The Mummy and Miss Nitocris

broad, smooth, silver-gleaming Nile, then approaching its full flood-time, and looking like a wide, shining road out of the shadows through the light and into the

he fresh north wind, of the generations of Ma

f the broad white terrace of the palace of Pepi in Memphis-he, M

ed out over the river the moonlight fell full on the white loveliness of her face and into the dark depths of her ey

mystery of the Egyptian night as it was in those old days-the face of a fair woman, a riddle of th

e had not dared to break it. Then at length she spoke, moving only her lips, her body s

thing to be? Can the All-Father have given His Chief Minister to be

ied, slowly

eses; and true also it is that the shade of Nefer is now waiting in the halls of Amenti till his

must come; but whose hand shall cast the spear or draw the bow? We claim kinship with

r Heaven than a woman's love, so there is nothing liker Hell than a woman's hate. So saith the Ancient Wisdom, O Nitocris; and therefore, as

breath. She turned swiftly and laid her hand on his shoulder. Her touch was as light as the falling of the rose-leaves in the gardens of

ing on you. Tell me, do you love me? Does your blood throb in your veins when I touch you? Does your heart be

her right hand and pressed it to his heart, and laid her left hand on his

en is an

now the woman shall speak. Nefer is dead, yet is not Nefer re-incarnated in anothe

as the words came rippling out from between her half-smiling

tes done their work on his body? Is not his mummy even now resting in t

ells thee how, with the permission of the Divine Assessors, the souls of the dead may come back from the halls of Amenti

arce distinguish the one from the other. May it not be that the gods, who f

me, even as that other riddle wh

oulders again. "Tell me now, Ma-Rimōn, what wouldst thou do if thy soul were now waiting in the land

if th

too believed th

th on his bare throat. He saw the deep eyes melting into tenderness as the moonl

thy kisses are! Now let the gods bless or curse, for never could they take away what thou hast given-and for it I will give thee all. All that has been, and is, and might have been! Priest and s

s eyes under the dark lashes which half-hid hers; and so Ma-Rimōn, the youthful Initiate of the Holy Mysteries, became in that moment a man, and so he bega

hands and may not be changed by ours. But, so far as this matter is concerned, I swear by the Veil of Isis, by these sacred kisses of ours, and by the Uraeus Crown of the Three Kingdoms, that, rather than be sold as a priceless chattel to grace the triumph of Menkau-Ra, I

ls of the daughter of Rameses with Menkau-Ra, the Mohar, chief of the House of War and mightiest of all the warriors of the Land of Khem, now that Rameses had passed from the black bank

bright and glorious in sudden splendour over the City of the White Wall. Standing on the flat roof of the temple of Ptah, he looked about him in the firs

he temples and palaces which formed the river-front of Memphis. Only a week ago the victorious armies of Khem had brought their spoils and their prisoners across the eastern frontier. There had been fruit, bread

led with it, he had also heard the name of the girl-queen whose arms had been about his neck, and whose lips he had kissed the night before, and he knew that ev

e than the Conqueror himself could win-something that could not be taken by force, or even through the will of the dead king. Her sou

rracks to the north of the palace. "Alas! were I but truly Nefer! That golden-crowned murderer-for sure I am that he killed him-he would not now be making ready fo

the topmost wall of the Rameseum before messengers were sent out from the palace bearing the tidings that Nitocris the Qu

rm gliding ghost-like towards him as he stood waiting for her on the terrace. She was clad like the meanest of her serving-maids, just as a common slave-wench who had stolen out to meet a lover of her own sort might have been. When she

et been polluted by the lips of Menkau-Ra, although all t

ps met in such a long, silent ki

araschites-this lovely body of thine dead-knowing that thy soul was waiting for mine on the shores of Amenti, than I would know that those sweet lips h

love-and of a truth I tell thee that he loves me very dearly, for that great, strong frame of his shook like a bulrush in the wind under the breath of my lightest words-that, until the last vows had made us man and wife, I would be his queen and he should be my subject and my s

ather would the High Gods permit Death to be the Master of

close to him and laying her hands lightly upon his shoulders, "there is another way, but it is the way that leads through the mystery of the things that

answering his. It was the moment of the supreme test, the parting of the ways-to the heights whose pinnacles reach to the heaven of Perfect Knowled

ts potent witcheries of the senses, with all its exquisite delights and glittering

ing lightly on his shoulders, her head lying on his breast, her

eloved, a

of the terrace shook under his feet. He

Nitocris-even unto dea

n hurried whispers. At last she slipped out of his arms and left him, his lips burning from the

ning Isis Star, and through the silence there came to his soul in t

into the eyes of Isis. He who looks and