An Egyptian Princess โ Complete by Georg Ebers (good books for 8th graders TXT) ๐
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- Author: Georg Ebers
Read book online ยซAn Egyptian Princess โ Complete by Georg Ebers (good books for 8th graders TXT) ๐ยป. Author - Georg Ebers
โHave you any idea for whom she longs so eagerly? Our Tachot has allowed herself to be fascinated by the beautiful Bartja, the brother of your future husband. I do not mean to say by this that he has employed magic, as the priest Ameneman believes, to gain her love; for a youth might be far less handsome and agreeable than Bartja, and yet take the heart of an innocent girl, still half a child. But her passionate feeling is so strong, and the change in her whole being so great, that sometimes I too am tempted to believe in the use of supernatural influence. A short time before you left I noticed that Tachot was fond of Bartja. Her distress at first we thought could only be for you, but when she sank into that dreamy state, Ibykus, who was still at our court, said she must have been seized by some strong passion.
โOnce when she was sitting dreaming at her wheel, I heard him singing softly Sapphoโs little love-song to her:
โI cannot, my sweet mother, Throw shuttle any more; My heart is full of longing, My spirit troubled sore, All for a love of yesterday A boy not seen before.โ [Sappho ed. Neue XXXII. Translation from Edwin Arnoldโs Poets of Greece.]โShe turned pale and asked him: โIs that your own song?โ
โโNo,โ said he, โSappho wrote it fifty years ago.โ
โโFifty years ago,โ echoed Tachot musingly.
โโLove is always the same,โ interrupted the poet; โwomen loved centuries ago, and will love thousands of years to come, just as Sappho loved fifty years back.โ
โThe sick girl smiled in assent, and from that time I often heard her humming the little song as she sat at her wheel. But we carefully avoided every question, that could remind her of him she loved. In the delirium of fever, however, Bartjaโs name was always on her burning lips. When she recovered consciousness we told her what she had said in her delirium; then she opened her heart to me, and raising her eyes to heaven like a prophetess, exclaimed solemnly: โI know, that I shall not die till I have seen him again.โ
โA short time ago we had her carried into the temple, as she longed to worship there again. When the service was over and we were crossing the temple-court, we passed some children at play, and Tachot noticed a little girl telling something very eagerly to her companions. She told the bearers to put down the litter and call the child to her.
โโWhat were you saying?โ she asked the little one.
โI was telling the others something about my eldest sister.โ
โโMay I hear it too?โโ said Tachot so kindly, that the little girl began at once without fear: โBatau, who is betrothed to my sister, came back from Thebes quite unexpectedly yesterday evening. Just as the Isis-star was rising, he came suddenly on to our roof where Kerimama was playing at draughts with my father; and he brought her such a beautiful golden bridal wreath.โ
[Among the Egyptians the planet Venus bore the name of the goddess Isis. Pliny II. 6. Arist De mundo II. 7. Early monuments prove that they were acquainted with the identity of the morning and evening star. Lepsius, Chronologie p. 94.]โTachot kissed the child and gave her her own costly fan. When we were at home again she smiled archly at me and said: โYou know, mother dear, that the words children say in the temple-courts are believed to be oracles.โ So, if the little one spoke the truth, he must come; and did not you hear that he is to bring the bridal-wreath? O mother, I am sure, quite sure, that I shall see him again.โ
โI asked her yesterday if she had any message for you, and she begged me to say that she sent you thousands of kisses, and messages of love, and that when she was stronger she meant to write, as she had a great deal to tell you. She has just brought me the little note which I enclose; it is for you alone, and has cost her much fatigue to write.
โBut now I must finish my letter, as the messenger has been waiting for it some time.
โI wish I could give you some joyful news, but sadness and sorrow meet me whichever way I turn. Your brother yields more and more to the priestsโ tyranny, and manages the affairs of state for your poor blind father under Neithotepโs guidance.
โAmasis does not interfere, and says it matters little whether his place be filled a few days sooner or later by his successor.
โHe did not attempt to prevent Psamtik from seizing the children of Phanes in Rhodopisโ house, and actually allowed his son to enter into a negotiation with the descendants of those two hundred thousand soldiers, who emigrated to Ethiopia in the reign of Psamtik I. on account of the preference shown to the Greek mercenaries. In case they declared themselves willing to return to their native land, the Greek mercenaries were to have been dismissed. The negotiation failed entirely, but Psamtikโs treatment of the children of Phanes has given bitter offence to the Greeks. Aristomachus threatened to leave Egypt, taking with him ten thousand of his best troops, and on hearing that Phanesโ son had been murdered at Psamtikโs command applied for his discharge. From that time the Spartan disappeared, no one knows whither; but the Greek troops allowed themselves to be bribed by immense sums and are still in Egypt.
โAmasis said nothing to all this, and looked on silently from the midst of his prayers and sacrifices, while your brother was either offending every class of his subjects or attempting to pacify them by means beneath the dignity of a ruler. The commanders of the Egyptian and Greek troops, and the governors of different provinces have all alike assured me that the present state of things is intolerable. No one knows what to expect from this new ruler; he commands today the very thing, which he angrily forbade the day before. Such a government must soon snap the beautiful bond, which has hitherto united the Egyptian people to their king.
โFarewell, my child, think of your poor friend, your mother; and forgive your parents when you hear what they have so long kept secret from you. Pray for Tachot, and remember us to Croesus and the young Persians whom we know. Give a special message too from Tachot to Bartja; I beg him to think of it as the last legacy of one very near death. If you could only send her some proof, that he has not forgotten her! Farewell, once more farewell and be happy in your new and blooming home.โ
CHAPTER XVI.
Sad realities follow bright anticipations nearly as surely as a rainy day succeeds a golden sunrise. Nitetis had been so happy in the thought of reading the very letter, which poured such bitter drops of wormwood into her cup of happiness.
One beautiful element in her life, the remembrance of her dear home and
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