The Pharaoh and the Priest. Bolesław Prus

thee."

      Here the minister took a gold ring from his finger.

      "I give thee this ring with the name of the goddess Mut, whose favor and prudence will accompany thee to the end of thy worldly wandering, if Thou deserve it."

      His worthiness delivered the ring to Eunana, and those present uttered a great shout in honor of the pharaoh, and rattled their weapons.

      As Herhor did not move, Eunana stood and looked him in the eyes, like a faithful dog which having received one morsel from his master is wagging his tail and waiting.

      "And now," continued the minister, "confess, Eunana, why Thou didst not tell whither the heir to the throne went when the army was marching along the ravine with such difficulty. Thou didst an evil deed, for we had to sound the alarm in the neighborhood of the enemy."

      "The gods are my witnesses that I know nothing of the most worthy prince," replied the astonished Eunana.

      Herhor shook his head.

      "It cannot be that a man gifted with such sight, a man who at some tens of yards away sees sacred scarabs in the sand, should not see so great a personage as the heir to the throne is."

      "Indeed I did not see him!" explained Eunana, beating his breast.

       "Moreover no one commanded me to watch Ramses."

      "Did I not free thee from leading the vanguard? Did I assign to thee an office?" asked the minister. "Thou wert entirely free, just like a man who is called to important deeds. And didst Thou accomplish thy task? For such an error in time of war Thou shouldst suffer death surely."

      The ill-fated officer was pallid.

      "But I have a paternal heart for thee, Eunana," said Herhor, "and, remembering the great service which Thou hast rendered by discovering the scarabs, I, not as a stern minister, but as a mild priest, appoint to thee a very small punishment. Thou wilt receive fifty blows of a stick on thy body."

      "Worthiness!"

      "Eunana, Thou hast known how to be fortunate, now be manful and receive this slight remembrance as becomes an officer in the army of his holiness."

      Barely had the worthy Herhor finished when the officers oldest in rank placed Eunana in a commodious position at the side of the highroad. After that one of them sat on his neck, another on his feet, while a third and a fourth counted out fifty blows of pliant reeds on his naked body.

      The unterrified warrior uttered no groan; on the contrary, he hummed a soldier song, and at the end of the ceremony wished to rise. But his stiffened legs refused obedience, so he fell face downward on the sand; they had to take him to Memphis on a two-wheeled vehicle. While lying on this cart and smiling at the soldiers, Eunana considered that the wind does not change so quickly in Lower Egypt as fortune in the life of an inferior officer.

      When, after the brief halt, the retinue of the heir to the throne moved on its farther journey, Herhor mounted his horse and riding at the side of Nitager, spoke in an undertone about Asiatic nations and, above all, about the awakening of Assyria.

      Then two servants of the minister, the adjutant carrying his fan and the secretary Pentuer, began a conversation also.

      "What dost Thou think of Eunana's adventure?" asked the adjutant.

      "And what thinkest Thou of the slave who hanged himself?"

      "It seems to me that this was his best day, and the rope around his neck the softest thing that has touched him in life. I think, too, that Eunana from this time on will watch the heir to the throne very closely."

      "Thou art mistaken," answered Pentuer. "Eunana from this time on will never see a scarab, even though it were as large as a bullock. As to that slave, dost Thou not think that in every case it must have been very evil for him very evil in this sacred land of Egypt?"

      "Thou knowest not slaves, hence speakest thus."

      "But who knows them better?" asked Pentuer, gloomily. "Have I not grown up among them? Have I not seen my father watering land, clearing canals, sowing, harvesting, and, above all, paying tribute? Oh, Thou knowest not the lot of slaves in Egypt."

      "But if I do not, I know the lot of the foreigner. My great-grandfather or great-great-grandfather was famous among the Hyksos, but he remained here, for he grew attached to this country. And what wilt Thou say? Not only was his property taken from him, but the stain of my origin rests on me at present. Thou thyself knowest what I bear frequently from Egyptians by race, though I have a considerable position. How, then, can I take pity on the Egyptian earth-worker, who, seeing my yellow complexion, mutters frequently, 'Pagan! foreigner!' The earth-worker is neither a pagan nor a foreigner."

      "Only a slave," added Pentuer, "a slave whom they marry, divorce, beat, sell, slay sometimes, and command always to work, with a promise besides that in the world to come he will be a slave also."

      "Thou art a strange man, though so wise!" said the adjutant, shrugging his shoulders. "Dost Thou not see that each man of us occupies some position, low, less low, or very low, in which he must labor? But dost Thou suffer because Thou art not pharaoh, and thy tomb will not be a pyramid? Thou dost not ponder at all over this, for Thou knowest it to be the world's condition. Each creature does its own duty: the ox ploughs, the ass bears the traveler, I cool his worthiness, Thou rememberest and thinkest for him, while the earth-worker tills land and pays tribute. What is it to us that some bull is born Apis, to whom all render homage, and some man a pharaoh or a nomarch?"

      "The ten years' toil of that man was destroyed," whispered Pentuer.

      "And does not the minister destroy thy toil?" asked the adjutant. "Who knows that Thou art the manager of the state, not the worthy Herhor?"

      "Thou art mistaken. He manages really. He has power and will; I have only knowledge. Moreover, they do not beat thee, nor me, like that slave."

      "But they have beaten Eunana, and they may beat us also. Hence there is need to be brave and make use of the position assigned us; all the more since, as is known to thee, our spirit, the immortal Ka, in proportion as it is purified rises to a higher plane, so that after thousands or millions of years, in company with spirits of pharaohs and slaves, in company with gods even, it will be merged into the nameless and all- mighty father of existence."

      "Thou speakest like a priest," answered Pentuer, with bitterness. "I ought rather to have this calm! But instead of it I have pain in my soul, for I feel the wretchedness of millions."

      "Who tells it to thee?"

      "My eyes and my heart. My heart is like a valley between mountains which never can be silent, when it hears a cry, but must answer with an echo."

      "I say to thee, Pentuer, that Thou thinkest too much over dangerous subjects. It is impossible to walk safely along precipices of the eastern mountains, for Thou mayst fall at any moment; or to wander through the western desert, where hungry lions are prowling, and where the raging simoom springs up unexpectedly."

      Meanwhile the valiant Eunana moved on in the vehicle, which only added to his pain. But to show that he was valiant he requested food and drink; and when he had eaten a dry cake rubbed with garlic and had drunk some beer from a thick-bellied pot, he begged the driver to take a branch and drive the flies from his wounded body.

      Thus lying on the bags and packs in that squeaking car, with his face toward the earth, the unfortunate Eunana sang with a groaning voice the grievous lot of the inferior officer,

      "Why dost Thou say that the scribe's lot is worse than the officer's? Come and see my blue stripes and swollen body; meanwhile I will tell thee the tale of a downtrodden officer.

      "I was a boy when they brought me to the barracks. For breakfast I had blows of fists in the belly, till I fainted; for dinner fists in the eyes, till my mouth gaped; and for supper I had a head covered with wounds and almost split open.

      "Goon! let me tell how I made the campaign to Syria. Food and drink I had to carry on my back, I was bent down with weight as an