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 HANIT 
 
 THE ENCHANTRESS
 
 HANIT 
 
 THE ENCHANTRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 GARRETT CHATFIELD JIER 
 
 AUTHOB OP "INSCEIPTIONS OF THE NlLB MONUMENTS," BTC. 
 
 "Provided thou art an equipped soul, knowing 
 the Secret Name of Thoth, thou shall pass unharmed 
 through that abyss which hath no air, whose depths 
 are illimitable." 
 
 NEW YORK 
 E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 
 
 681 FIFTH AVENUE
 
 Copyright 1921 
 By E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 Printed in the United State o) America
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 MY READER. Perhaps you have had the 
 good fortune to visit Egypt! If such 
 be the ease, you have undoubtedly stood 
 among the giant columns of the Temple to the 
 Sun-god Amen in the Northern Apt (Karnak). 
 You have marveled at the ever changing colors 
 which light up the walls and columns of the 
 Temple of the Southern Apt (Luxor), so that 
 at one moment they seem to have been carved 
 from blocks of amber, at another from coral, 
 jasper, amethyst or, as the last bright rays of 
 the sinking sun fall full upon them, from colos 
 sal bars of red Nubian gold. 
 
 You have gazed in awe and reverence at the 
 mummy of King Amenhotep, lying in his granite 
 sarcophagus, peacefully asleep he seemed, deep 
 down in the very heart of the Theban Hills. 
 
 In an alcove nearby you may recall the three 
 bodies lying, uncoffined, upon the bare rock of 
 the tomb chamber. You were informed that the
 
 yi Foreword 
 
 bodies had been removed from their own tombs 
 to this secret chamber of a dead Pharaoh, that 
 they might be saved from the hands of tomb- 
 robbers. 
 
 "The mummies of unknown royal person 
 ages/' your Arab guide informed you. 
 
 Perhaps the guide permitted you to touch the 
 long black tresses of one of the three. He 
 pointed out what he called the mark of an arrow, 
 which caused the death of another. He told you 
 that the boy had undoubtedly met his death at 
 the hands of a strangler. He hinted at foul 
 murder ! 
 
 If what he said of the three was true, ne 
 might well have attempted to identify the 
 bodies. They are, perhaps, those of Wazmes, 
 Queen Hanit's murdered son, the beautiful 
 slave girl Bhanar, and her one-time mistress, 
 the Princess Sesen, whose wavy black hair ap 
 pears as soft to-day as when Ramses and Menna 
 wooed her, as when Renny the Syrian died for 
 her. 
 
 All this, and more, you have doubtless seen.
 
 Foreword vii 
 
 Yet, it is safe to say, you have never so much 
 as heard of the mystery surrounding the tomb 
 of Menna, son of Menna, that most baffling 
 among the many mysterious tombs in and about 
 the great Theban cemeteries. 
 
 Undoubtedly, Menna, son of Menna, had in 
 life an enemy, a most vindictive enemy; one 
 whose malignant hatred followed Menna into 
 his very tomb. 
 
 Enter that tomb to-day, and you see at a 
 glance that this enemy sought to nullify and 
 make ineffectual the entire series of engraved 
 prayers and magic formulas which witness to 
 Menna 's hopes for an eternity of bliss upon the 
 banks of the Celestial Nile. Yes, Menna 's im 
 placable foe sought to destroy him, both body 
 and soul ! 
 
 Menna 's body was not found when, recently, 
 his tomb was discovered and opened. We may 
 thus infer that Menna 's arch-enemy accom 
 plished the destruction of Menna 's body as suc 
 cessfully, as fiendishly we may suppose, as he 
 did that of Menna 's soul.
 
 viii Foreword 
 
 Examine the sculptures upon the walls of his 
 tomb. You will find that Henna's eyes have 
 been cut out; that the lips of his servants and 
 field hancls are missing; that the tips of his 
 hunting arrows have been blunted; that the 
 knots in his " measuring-rope" have been de 
 stroyed. Yet, worse than all, the plumb of the 
 scales, upon which Menna's heart will be 
 weighed at the Judgment, has vanished. 
 
 Let us suppose that Menna's mummy had 
 been found, found intact, at the opening of 
 his tomb. That empty shell would have 
 been of little use to Menna. Since, follow 
 ing his enemy's work of desecration upon the 
 ordered prayers, incantations and scenes 
 painted or engraved upon the walls of his tomb, 
 Menna's body was doomed to inevitable de 
 struction, and with it, that of his Jca or 
 "double," that other self which, from the day 
 of his birth, awaited him in the heavens. 
 
 Without eyes Menna could not find his way 
 among the flint-strewn valleys and precipitous 
 heights of the Underworld. "Without arrows
 
 Foreword ix 
 
 Menna would be unable to obtain food. Menna's 
 servants had all perished, as without mouths 
 they could neither eat nor drink. And Menna 
 might never measure off an allotted acreage 
 among the ever fertile fields of Heaven if, in 
 spite of all, he somehow managed to win 
 through to the Celestial Nile. 
 
 Alas ! this success Menna could never hope to 
 achieve. The breaking of the plumb of the 
 scales rendered it impossible that Menna's 
 trembling soul could pass Osiris, Judge of the 
 Dead, or the fierce hound Amemet, which, with 
 open mouth, awaited his victims beside that 
 great god's throne. 
 
 No ! Menna could never hope to feast at the 
 Table of the Gods. Menna could never enjoy 
 that eternity of bliss among the Blessed Fields 
 of Aaru which a beneficent Sun-god had prom 
 ised to the faithful. 
 
 But, Menna's body was not found at the time 
 of the discovery of his tomb, though his body 
 had evidently been placed in the white sarcoph 
 agus prepared for it by royal command.
 
 x Foreword 
 
 Who so bitterly hated Menna, the King's 
 Overseer? Who so relentlessly sought not alone 
 the destruction of his mortal body but the very; 
 annihilation of his soul?
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTEB PAGE 
 
 FOREWORD v 
 
 I. TELLS OF HOW PROFESSOR RANNEY 
 PURCHASED AN ANCIENT MANUSCRIPT 
 AND OF WHAT HE FOUND THEREIN . 1 
 
 II. A FALL DOWN THIRTY CENTURIES . . 16 
 
 III. ENANA THE MAGICIAN, WOULD PROVE 
 
 THAT A RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN A 
 QUEEN AND A PRIESTESS MAY BE 
 TURNED TO His ADVANTAGE . . 33 
 
 IV. How BHANAR CAME TO THEBES . . 45 
 V. THE PLEASURE BARGE OP THI, THE 
 
 QUEEN-MOTHER 53 
 
 VI. How BHANAR FOUND A HOME IN EGYPT. 66 
 
 VII. How RENNY THE SYRIAN ESCAPED THE 
 
 CROCODILES 83 
 
 VIII. NOFERT-ARI DANCES BEFORE PHARAOH. 91 
 IX. THE LUMINOUS BOOK 119 
 
 X. PHARAOH SEEKS TO EXALT A FOREIGN 
 
 GOD 138 
 
 XI. THE STATUE OF AMEN DISAPPEARS . 152 
 xi
 
 Xll 
 
 Contents 
 
 CHAPTER PAQE 
 
 XII. ENANA CALLS TO HIS Am THE GODS 
 
 JUSTICE AND VENGEANCE .... 165 
 
 XIII. RAMSES AND SESEN 172 
 
 XIV. A RASH PROMISE 187 
 
 XV. A STATUE OF HATHOR, GODDESS OP 
 
 LOVE 200 
 
 XVI. THE CURSE OF HUY, GREAT HIGH 
 
 PRIEST OF AMEN . .... 208 
 
 XVII. WHY MENNA'S CHAIRBEARER STAKED 
 
 HIS ALL 218 
 
 XVIII. WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MENNA, SON 
 
 OF MENNA, WENT A-WOOING . . . 228 
 
 XIX. THE HITTITES ADVANCE 239 
 
 XX. How BAR AND RENNY MEET FOR THE 
 
 LAST TIME 247 
 
 XXI. OF THE CAPTURE OF BELUR, THE HIT- 
 
 TITE 256 
 
 XXII. THE "DOUBLE" OF HANIT . 266
 
 HANIT 
 
 THE ENCHANTRESS
 
 HANIT: THE ENCHANTRESS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 TELLS OF How PROFESSOR RANNEY PURCHASED 
 AN ANCIENT MANUSCRIPT AND OF WHAT HE 
 FOUND THEREIN. 
 
 THE shop of Tanos the Greek, "Dealer in 
 Genuine Antiques," as the sign above the 
 door advised, might well have been 
 named a museum of ancient art and curiosities. 
 Entered from the front of the Sharia Kamel, 
 one of the main thoroughfares of Cairo, the shop 
 appeared at first glance to consist of but two 
 long narrow rooms, the one immediately behind 
 the other. Both rooms were filled to the very 
 ceiling with curios of all sorts, from little agate 
 beads to vast and shapeless mummies of Sacred
 
 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 Bulls. A half dozen bodies of Egyptian priests, 
 unwrapped and black with natron, stood 
 propped against the walls of the upper room. 
 The odor of cinnamon, myrrh and other em 
 balming essences filled the rooms and drifted 
 out through the open door to blend with the 
 indefinable, but never forgettable, odor of the 
 Cairene streets. 
 
 A nearer view of the upper room disclosed 
 the approach to what Tanos called the "holy of 
 holies." This third, or innermost chamber, was 
 screened from the eyes of the ordinary souvenir 
 hunter by an ivory-inlaid door of ancient Coptic 
 woodwork. 
 
 Connoisseurs generally knew that here were 
 kept the treasures par excellence. Here Tanos 
 would display rare statuettes, bronzes, ivories 
 and richly glazed potteries for the archaeol 
 ogist; inscriptions on stone or papyrus for the 
 philologist; diadems or pendants in the precious 
 metals, necklaces, bracelets and bangles of vari 
 colored gems, all such rich treasure from the 
 seemingly inexhaustible storehouse of antiquity
 
 Professor Ranney's Manuscript 3 
 
 as would be most likely to tempt the antiqua 
 rian, or dazzle the mere man of millions seeking 
 to enrich his curio cabinet or the shelves of his 
 pet museum or institution. 
 
 During the course of an unusually hot after 
 noon in late March three Europeans paused at 
 the threshold of Tanos ' shop. 
 
 Following their exit from the Ezbekiyeh Gar 
 dens their footsteps had been dogged by that 
 genial soul, Ali Nubi, whose efforts to dispose 
 of fly-whisks and sunshades were in no wise 
 affected by the temperature. He was soon 
 joined by a troupe of exceedingly dirty Arab 
 children. These turned handsprings along the 
 gutter in hopes of some small coin with which 
 to buy loukum. 
 
 Finally, the nerves of the three Europeans 
 hajd been set on edge by the insistent whine of 
 a deformed Egyptian, whose ceaseless cry for 
 dole, "baksheesh, baksheesh, ya khawageh," 
 finally caused one of the trio to turn upon him 
 with an impatient, Allah yalik, kelb ibn kelb. 
 This, in plain English, might be rendered,
 
 Hank: the Enchantress 
 
 "May God give to thee, dog, son of a dog," at 
 once a pious wish and a curse. 
 
 The sound of the guttural Arabic sufficed to 
 scatter at one and the same instant all three 
 disturbing elements. 
 
 The ragged boys fled. Ali Nubi sauntered off 
 to display his merchandise and his famous smile 
 elsewhere, whilst the cripple, with a frightened 
 glance up and down the street, made off as fast 
 as his deformities would allow. The white man 
 was doubtless <a pasha, a bey. Abut Talib felt 
 the sting of the bastinado upon his withered 
 limbs! 
 
 With a laugh the "bey" turned to his com 
 panions : 
 
 "Enter, Mrs. Gardiner! After you, Clem! I 
 want you to see my latest find." 
 
 Professor Ranney followed his companions 
 into the shop. In answer to his call Tanos him 
 self appeared at the door of the sanctum. His 
 face lit up with a smile of genuine pleasure 
 when he recognized his visitors. 
 
 He crossed the room with that peculiar crook-
 
 Professor Ranney's Manuscript 5 
 
 ing of the spine which appears to be an inerad 
 icable heritage of the ages to Levantines of his 
 stamp wherever met. How well did the Egyp 
 tian sculptor of the late New Empire catch that 
 deferential abasement of self ! 
 
 Professor Ranney shook hands with Tanos. 
 Gardiner, too, greeted him, and introduced the 
 lady of the trio as his bride. For an instant 
 Tanos searched his fertile brains for a suitable 
 congratulatory quotation from the Arabian 
 classics. Oriental etiquette demanded that he 
 rise to the emergency. Finally, bending over 
 Mrs. Gardiner's hand, Tanos murmured those 
 charming lines from Abu Selim's poem on the 
 love of Omar and Leila. 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Tanos! What exquisite verses. 
 What a wonderful gift of improvisation !" 
 
 Tanos bowed again. He made a deprecatory 
 gesture, murmuring as he did so something 
 about the meter of the second line. 
 
 Mrs. Gardiner shot a covert glance in the 
 direction of her husband. 
 
 The minx, thought he. He well knew that she
 
 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 had recognized the true authorship of the 
 verses. Mrs. Gardiner had been a former stu 
 dent of her husband at the University of Lon 
 don, where he taught Semitics. 
 
 These small social amenities attended to, 
 Tanos ushered his visitors into the innermost 
 room. In another moment all four were seated 
 about a low Turkish table. Upon this reposed 
 two objects, a turquoise-blue goblet of ancient 
 Egyptian pottery and a linen roll, seemingly of 
 great antiquity, if one might judge by its con 
 dition. 
 
 Meeting the Gardiners in the tea-house of the 
 Gardens, Professor Eanney had urged them to 
 walk over to the shop, in order that they might 
 see the contents of this linen roll, a papyrus 
 scroll of greatest importance, not alone on its 
 own account, but, more especially, for the re 
 markable document which it contained. 
 
 Professor Eanney carefully unrolled the frail, 
 discolored linen in which, three thousand years 
 before, the scroll had been wrapped. At once
 
 Professor Ranney's Manuscript 7 
 
 the air was filled with a strange, aromatic per 
 fume. 
 
 At sight of the brightly painted vignettes 
 which ornamented each and every page of the 
 closely written sheets, Mrs. Gardiner burst into 
 repeated exclamations of rapture. Even Dr. Gar 
 diner, her husband, who may be said to have 
 lived in an atmosphere charged with the odor 
 of ancient parchments, could not repress his 
 interest. . 
 
 This interest was intensified when he read, on 
 the front page of the manuscript, the names of 
 an ancient Egyptian monarch "Nibmara Amen- 
 hotep, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Tri 
 umphant." 
 
 1 1 This is indeed a treasure, Steven ! A perfect 
 copy of the Book of the Dead. You did well to 
 purchase it before I got wind of it. By Jove ! 
 It is in better condition than the Papyrus of Ani 
 in the British Museum !" 
 
 Without replying Steven Ranney turned to 
 the last two pages of the scroll. Inserted be-
 
 8 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 tween them was a brown stained sheet of hiero 
 glyphics written in red ink. 
 
 "Read this, Clem. To me it appears to be a 
 find of far more importance than the Ritual 
 itself." 
 
 Gardiner translated aloud the lines of some 
 what tremblingly written hieroglyphics : 
 
 11 A Contract which the Hereditary Prince, 
 the Count, Sole Companion of the King, In 
 structor of the Royal Princess, and Chief Royal 
 Architect, Amenhotep, son of Hap, made with 
 Hotepra, Great High Priest of Amen. 
 
 "It is ordained that there be given to the 
 statue of Amenhotep which is in his tomb on the 
 western shore, 1,000 loaves of bread, 1,000 fat 
 ted geese, 1,000 jars of wine and 100 bulls, upon 
 the 1st day of the 1st month of the year, ivhat 
 time the servants bring presents to their lord, 
 and lights are lit in house, in tomb and in tem 
 ple! 
 
