The weird of the wanderer Being the papyrus records of some incidents in one of the previous lives of Mr. Nicholas Crabbe
[16] All these words are written in English. A. H.
[17] All these words are written in English. A. H.
[18] All these words are written in English. A. H.
[19] All these words are written in English. A. H.
[20] The original has “ΑΝΤΥΞ.” A. H.
[21] The original has “ΟΜΦΑΛΟϹ.” It is extremely humiliating to
confess that I have not been able, so far, to trace this _Sign_ and
_Countersign_ to any existing Rite. I am deeply pained and mortified.
A. H.
THE SIXTH PAPYRUS
When Day with her white steeds was come (most beautiful to behold),
and the dawn was yet cool, then indeed I examined my barge with its
contents and its mariners. And I saw that Nesamun was a nimble and
mightily powerful youth, and that Yokkho the slave was slim and very
eager, both stripped for work, and of a brick-red colour, with long
black and white eyes, and closely shaven polls which they covered with
a napkin as is the custom among the Egyptians. But they carried girdles
in their bundles. And I saw that the barge was long and flattish,
having two bulwarks. But there was a chief cabin in the waist; and
the roof of it was like a deck: but the low waist was open. And, at
the prow, there was a smaller cabin, with a deck above it, whereon a
slave might stand to shove the barge off shoals and sandbanks with the
well-handled pole. And there was a third cabin at the stern; and the
steersman stood on the roof of it wielding the cunning steering-oar.
But, in the waist, was a lofty mast, with a triangular sail of woven
reeds and the cordage relative thereto. And, having seen all these
things, I inspected the baskets of provisions; and these were very
grateful to the mind. For there was fresh bread, and much wheat (the
marrow of men), and many cheeses, and fruits both fresh and dried,
with jars of wine from Kos and Korinth, and vinegar, and condiments,
and nuts. But, when I had given an order, all these things were
stored in the fore-cabin. And I bade the boatman and his boy to take
the aft-cabin for themselves, so that their smells might not come to
me, as I slept in the chief cabin, or took the air in the waist, or
on the main deck during the voyage. Not that they were in any wise
disagreeable, being both healthy and naked and constantly washed: but
so I willed it, for (at that time) my stomach heaved at the odour of
all mortals. And, these matters having been settled, Yokkho pulled
the gangway into the barge, while Nesamun pushed out on to the placid
bosom of Hapi-hallowed Sihor. But, when they had hoisted the sail,
a favourable breeze assisted the slow stream to waft us toward the
distant Delta.
In this manner, I departed from hundred-gated Thebes.
But I began to ponder the past: for this always has been, and always
is, and always will be, my singular habit, recounting in my dear mind
every particular of the things which I had done, or which had been done
to me, weighing their worth and import and possibilities, rejecting
some to fall into oblivion, but storing others in my memory until such
time when they might be used for my advantage. And, of all the things
which I had done during the last two days, there were two things which
I regretted. The first was that I had left my magic cabinet with the
papyrus-enkheiridion at Thebes; and the second was that I had left
my priestly robe and sandals in the cavity under the boulders on the
plain. But, nevertheless, the mind in my noble breast bade me be of
good cheer, relinquishing all matters, even greater than these, without
a backward thought; and going forward boldheartedly in search of fresh
adventures, and the more boldly as the more barehandedly, seeing that
greater wisdom is to be gained by the simple, and more blooming laurels
are to be won by the absolutely naked, than by the trained philosopher,
or by the heavyarmed. Furthermore, the divine ones inhabiting olympian
palaces put into my mind an unmentioned and unthought-of action. For
I remembered the prediction of Amenemhat, how he said that within the
month I should meet him again. For, since those words, Time had rolled
back for me, so that it seemed that I was now actually living in the
former lifetime of Amenemhat. And, also, it seemed that (if these
things were so) the friendly priest would be performing his functions
at Tanis in the Delta: to which place I, undoubtedly by the direction
of the gods, was at that moment proceeding. Wherefore, taking courage
from the thought that, though I had not all which I might have had,
still, I had a great deal, to wit, the prospect of meeting a friend,
the divination-cup, the crystal orb, and the magic staff, beside my
arms and my money all safely stored in my cabin, to say nothing of the
inestimable wisdom which I had so far attained, then, indeed, I became
cheerful of heart; and set myself to take my pleasure from what was
round about me.
For, as I walked about my deck, I saw the stalwart Nesamun poised
like some grand archaic carving in carnelian jasper, at one moment
lithe, and at another moment rigid, intent upon his business at the
steering-oar. And, at his feet, across the narrow aft-deck, Yokkho
was stretched at length, busy with fishing-lines which trailed behind
in golden Sihor. All around, were the rolling waters, bordered with
leaves like living emeralds; and, above, the great splendour of Ra
flamed in the turquoise-coloured dome of the heavens. Nothing broke
the stillness, excepting ripples lapping about the well-carved prow,
or when the slave laughed contentedly, drawing a silver fish from
the stream from time to time and tossing it to flap in a heap below
Nesamun’s feet.
