I have described my chariot ride through the plain of tombs, along the magnificent causeway, which extends from the Lake of the Dead to the feet of the sphinx. All that I beheld of the grandeur of the monuments showed, that the Egyptians of past generations who built them, and lie buried here, were a populous and powerful nation, in advance of all others in the arts of life; since not only do the cities for the living, but the "Homes of the Dead," attest their taste and love for the beautiful and sublime in nature and art. The culmination of all Egyptian marvels in architecture is the sphinx-guarded pyramidal temple.
We approached the central pylon along a paved court, across which two hundred chariots could have driven in a line. This court was entirely surrounded by a double row of majestic columns, with the lotus-leaf capitals I have before described. The vastness of their proportions seemed to be increased by contrast with a group of priests, who looked like pigmies in size as they stood by their bases. The gigantic entablature, which united their summits, was covered with sacred symbols, richly colored, and crowned with statues of kings, hewn out of the dark-gray granite of Ethiopia. But some of these were mutilated by Time, which, indeed, had thrown its mantle of decay over the whole,—pillars, architecture, and sculpture; for this court is coeval with the sphinx crouched at its entrance, and but a little later than the two pyramids. In a few centuries, decay will have brought the mighty fabric to the earth; for, massive as it looks, it is built of brick, covered with pictured stucco; but the pyramids of stone, which have withstood the lapse of ages beyond history, will last as long as the everlasting hills of granite from which their enormous blocks were hewn.
Passing beneath the great portal, we found ourselves in the sacred square of the temple of the Pyramids, and I could now perceive the mighty design. Connected by stupendous columnar wings, the pyramids rose in sublime grandeur on either hand. Their summits shone with the light of the setting sun, which, reflected from the polished casing of the pictured tiles yet remaining near the top, and that once covered the whole surface from base to apex, lent a splendor to them indescribable. On the opposite side of the quadrangle, formed by the temple in front and the bases of the pyramids on the two sides, is a dark grove of palms, intermingled with statues and altars; and beyond rise the dark hills of Libya—a fitting and solemn background to the scene.
About the summits of the Queen's Pyramid, which is a little smaller than the other, though it appears to be of equal height, from the superior elevation of the platform of rock on which it stands, soared flocks of the white ibis, their snow-white wings flashing like pinions of silver as they wheeled in mid-air. At that immense height they looked no larger than sparrows.
A statue of Horus, whose name I had also seen inscribed on the tablet of the temple of the Sphinx, rose a colossal monolith in the centre of the quadrangle, with one of Thoth upon his right, and another of Anubis on his left hand. These figures were symbolical of the funereal use of the pyramids between which they stood.
After walking around the columned avenue of this great mausoleum, we began the ascent of the larger pyramid, known as that of Cheops; the other bearing the name of Chephres, as the high-priest informs me; and the third, which towers in its own unaided grandeur farther to the south, being that of Pharaoh-Men-Cherines. We found the ascent extremely difficult—indeed, in ancient times it must have been impossible, when its polished and beautiful casing remained entire; but this having been removed by time and accident in many places, and purposely in others, a path, if it may be so termed, is made to the summit. We were aided by attendants of the temple, who from long practice ascend with ease, assisting also those strangers who would climb the perilous height.
As we reached half-way, a block, which had been removed from its place either by the irresistible force of a sirocco from the desert, or by lightning, gave the high-priest and myself a welcome resting-place.
As we stood here a few moments, I looked down upon the prospect below. The sight at first made me dizzy, for we were elevated four hundred feet above the base. I seemed to be suspended upon wings above an abyss, and a dreadful desire to throw myself out into mid-air seized me; so that to resist it I closed my eyes and clung firmly to the attendant. It soon passed off, and I gazed down upon the vast quadrangle, the persons in which looked no bigger than ants, while the three colossi of the gods, in the centre, were reduced to the natural size of men.
Opposite, not six hundred cubits distant, stood Chephres. From each pyramid swept the avenues of columns and the great wall connecting both with the central temple and its pylon. From the grove of palms, curled up into the pure orange-colored atmosphere a blue cloud of incense, where some priest offered at one of its shrines.
Again we mounted upwards, and, after incredible fatigue, gained the summit—not without peril, for a slip of the foot or the hand, each block being as high as a man's neck, would prove fatal. Indeed, more than one life has been lost in falling down the side of the pyramid. A prince of Midian, a country in Arabia, lost his life last century by losing his hold and falling from Chephres, which is more difficult of ascent than Cheops, (or Chuphu), as the priests there call its name.
How shall I describe to you, my dear mother, the scene which burst upon my vision, as I gazed about me from this mountain-like elevation! As I ascended, the prospect of the country enlarged at every step, but now I seemed to behold the earth itself spread out beneath me. The place where we stood, which looks from below like a sharp apex, is a platform several cubits across, on which twenty men could stand or move about with ease.