 "In payment of this endowment of his tomb, 
 Amenhotep, son of Hap, engages to reveal to 
 Hotepa, Great High Priest of Amen, the secret
 
 Professor Ranney's Manuscript 9 
 
 hiding-place of the Luminous Book of Thoth, 
 Scribe of the Gods! 
 
 "Behold! Amenhotep, son of Hap, he saith: 
 'By the magic incantation contained within this 
 book the Gods are compelled! By its hekau- 
 charms the Boat of the Sun is stopped, the Moon 
 is darkened! 
 
 "Lo, he that reciteth tlie formula contained 
 therein, may descend into the Underworld and 
 return to mingle again with mortal men. 
 
 "Lo, the possessor of this Book becomes as 
 the Scribe of the Gods, Thoth himself! For Ra 
 hath breathed upon it; Shu hath entered it! 
 
 "Saith Amenhotep, son of Hap: ( Behold, as 
 Ra the Sungod liveth, the Magic Book may be 
 found in a box behind the wall of the false door 
 built within the western end of my tomb cham- 
 ber.r 
 
 "Now, Eotepra heard the oath of Amenhotep 
 and the saying which he said. 
 
 "Lo, Hotepra, Great High Priest of Amen, 
 believed the words of the son of Hapi.
 
 10 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 "Hotepra, Great High Priest of Amen, signed 
 tlie contract, taking the Great Gods, Osiris, 
 Ptdh and Ea as witnesses." 
 
 "There, Clem! In all your years of research 
 among ancient documents have you ever run 
 across the Luminous Book, the Book of Thoth? 
 Could it, by any chance, be that mysterious 
 book made use of long ago by the sorcerers and 
 magician attached to the great Temple of Amen 
 at Thebes? If such be the case, it is an un 
 doubted reference to the book from which Moses 
 studied, the source of Aaron's successful at 
 tempt to confound the magicians of Pharaoh. 
 At any rate, Clem, you will agree with me 
 that this faded sheet, this last will and testa 
 ment of the old architect, may turn out to be of 
 far greater interest than even this splendid 
 copy of the Ritual. I wonder if the will was 
 placed in the Eitual on purpose or through the 
 carelessness of someone. Hotepra himself it
 
 Professor Ranney's Manuscript n 
 
 Dr. Gardiner smiled at his friend's enthu 
 siasm: "One thing at a time, Steven! Yes, I 
 have met with the Book of Thoth before. And 
 in each and every case it was referred to as a 
 book containing magical incantations of great 
 power. In one case an unknown architect states 
 that he 'raised this monument whose pylons 
 reach the dome of heaven by means of the magic 
 Book of Thoth.' Your man, Amenhotep, son 
 of Hap, has left an inscription, now in the Lei 
 den Museum, in which he affirms that he 'pos 
 sessed the Eye of Eorus' whatever that may 
 mean and further that he was 'one who knew 
 all the Wisdom contained in the Book of Thoth, 
 scribe of the Gods.' That this was no empty 
 boast we may sight the stupendous temples 
 raised by him at Thebes, not forgetting 'the 
 Colossi,' which alone would have assured him 
 undying fame, if indeed he erected them. The 
 tomb to which he refers in this testament is 
 thought to be beneath the Temple of Der el- 
 Medinet. Possibly it is included in your con-
 
 12 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 cession, Steven. Your men may stumble upon 
 the mummy of Amenhotep, Magic Book and 
 all!" 
 
 Dr. Gardiner turned to Ms wife : " Well, Dear ! 
 We must be off, to help Ali with the packing. I 
 hope you have a successful winding up of the 
 diggings, Steven ! ' ' 
 
 "And Steven," broke in his wife, "do let 
 those abominable old brick ruins alone and hunt 
 for the Book instead. By the way, do you sup 
 pose Hotepra had a wife? The name is similar 
 to that of Potiphar?" 
 
 "My dear," interposed Gardiner, as he 
 assumed an expression of shocked delicacy, 
 "the subject is hardly one for a bride to discuss, 
 especially as Great High Priests of Amen, by 
 the uninitiated at least, are presumed to have 
 had no wives." 
 
 He turned to Ranney : ' * Steven, we both hope 
 that you can stop over at 'Sevenoaks' as 
 usual, for a few days at least, on your way 
 through to Liverpool. Whew ! It is difficult to 
 realize that we shall be enjoying the Mediter 
 ranean breezes to-morrow. Which reminds me.
 
 Professor Ranney's Manuscript 13 
 
 Tanos, don't forget to have the Museum au 
 thorities place their vise on that statue of Isis. 
 Benedict has his eagle eye upon it, and what 
 Benedict wishes he usually obtains. A little 
 baksheesh in the clammy palm of Pintsch Pasha 
 will help to get it through ! ' ' 
 
 Dr. Gardiner turned again to his wife : ' l Now, 
 Miriam, don't drop that goblet! We could 
 never pay for it, though I read manuscripts 
 until the crack of doom ! ' ' 
 
 With exaggerated care Mrs. Gardiner re 
 stored the beautiful goblet to its place. She 
 then shook hands with Tanos, reiterated her 
 husband's wish that Professor Ranney visit 
 them in their new home, and left on the arm of 
 Dr. Gardiner. 
 
 Steven Eanney turned to the Greek: "Tanos, 
 put the scroll in your safe until I return. The 
 will of Amenhotep I will take with me. I want 
 to show it to Todros Pasha. He's pretty 
 familiar with the tombs of the western bank. 
 I'll see you in about three weeks' time. Mean 
 while, if you manage to get that statue of 
 Hathor from Nahman, I'll take it."
 
 14 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 With a friendly nod the young American 
 again braved the heat of the unprotected side 
 walk. 
 
 Eanney took his way northward, along the 
 Sharia Kamel, in the direction of Doctor Brain- 
 tree's tree-embowered villa. 
 
 During his three days' relaxation from the 
 strain of acting as chief-of-excavations amid the 
 heat and dust of work in Upper Egypt, Eanney 
 had contrived to see more of Susan Braintree 
 than usually fell to his lot. Eanney had loved 
 her from the very first moment he had seen her, 
 and that was as far back as February, nearly 
 two months ! 
 
 It is unnecessary to describe Susan. Eanney 
 did that in every letter he wrote home to his 
 mother and sister in beautiful Greenwich, Con 
 necticut. Susan was there described as a para 
 gon of beauty and sweetness. Yet, there seemed 
 to be a fly in the ointment. A tall and "not a 
 bad looking sort of chap," so Eanney described 
 him, a lieutenant of the Seaforth Highlanders, 
 apparently caused Steven not a little worry. It 
 seemed that back in their Highland home he
 
 Professor Ranney's Manuscript 15 
 
 lived in the same Scottish village as the Brain- 
 trees, brother and sister. 
 
 1 'By George, I'll take old Amenhotep's will 
 to Braintree's dinner to-night. I'm sure Susan 
 will be interested; at any rate, she'll pretend to 
 be, bless her. Perhaps she'll find it more to her 
 taste than that Egyptian flint knife I showed 
 her yesterday. Yet, I am surprised that a sur 
 geon's sister, and a head-nurse at that, should 
 evince such horror of a knife, even though that 
 ancient instrument had served the embalmer to 
 make the last great incision." 
 
 Late that evening, after a few short but bliss 
 ful hours spent by Susan's side Lieutenant 
 Angus Hector McPherson being then on duty at 
 the Garrison Eanney threw his kitbag into a 
 sleeper of the night train to Upper Egypt. 
 
 After some ten hours of fitful sleep amidst 
 the choking dust and fine sand which would per 
 sist in floating into the compartment, Steven 
 Eanney found himself once again upon the very 
 modern station platform of Thebes, the world 's 
 most ancient city.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 A FALL DOWN THIRTY CENTUBTES 
 
 THE research work conducted by Professor 
 Eanney, as chief of the Yale expedition to 
 Egypt, had lain in and about the site of 
 the Mortuary Temple of King Amenhotep the 
 Third, well-named " Magnificent. " The low 
 depression which to-day marks the site of this 
 once gorgeous edifice lies well down upon the 
 broad Theban Plain, and immediately fronts 
 that long line of rocky mounds, refuse heaps 
 and ruined tombs which rises, tier upon tier, 
 along the lower slopes of the towering Libyan 
 Hills. 
 
 It had been a site of rare possibilities from an 
 Egyptologist's point of view. On this account 
 excavation privileges hereabouts had been 
 sought by representatives of every great mu 
 seum or seat-of -learning both in the Old World 
 and the New. 
 
 16
 
 A Fall Down Thirty Centuries 17 
 
 When, finally, the news was telegraphed from 
 Cairo that this most coveted concession had 
 fallen to the Yale Expedition, and that together 
 with a substantial area of the unexplored 
 mounds to the north and south of the temple 
 site, great had been Professor Ranney's joy. 
 
 The recent unearthing of the body and rich 
 treasure of Pharaoh Akhtenaton, son to that 
 Pharaoh by whom the temple was built, and the 
 discovery of the rich and comprehensive tomb- 
 equipment of Akhtenaton 's father and mother- 
 in-law, together with the marvelously preserved 
 mummies of those ancient worthies, had fired 
 the dampened ardor both of the workers in the 
 field, and, more important still, perhaps, of 
 those holders of the purse-strings, the sponsors 
 for the expedition at home. 
 
 As I have said above, the site of King Amen- 
 hotep's Mortuary Temple had been freely ac 
 knowledged to be a very promising one, and so 
 far these hopes had been entirely justified. 
 
 Many and rare had been the finds during the 
 season's work now drawing to a close. And it
 
 1 8 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 was not improbable that some other find of the 
 first importance might still fall to the spades of 
 the excavators during the next few weeks of 
 work upon the site. 
 
 Think what the nearby Temple of Medinet 
 might at this very moment hold for Pro 
 fessor Eanney! The tomb of Amenhotep, son 
 of Hap; the Magic Book of the Sorcerers of 
 Pharaoh, the Luminous Book of Thoth ! 
 
 Had they had the least suspicion of Professor 
 Ranney's secret it is safe to say that many of 
 his brother scientists would gladly have bar 
 tered five years of their lives for a chance at the 
 site. And yet, could any one of those enthusiasts 
 have foreseen the disaster that would here befall 
 him, not a man among them would have ap 
 proached it. 
 
 But let us take up the tale, as long as we may, 
 in Professor Banney's own words. 
 
 I had recently completed my work in and 
 about the site of the Mortuary Temple of the 
 illustrious Pharoah Amenhotep the Third and 
 had already promised myself a trial excavation
 
 A Fall Down Thirty Centuries 19 
 
 at the nearby tomb of Pharaoh's famous archi 
 tect and namesake, Amenhotep, when something 
 unexpected occurred to effectually put an end to 
 all my plans. What that something was you 
 shall now hear 1 
 
 As near as I can piece together the amazing 
 threads of my story, this is what happened to 
 me that last eventful evening in Thebes. My 
 diary, in part, supplies the clue. 
 
 Under date of April 28, 1913, and immediately 
 following the rough translation of a great 
 memorial tablet which had been found the pre 
 vious day, I note this entry: "Sandstorm just 
 blown over. Headache, feverish. Finished 
 making plan of palace to scale." 
 
 Now, in spite of the temperature and head 
 ache to which I here refer, and which, had I not 
 been so keen on my work, I should most cer 
 tainly have recognized as a symptom of trouble 
 to come, I had evidently sought to catch up 
 with a somewhat neglected report of the sea 
 son's work. 
 
 This occupation had apparently kept me at my
 
 2O Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 desk well on towards dawn. I deduce this from 
 the fact that immediately following the above 
 short entry, I find a number of fragmentary 
 hieroglyphic inscriptions having to do with the 
 history of the foundation and erection of 
 Pharaoh's Mortuary Temple, upon which I had 
 been so long at work. 
 
 One of these entries is of special interest in 
 this connection, since, after a lapse of some 
 three thousand years, the two colossal statues 
 of King Amenhotep III, to whom it refers, may 
 still be seen gazing stolidly and immutably east 
 ward across the broad reaches of the Theban 
 Plain. 
 
 The following graphic description of the now 
 vanished building itself, a literal translation 
 from the original hieroglyphic, is the last entry 
 in my diary, the last for many a long day, I may 
 add. Further, and for an excellent reason, this 
 last entry was never completed. The transla 
 tion runs in the following somewhat grandilo 
 quent and semi-poetic vein: "It hath been given 
 me to set up in a holy place two great statues
 
 A Fall Down Thirty Centuries 21 
 
 of the Son of Ea, Amenhotep, Conqueror of 
 Asia. These are they which stand before the 
 entrance portal of the Mortuary Temple of His 
 Majesty (Life, Stability and Health to him). 
 Carved from solid blocks of the hard grit-stone 
 of On, they tower seventy feet into the air. 
 Their golden headdresses touch the very dome 
 of heaven. On either side, gold-capped obelisks 
 of red granite reach high above the temple 
 pylons. Four cedar flag-staffs tipped with gold 
 rise from grooves cut in the sculptured sand 
 stone of the temple front. The walls of the 
 temple are carved and richly painted with 
 scenes representing the Asiatic conquests of 
 Pharaoh, Lord of Might. Its great bronze 
 doors are inlaid in gold with the figure of the 
 God Min of Coptos. Through this jeweled out 
 line of his 'double' twice daily doth the Great 
 God enter the Holy Sanctuary, there to partake 
 of the offerings spread upon its jeweled altars. 
 In his honor are the ceilings covered with true 
 lazuli of Babylon, its floors enriched with silver 
 and sprinkled with powdered turquoise. Its
 
 22 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 gleaming walls are engraved with designs rep 
 resenting the New Year's procession of the Sun 
 Barque, from the Northern to the Southern 
 Apt. Beside the High Altar stands a tablet 
 thirty feet in height, covered with gold and in 
 laid with sard and emerald. Thus is marked 
 ' The-Place-Where-His-Majesty- Stands-at-the- 
 Sacrificing.' Beq, son of Beq, carved the stat 
 ues and erected the obelisks. Renney, the 
 Syrian, overlaid and enriched the tablet." 
 
 Inserted here was a drawing of the above 
 mentioned tablet, and, upon it, the following 
 additional fragment: "Memorial-tablet found 
 face downwards. I enclose drawings and trans 
 lations. Evidently mine is a very ancient name? 
 All traces of ." 
 
 Here the diary abruptly stops ! 
 
 Now, I directly trace the mishap which there 
 after befell me to the discovery of this same 
 tablet. 
 
 A hot day spent in transcribing to paper its 
 mud-filled inscriptions, and a night devoted to 
 their decipherment, might well have driven me
 
 A Fall Down Thirty Centuries 23 
 
 forth in search of the cool breezes to be found 
 along the higher slopes of the nearby Libyan 
 Hills. 
 
 Yet, in this connection, I must not forget to 
 mention the contents of a newspaper-clipping 
 sent me by Gardiner just before he left Alex 
 andria, a clipping which seems to have a pecu 
 liar meaning, especially in the light of the 
 curious experiences which I shall presently 
 relate. 
 
 This clipping was found folded carefully in 
 the page of my Diary opposite that last incom 
 plete entry to which I have referred. 
 
 Beneath a date and the words "Sphinx, 
 Cairo," the latter added in Gardiner's spidery 
 script, there appear the following extraordinary 
 paragraphs: "In the Museum of the Louvre 
 there is a mummy, Catalogue No. 49. It is the 
 mummy of a woman, and is said to have been 
 found in one of the Tombs of the Queens, south 
 west of the Theban acropolis. The man who 
 found it was crushed to death within twenty- 
 four hours after he had touched it, and his as-
 
 24 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 sistants who hauled it up from the tombshaft 
 died within a few weeks. Three of the carriers 
 who handled it on the Nile boat died within a 
 short space of time, and one of the men who 
 unpacked it at Paris died in great agony within 
 less than a week after he had played his part in 
 the work of getting it to its destination. All 
 these were seemingly natural deaths, but it is 
 odd that all the men whose fingers touched the 
 mummy should have died so soon after the 
 handling. The body of the unknown appears to 
 have been interred with all the elaboration pre 
 scribed for Queens of tlie Royal-Blood! The 
 work of the casemaker was careful in the ex 
 treme. Both granite coffin and gold-covered 
 casing were of unusual quality and richness. 
 The many gem-incrustations, with which the 
 gold cases were inlaid, were similarly of the 
 richest and rarest materials. Yet, the name of 
 Meryt, that of a minor priestess of the Temple, 
 found beneath the pitch which had been smeared 
 upon the outer casings, seemed to prove con 
 clusively that the body was that of one of the
 
 A Fall Down Thirty Centuries 25 
 
 chantresses of the Temple of Sekhmet at Kar- 
 nak. 
 