But when fishes enough for a meal for my crew had been caught, for fish
is a food which my gorge rejects without even trying it, then I called
Yokkho to me, demanding that he should soothe me with singing. And,
having fetched a certain well-sounding harp from his baggage, he began
to tighten the strings. But I saw that the harp was an old one, very
dilapidated, and the gilding and the paint were both worn off, leaving
bare wood to be seen. And also I knew it for the harp of a priest of
Khem, though one of the glass eyes of the face on the base had fallen
out, and the face itself was so broken and discoloured that it was not
to be decyphered either as of a god or of a man. And the slave-boy said
that, having been rescued from a sunken temple-barge at Philai where he
dived for it, the harp had been damaged by water. For which cause, he
fitted it with new strings, the frame being still whole. And when at
length he had tuned it, crouching on his hams and pressing it to his
tender shoulder, then he opened his throat and began to sing. But his
song was in a rude metre, with a pæan of praise at the end of every
tenth strophe; and he would have continued singing even unto this day:
for his song was as interminable as that endless song of future Galatia
which will be called _Jean François de Nantes_.[22] But long before
weariness prevented his hand from twanging the strings, I myself called
for silence, demanding the name of his ditty. And he said that it was
one of the folk-songs of the watermen of the Thebaid. This, then, was
the song which Yokkho sang:
_Slowly return we
deeply deploring
great Hapi’s anger:
we have enanger’d
Sihor’s protector:
we must propitiate,
or we shall starve:
He is offended:
our nets go empty:
Let us lament it._
_Great is Hapi:
worship Hapi:
mighty Hapi,
grant us favour._
_Now let the Ueb
pour out the red wine:
now let the Kherkeb
offer our prayer,
that our petitions,
eager and earnest,
with a sweet savour
upward may fly,
mounting to Hapi
dwelling in Duät._
_Great is Hapi:
worship Hapi:
mighty Hapi,
grant us favour._
_Then will the dread lord,
dread lord of Sihor,
smell the sweet odour
and hear our prayer:
leaping from Eäru
amid the grain-fields,
and earthward flying,
the sacred Sahus
will speed his flight
to our rejoicing._
_Great is Hapi:
worship Hapi:
mighty Hapi,
grant us favour._
_Then he will fill
full, even fuller,
each fisher’s net,
till inward trawling
we seize the prey;
and load our boats
with Sobk his food.
All will be purchased.
But we remember,
in our good fortune,
Hapi the Giver._
_Great is Hapi:
worship Hapi:
mighty Hapi,
grant us favour._
_We have offended;
and, on a sandbank,
we are held prisoners;
and the storm rages
tearing our sail:
winds blind us with spray,
while the sons of the slime
creep o’er our quarter,
each seizing victims
shrieking in vain._
_Great is Hapi:
worship Hapi:
mighty Hapi,
grant us favour...._
But when I had made an end of his singing, I gave him a small coin
of no value to me, which seemed to him wealth incalculable, he being
such a simple little fellow. And, having praised his pretty voice, a
most innocent one and not by any means shrill, I turned to Nesamun
demanding a meal. For, the sun being on his zenith, it was my pleasure
to eat before sleeping. And, having brought me cheeses and gherkins
and cakes of bread and fresh fruit and a jar of wine where I sat in
the shade of my cabin, the mariners went ashore and filled their
own bellies with the fish which they broiled in papyrus on a fire.
But, when they had bathed and returned to the barge, we again set
sail, Nesamun guiding the steering-oar, and Yokkho fanning me with a
palm-leaf where I slept in the cool cabin.
But, while I slept, it seemed to me that I was wandering near the
Treasury of Dreams which overlooks the meadows of Eäru in Duät of the
gods. And the monotonous song of the slave still hummed in my ears. And
anon, as my manner is in dreams, I found that I was all stark, without
a single stitch of clothing on me, having naught but my wings and tail
fixed to my arms and shoulders and legs at the back, wherewith I swam
in the air[23] like a beautiful expert seagull, easily and enormously
swooping. And I was flying finely balanced over my former (or future)
home in the kingdom of Victory queen of the stalwart stately Anglicans.
Which place I have well in memory, having known it, in the life from
which I had come, and to which I infallibly shall return terribly and
invincibly armed with the wisdom of ages. But I remembered the limpid
river, and the little island with its precipitous cliffs save at one
end which sloped gently to the water’s edge and the wide-stepped quay.
And I recognized the distant river-banks, clothed with oak-forests and
steep pine-woods, purifying the air. And I looked southward to see the
rivermouth far away, kissing the lips of the innumerably smiling sea.
But I knew, also, the small old perfect fortress of grey stone, which
stood on the summit of that isle, where were velvet lawns bestarred
with daisies, and gardens of quaint herbs and sweet old flowers, and
the cedar-tree, and the ghent-azaleas, and the pergola furred with
honeysuckle and white roses and passion-flowers and dripping with
amethystine wistaria and asterial jasmine. And I saw the library of
ancient books for solacing my mind in wintertime when pinecones burn
upon the hearth. And I saw my three well-tailed kittens, the white and