The Pharaoh and the Priest. Bolesław Prus

stone. What a look, what a woman!"

      "Who could she be?" asked Gideon.

      "The elder woman looked like a priestess."

      "And did she say anything?"

      "Nothing. But when going and they were hidden behind trees, I heard surely the voice of the elder say these words: 'Indeed she is beautiful!"

      Gideon fell to thinking.

      "Maybe they were great ladies from the court."

      The sun went down, and on both banks of the Nile dense crowds of people collected waiting impatiently for the signal of the overflow, which in fact was belated. For two days the wind had been blowing from the sea and the river was green; the sun had passed the star Sothis already, but in the well of the priest in Memphis the water had not risen even the breadth of a finger. The people were alarmed, all the more since in Upper Egypt, according to signals, the overflow proceeded with regular increase and even promised to be perfect.

      "What detains it at Memphis then?" asked the anxious earth-tillers waiting for the signal in disquiet.

      When the stars had appeared in the sky, Tafet spread a white cloth on the table, placed on it the candlestick with seven lighted torches, pushed up three armchairs, and announced that the Sabbath supper would be served immediately.

      Gideon covered his head then, and raising both hands above the table, said with his eyes looking heavenward,

      "God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Thou who didst lead our people out of Egypt, who didst give a country to the slave and exile, who didst make with the sons of Judah an eternal covenant, O Jehovah, O Adonai, permit us to enjoy without sin the fruits of the enemies' country. Bring us out of sorrow and fear in which we are buried, and restore us to the banks of the Jordan, which we left for Thy glory."

      At the moment a voice was heard from beyond the wall,

      "His worthiness Tutmosis, the most faithful servant of his holiness and of his son Prince Ramses!"

      "May he live through eternity!" called a number of voices from the garden.

      "His worthiness," said a single voice again, "sends greeting to the most beautiful rose of Lebanon."

      When the voice ceased, the sound of harps and flutes was heard.

      "That is music!" exclaimed Tafet, clapping her hands. "We shall pass the Sabbath with music."

      Sarah and her father, frightened at first, began to laugh, and sat down again at the table.

      "Let them play," said Gideon; "their music is not bad for the appetite."

      The flute and harp played, then a tenor voice sang,

      "Thou art more beautiful than all the maidens who look at themselves in the Nile. Thy hair is blacker than the feathers of a raven, thy eyes have a milder glance than the eyes of a deer which is yearning for its fawn. Thy stature is the stature of a palm, and the lotus envies thee thy charm. Thy bosoms are like grape clusters with the juice of which kings delight themselves."

      Again the flute and harp were heard, and next a song,

      "Come and repose in the garden. The servants which belong to thee will bring various vessels and beer of all kinds. Come, let us celebrate this night and the dawn which will follow it. In my shadow, in the shadow of the fig, giving sweet fruit, thy lover will rest at thy right hand; and Thou wilt give him to drink and consent to all his wishes."

      Next came the flutes and harps, and after them a new song,

      "I am of a silent disposition, I never tell what I see, I spoil not the sweetness of my fruits with vain tattling." [Authentic.]

CHAPTER X

       Table of Contents

      THE song ceased, drowned by an uproar and by a noise as of many people running.

      "Unbelievers! Enemies of Egypt!" cried some one. "Ye are singing when we are sunk in suffering, and ye are praising the Jewess who stops the flow of the Nile with her witchcraft."

      "Woe to you!" cried another. "Ye are trampling the land of Prince

       Ramses. Death will fall on you and your children."

      "We will go, but let the Jewess come out so that we may tell our wrongs to her."

      "Let us flee!" screamed Tafet.

      "Whither?" inquired Gideon.

      "Never!" said Sarah, on whose mild face appeared a flush of anger. "Do I not belong to the heir, before whose face those people all prostrate themselves?"

      And before her father and the old woman had regained their senses, she, all in white, had run out on the roof and called to the throng beyond the wall,

      "Here I am! What do ye want of me?"

      The uproar was stilled for a moment, but again threatening voices were raised,

      "Be accursed, Thou strange woman whose sin stops the Nile in its overflow!"

      A number of stones hurled at random whistled through the air; one of them struck Sarah's forehead.

      "Father!" cried she, seizing her head.

      Gideon caught her in his arms and bore her from the terrace. In the night were visible people, in white caps and skirts, who climbed over the wall below.

      Tafet screamed in a heaven-piercing voice, the black slave seized an axe, took his place in the doorway, and declared that he would split the head of any man daring to enter.

      "Stone that Nubian dog!" cried men from the wall to the crowd of people.

      But the people became silent all at once, for from the depth of the garden came a man with shaven head; from this man's shoulders depended a panther skin.

      "A prophet! A holy father!" murmured some in the crowd. Those sitting on the wall began now to spring down from it.

      "People of Egypt," said the priest, calmly, "with what right do ye raise hands on the property of the erpatr?"

      "The unclean Jewess dwells here, who stops the rise of the Nile. Woe to us! misery and famine are hanging over Lower Egypt."

      "People of weak mind or of evil faith," said the priest, "where have ye heard that one woman could stop the will of the gods? Every year in the month Thoth the Nile begins to increase and rises till the mouth peak. Has it ever happened otherwise, though our land has been full at all times of strangers, sometimes foreign priests and princes, who groaning in captivity and grievous labor might utter the most dreadful curses through sorrow and anger? They would have brought on our heads all kinds of misfortune, and more than one of them would have given their lives if only the sun would not rise over Egypt in the morning, or if the Nile would not rise when the year began. And what came of their prayers? Either they were not heard in the heavens, or foreign gods had no power in presence of the gods of Egypt. How then is a woman who lives pleasantly among us to cause a misfortune which is beyond the power of our mightiest enemies?"

      "The holy father speaks truth. Wise are the words of the prophet!" said people among the multitude.

      "But Messu (Moses), the Jewish leader, brought darkness and death into

       Egypt!" said one voice.

      "Let the man who said that step forth," cried the priest. "I challenge him, let him come forward, unless he is an enemy of the Egyptian people."

      The crowd murmured like a wind from afar blowing between trees, but no man came forward,

      "I speak truth," continued the priest; "evil men are moving among you like hyenas in a sheepfold. They have no pity on your misery, they urged you to destroy the house of the heir and to rebel against the pharaoh. If their vile plan had succeeded and blood had begun