 * ' But, following the unwinding of the aromatic 
 wrappings which swathed the body, the curator 
 in charge was surprised to find a second in 
 scription. This indicated that the mummy was 
 that of Queen Hanit, the first wife of Amen- 
 hotep the Third, whom the King put aside in 
 favor of Thi, a beautiful Syrian. You may recall 
 how Queen Thi, following Hanit 's incarceration 
 in the great Temple of Sekhmet, is supposed to 
 have instigated the death of Hanit 's son, the 
 true heir to the throne, at the hands of Menna, 
 a favorite of hers. Of the further history of 
 Lady Hanit I personally know nothing. ' ' 
 
 Along the margin Gardiner had added: "I 
 send this to you, Ranney, knowing your interest 
 in the period which the name of Hanit suggests. 
 Can you unravel the mystery surrounding the 
 mummy of this Queen who is not a Queen! 
 
 "In regard to the sudden taking off of the 
 seven workmen, and, by the way, the curator is 
 now dead, I can hear you expatiate at length
 
 26 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 upon the fearful 'hekau-s pells' and 'magic in 
 cantations' of the ancients! 
 
 "Once more I ask you to prove to me that your 
 ancients ever possessed such powers, or if they 
 did, that they could by any possible chance have 
 survived the wear and tear of three thousand 
 years! And, meanwhile, allow me to submit 
 myself, your unbelieving friend!" 
 
 I smile even now, as I shake my head at Gar 
 diner's careless words. 
 
 What can I but think? Childish, you say ! A 
 series of remarkable coincidences! Wait! 
 
 It was from Burton that I first heard an ac 
 count of what he and the other members of the 
 expedition supposed, and rightly, had happened 
 to me. 
 
 It seemed that I left my tent about dawn and 
 started for one of my favorite walks westward, 
 taking the general direction of a certain lofty 
 spur of the deep red Libyan Hills. This jutting 
 ledge immediately overhung the ruins of King 
 Mentu-hotep 's temple. So close a part of the 
 towering cliff is this sadly mutilated structure
 
 A Fall Down Thirty Centuries 27 
 
 that one might easily slip from the shelf above 
 and fall directly upon the great stone passage 
 way which conducts to the inner chamber. 
 
 To this somewhat dangerous vantage-point, I 
 had sometimes taken distinguished visitors to 
 our camp, people who had come with letters 
 from friends at home, or those who I felt sure 
 would be willing to put up with the discomforts 
 of a night spent beyond the walls of the luxuri 
 ous Winter Palace Hotel. 
 
 I think I may say truthfully, that not one of 
 my visitors failed of being more than repaid for 
 any trifling discomfort which was theirs, since 
 few scenes can equal, certainly none surpass, the 
 view presented by the extended vista north, 
 south and eastward across the winding Nile 
 Valley towards Karnak, Luxor, and the deep 
 blue Eastern Hills. 
 
 But to return to my story. That memorable 
 morning the fever must assuredly have had me 
 well within its clutches. Since, of that early 
 morning walk, I remember but a single incident 
 Heaven knows, I am never likely to forget it
 
 28 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 a great black void into which I suddenly pitched, 
 a horrible tingling in all my veins, a shock and a 
 myriad of little flames that seemed to burst 
 from my very eyeballs ! 
 
 Was I conscious, I asked myself? I must be, 
 for I seemed to realize at once what a dreadful 
 thing had happened to me. 
 
 Of course, I knew I had pitched headlong into 
 the open mouth of one of those rock-hewn tombs 
 with which the tumbled slopes below the Libyan 
 Hills are perforated. Well might those crum 
 bling hills been named a honey-comb of death! 
 
 I could not move; my whole body seemed 
 numb. By gazing upward I found that I could 
 see the stars! Yes, I recognized the star of 
 Hathor, in all her radiant beauty. 
 
 How my head ached ! How my ears roared ! 
 Worse than all was the agony of a ceaseless 
 throb-throb, beat-beat, at the back of my head. 
 
 It was as though someone were hitting me 
 with a hammer, rhythmically, relentlessly. 
 
 Perhaps after all I was dead?
 
 A Fall Down Thirty Centuries 29 
 
 No, there were the sharp outlines of the tomb- 
 shaft and the stars above ! 
 
 I wonder whose tomb it is? Is it charted? 
 Oh, will that throbbing never stop! Won't 
 someone come ? Help ! Help ! 
 
 As if in answer to my cry, high above me I 
 saw a queer, yet strikingly familiar figure, a 
 figure silhouetted black against the sky. 
 
 The figure leaned over and gazed downwards 
 into the shaft. I noticed its long and thickly 
 curled wig. 
 
 ' ' Ha, ha ! A wig of the New Empire, ' ' said I 
 to myself. 
 
 Its owner 's face I could not see, but he or 
 she yes, it was a woman, peered long and 
 earnestly into the gloomy depths of the shaft 
 where I lay. 
 
 Suddenly, and as though through the medium 
 of some unnatural light, her face was revealed. 
 
 "I was right," thought I. "It is a woman, 
 and by her robes, a woman of the New Em 
 pire ! ' '
 
 3O Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 But what features, what an expression! 
 Never shall I forget it. A face of the most 
 exotic beauty; of a type I knew instantly. It 
 could only have "belonged to one of the ladies 
 of the house of Amenhotep the Magnificent! 
 Such a face the Eoyal Sculptor Beq might carve, 
 or Amenhotep, Superintendent of the Royal 
 Craftsmen. 
 
 The beautiful apparition addressed me in the 
 soft tones of the educated Egyptian. 
 
 I found that I could rise without difficulty at 
 her bidding. Struggling to my feet I pushed a 
 stone at the side of the tomb chamber and 
 passed through a narrow false door which 
 opened as my hand pressed the secret block. I 
 found myself once more out under the sunset 
 glow. 
 
 All this seemed perfectly natural to me. But, 
 I remember thinking how strange it was that I 
 should find the pyramids of the Antefs and 
 Mentuhoteps, the sphinx-lined Causeways, and 
 the many Mortuary Temples hereabouts, stand 
 ing clearly defined against the hills, and seem-
 
 A. Fall Down Thirty Centuries 31 
 
 ingly in all their original beauty. Nay, the very 
 cypresses, palms, karobs and myrrh trees which 
 flanked the ivory-toned Causeway leading to 
 Queen Hatshep-sut's Temple, were to be seen 
 nodding gracefully in the evening breeze. 
 
 My gaze fell questionably upon the smiling 
 face of my adorable savior. 
 
 She must have remarked my bewilderment. 
 Yet, without a word she turned and started 
 swiftly toward a small white house half-con 
 cealed in a dense grove of feathery acacias. 
 
 In response to a quick gesture on the part of 
 my guide, I pulled back the wooden bolt and 
 opened the door. A tall and strikingly hand 
 some Eygptian arose from an ivory-inlaid stool 
 as I entered. Carefully rolling up a manuscript 
 which he had been reading by the light of an oil 
 lamp, and without otherwise appearing to notice 
 me, he took from the table nearby a blue glazed 
 goblet, handed it to my rescuer, and re-seated 
 himself. 
 
 Once again he picked up the discarded manu 
 script and continued his reading as though
 
 32 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 nothing had happened to interrupt his train" of 
 thought. 
 
 Perhaps, after all, I had been expected! I 
 heard my charming guide utter the one softly 
 sibilant Egyptian word: Drink! 
 
 I lifted the bright blue goblet to my lips and 
 drank deeply, thirstily. . . .
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 ENANA, THE MAGICIAN, WOULD PROVE THAT A 
 RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN A QUEEN AND A 
 PRIESTESS MAY BE TURNED TO His ADVAN 
 TAGE. 
 
 THE sloping walls of the Temple of 
 Amenra loomed black and forbidding 
 against the pallid light of early morning. 
 
 The tall cedar flag-poles fronting the entrance 
 pylons and the gold-capped shafts of the four 
 granite obelisks seemed carved in ebony, so 
 sharply were their dark lines defined. 
 
 No sound came from within; no life was ap 
 parent in the wide domain of cultivated fields 
 which surrounded the temple on three sides. 
 There was no sign of life upon the temple 
 barges moored to the sandstone landing at the 
 temple front. 
 
 A long line of cranes flew slowly, noiselessly, 
 across the moon, now rapidly sinking into the 
 
 33
 
 34 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 blue haze which floated above the Western Hills. 
 
 Within the temple precinct, in a small cham 
 ber lit by the fitful light of a six- wicked lamp 
 which swung out from the wall at the end of a 
 pole, a restless figure bent from time to time 
 above a form stretched at length upon a high 
 couch. 
 
 The figure was that of a woman, a woman 
 dead and to a certain extent disfigured by the 
 scalpel and fat-extracting implements of the em- 
 balmer who now bent over her. 
 
 On a low bench beside him were spread out 
 the many bronze and flint utensils of his craft. 
 
 Kathi, the Embalmer, made the last great in 
 cision. With a long, flat and minutely serrated 
 flint knife, he laid open a good six inches of the 
 flesh immediately above the heart. Having ex 
 tracted that organ he carefully placed it in an 
 alabaster jar filled almost to the brim with aro 
 matic spirits. On top of the jar he set the cover, 
 a cover crowned with a tinted portrait-head of 
 the deceased. Three similar jars containing the
 
 Enana, the Magician 35 
 
 viscera, brains and other organs liable to rapid 
 decay, had already been hermetically sealed. 
 
 So quickly comes the dawn in Egypt that, by 
 this time, one could readily distinguish the in 
 scription in letters of dark blue which sym 
 metrically filled a square at the shoulder of each 
 vase: 
 
 "An oblation which the King bestows to the 
 Royal Spouse, His Beloved, Hanit, Triumphant. 
 Ten thousand oxen and fowl, ten thousand jars 
 of wine, ten thousand loaves of bread, funerary 
 raiment for the rewrapping of this body, all 
 things pure and good for the soul of the de 
 ceased Queen, His Beloved, the Lady Hanit, 
 Justified of God." 
 
 Being at one and the same time Embalmer to 
 the King, Chief Surgeon and Magician, as he 
 macerated the shriveled flesh, Kathi recited the 
 prescribed Ritual from the Book of the Dead 
 and consecrated the many amuletic jewels and 
 pendants with which he now proceeded to 
 decorate the body.
 
 36 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 Each limb received at his hand the anointing 
 that rendered it incorruptible and the magical 
 charms and incantations that should sustain the 
 spark of life. 
 
 This done, Kathi placed a heavy amulet in the 
 cavity whence he had extracted the heart, a 
 great emerald beetle, inscribed beneath with a 
 prayer for justification and absolution ad 
 dressed to the Judge of the Dead, Osiris. 
 
 It did not enter Kathi 's head that he was 
 trying to dupe Osiris by thus inserting a heavy 
 stone heart in place of the real organ. Kathi 
 merely wished to be sure that the heart would 
 tip the scales against the great God's " Feather 
 of Truth, " when the deceased was led into the 
 Hall of the Underworld for Judgment. 
 
 Having placed the emerald heart in position, 
 the Embalmer set a long oval plaque of gold 
 immediately above it, drew together the clean- 
 cut flesh and sewed up the wound. 
 
 A small iron amulet, the Two Fingers of 
 Horus, he placed in the hand, and the deli 
 cate jewels of the deceased, chains of minute
 
 Enana, the Magician 37 
 
 carnelian emerald, garnet and amethyst pend 
 ants, he strung about the throat. Low upon the 
 breast he placed a beaded wesekh, a broad 
 jeweled pectoral ornament which, more than a 
 thousand years before his time, King Kufu 
 had called the national ornament of his people. 
 Upon the head he set one of the huge pleated 
 wigs of the day, confining it with a diadem of 
 gold decorated at intervals with gold lotus 
 flowers in high relief. Gold earrings of rosette 
 form were set in the ears, broad jeweled bands 
 slipped upon the arms, wrists and ankles, and 
 Kathi, the Embalmer, commenced to wrap the 
 body in the first few score feet of aromatic 
 linen bandages. 
 
 The Embalmer rested a moment, hand on hip. 
 Humming absently to himself he turned to trim 
 the spluttering lamp. It was an occupation 
 which consumed altogether too much of his time. 
 
 Kathi 's back being turned for a moment, he 
 failed to see the bent figure of Enana, the 
 Magician, who glided into the dimly lit room. 
 
 "Thou hast succeeded, son of Kathi?"
 
 38 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 At his repressed but high-pitched voice, 
 Kathi, son of Kathi, swung about, startled for 
 an instant out of his wonted calm and im 
 mobility. He turned to close the door before 
 replying. "As thou sayest, Holiness, I have 
 succeeded. 'Tis but a few short minutes since 
 Thi and Menna stood where thou standest at this 
 very moment. The Syrian shed real tears above 
 the body of that poor wench there. To her 
 'twas Hanit, doubt not." Kathi smiled some 
 what sadly as he gazed down upon the figure at 
 his feet: "In death the Lady Meryt's striking 
 resemblance to Hanit, our beloved Queen, was 
 most pronounced. And, following my work 
 upon the head, the Lady Meryt's own mother 
 could hardly have chosen between them. 
 
 "I noted a hint of suspicion in Henna's eyes 
 the moment he entered the room. Yet, this 
 instantly vanished, when once he had looked 
 upon the body. He smiled. Menna no longer 
 fears that Hanit will take vengeance for the 
 murder of her son. To Menna, as to Thi, the 
 body is that of Hanit. Their triumph seems to
 
 Enana, the Magician 39 
 
 them assured. Hanit and Wazmes, her son, are 
 dead. Thi's son reigns! The Syrian sun-god 
 triumphs over Amen ! ' ' 
 
 Enana, Chief Magician of the Temple of 
 Amen, rubbed together his lean and shriveled 
 hands. His experiment seemed well on the road 
 to success. 
 
 A Pharaoh might set aside one queen for 
 another; the late Pharoah had done that. He 
 might depose a queen of the line of the sun-god 
 Ea in favor of Thi, a Syrian, a commoner. Be 
 guiled by the latter 's crafty wiles he might close 
 his eyes to the murder of an inconvenient son or 
 so. 'Twas harem work that ! But, to strike at 
 the great God Amenra whom Enana served 
 that was a different matter ! 
 
 Thi, the Queen-Mother, was a foreigner, an 
 idolator. The present Chancellor was also a 
 Syrian, Yakab of Eabbath. 
 
 Was it to be wondered at that the present 
 Pharaoh, Thi's son, was daily urged to over 
 throw the gods whom Egypt worshiped in 
 favor of Aton, the Syrian god?
 
 40 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 But what then would become of the great gods 
 Amen, Ptah and Khonsu ; of Osiris, Isis, Horus, 
 and a host of deities worshiped through count 
 less ages along the valley of the Nile? And last, 
 but well to the fore in Enana 's vision, what 
 would become of the innumerable priests, him 
 self included, who served those powerful gods? 
 
 Yes ! Menna could strangle Hanit 's only son, 
 the lawful heir ; Thi could seek to poison Hanit ! 
 But, touch the cult of Amen of Thebes and, at a 
 word, the great priestly hierarchy throughout 
 Egypt would rise as one man. 
 
