my dear wife,” he answered. “There
is scarcely a deity of the land who is not in his origin a
greater mystery than the phœnix. Around them all are
clouds and mists, often impenetrable by the limited reason
of man; and in many lands, as it was anciently in
Egypt, the word for religion is `mystery.”'
The hierarch was now summoned by the sound of a
sistrum to enter the temple, with which his palace communicated—it
being the hour of evening prayer and
oblation. The young ladies prepared to ride in a beautiful
chariot brought to the palace by their brother, a
fine specimen of the young Egyptian noble; while the
lady of the house left me, to return and oversee her
numerous servants in their occupation of making confections
and pastry, and preparing fruits for a festivity
that is to take place in the evening, I believe, in
my honor; for, were I a son, I could not be more cordially
regarded than beneath the hospitable roof of the
hierarch of Memphis.
As I was proceeding along the corridor which leads
past the “Hall of Books,” I saw through the open door
the stately and handsome Hebrew woman Miriam. She
was engaged in coloring, with cakes of the richest tints
before her, a heading to a scroll of papyrus. Her noble
profile was turned to my view. I started with surprise
and a half exclamation, for I beheld in its grand and
faultless outline the features of Remeses! How wonderful
it is that he so strikingly resembles two, nay
though much older than Remeses, and the venerable
under-gardener Amram, but also a third Hebrew whom
I have met under singular circumstances. I will defer,
however, my dear mother, to another letter the account
of it, as well as of my interview with Miriam; for, hearing
my exclamation, she looked up and smiled so courteously
that I asked permission to enter and examine the work
she was so skilfully executing with her pencil.
The hierarch, the lady Nelisa, and their daughters
Luxora and Osiria, desire to unite with me in my regards
to you.
| LETTER XVII. The pillar of fire, or, Israel in bondage | |