I can give you no adequate conception of the scene I beheld. First, the valley of the Nile was visible, extending for many leagues to the right and left, and resembling a green belt a few miles wide, through which the river flowed like a silver band—while upon its borders countless cities were set like precious stones. It was a gorgeous and magnificent assemblage of cities, temples, palaces, obelisks, villas, gardens, monuments, avenues of trees and sphinxes, sepulchres, aqueducts, statue-lined causeways, galleys and pleasure barges, chariots, horses, and multitudes of people. Nor should I omit what now became visible in one field of view, to the north and south. I mean not less than one hundred pyramids, all much smaller than the mighty triad, but each, had not the others been up-builded, would have been a marvel of grandeur.
"Those are all tombs of kings, but of a later age than this one," said the hierarch, looking towards them. "Each monarch, at the commencement of his reign, laid the foundation of a pyramid. He built first a small one, containing his sarcophagus and sepulchral chamber. Then every year he added to the outside a complete layer of stones, which, after many years, extended its base, and increased its elevation in like proportions. Therefore the size of the pyramids marks the age to which the king lived."
"Then," said I, "the kings who built the multitude of lesser pyramids, which we behold in the distance, must have had much shorter lives than the builders of these vast piles."
"You are right, O prince," he said. "When the pyramid, on which we now stand, and its companions were builded, men's lives were of the duration of a thousand years."
"That was before the traditional deluge?" I replied, with surprise and interest.
"True, O Prince of Tyre!" he answered. "These two great pyramids, say our sacred books, were the work of the giants who lived in the days before the flood of Noachis, or Noah. They are the tombs of their kings, and were centuries in being built according to our years. And when the gods brought the unknown oceans over the earth, to punish the nations which living so long became as wise as the gods, but at the same time grew as wicked as wise, these vast sepulchres withstood, like the lesser hills, the waters of desolation, and remained in ruinous grandeur, not only as witnesses of the flood, but monuments of a past people whose towers, as well as tombs, reached unto the heavens. You see these pyramids, and how they are now defaced by the billows that dashed against and over them. Anciently, when they were completed, their whole surfaces were encased with beautiful tiles of the brightest blue and purest white, inlaid alternately in perfect squares. Upon this magnificent encasing was inscribed, in pictorial signs, the history of man; but no person has ever interpreted them. You see, my prince, that here, at the top, are a few strata still remaining of this rich encasement; all the rest having been destroyed by the deluge—by the abrasion of the waves, and the hurling against its sides of mighty ships, driven by the huge and angry billows which rolled like a boiling sea across the earth. Thus you behold these vast structures, as it were in ruins, yet still retaining fragmentary portions of their original glory and beauty. When the waters departed, the gods limited the lives of men to one hundred years; hence the pyramids that the kings this side the flood have erected are comparatively small in magnitude."
"But the third, was it not built before the flood?"
"I did not intend you should so understand," he answered. "It was commenced before the flood by the king who was destroyed thereby. But the son of the wise and good Prince Noah completed it during the several hundred years that he lived—as did his father also—after the flood; for it was only the lives of their descendants that were to be limited. Thus Amun, says tradition, finished the third pyramid, but did not encase it, as the art was lost by the deluge which had destroyed those who were skilled in it. There are other accounts, my prince, but they either come near this one, or so far differ from it that they are entitled to no credit."
"It is your opinion, then, O high-priest, that these two pyramids were built by the giants of the ages before the great deluge?" I asked.
"I have no other one," he replied firmly. "When the age of man was shortened to one hundred years from one thousand, his stature was also lessened. Hence the men of the ages since the flood cannot build a pyramid like one of these. All the power of engines and art cannot uprear such stones six hundred feet into the air. This is giants' work."
"Then you believe that there were giants in the earth in the days before the flood?" I said, doubtingly.
"These pyramids attest the fact," he replied, with an impressive gesture of his right hand towards the opposite one. "Noah himself, says tradition, and his sons, Chephres, Chufu, and Amun or Men-Cherines, were gigantic, and are worshipped as gods, as you know, not only here and in Syria and Ethiopia, but in the Orient, and beyond the seas, under various names. In the third pyramid Amun was entombed. In the second is Chephres, or Chefret, who, when an aged king, was brought from the place where he died, and placed in a sarcophagus above the chamber where lay the king who found sepulture there before the flood. Within the pyramid on which we are, rest the sacred bones of the Prince-god Noah, who, at the age of nine hundred and fifty years, came hither to be buried by the side of his eldest son Chephres. 'Such a mourning of the nations, all of whom sprung from his loins, the earth never knew, and will never witness more,' say the sacred scrolls of the temples. All kings, and queens, and princes, and lords, and nobles, of every realm followed the embalmed body of their father and deity; and King Menes, his grandson, went up from Egypt with all the hosts of the land to meet the funeral procession, and to receive the divine body. Cheops is but another name for Noah. Here also is entombed Menes."