 So, at least, thought Enana. So too Huy, First 
 Prophet of Amen, his brother, and so Kathi, the 
 Embalmer, their hireling. 
 
 If it was to resolve Itself into a clash between 
 Court and Temple (and, certainly, recent events 
 had pointed to a rupture) Enana and the 
 Prophets of Amen were ready. 
 
 Enana's small black eyes fixed themselves 
 upon those of the Embalmer who perceptibly 
 cringed. He laid one thin hand upon Kathi 's 
 shoulder : " Son of Kathi, thy skill is that of thy
 
 Enana, the Magician 41 
 
 revered father (peace in Aaru be his), nay, 
 more excellent ! For what man was ever called 
 upon to do the work that thou hast donef" 
 Enana pointed to the figure lying half -concealed 
 in the shadows of the room. " Verily in thee 
 hath Amen a faithful follower, one whose 
 reward shall surely find him. 
 
 ' ' Listen, son of Kathi. The long-expected hour 
 has come. Pharaoh, Thi and the Syrians about 
 them can no longer conceal their plan to bring 
 about a civil war. Jealous of our power, Thi and 
 Yakab have decided to challenge the supremacy 
 of all-mighty Amen. The priesthood of Egypt 
 is to be overthrown. Hook-nosed Syrians and 
 Canaanites are to be installed in our stead, and 
 our beloved banks of Hapi are to be overrun 
 with the kinsmen of Yakab, the Chancellor, may 
 the twenty-four demigods blast him! 
 
 "Yet, mark my words, son of Kathi. Though 
 Aton seem to triumph yet, in the end, shall 
 Amen find his own. Though all the powers of 
 the conjurers of Amen be counted in vain, yet 
 shall Amen triumph through Enana, his ser-
 
 42 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 vant. More I cannot tell thee at this time. 
 Yet, through troublous days to come, remember 
 my words. ' ' 
 
 With a muttered farewell the aged Magician 
 shuffled off down the narrow acacia-bordered 
 path which led to the landing-stage by the side 
 of the river. 
 
 Kathi stood watching Enana's bent figure 
 until it disappeared down the sandstone steps 
 which led to the ferry. 
 
 Like Enana, his master, Kathi was above all 
 a devoted follower of the great god Amen, 
 whose worship the Queen-Mother now sought to 
 destroy. 
 
 Yet, of late, there had been many moments 
 such as this when Kathi had felt the bow-string 
 at his throat, the arms of the strangler about 
 his neck. Kings deal harshly with conspirators 
 and Kathi, the Embalmer, whose horizon might 
 well be said to have been circumscribed by 
 death, feared to die. 
 
 Kathi 's fears were somewhat dissipated at 
 sight of the onrushing sun-god, now vaulting
 
 Enana, the Magician 43 
 
 higher and higher above the rosy Eastern Hills. 
 He stretched forth his hands, palms upward, in 
 that appealing attitude of prayer so suggestive 
 of a spiritual offering. 
 
 On the river below him the boatmen burst 
 into the Hymn to Ra at his Rising, which had 
 been first sung by the Sage and Prophet Im- 
 hotep, two thousand years before their time ! 
 
 Nature, too, added her welcome to the nurtur 
 ing sun-god. The falcons sailed in great circles 
 above the flashing waters of the river. To their 
 shrill and quavering notes, intermingled with 
 the joyous twitterings and flitterings back and 
 forth of other birds, there was added the soft 
 lowing of the sacred cows and the shrill chatter 
 ing of the apes belonging to the Temple of Mut 
 in Asheru. 
 
 Beams of light seemed to dance upon the gold 
 caps of the lofty obelisks. Huge streamers rose 
 upon the flag-poles which fronted the great 
 portal of the sun-god's mightiest temple. 
 
 Along the walls of the temple of the deified 
 King Thomes, a phyle of chanting priests
 
 44 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 moved slowly, the keri Ineb with his tube-like 
 censer at their head. Kathi found it next to 
 impossible to believe that a hideous civil war 
 was about to burst upon such peace as this. 
 
 Kathi shook his head. He turned once more 
 to his unfinished task within.
 
 CHAPTEE IV 
 How BHANAB CAME TO THEBES 
 
 IT was about the third hour of the auspicious 
 sixteenth day of Athyr. On the river a 
 high-prowed galley of foreign cut could be 
 seen attempting to gain the western landing 
 under her own sail. This great sail, pictur 
 esquely marked with broad stripes of green and 
 dull red, spread itself to the fitful breeze with 
 but little effect. 
 
 Suddenly a raucous command rang out. At 
 once, as if the command had been momentarily 
 expected, twenty oars were thrust out from the 
 vessel's sides, twenty lusty throats called aloud 
 upon the name of some god or beneficent demon, 
 and at each shout the great blades took the 
 water and the vessel sprang shoreward, a line 
 of bubbles and swirling eddies in her wake. 
 
 A pilot stood at prow and stern. The bow 
 pilot held a mooring-stake and mallet ready in 
 his hand. A pair of buffers already hung over 
 
 45
 
 46 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 the vessel's sides. It was often a dangerous 
 matter to pick a path through the many barges, 
 war-galleys, sea-going vessels and lesser river 
 craft which were strung out as far as the eye 
 could see along the western bank of the Nile. 
 
 "By Hathor," said Nakht, a fieldhand, as he 
 fixed his tired eyes upon the oncoming galley, 
 11 a man who can scull, row, and swim as can I, 
 should have a place upon some such vessel. 
 Think of the life those dirty Amu lead!" All 
 foreigners were Amu to Nakht, sand-dwellers 
 and loathed for their filthy habits and the lice 
 that covered them. 
 
 "Aye, Nakht! Thou mayest well envy them. 
 Think of the days and nights in port, ever with 
 gold uten to spend. Think of Thethi's wine, 
 Aua's dancing girls, a brawl with the city watch 
 men more damned foreigners ! 
 
 "Ai, ai! Once I knew it well! See this scar. 
 'Twas Thethi himself gave it me. We were 
 young men then, both as quick as southern 
 panthers. 
 
 "Breath of Ea! How many maidens and
 
 How Bhanar Came to Thebes 47 
 
 hapless youths think you Baltu brings to Thebes 
 this trip?" 
 
 A sharp blow from the staff of the overseer 
 cut short this soliloquy. Once again began the 
 splashing of waters mingled with the droning 
 song of the irrigation worker: "Life to this 
 seed, Waters, Breath of Osiris, Blood of Isis I 
 Life to these our seedlings that we may eat and 
 live to sing thy praises." 
 
 The galley drifted slowly to the bank. The 
 oars were drawn in; the great steering-oars 
 alone guided her. 
 
 The emblem at the prow of the vessel showed 
 her to hail from Tyre. Her freight, as Nakht 
 had hinted, consisted in the main of hapless 
 youths and maidens torn from the arms of their 
 murdered parents, enveigled from their homes 
 by false promises or bought outright in foreign 
 slave-marts. 
 
 Among the jostling crowds gathered upon the 
 embankment and overlooking the clustered ves 
 sels, stood Benny, the Syrian. His gaze was 
 fixed upon the forms of two little children busily
 
 48 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 occupied in modeling dolls from the plastic Nile 
 mud of the river bank. The children's occupa 
 tion had interested him since Eenny, the Syrian, 
 was a sculptor. 
 
 Renny was startled out of his state of artistic 
 introspection by the harsh voices of a number 
 of the foreign sailors. They had jumped ashore 
 from the Tyrian galley and now sought to jostle 
 their way up the steep and crowded bank. 
 
 While these swarthy adventurers drove in the 
 mooring-stake, Eenny 's eyes roamed along the 
 deck of the galley itself. As he gazed at the 
 ordered cases of merchandise, which had but 
 recently been brought up on deck preparatory 
 to their unloading, three figures emerged from a 
 cabin door placed toward the stern of the vessel. 
 
 Renny instantly decided that the first of the 
 three, a huge man heavily bearded and with a 
 commanding eye and voice of thunder, was the 
 master and probable owner of the vessel. The 
 second was a dainty youth, of a nation unknown 
 to Renny; the third a woman, by her robes a 
 Syrian like himself.
 
 How Bhanar Came to Thebes 49 
 
 The merchant made some remark in a tongue 
 unknown to Renny and, at the same time, 
 pointed shoreward. The trembling youth re 
 plied by throwing the long sleeve of his rich! 
 robe over his head, a gesture indicative of grief 
 or despair. 
 
 But Benny was far more interested in the 
 figure of the Syrian, his countrywoman. 
 
 What heartless parent had sold that drooping 
 figure into harsh captivity! What disastrous 
 war had resulted in her present plight? Or 
 had this hook-nosed Semite filched her from her 
 nest high up above some gentle Syrian valley? 
 
 The sculptor 's heart ached for her. Thoughts 
 of his own beloved vineyard flashed through his 
 mind. For an instant he visualized the purple 
 hills which encircled Ribba, his native village, 
 the clear blue sky, the sparkling stream, his 
 father's white-walled house and the little temple 
 which stood, well nigh hidden, near the edge of 
 an ancient grove. 
 
 Poor little exile ! Never had Renny so longed 
 for power, for heavy golden uten, as he did at
 
 50 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 that moment. Instinctively he gripped the 
 single bar that encircled his left wrist. He 
 smiled sadly. Fifty, nay, a hundred such, might 
 not buy her freedom, and this single golden bar 
 represented the fruits of two years' untiring 
 labor under the patronage of a great, if 
 capricious, noble. 
 
 Suddenly his gaze riveted itself more intently 
 upon the drooping figure of the Syrian woman. 
 It could not be! Yes! He knew her! 'Twas 
 Bhanar, a maid of Eibba, of Eibba itself, his 
 dear Syrian village ! 
 
 Could his eyes have played him false? He 
 sauntered carelessly toward the Phoenician ves 
 sel. Yes ! It was Bhanar, playmate of his boy 
 hood, Bhanar whom his dead sister had loved so 
 devotedly. 
 
 In vain he sought to attract her attention. 
 Finally, through an inspiration, Benny turned 
 towards the east and gave the shrill cry of the 
 Syrian hillmen when danger threatened. 
 
 The effect was instantaneous. Bhanar 's 
 drooping form slowly raised itself. Astonish-
 
 How Bhanar Came to Thebes 51 
 
 ment, joy and instant recognition passed 
 rapidly over her beautiful face. 
 
 She had seen him; she knew him! With a 
 warning gesture Eenny slowly reclimbed the 
 embankment. 
 
 How to save her? To whom could he turn for 
 help? 
 
 His master the noble Menna? Small hope 
 there! The Queen-Mother, herself a Syrian? 
 Yes, he would attempt to reach the ear of the 
 powerful Queen-Mother herself ! 
 
 To do so, he must act quickly. Yakab, her 
 Syrian chancellor, should be seen and quickly. 
 Yakab was an importation of the Queen-Mother, 
 and a favorite of hers. 
 
 Renny found Yakab seated beside the pool in 
 his garden. He affected to be absorbed in a 
 game of draughts with his youngest daughter. 
 
 In a few hurried words Renny acquainted him 
 with the plight of their countrywoman and 
 begged his instant help. He drew the golden 
 bracelet from his wrist but Yakab, smiling, 
 stopped him.
 
 52 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 The latter rose and in a few short words set 
 Benny's mind at rest. 
 
 In fact, within the minute, they had parted at 
 Yakab's stucco gate, Yakab to take a short cut 
 to the palace, Benny to take his way along the 
 river bank toward the vast estates of Menna, 
 the Boyal Superintendent, his exalted protector.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE PLEASURE BARGE OF THI, THE QUEEN- 
 MOTHER 
 
 DURING his reign, Pharaoh Amenhotep, 
 the Magnificent, had set aside or in 
 fringed upon many an established prec 
 edent or custom. It almost seemed as if he had 
 thus sought to prove to his subjects his utter 
 infatuation for Thi, the Syrian, his second wife. 
 
 For the late Pharaoh had done nothing with 
 out Thi's cooperation. Though of common ex 
 traction, her name and titles had appeared upon 
 all state documents beside his own. This was at 
 once a new and a radical innovation. 
 
 Amenhotep 's infatuation for the beautiful Thi 
 had produced, among many other marvels, a vast 
 pleasure lake, an artificial body of water, which 
 now stretched its placid reaches on three sides 
 of the villa-palace of the former monarch. This 
 
 53
 
 54 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 villa was now occupied by TM and the new 
 Pharaoh, her son. 
 
 About the banks of the broad lake waved 
 feathery acacia, sweet scented mimosa, marsh 
 flowers, and tall papyrus plants. Upon its pel 
 lucid waters rested white and blue lotus flowers. 
 Great cranes, pink and white flamingos and 
 pure white ibises pecked leisurely among the 
 lily pads or spread their wings to dry in the 
 rays of the late afternoon sun. 
 
 ^. sheltered landing-stage opened on a cause 
 way whose granite flagging led up to the door of 
 the palace, the Per-aoh or "Great House" as 
 both the palace and its august master were 
 called. To the left of this causeway stood a 
 small building set apart by the art-loving 
 Pharaoh for experiments in glass and fayence. 
 To the right lay the series of rooms reserved 
 to Auta, the Eoyal Sculptor, and his pupils. 
 Counted among the latter were the then reign 
 ing Pharaoh, Akhten-aton, and Noferith, his 
 wife. 
 
 Akhten-aton has a great admiration for his
 
 The Pleasure Barge of Thi 55 
 
 valiant ancestor Thothmes, third of the name. 
 He counted among his most prized possessions 
 a gold goblet said to have been designed and 
 fashioned by the hand of that gifted Pharaoh. 
 
 All Egyptians knew how well the hand of the 
 great "Conqueror of Asia" had wielded the 
 curved sword of Amen, and with what marvel 
 ous results alike for the enrichment of Egypt 
 and for the prestige of her name. Few had ever 
 guessed that Thothmes ' rare moments of relax 
 ation had been spent in the studio of his Chief 
 Goldsmith. 
 
 To-day, Akhten-noferu, the "pleasure barge" 
 of the Queen, was drawn up beside the landing- 
 stage in anticipation of Thi's arrival. 
 
 Less than a hundred cubits in length, its cedar 
 beams were covered throughout with thin plates 
 of pure gold. Its linen sail was ornamented 
 with squares of blue and red. The blades of the 
 light cedar oars were tipped with silver ; the two 
 great steering-oars were entirely sheathed in 
 the same bright metal. A portrait head of the 
 late Pharaoh was carved upon the handle of
 
 56 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 each of the steering-oars. Two elongated eyes at 
 the prow of the barge were inlaid with alabaster 
 and deep Babylonian lazuli. The name of the 
 vessel appeared inlaid in pale green emerald 
 from Suan in the south. In the after part of 
 the vessel a low dais was covered with red and 
 blue checkered tapestry, to match the great sail. 
 
 With half-suppressed giggles of excitement 
 and whispered jests, the " sailors" now ap 
 peared. Noisily trooping down the causeway 
 they took their places at the oar benches, as 
 their leader indicated. Their leader, Princess 
 Sesen, was as amusingly disguised as her 
 " sailors," the handmaidens of the Queen- 
 Mother Herself. 
 
 Queen Thi now appeared. As her short figure 
 passed from the dark shadows of the passage 
 into the glare of day, two ebony black Nubians 
 dropped in an arch above her large and pro 
 fusely curled wig, a pair of ostrich-feather sun 
 shades dyed in brilliant tones of red and blue. 
 The servants fell prostrate at sight of her and 
 so remained, muttering wishes for "long life
 
 The Pleasure Barge of Thi 57 
 
 and health," until she was safely seated upon 
 her gilded cedar chair, and a cushion placed at 
 her feet by little Ata, youngest of her maidens. 
 
 At her approach the " sailors" had been 
 silenced by a warning gesture from the Prin 
 cess. 
 
 Suddenly the momentary decorum of these 
 little maids was interrupted by a wailing cry 
 from one of their number, who, without ap 
 parent reason, burst into a violent fit of weep 
 ing. 
 
