Uarda: a Romance of Ancient Egypt

Paaker, who was waiting in the forecourt, into the presence of Ameni while he himself re

p in the house of Seti, but few used to remain afte

d with regard to th

from the medical wri

h the "Ebers Papyrus"

of Berlin the second,

first mentioned, has

e third. Also see Hero

8

ole country, whence they returned to Thebes, endowed with the highest honors in surgery, in ocular treatment, or in any other branch of their

e Nile, in Thebes proper, and even in private houses with

the complaint from which the sick was suffering, and it was left to the principal medical staff of the sanctuary t

e which was given them of the state-revenues; they expected no honorarium from their patients, but the restored sick seldom neglected making a present to the sanctuary when

cians, who stood by the bed of sickness as "ordained servants of the Divinity," should not be satisfied with a rational tre

s and bent of mind; but Pentaur was not for a moment in doubt as to which should be entrusted w

long since dead, whose name of Nebsecht he had inherite

igh and hereditary talent for the profession to wh

ic books of medicine

voted to surgical inst

res found in some of

he Egyptia

ined the dignity of teacher there if an impediment in his speech had

in the best opinions, an advantage to him; for it often happens that apparent super

up to his inherited and almost passionate love of observing organic life; and his teachers indulged up to a certain point his innate spi

xpression in any form. But Nebsecht's was the silent and reserved nature of the learned man, who free from all desire of external recognition, finds a rich satisfaction in the delights

earer to Pentaur than any

easure and with great benefit to himself, for his companion observed a thousand things to which without him he would have remained for ever blind; and the objects around him, which were known to him only by their shapes, derived conn

of expressing in word and song every emotion that stirred his soul. The poet was as a novice in the order in which Nebsecht was master, but quite capable of understanding its most difficult points; so

the silent owner of the room, found it everywhere strewed with thick bundles of every variety of plant, with cages of palm-twigs piled four or five high, and a number of jars, large and small, covered with perf

m, near to a writing-stand, lay bones of anima

stood a wooden head-prop, indicating that the

nge abode, its owner pushed a rather large object under the

have preferred to use

any rate for the ope

nt instruments have be

useu

-as a school-boy might hide some forbidden game from his master. Then he crossed h

owever, sufficed to show him his trusted friend Pentaur, who had disturbed Nebsecht in his prohi

idden-a living rabbit fastened down to a board-and continued his interrupted observations on th

some time silently watched the investigator; t

efully, when you are bus

d the naturalist, "when they caught me dissecting the hand of t

will find its right hand

ot want it

least bit of an im

aced in graves to hel

r-world. They have ax

n their backs. The six

s inscribed o

nse

e same way by the spirits of the netherworld,' says the law; but I see what you will say. You hold it lawful to put a

do no

r Pentaur's face; leaned

would have long been dead under such treatment. His organism is

hrugged hi

ps!" h

ht you m

told you-they would not even let me try t

the passage of the soul depends

cunning little eyes and sh

what you like with the souls of men; I seek to know something of t

ast you need not deny that

he learned and of phy

was usually represen

ul light to show the n

god, he became the lo

he philosopher among

of learning. The Gre

eefold or "very great"

tians, whose name Tot

the same way

thing, nothing at all, and guide my instruments with hardly

Pentaur smiling, "who understood painting b

ter' and a 'worse;'" said Nebsech

th the 'better,' and I have c

you

d uproot a palm-tree, but I would ask you to

ily has its ow

nat has run over a young girl, and

tively. "Is she over there in the

fact the daughter

echt, once more slipping the rabbi

you expect to find something

but I will go. Wha

in

done with him," muttered the

some strychnine on the nose and in the mouth of the rabbit, which immedi

out of doors in t

throw on over the other! but Pentaur hindered him. "First take off your working dress,"

toilet of the Egypti

e led the women to con

was probably

rung in the quiet room, when he discovered that his friend was about to put a t

nd felt so intolerably hot at noon. While I get rid of my superfluous cloth

o the paraschites, and added that the

ow that we have to do

tain

ck, because my leather tongue is unable to recite the sentences or to wring rich offerings for the temple from the dy

assistant rather tha

ongue creep after me like an eel or a slug. Head and heart have nothing to

stine, beasts trod ou

the catacombs, even

on of a weighted sled

attached. It is

ing out his litanies by a sick-bed, and all the time quietly co

d of scorpions yonder than take a piece of bread from the hand of the unclean. Tell him to come and f

live to the north or s

aaker, the king's pionee

t, laughing. "What day in

preserved, the comp

s been admirably trea

ucky, unlucky, etc.

ave been found, the m

phered by

ess, and a leech have a noble to guide him, like the Ph

is warm," s

o a poor boy whose collar bone he had simply smashed with his stick. If I had been

est The second prophet Gagabu, who was also the head of the me

an order of priests t

ong

friend as singe