Uarda: a Romance of Ancient Egypt

the king's pioneer and the young wife of

, when Bent-Anat had gone int

ess that hurt the eyes; not a hand's breadth of shade was anywhere to be seen, and the fan-beaters of the

ch other, then the fair Nefert said, w

he but of the unclean! I am pe

f stone by the side of the gorge, he cast a practised glance all round, a

er head. The gold ornaments on her head-dress rattled gently as she did so

ing in the sky

ad of a lioness or a c

She was the daughter

ather's crown personif

e incites man to the h

lioness tears burning

her world; drunkennes

ed Bast and Astarte af

he Phoe

ot, small though it be. At this hour of

f shade, not many feet wide, which Paaker had pointed out as a shelter from the sun. Paaker preceded her, and rolled a flat piece of limestone, inlaid by nature with nodu

in front of her. This incessant to and fro of her companion at last became unendurable to her sensitive a

stand

ked, as he stood with his back to her

Nefert said, "Say

nd she was frightened at the wild fire that g

fell, and Pa

recommenced his walk, till Nef

ur little wife, I was really glad, and used to think how fine it would be when I might call all your possessions mine, the house you would have s

d and scornful that it cut Nefert to the heart

ur wealth; but I said, I liked you. Do you no longer remember how I cried with you over your tales of

roke your bethrothal vows, and became the wife of the c

is when love seizes one, and one can no longer even think alone, but only near, and with, and in the very arms of an

t of you, not blood, but burning fire, coursed in my veins, and now you have filled them with poison; and here in this breast, in which your image dwelt, as lovely as

spoke, and his voice soun

the king-nearer than

Hathor had thrown round me a web of sweet, sounding sunbeams. And it was the same with Mena; he himself has told me so since I have been his wife. For your sake my mother rejected his suit, but I grew pale and dull with longing for him, and he lost his bright spirit, and was so melancholy that the king remarked it, and asked what

st, which were opened

it is shown that in t

by cool

e bliss which we two have known-not like

e eyes on the sky, like a glorified soul;

the

cording to Schrader's

y the peoples of wes

lves t

ena with him to the war. Fifteen times did t

of my joys from you, and scorched your heart and his with desire. Do you think you can tell me anything I do not know? O

eturn," cried

weapons, and there are many vultures in Lebanon, who perh

he princess into the house of the parascllites; but her feet refused to bear her, and she sank back trembling on her stone seat. She tried to find w

eath, and at last found relief in a passionate and convulsive weeping that shook her whole bod

d over her

e are days when the pale moon shows itself near the clear bright sun;-and it is given to the s

to him, and yet the sight of her beauty filled him with passion, his gaze lingered spell-bound on her graceful form; he would h

weary, almost indifferent gaze she looked at the Mohar, st

rched, fetch me

ome out at any mome

said Nefert, and bega

as his father's house; for in it was the tomb of his mother's ancestors, in which, as

hundred paces from the spot where Nefert was sitting, lived an old woman of ev

oxicated with had seen and fe

ther to two posts of rough wood. She was sorting a heap of dark and light-colored roots, which lay in her lap. Near her was a wheel, which turned in a high wooden fork. A wryneck made fast to it by a little chain, and by spring

or of burning juniper-berries; this was intended to render the various emanations rising f

cavern the old woman call

wax co

le murmur was h

w in the

diums employed by the

remain. I have avail

of two in the Berlin

n Gr

linen with the black signs on them. Sti

some water-make haste,

round her hips, set a large clay-jar on her grey woolly matted hair, and

ve been handsome, made her preparations for receiving the visitor by tying a gaudy kerchief over her h

not to hear his voice. Only when he stood quite close to

day that brings a nobl

er any greeting, but throwing a silver r

coins before Alexander

change, usually in

e for good money some w

ich she had quickly picked out from the roots, close to her eyes; "

cried Paaker, taking another ring from h

noxious beasts?-shall it help thee to reach down a star? Shall it guide thee to secret paths?-It is thy duty to lead the way. Shall it make heat cold, or cold warm? Shall it give thee the power of reading hearts, or shall it beget beautiful dre

me?" ask

but my eyes are sharp, and I can prep

ently clutching at the whip in his gird

man. "Who would have thought it?-old men certainly ask for my

the cave, and soon returned with a thin c

him, or if an old man takes it, it makes him gay. Ah, I know the taste of it!" and she moistened her lips with the white fluid. "It can hurt no one, but I will take no more of it, or old Hekt will be tormented with love

f bidding defiance to some adversary; he put it in his money bag, threw a few more

ho can it be hereabouts? perhaps little Uarda at the paraschites yonder. She is pretty enough; but she is lying on a mat, run over and dying. We mu

water, which she poured out of a large porous clay jar, and laid a laurel leaf, on which was scratched two hear

el from her looked at t

is the wife, seven is the chachach, charcharachacha.