 For a few moments she was unable to explain 
 the reason of her distress. But finally, her sis 
 ters gathered that her turquoise pendant had 
 slipped from her neck and fallen into the water. 
 This pendant, a gift from the Princess herself, 
 the tearful little maiden vowed she must have. 
 She could not row, she would not row, until it 
 was found. 
 
 After much delay her fears were somewhat 
 allayed by the Chief Eunuch, who promised to 
 send for Enana, the Magician. Enana's in 
 cantations would soon bring to the surface her
 
 58 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 missing jewel. He promised that she would find 
 it awaiting her when the barge returned to the 
 landing-stage. Thus, in part reassured, little 
 Thutu dried her eyes and again bent over her 
 oar in anticipation of the signal to start. 
 
 A trumpeter in the prow blew a shrill note 
 upon his long instrument (a new importation 
 from Syria), a group of singing women from 
 the temple of Sekhmet burst into song; Ea- 
 hotep, the Chief Eunuch, clapped his fat hands ; 
 the ropes were cast off, and the forty maidens 
 dipped their light cedar oars in the placid 
 waters. The barge " Beauties of the Sun Disc" 
 drew out slowly into the dancing waters of the 
 lake. 
 
 Seated in the shadow of the great checkered 
 sail, Queen Thi smiled her appreciation of the 
 novel surprise which her maidens had prepared 
 for her. As the vessel drew out through the 
 nodding lotus flowers Kema's flute made soft 
 music which seemed to mingle with the pearling 
 ripples of the waters. Kema, it seems, played 
 the flute so well that the cranes and water-fowl
 
 The Pleasure Barge of Thi 59 
 
 often lit upon the sides of the barge to hear him. 
 
 Queen Thi was not aware that novel entertain 
 ments such as this had been customary with the 
 Egyptian court from days immemorial. She 
 was now to hear of just such a method of dis 
 traction as had been practiced under the great 
 Egyptian monarch Senefru, who had lived, died 
 and been laid to rest, high up in his colossal 
 pyramid, some twenty centuries before her time. 
 
 For Sianekh, the story-teller, suddenly ap 
 peared and seated herself upon the deck in front 
 of the Queen's chair. As was her custom, she 
 neglected both the prostration and the formulae 
 of greeting. Sianekh was a privileged char 
 acter at Court, a favorite with the late King, 
 both on account of her inexhaustible fund of 
 stories and because of the fact that Pepi, her 
 husband, had lost his life while defending his 
 royal master from the attack of a wounded lion. 
 
 Yes! Thi's obese and indolent husband, the 
 late Pharaoh, had once been inordinately fond 
 of lion-hunting. One hundred and two lions he 
 had killed with his own arrows. One had gone
 
 60 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 down upon the very expedition so fatal to his 
 chariot-driver, Pepi. But it was the last animal 
 of that great hunt which had sent Sianekh's 
 husband to the Valley of Shadows. Pharaoh 
 never forgot Pepi's sacrifice. Pepi's tomb 
 never lacked its offerings of beer, wine and milk, 
 
 flesh and fowl or of fresh white linens for the 
 rewrapping of his mummy. 
 
 Sianekh, the story-teller, slipped from the 
 sleeve of her loose white mantle a small ebony 
 wand tipped with electrum. 
 
 Without preamble she commenced a tale of 
 King Senefru's days, a tale of the epoch of 
 those gods of old, the pyramid-builders. 
 
 In her monotonous singsong she told how the 
 good king, tired with the cares of state and op 
 pressed by the great heat of noonday, sought a 
 cool spot in which to rest, and found it not. 
 How his son flew upstream in the fleetest royal 
 barge in search of a famous magician. How 
 he found him fishing in the Nile without a hook, 
 and finally persuaded him to come to his 
 father's court.
 
 The Pleasure Barge of Thi 61 
 
 She told of the wonders performed there by 
 the aged seer. Of wine turned to honey. Of 
 bees which went into a little hive only to emerge 
 as brilliantly colored birds resembling those of 
 distant Punt. Of the goose's head which he 
 restored to its body so that it sprang once more 
 to its feet and rushed cackling and hissing from 
 their midst. 
 
 Finally she told of Senefru's pleasure-barge, 
 of the little maidens who rowed it and of one of 
 their number who dropped her pendant into the 
 water, even as had Thutu, and of the magician 
 of old who parted the waters and descended 
 dryshod to the finding of the pendant. 
 
 "But see, Queen. Enough of the doings of 
 the ancients. There is the tablet to the faithful 
 Nakht, a hero of our own day and generation. ' ' 
 Sianekh pointed to a tall shaft which rose high 
 above the bank. "That tall shaft marks the 
 stake where Nakht met his death. The story 
 goes that Isis, only daughter of the Vizier 
 Raines, made an appointment to meet the son 
 of Nakht at this spot. Yonder inlet was filled to
 
 62 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 overflowing with the* waters of the inundation. 
 But Nakht, son of Nakht, rather than abandon 
 his tryst, let the swirling waters of the inunda 
 tion flow over his devoted head. Isis threw her 
 self into the waters with him. To this date 
 lovers hang garlands about the shaft and 
 breathe a prayer to Hathor for sons and 
 daughters like Nakht and Isis." 
 
 As Sianekh rose to her feet the Queen thanked 
 her and presented her with a pair of gold ear 
 rings which she unfastened from her own ears, 
 an unheard of honor, and one which even the 
 story-teller appreciated. 
 
 The Eunuchs showed their approbation by 
 loud cries of affected astonishment, for the 
 stories were not new to them. But the little 
 maidens, who had rested on their oars during 
 the recital, showed their keen delight in the tales 
 by frequent "oh's" and "ahV' of astonish 
 ment and approval scattered throughout the 
 telling. 
 
 On the barge the hours slipped by unnoted. 
 To Yakab the Chancellor, who now anxiously
 
 The Pleasure Barge of Thi 63 
 
 awaited the return of the Queen, each minute 
 seemed an hour. 
 
 Yakab had hurried off to acquaint the Queen 
 of Bhanar's plight, and to beg her to come to 
 the assistance of one of her unfortunate coun 
 try-women. 
 
 Hour after hour Yakab was compelled to sit 
 beneath the striped awning which fronted the 
 palace door. tEour after hour he pretended to 
 listen to the doorkeeper 's account of his exploits 
 amidst the Nubian goldfields, in the arid Tur 
 quoise Country, among the hills of Mitanni or 
 beyond the Great Bend of the Euphrates. 
 
 Pentaur, the Doorkeeper, had served three 
 successive Pharaohs. Already was he popularly 
 supposed to have exceeded the one hundred and 
 ten years customarily prayed for by all pious 
 Egyptians. Yet, Pentaur seemed to have the 
 key to some mysterious Tie&aw-charm, which 
 kept his well-worn teeth in his head, his deep-set 
 eyes clear and his head erect. Though Pentaur 
 walked with a jackal-headed cane, it was from 
 choice, and not necessity.
 
 64 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 Like all men, Pentaur had his failings. Next 
 to the somewhat colored recital of his own 
 travels and successes, Pentaur loved to recount 
 the exploits, narrow escapes and journeyings of 
 his famous ancestor and namesake, Pentaur, 
 companion and histographer of that greatest of 
 all Pharaohs, Thothmes the Great. As he lis 
 tened, perforce, to this garrulous descendant of 
 Pentaur, Yakab wondered if it had indeed been 
 the fiery Thothmes who had crushed Nubia and 
 the whole of Asia, or whether the first Pentaur 
 had not in point of fact been the true instru 
 ment of Pharaoh's worldwide successes. 
 
 Yet, much of what the Doorkeeper said of his 
 ancestor was true. Was not Pentaur the His 
 torian's account of Pharaoh's exploits written 
 in good hieroglyphic and graphically pictured 
 upon the walls of Amen's temple nearby? In 
 deed, Pentaur, the Doorkeeper, had good cause 
 for his pride of ancestry. 
 
 The weary Yakab was on the point of re 
 linquishing his long vigil when the notes of a 
 trumpet announced the return of the royal 
 barge. Soon after Pentaur sent in Yakab 's
 
 The Pleasure Barge of Thi 65 
 
 crumpled note to the Queen-Mother's apart 
 ment. 
 
 Once the acknowledgment was in his hands, 
 Yakab picked up his long staff and rose to de 
 part. As his gaunt form passed beneath the 
 outer pylon, Pentaur motioned him back to the 
 ebony stool. Pentaur considered Yakab an ex 
 cellent conversationalist, for the reason, per 
 haps, that Pentaur 's flow of anecdote had not 
 once been interrupted. 
 
 But Yakab smilingly shook his head. He 
 could not resist following up his heart-felt ex 
 pressions of farewell with a sarcastic prayer 
 for the repose of the souls of Pentaur 's ances 
 try, as far as he could recall it, commencing with 
 Den, one of the valiant "Followers of Horus" 
 of the days of the gods. 
 
 Yakab feared that he had failed a member 
 of his race. He had been too late. Yakab loved 
 riches ; Yakab loved power. But, above all else, 
 Yakab loved his home, his family, his people. 
 And was not Bhanar one of his people? 
 
 That night Yakab could not sleep.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 How BHANAR FOUND A HOME IN EGYPT 
 
 BALTU the Phoenician left his bales of 
 merchandise and returned to the side of 
 the trembling Bhanar. Erdu, his steers 
 man could count the bales as well as he. As 
 each tenth bale passed over the vessel's side, 
 Erdu sang out the tally. He checked it with a 
 mark upon a piece of potsherd which he held in 
 his hand. 
 
 Misunderstanding the signs of excitement 
 which appeared in the face of the trembling 
 Bhanar, following Benny's signal, the Phoeni 
 cian merchant sought to interest her in the 
 sights about her. In a few moments she would 
 be off his hands forever. She must not be al 
 lowed to break down at this juncture. 
 
 In a voice which he sought to make sym 
 pathetic Baltu pointed out the wonders of the 
 Western Bank. 
 
 66
 
 Bhanar Found a Home in Egypt 67 
 
 He named the builders of the various temples, 
 shrines and gold-capped obelisks ; the owners of 
 the more important villas whose gardens lined 
 the river bank. He even attempted to give some 
 chronological sequence to the intricate maze of 
 rockhewn tombs which rose, vast and imposing, 
 from the edge of the Theban Plain to a point 
 high up beneath the crumbling cliffs of the 
 western hills. 
 
 Yet, Bhanar found little of interest in her 
 surroundings. Her eyes dwelt fearfully upon 
 the treeless hills, upon the mud-walled villages 
 and gloomy temples. She noted that each and 
 all of the Theban temples were guarded from 
 the eyes of mortals by high and forbidding walls 
 of solid masonry. 
 
 How different was this to the hospitality of 
 her own little temple, whose snowy colonnades 
 were open to every passerby; its great wooden 
 doors thrown open from sunrise to sunset! 
 Again, in contradistinction to these sun-baked 
 hills her native village nestled in an olive grove, 
 its encircling hills were green with pastures and
 
 68 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 crowned with thickly growing trees. At this 
 very season its fields were yellow with the fra 
 grant Syrian crocus. Over all was a sky blue as 
 a turquoise, an atmosphere pure and limpid. 
 How different from the blazing heat of Egypt 
 and that great throbbing cauldron of molten 
 brass which the Egyptians called their sky ! 
 
 Presently she would be swallowed up in one 
 of those forbidding temples, palaces or villas! 
 She thought that the well of her tears had dried, 
 yet now the tears sprang hot and blinding to her 
 eyes. 
 
 Fearing that she might ruin his chances if she 
 lost that soft rose coloring he so prized, to 
 divert her Baltu led her to the cabin door and 
 bade her robe herself to go ashore. Baltu took 
 from his long fringed gown two small gold- 
 capped jars of obsidian and placed them in her 
 hands: "Descend to thy cabin, my Eose-bud. 
 Bid Darman let down that glossy hair of thine. 
 Let her sprinkle a little of this perfumed oil and 
 gold dust upon it. The oil is more precious 
 than the gold. Let her not waste a drop. Now
 
 Bhanar Found a Home in Egypt 69 
 
 haste thee, my Syrian Crocus! We go ashore 
 immediately. ' ' 
 
 Soon Bhanar was arrayed in a cream-colored 
 robe, a golden girdle encircled her slender waist, 
 a diadem gleamed in her perfumed hair. 
 
 Darman stood back to admire the effect of her 
 ministrations. Darman, like Bhanar, snatched 
 from some distant village, was short, fat and 
 continually sniffling or weeping outright. She 
 had often assured Bhanar, as indeed she had 
 assured other unfortunates whom it had been 
 her lot to serve in a like capacity, that the love 
 and devotion which she bore her, alone pre 
 vented her from throwing herself overboard. 
 
 In the present case it may well have been the 
 truth, for Darman had conceived an utter in 
 fatuation for the beautiful Syrian. On the con 
 trary, Darman loathed her loud-voiced master, 
 though her abject fear of him was cause for jest 
 with the whole crew, including Baltu himself. 
 
 In spite of her threats to do away with her 
 self Darman had now spent six years upon the 
 Tynan's vessel. During this time she had pre-
 
 yo Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 pared hundreds of timorous maidens for their 
 first, and last, appearance upon the slave- 
 traders* dais. When the owner grew tired of 
 his new plaything, like the playthings of in 
 fancy, it disappeared. No one knew whither, 
 no one cared. 
 
 Bhanar reappeared on deck to find Baltu in 
 the act of teasing the unfortunate youth, who 
 now lay prostrate at his feet in an agony of fear 
 and apprehension. 
 
 "Up! Dry those woman's tears, Page of 
 Pharaoh ! Dost wish a tombkeeper to purchase 
 thee? Queen Ataho's page servitor to a 
 mummy! Pull thyself together, boy! Other 
 wise" Baltu closed his eyes, folded his hands 
 across his chest and assumed the rigid pose of 
 a mummy. 
 
 As his eyes opened he caught sight of the ad 
 vancing Bhanar: ' 'Astar's doves! Did I not 
 tell thee Darman, 'A robe of cream, trans 
 parent, bordered with green and gold, dainty 
 sandals of pink and gold, a simple gold diadem 
 and the hair parted in the center so!' Seen
 
 Bhanar Found a Home in Egypt 71 
 
 through such Syrian byssus that rosy form pro 
 claims thee Astar's daughter. Ah, Nebamon, 
 what a treat for thine eyes!" 
 
 Hardly waiting for the unfortunate Hittite 
 youth to gather himself together, Baltu, trem 
 bling with excitement and cupidity, led his two 
 victims to the long cedar gangplank. Once on 
 shore he pushed aside the sweating carriers, and 
 pulling along his two charges with him, started 
 off down the street. 
 
 Presently they passed the common slaver's 
 block. Two brilliantly painted booths were at 
 the moment in use. Upon one stood a stolid 
 Nubian woman and two weeping children ; upon 
 the other a troop of half-starved Amu, whom 
 the priests of Karnak, their original owners, 
 were now selling. 
 
 Baku's great fist thundered at the door of 
 the last house southward along the waterfront. 
 He slid back the bolt and threw open the door, 
 waving his two charges into a narrow corridor. 
 In a stentorian voice he shouted a command or 
 greeting to the unseen inhabitants of the dwell-
 
 72 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 ing and stalked off down the corridor, and then 
 up a short flight of stairs to a room in the 
 harem or second story. 
 
 This room turned a blank wall to the river 
 front as indeed did all three stories of the 
 house but it overlooked a broad and well-kept 
 garden. Its painted cedar door gave upon an 
 awning-covered balcony which immediately 
 overlooked the customary lotus-pool. A giant 
 sycamore spread its shady branches far and 
 wide above the flower-dotted water. 
 
 In the shade of this aged tree Baltu's Egyp 
 tian wife, an enormously fat but strikingly 
 handsome Theban, was taking a short walk sup 
 ported on the arms of two Nubian women. Her 
 pet gosling rested upon her capacious bosom. 
 