Such, my dear mother, is the priestly tradition of the pyramids. We, of Tyre, have a myth that the Father of the Flood is buried in Damascus; but though Egyptians love to concentrate all history around their own land, and make Egypt the cradle of the human race, yet as this tradition seems to be better founded than ours, and as they can point to the grand tombs of these kings of the flood, I am ready to concede to her the honor which she claims of being the place of sepulture of the giants who survived the deluge. And what fitter tombs, than these eternal mountains of granite, could the progenitors of the race repose in! Fit sepulchres are these in their grandeur of proportions, for men whose stature was gigantic, and whose lives extended through a thousand years!
But I must return to the prospect from the summit of this mausoleum of giants. The sun was near the horizon, and sent his level and mingled rose, golden, and purple beams aslant across the valley. The air was perfectly clear, and our view unimpeded in all directions.
To the south, along the verdant plain of the Nile, the pyramids shone in the sun as if sheathed with plates of gold. Palms, temples, obelisks in pairs, and pylones were mingled with them in the richest confusion; while as far as the eye could penetrate they receded into the desert, till their size was diminished by distance to shining mounds.
Turning my eyes to the west, the yellow plain of Libya, with its rocky hills inclosing the verdant valley of the Nile in that direction, rolled away to the edge of the horizon, an arid, undulating, illimitable expanse, which, under the sun, blazed like a lake of fire from the burning reflection of its sands. The contrast of this realm of desolation, and its storm-piled drifts of gray, brown, and dusky sand, lying so near the groves, and green fields, and blooming gardens which surrounded the pyramids and extended to the base of the ridge, was very remarkable. One part looked like the abode of Osiris, full of beauty, and light, and happiness: the other like that of Typhon, or the spirit of evil, who strove, ever battling with his storms of sand, to invade, overwhelm, and desolate these scenes of beauty! And, ere many centuries, his arid hosts threaten to sweep past the pyramids, and to overleap the very gates of Memphis! But at present, all the land within the hills is a region of delight, presenting a pleasing contrast, with its perennial green, to the desolate and savage realm of the desert. Luxuriantly covered with verdure; bright with golden wheat-fields, charming green meadows, foliage of every variety; groups of trees rising from a thousand courts; countless villages everywhere, and myriads of brilliant lakes, it was a scene of unmixed beauty. Jizeh, a little to the east, with its temple-palaces and gardens, filled the view. Farther east lay, first, the glorious city of Apis, its squares, avenues, lakes, groves, fanes, and monuments, all open to the eye like a magnificent picture. Beyond the glittering Nile, the banks of which were rich with fertility and adorned with villas, I beheld Raamses, and still farther Pythom, the treasure-cities, in the fair expanse of the land of Goshen,—alas! beautiful only to the eye, for upon it rests the dark shadow of Hebrew bondage; and south, a few miles, after a thousand scenes of rural beauty fill the vision, towers, like the throne of the kingdom, the city of the Lord of the Sun, its gorgeous temple and forest of obelisks flinging back the sunbeams with a splendor that fills the soul with wonder and delight!
"O happy, glorious, mighty Egypt! what a blessed and favored land art thou! With one foot upon the seven mouths of thy mighty river, another upon Ethiopia, and thy head in the clouds, all nations bow down to thy might and greatness! Leader of the kingdoms of the earth! what a future is thine, if thy kings and rulers are true to thee and to themselves!"
The hierarch heard me utter these words, for I spake aloud in my wonder at the glory of this kingdom and the magnificence of her power.
"The future of Egypt, my prince, no man can foresee. But the sacred books contain a prophecy, that during one cycle of a soul, three thousand years, she will be a nation despised and ruled by kings of another race, and all that will remain to her will be her defaced pyramids and temples; the marvel of which will bring strangers from the ends of the earth, curious to gaze upon these mute witnesses of her ancient power and glory."
"The gods forbid!" I said warmly.
"The gods," he answered, "govern the earth, and do what they will with its kingdoms. These sacred papyri also speak of Tyre and prophesy its desolation, and say that the empire of commerce shall be removed to an unknown world beyond the great sea of the West, and that a race yet unborn shall sway the destinies of the earth, and another religion shall prevail in the hearts of men."
"What are these papyri?" I asked.
"Books which have been handed down from the first kings, who in their turn received them from the ancient gods."
I turned away sorrowfully at the thought of this prediction, my dear mother. The idea that Tyre, which now sits a queen upon the shores of her sea, will ever be desolate, is not possible for me to conceive. May her prosperity and peace be prolonged to the ends of the ages!