red not to listen to her jargon. He descended carefully into the val

he paused, set the cup on a flat block of stone, an

ut a thousand voices se

who finds on his road the last will of a relation whose possessions he had hoped for,

o act according to the prescriptions of the religion of his fathers. Adultery wa

he had not sought her for the sake of the philter. Was it not possible that the Manes of his forefathers, that the Gods themselves, moved by his pr

t with unusual rapidity, but what guided him in these cases, was not the swift-winged judgment of a prep

eck, and from his girdle, all consecrated by pries

ing of his deceased father, an old family possession, which the chief priests of Abydos had laid upon the holiest of the fourteen graves of Osiris, and endowed with miraculous power. It consisted of a gold ring with a broad signet, on which could be read the name of Thotmes III., who had long since been deified, and from whom Paaker's ancestors had derived it. If it were desirable to consult the ring, the Mohar touched with the point of his bronze dagger the engraved sign of the name, below

nce touching, and pitiful, to see how closely he lived with the Manes of his dead. His lively, but not exalted fancy, wherever he gave it play, prese

lfish ends. The appeal to the Manes of his father he had found especially efficacious in certain desires and difficulties; calling on the Manes of his brother was potent

ris that is to say, as atoms forming part of the great world-soul, at this time had a share in the direction of the universe-he sacrificed to them not onl

d so lived full of a virtuous pride in being one of the most zealous devotees in the land, a

d and no confidant. In the fleld, as in Thebes, he stood apart, and passed a

dness as the forms of the dead, and indulged in this magic, not only throug

oiling overflow of his hatred against the charioteer, a

together exclude the idea that he would commit a great crime by making use of a magic drink. Before pouring the fateful drops into the water, he would consult the oracle of th

gold ring to his heart, muttered the name of his brother in Osiris

slope opposite to him rose, with heavy, slo

ent they poised motionless, borne up by the air, circled round each other, then wheeled

ert's image stood before him as if beckoning him; a mysterious power clenched his fingers close and yet closer round the phial, a

left her shady retrea

he offered her, and drank it w

en she had recovered breat

e water tastes; but your hand shakes, and you

expressive glance of her large eyes, and gave him h

ful words you terrified me just now. It is true I gave you just cause to be angry with me; but now you are kind again-do yo

with a look that pierced Paaker's heart with pain, and yet with ecstasy, "Let us

ouse of the paraschites, while Paaker pres

and she will be mine. I

ed on his lips. Close before him he saw the goal of his desires; there, under his eyes, lay the magic spring longed

ked at them, and even gave outward expression to the mood that ruled him-for he flung up his right hand like a drunken man, who turns away from the preacher of morality on his way to the wine-cask; and yet passion held him so closely ensnared, that the thought that he should live through the swift moments which would change

whom she had given him the philter. He perceived her and shudde

oes. He makes himself comforta

rt and the pioneer, with the princess B

en pressed her hand to her heart, and, like one who is thirsty, drank in the pure air of the mountain valley with de

er companion, who gazed

hour!"

if he were in a dream. Bent-Anat now saw him for the first time in fal

after my first visit to this house,

" replied

t strengthen my courage to follow the impulse of my heart, in spite of my spi

to pronounce

nd?" asked Bent-Anat, and a sm

s sacred. If touching a paraschites, it is said, does not defile a prince

im as honor is to us. May the nine great Gods forgive me! but he who is in there is loving, pious and brave, and pleases me-and thou,

link of the old institutions; because thereby the already we

e now, if thou art such a one as I took the for, freely and sincerely; for it concerns the peace of my soul." Pentaur breathed hard; and then from t

s to thee-as one moved by the same pure and holy emotions as stir and bless me and mine, and thee and every soul born of woman; and I believe that the impressions of this hour have touched thy soul as well as mine, not to taint, but to purify. If I am wrong, may the many-named Gods forgive me, Whose brea

and joyful radiance of the princess' glance, while she frankly

institutions of the past that have so long continued should be respected, for the sake of the people. Let us pray in common to the Gods, that these poor people may be released from the o

er a few steps she turned

is thy

nta

the poet of the

call m

ull at him as at a kinsman whom we meet

farther and pierces deeper than that of other men; and thou ca

and said, while Paaker and

ent shows it me in another light. I have seen its deepest shado