 At the sudden appearance of their lord and 
 master the latter dropped Bentamen's arms 
 and commenced dancing, clapping their hands, 
 and sending out upon the quiet morning air the 
 shrill " welcome cry" of their race, in which the 
 beaming Bentarnen, Baltu's spouse, attempted 
 to join. Tears of joy the while dropped in a 
 shower upon the head of her devoted pet.
 
 Bhanar Found a Home in Egypt 73 
 
 However, Baltu had no time for greetings. 
 In response to his directions Bentamen, sup 
 ported by her maids, waddled slowly toward a 
 little kiosk in the rear of the garden, a summer 
 house almost buried in a circle of ragged date 
 and dom palm. Though in his rough way, Baltu 
 devotedly loved his fat wife, business always 
 consigned her to second place in her lord's 
 heart. 
 
 During this little scene Bhanar had had time 
 to gaze about her. The room in which they 
 stood was decorated with painted designs of 
 hunting scenes, boomerang-hunting amidst the 
 marshes, a common pastime with the wealthier 
 Egyptians. The ceiling decoration consisted of 
 a painted band of spiral grape vines, whose 
 dainty tendrils met and intertwined immedi 
 ately above her head. 
 
 In one corner the artist had introduced a cat 
 crouching to spring upon an unsuspecting field 
 mouse. The latter was busily engaged in eating 
 its way into a fat bunch of luscious purple 
 grapes. 
 
 Puns being the Egyptian's stock in trade, his
 
 74 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 common form of wit, the artist had scrawled in 
 minute hieroglyphics below: "Oh, guest, who 
 soever thou art, what do you think of this for a 
 vignette?" 
 
 Bhanar, it is true, could not read the inscrip 
 tion, but she could appreciate the charm of the 
 little apartment, its brilliant frescoes and its 
 floors powdered with finest white sand, gold 
 dust, lapis lazuli and turquoise. 
 
 A scent as of some sweet pungent incense 
 floated in the air. Scented woods from the In 
 cense Country had been stocked in the center of 
 the little brazier which glowed fitfully at the 
 edge of a low dais hung with richly embroidered 
 linen. 
 
 This dais stood well back against the eastern 
 wall of the room. Upon it stood a light wicker- 
 work couch, its head and back of ebony, its four 
 high feet of ivory carved to represent panther's 
 claws. 
 
 Clapping his hands, Baltu gave certain sharp 
 directions to an obsequious Nubian, who ap 
 peared as if by magic at his summons. There-
 
 Bhanar Found a Home in Egypt 75 
 
 after Baltu smiled, stroked his long beard and, 
 taking a small bottle of wine from a niche in 
 the wall, shook a few drops into the brazier. 
 He muttered a prayer to Bar, Baal and Isis as 
 he poured out the wine. Could his two hearers 
 have understood his words, they would have 
 heard the old slaver bribe his gods, foreign and 
 Egyptian alike, with promises of rich libations, 
 of oxen and geese, should his bait be taken at 
 the figure he had fixed. 
 
 Baltu in this, did but follow the lead of 
 Pharaoh himself, though Pharaoh, god incar 
 nate, had he but paused to consider it, did but 
 seek to bribe himself, in the person of his celes 
 tial counterpart. 
 
 Word soon spread through the mart that 
 Baltu the Phoenician was selling, and Baltu 
 was known as a merchant who sold nothing but 
 the best and rarest, whether that best consisted 
 of spices, perfumes, wines, jewels, Babylonian 
 glass or slaves. 
 
 Baltu the Phoenician lifted a jeweled hand: 
 "Listen, Thebans! Four months have passed
 
 76 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 since I have gazed upon the Queen of Cities, 
 Thebes the Glorious ! During these four months 
 I have visited Meggido, Charchemish, Tyre and 
 Askelon. My last voyage hither brought ye true 
 lazuli of Babylon, and precious incense from 
 the Incense Land, the waterless land of the 
 East! 
 
 "This time we bring ye amethysts and tur 
 quoise for your beads and bangles, malachite 
 for the healing of your eyes, incense for your 
 nostrils, precious oils for your anointing, or to 
 mix with those ceremonial cones that custom 
 bids ye place upon your graceful wigs, also" 
 suddenly his eyes catch the sight of the one man 
 above all others he wished to see. He broke off 
 and addressed the newcomer directly. "For 
 thee, my lord Nebamon, a rose; nay, a human 
 rose, softly pink as a rose of Naharin ! Step up, 
 great lord, see for thyself!" With a quick 
 movement Baltu unloosed the gold girdle that 
 supported the heavy robe so gracefully draped 
 about the shrinking Bhanar. 
 
 "A rose indeed, Nebamon? Do my lord's
 
 Bhanar Found a Home in Egypt 77 
 
 lists boast a form more perfect, a skin more 
 lustrous, hair so long, so like the ruddy gold of 
 Nubia? Should not this damsel, this daughter 
 of a long line of kings, be added to the royal 
 lists? Were the great noble Menna, son of 
 Menna, here now, would he not straightway buy 
 the maiden? Never shall I be content until I 
 see thee take from thy finger the seal that adds 
 this wondrous creature to thy villa yonder. " 
 
 Nebamon, typical eunuch and slave-dealer, 
 handsome of face, obese to such an extent that 
 the skin of his torso lay over his jeweled girdle 
 in thick folds, Nebamon nodded his head as his 
 great velvet eyes slowly appraised the many 
 charms of the crouching maiden. 
 
 "Thy price, Baltu? And mark thee well! 
 Should she turn out the shrew that fair-skinned 
 Hittite Gadiya proved to be, she shall be re 
 turned, or never again will Baltu 's galley pass 
 the northern frontier into Egypt! May the 
 Hound eat her, she is still upon my hands, and 
 like to be!" 
 
 ' ' Great lord ! Could I know the Hittite for a
 
 78 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 shrew. Remember, more than three months I 
 had her on my book. With me, as with Barman, 
 she was a very dove, as soft and cooing as the 
 sacred doves of Hathor's temple yonder! Nay, 
 have done with Gadiya; we will speak of her 
 anon. Thou wouldst know the price of Bhanar 
 the Beautiful, of Bhanar a daughter of Kings? 
 There are perhaps four whose names allow 
 the purchase of the maid, and these be Pharaoh 
 himself, Eames, your good Vizier, Menna, the 
 King's Overseer, and, perhaps, thyself! One 
 thousand gold uten and five hundred bags of 
 northern wheat will buy the maid, Nebamon! 
 Make up thy mind, and quickly. Yonder I see 
 approaching the carrying chair of thy most 
 dreaded rival, Menna, son of Menna. What says 
 my lord Nebamon?" 
 
 "Five hundred uten, Baltu ; all I have is thine 
 for the maid!" The handsome noble shot a 
 hasty glance in the direction of the oncoming 
 chair of Menna, the King's Overseer. It was 
 plainly visible to all present, as it swung up the
 
 Bhanar Found a Home in Egypt 79 
 
 garden path, two outrunners with slaves going 
 before, a foreign conceit which Menna had im 
 ported from .Naharin. 
 
 Nebamon drew from his jeweled girdle his 
 writing set. He affected to write out a mem 
 orandum. 
 
 "One thousand uten and five hundred bags of 
 wheat will buy the maid, Nebamon, nothing 
 less.'* 
 
 Arriving just in time to hear the repetition of 
 the price Menna descended from his chair, 
 crossed the room and stood before the shrinking 
 Bhanar. Menna never haggled. He bought 
 outright or he signaled his bearers and was 
 borne away without a word. 
 
 On this occasion Menna took a hasty look at 
 Bhanar, turned to Baltu and cried: "Done, the 
 girl is mine!" 
 
 With a scowl upon his handsome face Neba 
 mon haughtily withdrew, followed by a half 
 score of excited Theban nobles and the usual 
 group of hangers on, those "flies on meat" who
 
 8o Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 customarily attached themselves to the more 
 reckless nobles of the resident city. 
 
 Within the hour the delighted Bhanar found 
 herself attached as maid to the person of the 
 Princess Sesen, attendant of Noferith, the 
 young Queen. All her fears in this direction 
 were instantly dispelled when the Princess ad 
 vised her of her simple duties in Syrian as pure 
 as her own. From that hour Bhanar adored the 
 very ground her beautiful mistress walked on. 
 From that day Bhanar became the very shadow 
 of the little Princess. 
 
 The secret of Bhanar 's present good fortune 
 was due to the fact that Menna, son of Menna, 
 loved the Princess Sesen. Menna felt that such 
 a gift as that of the beautiful slave-girl would 
 go far to impress the haughty little maiden with 
 the sincerity of his suit. Possibly this lavish 
 expenditure would touch her hard little heart. 
 
 The price was indeed a high one, even for a 
 Royal Overseer. But it was the first time in all 
 Menna 's thirty-odd years that a woman had not 
 smiled upon his suit.
 
 Bhanar Found a Home in Egypt 81 
 
 Stranger still, perhaps, for the first time, 
 Menna truly loved a woman. True, Henna's 
 love by now was closely akin to madness, since 
 the little maid continually frowned upon his suit. 
 The youthful general, Ramses, he knew, was 
 ever in her thoughts. 
 
 Yet, Menna never despaired. In earlier years 
 he had often been on the point of relinquishing 
 some tirelessly pursued quarry, of a similarly 
 serenely unruffled type, when lo, the pome 
 granate had suddenly fallen into his hands. 
 
 But what of Benny, Bhanar 's would-be res 
 cuer? Returning overjoyed from his visit to 
 Yakab, the Chancellor, Renny had reached the 
 acacia grove fronting Thethi's Tavern when 
 something suddenly descended upon his head 
 and the last thing he remembered was a stun 
 ning blow and then oblivion. 
 
 Could Renny the Syrian but have had some 
 slight premonition of what next would happen 
 to his poor unconscious body, he would certainly 
 have rubbed that small green crocodile pendant 
 at his neck, the gift of an Egyptian friend, and
 
 82 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 uttered the formula which drives that voracious 
 creature from its prey. 
 
 But Benny was a Syrian. He wore that little 
 green charm merely to please his friend. Eenny 
 put no trust in feathers of ibis or blood of 
 lizard ; he smiled at charms and magic incanta 
 tions. Eenny 's own simple religion was a re 
 ligion of love, not of fear. 
 
 Yet, who knows, perhaps the little charm was 
 to assist him, and this in spite of himself.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 How BENNY THE SYEIAN ESCAPED THE CEOCODILES 
 
 WE have already alluded to the violent 
 sandstorm which had raged over Thebes. 
 As Kham-hat had truthfully said, such a 
 storm had not been known since that memorable 
 day when Thi the Beautiful, had been brought 
 up-river to Egypt 's capital, there to become the 
 favorite wife of the late Pharaoh. 
 
 The storm had been especially severe in the 
 immediate vicinity of the capital, or so at least, 
 it had seemed to the disgusted Thebans. Their 
 loud complaints as to the hideous damage done 
 were not unduly emphasized, since the baleful 
 effects of this storm, both in and about the resi 
 dent city, were apparent on every hand. 
 
 Many of the famous palms and giant syca 
 mores in Pharaoh 's palace garden had been up 
 rooted or despoiled of their finest branches. 
 Many of the Abyssinian trees and Lebanus 
 
 83
 
 84 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 cedars, that lined the causeway leading to Hat- 
 shepsut's ivory-toned chapel, now lay prone 
 across its well-paved incline, or, loosened at the 
 roots, hung shriveled, torn and dejected, far out 
 across its brightly painted parapets. 
 
 Dust, a foot or more in depth, had drifted 
 against the gates of the villas, many of which 
 seemed as if they might rather have opened 
 upon some gloomy mortuary-garden than upon 
 the dainty gardens of exalted nobles, with their 
 wealth of tamarisks, acacias, myrrh, sandal- 
 wood and stately Lebanus cedars. 
 
 Not a sign of life was visible along the sloping 
 walls of the city, not a living thing stirred in its 
 dark and narrow streets. Covered by the same 
 gray pall of dust, Thebes had seemingly united 
 herself with her immense burial-ground to the 
 westward. Thebes appeared to have become 
 one vast city of the dead ! 
 
 A swirl of the fine impalpable Egyptian dust 
 rose into the shimmering air, a whirling and 
 ever-widening cone part sand, part river-silt, 
 part "human ashes. Yes, throughout the Nile
 
 Renny Escaped the Crocodiles 85 
 
 Valley, an Egyptian might be said to breathe 
 the very ashes of his ancestors. 
 
 Suddenly the sun leaped above the Eastern 
 Hills. The city awoke. Smoke rose upon the 
 heavy morning air and drifted slowly, like a 
 blue-gray streamer, up the curving shores of 
 the Theban Valley. 
 
 Kathi, the embalmer, on his way to the land 
 ing stage leading to the Temple of Karnak, 
 paused to watch the maneuvers of the war- 
 vessels, as they sought their berths along the 
 western bank. 
 
 At this moment, one vessel's huge square sail, 
 a picturesque checker-board of green and white, 
 flapped madly, as its head flew up suddenly in 
 the wind. It seemed that Duadmochef, the 
 Wind-god, was not to be cheated out of a few 
 parting puffs from his lusty lungs ! 
 
 The look-out-man, standing in the prow, pole 
 in hand, shouted a hasty warning to the captain 
 aft, but, before his raucous order could be 
 understood, the heavy boat had buried its nose, 
 with the ghastly trophies it bore, deep in a hid-
 
 86 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 den sand-bar. For a time it seemed that the 
 stiffly swaying forms of the wretched foreign 
 chieftains lashed to the prow would break the 
 thongs which held them in place. It availed 
 nothing that Ranuf, the captain, cursed the look 
 out-man, his father and his forebears since 
 Egypt emerged from the primordial Nul And 
 the unhappy Ameni suffered the irate captain's 
 curses in silence, as it was the sixth mishap of 
 the kind since leaving the sandstone quays of 
 Enet, sacred to the Goddess Hathor. 
 
 As Eanuf hurled at the bent head of his look 
 out-man a last fearful hekau, a potent spell 
 intended to consign the soul of his discomfited 
 assistant to the voracious maw of Osiris 's 
 hound, he noticed a dark patch floating upon 
 the water below. A white face gazed up into 
 his: 
 
 "Abdi, quick! A drowning man; a country 
 man of thine; if I mistake not." 
 
 The Syrian addressed strode quickly to the 
 captain's side, took one look at the slowly drift 
 ing body and, casting aside his sandals and 
 loin-cloth, disappeared headlong into the river.
 
 Renny Escaped the Crocodiles 87 
 
 Cautiously the captain extended a long pole in 
 the direction of the swimming sailor. In an 
 other moment, Abdi was drawn safely to the 
 deck, and, with him, the apparently lifeless 
 figure of the man he had attempted to save. 
 
 Abdi rose to his feet, seemingly none the 
 worse for his adventure. He clasped the cap 
 tain's hand: "Adon! I thought a devil had me 
 by the heels ! Truly the eddies hereabouts have 
 a deadly grip! Dost know the lad? A fellow 
 countryman by those blue eyes of his ! See, they 
 open! Breath of Adon, 'tis an ugly crack he 
 hath! Cut the thongs that bind him! Verily, 
 'tis dangerous work to meddle with Syrians, as 
 they who planned this treacherous attack will 
 find, should Thi get wind of it ! Thou knowest in 
 such a case, even the 'tried, judged, found his 
 bitter doom ! ' is omitted from the records, since 
 1 thus we save the government's ink/ says that 
 wagThethi!" 
 
 The captain bent over the still motionless 
 form of the unknown. He tried to recall the 
 face but failed. 
 
 At this moment the Syrian presented a most
 
 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 woeful appearance. The long, slim form lay 
 inert; the eyes from time to time opened and 
 closed wearily. Blood still trickled slowly from 
 a slight cut along one side of his forehead. 
 
 By now he was surrounded by half a score of 
 curious, yet sympathetic sailors. One bound up 
 his wound, another provided him with a striped 
 head-cloth, another placed a dry robe about his 
 shoulders. 
 