We now turned to descend this elevation, from whence the heart of Egypt lay open before us. The sight of the sheer eight hundred feet along the inclined side of the pyramid was fearful. The projections which were to receive our feet were not apparent; and we commenced the descent with the greatest caution, being obliged to lower ourselves from block to block; and where the encasement of tiles remained, we were sustained by the iron heads of short spears with which each of us was provided, a hook being secured at the opposite end.
At length we reached the broad terrace which surrounds the pyramid, and upon which are statues and small sphinxes facing outward. Between two of large size, representing Osiris and Isis, we descended a broad flight of steps to an ancient gate, which, as I was told, led to the entrance of the pyramid. The passage, however, has not been opened for many centuries—the piety of the Pharaohs permitting the mighty dead to rest in their granite tumuli undisturbed by curiosity or cupidity.
When we had crossed the court, the priest ascended with me one of the towers of the pylon. From thence he showed me a mass of rock lying in a position which answered, in reference to the main pyramid, to that which the sphinx occupied.
"Seest thou, O prince," he said, "that isolated rock? The ancients intended to chisel it also into a sphinx to match this one, for they used to place them in pairs, like their obelisks. But the grand conception has never been carried out; and you perceive that our noble queen, Amense, is erecting the pyramid of her years so near, that it in part stands upon it. Two such sphinxes crouched in front of Cheops would have been an entrance to the mausoleum worthy of it, and of him who reposes therein. Instead of carrying out this original design, the great temple and colossal wings have been built, and the avenue from the sphinx so turned aside by a slight angle, as to terminate at the central pylon; thereby making one sphinx answer the purpose of two, but at the sacrifice of proportion; for the twofold grandeur of the combined pyramids lessens the impression of the single sphinx, while the two reposing before Cheops alone, would have been in keeping with its majesty."
As it was now sunset, we hastened to our chariot and drove back to the city, along the magnificent causeway I have before described.
Upon my return to the palace of the high-priest, and after describing to his beautiful daughter, Luxora, the incidents of my visit, she said, with an arch smile—
"You ought not, O Sesostris, to have come away without seeing the emerald table of Hermes!"
"I heard nothing of it, lady," I answered. "I have, moreover, seen splendor enough for one day. What and where is this table?"
"In the central chamber of the great pyramid. The people of Egypt believe the tradition, and so also have some of its kings."
"What is the tradition?" I asked. "But first, do you believe it?"
"With all my heart. I never doubted it since I was a child," she answered, smiling, yet with a tone of sincerity. "My father thinks if it were true, it would have been removed when the god Noachis was placed there."
"It is not in the chamber of the sarcophagus, sister," said Osiria, the sister younger than Luxora—a maiden remarkable for her sprightliness and intelligence; "it is in a vault of crystal under the pyramid."
"You are right, my dear sister," replied the elder, gracefully. "I will tell the prince the legend."
"Then I will tell him mine," said Osiria, with an arch look. "I know he will like mine the best."
"Because he likes you the best, is it?" her sister replied, playfully. "But have a care, Osiria; our guest is betrothed to a great princess in his own country."
"That need not prevent him from being my good friend in this," responded Osiria, pleasantly.
"Your tradition, noble Luxora?" I asked.
"It is this. In the ancient days of the earth, before the deluge of the gods, the thrice great Hermes, who knew all the secrets of alchemy, engraved them upon an emerald table and placed it in a cave, which he sealed up. His motive for doing this was both to preserve them and to conceal them from men—for the race of man had grown so wicked, that they made use of what they knew of alchemy to injure one another and defy the deities, answering back the thunder of heaven with thunders of their own. Over this cave the first pyramid was built, and there the emerald table, with all its secrets, so dear to our sex, has remained to this hour!"
I thanked Luxora for her legend, and assured her that I had quite as much curiosity to see the wonderful emerald as she had.
"But if it were discovered," said Osiria, "who could read and understand the writing upon it! Now, O prince, hear my tradition; for, having visited the pyramids, it will be agreeable to you to hear all that is said about them."
"I will listen with the greatest pleasure," I answered.
But, dear mother, I will here close this long letter, and reserve, for the commencement of my next, the singular tradition related to me by Osiria.
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 marble-stone, 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 scribe, and have the care of all the rolls of the temple."
"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 cartouches 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, and huge engines to remove the stones. It was a vast 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. Returning he found another side passage, leading into the pyramid 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 one single topaz, upon which were characters written 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 four hundred years old; but our books of mysteries 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 period for a year of the heavens to make one revolution 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 it for me; besides, I am related to the Phœnician 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, at the vernal equinox,—so say our Sabæan books, kept in 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 three, of this foreign race!—not only this woman, 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.