 As he once more fluttered back to conscious 
 ness, a sailor addressed him in the Egyptian 
 tongue : 
 
 " Stranger, how comest thou in such a strait? 
 Verily had it not been for that patch of reeds, 
 the crocodiles that swarm about the temple quay 
 had sighted thy bobbing form, or the gripping 
 whirlpools around the Southern Bend had 
 drawn thee to the river's slimiest depths? 
 Breath of Sebek ! Thy pendant did indeed pro 
 tect thee!" 
 
 The question was understood, as was evident 
 from the color that rushed to the pale face, and 
 the intelligence that lit up the bright blue eyes.
 
 Renny Escaped the Crocodiles 89 
 
 No doubt the question recalled to the Syrian's 
 brain the memory of the attack which had so 
 nearly cost him his life. He struggled to his 
 feet. A draught of wine, and, in a few moments, 
 he seemed little the worse for his experience. 
 
 " Friends, 'tis a tale of jealousy. I am named 
 Benny, a Syrian, a sculptor attached to the 
 house of the Lord Menna, son of Menna, Over 
 seer of Pharaoh (health to him). I know not 
 who hath planned this murderous attack upon 
 me. No enemies have I to my knowledge." 
 
 He turned to Abdi: " Fellow countryman, I 
 thank thee that thou dids 't so opportunely go to 
 my rescue. May this bar requite thee !" Renny 
 slipped from his arm a broad band of gold and 
 handed it to Abdi. 
 
 Whether the excitement of the rescue and 
 rush of all hands to the side had had anything 
 to do with it or not no one could say, but at this 
 moment the clumsy barge suddenly yielded 
 itself to the renewed efforts of the chanting 
 polers, and swung around into mid-stream. 
 
 As it drew alongside the western landing-
 
 9O Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 stage, Renny leaped ashore. With a wave of the 
 hand to his rescuers, he abruptly disappeared 
 among the bales of hides and serried ranks of 
 great empty water jars, which were piled up 
 high along the shore, awaiting shipment to the 
 north. 
 
 Renny had seen a company of Royal Guards 
 men drawn up before the colonnaded portico of 
 the royal landing-stage. 
 
 He had nothing to fear from the soldiers. 
 These, he well knew, waited to escort the vic 
 torious General Ramses into Pharaoh's pres 
 ence. 
 
 Yet, at their head, idly swinging a jeweled 
 scarab which hung upon a long gold chain, stood 
 Bar, a spy in the service of Menna, the King's 
 Overseer, Renny 's powerful patron. 
 
 Renny had his reasons for seeking to avoid 
 the Prince 's servant at this juncture. He could 
 not shake off the feeling that Bar, the spy, was 
 concerned, in some way, with the attack that 
 had so nearly cost him his life.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 NOFERT-ARI DANCES BEFORE PHARAOH 
 
 IN chariots or carrying-chairs members of the 
 Court were hurrying to the Palace, to assist 
 at the feast planned to honor, at one and 
 the same time, Belur, the newly arrived Hittite 
 Ambassador, and the victorious Egyptian gen 
 eral, Eamses, but now returned from Nubia. 
 
 According to precedent Ramses would pre 
 sent himself before Pharaoh and the Court 
 in order to receive the customary favors be 
 stowed upon a victorious Egyptian leader, those 
 "favors which the King bestows " and "the 
 gold order of valor. ' ' 
 
 Throughout the long day the excitable Theban 
 populace had yelled itself hoarse, as one after 
 another the war-barges swung around the great 
 bend of the river, south of Thebes. 
 
 Each boat was marked by its standard-of- 
 cognizance, and no sooner was its mooring-stake
 
 92 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 driven into the bank than a yelling, ges 
 ticulating and joyfully-weeping hoard of rela 
 tives and friends of the crew burst upon its 
 decks. 
 
 From that moment, all signs of discipline 
 utterly vanished. Men, women and children en 
 tered upon one of those inevitable carouses 
 which, in Egypt, ever followed such a home 
 coming. 
 
 Everyone was coming up to Thebes in order 
 to witness the great celebration in honor of vic 
 tory. It being festival time even the indigent 
 passengers at the western bank were to-day 
 allowed to work their way across the river by 
 bailing the leaky ferryboats. 
 
 Thi, the Queen-Mother, in company with the 
 weak but pretty young queen, left the Women's 
 Apartments early, on her way to the Banquet- 
 hall. As she passed the various courts and 
 columned porticos the watchful eunuchs, guards 
 and servants, hurled themselves prostrate at 
 sight of her. On knees and elbows- they grov 
 eled, prayers for " health " and "long life" 
 upon their trembling lips.
 
 Nofert-ari Dances Before Pharoah 93 
 
 To the dreaded Thi, as to Pharaoh himself, 
 honors were rendered as to the gods. 
 
 And she whom Egypt feared, and Enana the 
 Magician dared ; she who had been called by her 
 friends Thi the Beautiful, by her enemies Thi 
 the Foreigner, Thi the Commoner, how shall we 
 best describe her? 
 
 The Queen-Mother's head was small, her low 
 forehead slightly retreated. Her nose was of 
 the delicate Syrian type, the tip somewhat 
 rounded, the nostrils well opened. From be 
 neath artificially prolonged eyebrows, eyebrows 
 shaved close and lightly penciled with black 
 antimony paste, glowed two large and lustrous 
 eyes. Thi's lips were full, but well-cut. Cruelty 
 showed in the drooping corners. 
 
 At this moment Thi was clad in one of the 
 richest costumes of the extravagant New Em 
 pire, a pale-green robe minutely plaited and 
 studded at intervals with lotus-flowers in beaten 
 gold. Gold plumes, which rose above a gem- 
 encrusted head-dress of vulture form, seemed 
 to give height and dignity to one who was in 
 reality a short and slender woman.
 
 94 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 About the great Queen '& throat, wrist and 
 ankles were broad bands of alternate gold bars 
 and minute cylinders of beryl and amethyst. 
 The names of Aton, the Syrian sun-god, 
 stamped in rich blue f ayence, hung from a long 
 chain well down upon her high bosom. 
 
 Though now no longer in the dazzling beauty 
 of her youth, Thi still possessed many a charm 
 of face and form. Yet, had she been devoid of 
 such, her voice had served to win for her the 
 great and powerful empire that was hers. At 
 the sound of it, one knew at once why in Akh- 
 min, where first her parents had settled, men 
 had called her Nightingale ; why, at a later date, 
 poets and singers of the Theban court had vied 
 with one another to do her honor. 
 
 No mere doll-faced beauty had caused the 
 former monarch to set aside Queen Hanit, an 
 exalted lady of the line of Egypt's royal house 
 and a lineal descendant of Ra the sun-god, yes, 
 and to cause the death of the unhappy Prince 
 Wazmes whom she had borne him. 
 
 Thi's face and form had been enough to set 
 kings and princes warring. Yet, to those prized
 
 Nofert-ari Dances Before Pharoah 95 
 
 gifts of Hathor, Beauty's Goddess, had Ptah of 
 Memphis added the voice of a ten-stringed lute, 
 and Khnum, Fashioner of Mankind, an intellect 
 that had quickly won to her by far the greater 
 number of the nobles of the court. 
 
 Thus had Thi, a foreigner, a woman sprung, 
 by descent at least, from common Syrian stock, 
 usurped the rightful place of the great Queen 
 Hanit, descendant of kings and a king's wife. 
 
 At the foot of a short flight of steps leading to 
 the festival hall, Thi and Menna met. They ex 
 changed the customary string of effusive greet 
 ings and honorifics. 
 
 As the Queen-Mother swept on she found her 
 way blocked by the crooked form of Enana. 
 The wizened old Magician stood leaning upon 
 his jackal-headed staff immediately in the cen 
 ter of the narrow passage. 
 
 Enana 's sole garment consisted of a long kilt 
 or tunic fastened at the waist by a jeweled belt, 
 and faced in front with squares of fine gold. 
 This was an affectation of a fashion long since 
 forgotten. 
 
 At Thi's cold greeting the puckered and
 
 96 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 heavily-lined face of this animated mummy 
 trembled with what might equally well have 
 answered for a smile or a grimace. Yet, be 
 neath his shaven eyebrows, his half -veiled eyes 
 glittered ominously, as they lifted for a second 
 to those of the frowning queen. Enana ignored 
 her greeting. 
 
 Involuntarily Thi shuddered, yet inwardly 
 cursed herself for a fool. It was only Enana, a 
 fellow who lived, nay, had lived for centuries, 
 'twas said, upon the credulity and superstition 
 of the Thebans! 
 
 Thi swept past him and out upon the balcony 
 overlooking the long hall. There she found 
 Noferith, her son's wife, the Princess Sesen, 
 and others of the maids of honor, awaiting her. 
 
 As Thi seated herself, Menna passed below 
 her balcony. He bowed to the two queens, yet 
 his eyes sought those of the Princess Sesen. 
 
 Menna, the King's Overseer, had again 
 yielded himself to the spell of a pair of lustrous 
 eyes and dimpled cheeks. He loved the little 
 Princess, as he had never loved before.
 
 Nofert-ari Dances Before Pharoah 97 
 
 For the past few weeks, Menna had wooed 
 the Princess assiduously. Thi, the Queen- 
 Mother, for reasons of her own, had sought to 
 aid him in his suit. 
 
 All in vain. 
 
 The little Princess would have none of him. 
 Thi knew well, as in fact did Menna, that Sesen's 
 heart was filled with thoughts of Eamses, with 
 hopes of his speedy return. Menna 's servant, 
 Bar, called by many " Menna 's shadow," as lean 
 and hungry looking as a neglected ka, sought to 
 convince his master that her indifference was 
 due to a present lover, some favorite among the 
 courtiers. Menna knew better, yet affected to 
 believe him. Meanwhile, unused to failure in 
 such enterprises, he continued to besiege the 
 Princess with well-turned couplets, rich and 
 ever-varied presents, and courtly flatteries. 
 
 At this moment, his restless black eyes sought 
 to attract those of the all-unconscious object of 
 his affections. His glance dwelt with delight 
 upon her spotless white gala robes. He noted 
 the graceful wig confined by a rose-colored fillet
 
 98 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 from which drooped fragrant white lotus- 
 flowers; the huge circular gold ear-rings, and 
 the flashing pectoral ornament a glitter of 
 jeweled inlays which rose and fell at every 
 breath. 
 
 Sesen's cheeks and lips were artificially red 
 dened, her eyebrows shaved and lightly penciled 
 with kohl, like those of the Queen and Queen- 
 Mother. Yet, unlike them, her tongue was 
 silent, her smiles had vanished. Sesen's somber 
 eyes evinced little interest in the bustle and joy 
 ful preparations about her. Twice did Noferith 
 the Queen, touch her with the dainty little scent- 
 tube she carried, in an effort to recall her to her 
 laughter-loving self. 
 
 Finally, after the sweet-scented lotus which 
 each lady carried had been changed but once, 
 the Princess Sesen rose, pleading faintness. 
 The sympathetic Queen whom she served, al 
 lowed her to retire without exacting the formal 
 prostration. 
 
 At her withdrawal Menna's disappointment 
 was intense. He sank back deep into his painted
 
 Nofert-ari Dances Before Pharoah 99 
 
 cedar chair. For Menna the feast was at an 
 end. 
 
 But not for the noisy revelers about him. 
 Even the haughty members of the Hittite am 
 bassador 's suite forgot for a moment their lofty 
 attitude of detachment. 
 
 For the corpulent Mentu, son of the Vizier 
 Kena, had whetted the appetites of these 
 Asiatics. Through the somewhat hesitating 
 medium of a sibilant Canaanitic dialect, the gar 
 rulous Mentu had somehow managed to make 
 them understand that the entire kitchen forces 
 of the governor of Thinis and of Hotepra, 
 Prince of On, had been brought upstream to as 
 sist the royal cooks. 
 
 "Indeed," said Mentu, "though whirling 
 sandstorms bury us; though drought and pes 
 tilence stalk the blistered banks of Hapi, yet 
 shall we enjoy the choicest viands, the rarest 
 wines," he clicked his purple tongue; "wines 
 whose seals have stood intact since good King 
 Ahmes' time! But, wait until thou seest 
 Nofert-ari ! Breath of Ea ! Then shalt thou say
 
 ioo Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 'Baal forgive me! Our country is afar off! 
 Between us lies the raging sea ! Egypt is a land 
 of pleasure and delight! Here let us tarry!' " 
 
 And so it proved. For marvel followed mar 
 vel with almost bewildering rapidity. 
 
 A dish that won the plaudits of all was an 
 enormous platter of Syrian craftsmanship. 
 Upon this gold dish, in the midst of gold reeds 
 and papyrus, swam ducks, plover, and other 
 aquatic birds. In a miniature skiff, a diminu 
 tive Egyptian boatman propelled his silver 
 craft over perfumed water. An Egyptian noble, 
 standing upright in the bow, aimed a jeweled 
 throw-stick at a flock of egrets which, with 
 wings outspread, quivered upon gold wires high 
 above a thicket of feathery papyrus. 
 
 The realistic little figures were of pastry, the 
 birds cooked with all their feathers on ! 
 
 Dishes of this sort were countless in number, 
 the design of the last more astonishing than that 
 of the first, since each jealous cook had sought 
 to outshine his rival, both in originality of de 
 sign and richness of material.
 
 Nofert-ari Dances Before Pharoah 101 
 
 But now, at a signal from Pennut the Usher, 
 Pharaoh rose from the throne and advanced to 
 the edge of the dais. To his feet the Usher led 
 the youthful Ramses. 
 
 And there, to the accompaniment of a deepen 
 ing roar of applause from the onlookers, Pha 
 raoh slipped about his victorious general's neck 
 that coveted distinction of the Egyptian mili 
 tary, the necklace of gold lions and flies. 
 
 In a brief lull the words of Pharaoh echoed 
 through the resplendent hall : 
 
 "Welcome, thrice welcome, Ramses! Let the 
 praises of thy lord expand thy heart ! Mei has 
 recounted the story of thy skill and energy in 
 the conducting of this most bitterly fought cam 
 paign. Where now are the chieftains of Nubia? 
 They have been ground down as the seed of the 
 date beneath the crusher, as eye-paint upon the 
 palette. Yea, they have become as grain which 
 the mill has crushed ! Now are the chieftains of 
 Wawat forced to sulk in the caves of the hyena. 
 As a fly hast thou worried them, as a lion hast 
 thou destroyed them ! We place these precious
 
 102 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 orders about thy throat. From this day thy re 
 nown is fragrant as the perfume of the Incense 
 Country. Arise! Take thy place beside us 
 as ' Fan -bearer -on- the -right-of -Pharaoh, thy 
 Lord!'" 
 
 At his elevation to this coveted position, re 
 newed applause seemed to shake the painted 
 roof. 
 
 Friends pressed forward to kiss the jeweled 
 chains and ornaments that had but now left the 
 hand of the god-king. Some hurled themselves 
 prostrate before these rewards which only Pha 
 raohs might bestow. 
 
 The King shot a covert glance in the direction 
 of the Balcony reserved for the royal harem. 
 The Queen-Mother shook her jeweled menat in 
 company with the other ladies. Yet, in Thi's 
 case, the action represented far more than mere 
 applause or acclamation. 
 
 The tactful Belur, Prince of the Hittites, in 
 turn, rose and added a few well chosen words of 
 praise for a difficult task so promptly and blood- 
 lessly accomplished.
 
 Nofert-ari Dances Before Pharoah 103 
 
 Pharaoh, watching him from beneath his 
 richly painted canopy, doubted the sincerity of 
 the smile that played about the handsome lips of 
 the Hittite. Again he resolved in his mind the 
 probable cause of the Hittite 's inopportune 
 visit. 
 
 A space was cleared in the center of the hall. 
 The tables, still groaning under the burden of 
 their barely glanced at dainties, disappeared as 
 if by magic. The well- woven mats and glossy 
 panther-skins were lifted from the stucco floor, 
 and out upon the space so made sprang a troupe 
 of lotus-wreathed girls, naked save for the 
 beaded cincture of maidenhood which encircled 
 their slender hips. 
 
 Scattering Syrian crocuses and the pure white 
 petals of the lotus, these coffee-colored little 
 maids, the very embodiment of childish grace, 
 pelted one another with the perfumed shower 
 until their little ankles were well-nigh hidden. 
 
 As if this had been a signal, the bright blue 
 warbonnet of Pharaoh was lifted from his head ; 
 an Asiatic slave-boy bathed the royal fingers
 
 104 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 and Pharaoh, with a nervous twitch to his long, 
 thin features, leaned back wearily against the 
 embroidered cushions placed at his back by the 
 attentive Dedu. 
 
 The last scene of what had proved a veritable 
 feast of marvels was about to commence. 
 
 The sudden entrance of the merry little chil 
 dren had been the prelude to "the King's 
 dance. ' ' 
 
 This dance was a far different performance 
 from that series of posturing and tumbling com 
 monly provided by the acrobats of old. 
 
 And it was thought that "the King's dance" 
 could only be performed by Nofert-ari, claimed 
 as daughter by the blind Tutiya, though known 
 to the irreverent youth of Thebes as the child 
 of Hathor, of the Goddess of Beauty, sprung 
 from the head of Ba. 
 
 At one end of the flowery carpet left by the 
 little children knelt three heavily-cloaked 
 women. Behind them squatted eight shaven- 
 headed harpers, clutching to their naked breasts 
 the gilded frames of their ten-stringed instru-
 
 Nofert-ari Dances Before Pharoah 105 
 
 ments. Back of these again were flute-players, 
 players on the hand drum, players on the ivory 
 castanets, and a group of men and women whose 
 duty it was to mark the syncopated time by 
 clapping their hands, agitating menats of jew 
 eled beads, or shaking sistra of silver or gold. 
 
 Suddenly, like the blood-curdling cry of a 
 savage desert-dweller, the high-pitched call of 
 Tutiya thrilled the heated frames of the expect 
 ant onlookers. 
 
 Instantly the harpers, in a soft and minor 
 key, commenced an air at once slow in measure, 
 plaintive and sad, an air that sounded distant 
 amid the confused murmur of a thousand voices, 
 the clatter of dishes and the distant tap-tap of 
 the butlers ' hurrying sandals. 
 
 The shrill cry of Tutiya had brought two of 
 the three women to their feet. Dropping the 
 cloaks that had enveloped them, they took their 
 places at some distance in front of the third 
 figure. 
 
 Turning toward the royal dais the two 
 dancers sank down in a slowly executed cour-
 
 io6 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 tesy, until the nodding lotus-flowers that 
 wreathed their curling wigs swept the flower- 
 strewn floor below him. 
 
 Then, in answer to Pharaoh's scarcely per 
 ceptible acknowledgment, slowly they rose upon 
 their slender feet and, with a ''life and health, 
 lords" placed themselves once more beside the 
 still motionless central figure. 
 
 All eyes were centered upon this well-cloaked 
 figure. It, too, now rose. 
 
 Was it motionless? It called to mind the 
 birth of some glorious butterfly or moth. 
 The undulating movement that one sees in the 
 soon to be discarded shell best described the 
 bursting of Nof ert-ari upon the delighted vision 
 of her audience as, shivering with the peculiar 
 motion seen but in those creatures of a day, she 
 suddenly dropped the dull-brown cloak that en 
 veloped her, and appeared fresh and smiling to 
 their view. 
 
 In the dancer Nof ert-ari we see a slim, though 
 willowy form, a form and countenance that rep 
 resented the very arch-type of all that an Egyp-
 
 Nofert-ari Dances Before Pharoah 107 
 
 tian held beautiful in women. A pair of spark 
 ling eyes, elongated, obliquely set, gleamed in 
 frames of blue-black antimony, which served to 
 accentuate the striking whiteness in which swam 
 their fathomless pupils. 
 
 On Nofert-ari 's head was set a dark brown wig 
 which, covered thickly as it was with a myriad 
 little knots and curls, dropped in well-regulated 
 layers until it grazed the tips of her thin and 
 high-set shoulders. This dainty perruque, 
 fringing with its line of dancing curls a fore 
 head that rivaled polished jasper, and touching 
 as it did at every move and gesture the outer 
 pencilings of her shaven and thickly kohl- 
 stained eyebrows, seemed to soften the rather 
 prominent cheekbones and perhaps too pointed 
 chin. The quiver of her wide though delicate 
 nostrils, bespoke a passionate nature, which the 
 faintest of dimples and the ivory flash of small 
 though regular teeth, did their best to contra 
 dict. The dancer's full round throat, her arms, 
 wrists, and well-formed bust, were ablaze with 
 jewels, amid which pale green beryl, dew-like
 
 io8 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 crystal, rose carnelian, gold, electrum and sil 
 ver, gleamed in opulent splendor, as her bosom 
 rose and fell. 
 
 As she stood, a pale blue lotus drooping above 
 each hidden ear, a jeweled menat in one hand, 
 her coffee-colored and well oiled skin agleam 
 with the reflected light of innumerable prismatic 
 colors, she seemed less an animated human form 
 than a figure carved, by Ptah the god of sculp 
 tors himself, from a block of glowing opal. 
 
 With her first perceptible motions the music 
 rose to the major key. The tune-beaters ac 
 centuated the broken rhythm more and more, 
 while Tutiya, her heavy though sightless eyes 
 glowing in their painted depths she too had 
 once been hailed a Theban favorite burst ever 
 and anon into the " Nubian cry," that blood- 
 stirring cry which acted as an incentive to her 
 now posturing daughter. 
 
 In the center of the flowery carpet stood 
 Nofert-ari, languidly shaking her jeweled menat. 
 Slowly she turned upon herself, the muscles of
 
 Nofert-ari Dances Before Pharoah 109 
 
 her lithe little body seeming to quiver in meas 
 ure with the vibrant thrumming of the many 
 stringed harps. 
 
 When again she faced the Egyptian mon 
 arch's dais, unlike the impassive gaze of Pha 
 raoh, her features seemed to have become trans 
 formed. The "King's dance," into which she 
 now threw all her fascination, all her mesmeric 
 charm and unrivaled ability, portrayed by 
 movement of the body and gesture alone the 
 meeting and stolen tryst of a pair of lovers. 
 
 At first she affected the love-smitten beauty, 
 a coy beauty, mindful of her many charms. 
 
 Suddenly with a start, a pigeon-like coo of 
 delight, she appeared to throw herself into her 
 lover's arms. 
 
 Again, with all the abandon of an artless 
 coquetry, she stretched out her long arms and 
 supple fingered hands as if to push him from 
 her. 
 
 Finally, with one or two graceful little steps, 
 accompanied by an arch glance over her
 
 no Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 shoulder, Nofert-ari advanced to the very edge 
 of the royal dais and commenced that portion of 
 the dance for which she was so famed. 
 
 Into this every muscle of her supple body was 
 forced to move in unison or singly as she willed. 
 Her lustrous eyes gleamed beneath their dark 
 ened eyebrows, her expanded nostrils quivered, 
 her full vermilioned lips were parted, the very 
 veins in her forehead throbbed in measure with 
 the refrain. As her supple arms, wrists, and 
 hands played about her body with a wavelike 
 an indescribable motion her jeweled bust and 
 firm, yet flexible hips, swayed to the spasmodic 
 movements natural to the dance. 
 
 The music ever increased in volume and, as 
 if to add contrast to the grace and beauty of 
 the peerless dancer, a hideous naked pigmy, 
 beating a tiny onoga-skin drum, leaped out upon 
 the floor beside her, and grotesquely imitated 
 her every move and gesture. 
 
 Thus, to a chorus of wild staccato yells from 
 Tutiya and the excited time-beaters, Nofert-ari, 
 her form seeming to undulate in fierce spas-
 
 Nofert-ari Dances Before Pharoah in 
 
 modic waves from breast to hip, with arms 
 thrown high above her head, fingers clenched 
 and eyes fast closed, sank slowly to the stucco 
 floor. 
 
 Presently, as she rose, still trembling, and 
 while the echoes of that clamorous applause still 
 reverberated amid the flaring lotus-capitals, a 
 royal usher hurried to her side, and in the name 
 of Pharaoh, presented her with a blue fayence 
 goblet of lotiform design. Inlaid in green, 
 white and red about the foot was an inscription 
 revealing her euphonious and happily-chosen 
 name, Nofert-ari, " She who is made of beauty." 
 
 Following the dance, Pharaoh had retired 
 within himself. He had assumed an air of 
 studied abstraction and aloofness. 
 
 Yet, Dedu remarked signs of nervousness in 
 the twitching of the jaw. Dedu had been born 
 in the palace, in the self-same year as his ex 
 alted master. Dedu might well have been 
 called, as indeed at times he was, his master's 
 "double," his other self. 
 
 In Pharaoh's slightly twitching hands and in
 
 112 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 the covert glances which from time to time he 
 directed toward the haughty leader of the 
 Hittites, Dedu spelled expectancy and, withal, 
 a nameless fear. 
 
 Then it was the Hittite, not Enana the Ma 
 gician, his royal master feared! Dedu knew 
 there had been much speculation as to the true 
 meaning of Belur's sudden and quite unex 
 pected visit to the Egyptian capital. 
 
 So far, oriental courtesy coupled with the 
 Egyptian's inherent regard for the rights of 
 hospitality had forbidden any outward evi 
 dences of impatience on the part of Pharaoh 
 or his august Mother. 
 
 And Pharaoh did well to distrust the wily 
 Hittite. With the pause that had followed the 
 withdrawal of Nofert-ari and her assistants, the 
 Asiatic prince rose to his feet, slowly lifting his 
 jeweled hand to command attention. His keen 
 glance swept the heads of the swaying crowd 
 which craned its neck the better to see him and 
 to hear his words. 
 
 The Prince of Charchemish bowed to Pha-
 
 Nofert-ari Dances Before Pharoah 113 
 
 raoh. Slowly lie arranged the sash which 
 served to hold in place his fringed robes and 
 the little ivory-handled dagger which rested in 
 its folds. 
 
 Silence fell upon the noisy revelers, an 
 ominous silence. It seemed as if Pharaoh's ner 
 vousness had somehow mysteriously communi 
 cated itself to the various groups of Egyptian 
 nobles gathered about him. 
 
 Belur the Hittite began to speak. He dwelt 
 at length upon the many occasions during which 
 Egyptian ships had brought grain and other 
 food to famine-stricken Asia. He thanked Great 
 Pharaoh for his present hospitality and the 
 courteous consideration which had been shown 
 him since first he landed upon the fertile soil of 
 Egypt. He dwelt upon the power for good 
 exerted by Egypt, not only in Asia, but among 
 the savage tribes of Nubia, as witness the vic 
 torious campaign just brought to a close, and 
 which they were at that moment celebrating. 
 
 knowing the might of Pharaoh, lord of 
 Egypt, Bimur, King of Charchemish, his
 
 H4 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 brother, had sent him down into Egypt, that he 
 might effect an alliance with the throne of 
 Egypt, an alliance which he was sure would 
 eventually prove of mutual benefit to Thebes 
 and Charchemish alike. 
 
 In token of his fraternal esteem Rimur had 
 sent to Egypt a full shipload of the treasure of 
 his country and of the countries adjacent 
 thereto. Its hold was filled with the gold and 
 silver vessels of Zahi, with swords and daggers 
 cunningly damascened with gold, the work of 
 Megiddan craftsmen. Inlaid corselets were 
 there, jeweled quivers, gauntlets worked with 
 gold and silver threads, and shawls for the 
 ladies of the courts, so finely woven that they 
 might be passed with ease through Pharaoh's 
 golden signet-ring. To the Queen, the Hittite 
 King had sent a covered carrying-chair, of 
 stamped leather richly gilded; to the august 
 Queen-Mother, a golden goblet from the hancls 
 of Ilg of Kadesh; and lastly, to Pharaoh, his 
 kingly brother, three fully equipped chariots, 
 together with nine Syrian horses, swifter than
 
 Nofert-ari Dances Before Pharoah 115 
 
 the north- wind, to draw them I In the name of 
 King Rimur, his brother, he asked for the hand 
 of the eldest daughter of Pharaoh his brother, 
 the Princess Aten-merit, in marriage ! 
 
 During this speech Pharaoh's nervous fears 
 had gradually given place to astonishment and 
 finally to anger. This new-found arrogance and 
 assurance among the "little people" was an 
 entirely new departure. 
 
 As he rose to his feet to reply there was a 
 look upon his face which neither Belur nor his 
 own courtiers had expected to see. Before that 
 look even Belur 's assumed effrontery slowly 
 dissolved. 
 
 "Son of Rabatta, it is now less than a year 
 since a Hittite embassy stood within this very 
 hall! Like thee, it came freighted with the 
 rarest and richest products of the Asiatics ! If 
 we remember rightly its offerings included one 
 hundred logs of Lebanus cedar, five hundred 
 pounds of Cilician silver, three hundred pounds 
 of the true lapis-lazuli of Babylon, two hun 
 dred gold and electrum goblets, with choice
 
 n6 Hank: the Enchantress 
 
 silver vases of the workmanship of Zahi! In 
 comparison with this, thy meager offerings 
 seem to prove that Charchemish hath lost its 
 hold upon the Lebanus, upon the Cilician mines, 
 upon the princes of Zahi, of Kadesh and 
 Megiddo? Or perhaps thy brother hath for 
 gotten the circumstances which prompted his 
 father's princely gift? Not with gifts for 
 favors to be received came Eabatta thy father ! 
 Nay, with tribute, with the tribute of a vassal 
 did he come ! With tribute exacted through fear 
 of Egypt's might. 
 
 "Take back this message to Eimur thy 
 brother! Thus saith Pharaoh of Egypt: ' 'Tis 
 but a breath of time since Babatta knelt at 
 Pharaoh's knee, swearing fealty! "Wherefore 
 hath Eimur, his son, failed to do the like ? ' 
 
 "As to thy insolent proposal, when hath a 
 Daughter of the Sun left the land of Egypt at 
 the beck and call of rebel princelings? 'Tis in 
 our mind to hold thee hostage for thy brother's 
 quick return to reason. Yet, go! And with
 
 Nofert-ari Dances Before Pharoah 117 
 
 thee take thy gifts, fit only to dazzle some sav 
 age Amu!" 
 
 At Pharaoh's words Belur the Hittite took a 
 step nearer to the royal dais. A covert sneer 
 played about his well-cut lips, though his eyes 
 were hard, his cheek pale. Raising his hand 
 with a gesture almost threatening once again 
 he addressed the trembling monarch : 
 
 "Hear me, Pharaoh! One other word my 
 august brother sends to Pharaoh, king of 
 Egypt. The Hittite army is to-day one hundred 
 thousand strong. The princes of Zahi and 
 Naharin, the kings of Kadesh, Gezer and Me- 
 giddo, have joined their forces unto his ! Of thy 
 Syrian vassals half have left thee ! The Kha- 
 biri are up ! Bibaddi alone stands true to thee 
 and, even he by now doubtless has fed a vul 
 ture's maw. 
 
 "Hearken to the words of Rimur, my brother ! 
 Thy present state is well known to us! Thy 
 plague- stricken land stands on the brink of a 
 great religious war ! In Nubia to the south, as
 
 n8 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 in thy Asiatic possessions to the north, thy 
 vassal-states have risen in revolt against thee ! 
 Nay, Pharaoh, heed the words of Rimur my 
 brother, or thy Asiatic possessions are lost to 
 thee ! Great Kheta, the combined armies of all 
 the Asiatic principalities, stand at thy very 
 gates ready to devour thee ! Thus saith Rimur, 
 Lord of lords, King of kings, Lion that Devour- 
 eth Lions I" 
 
 Pharaoh's face was terrible to see. His jaws 
 worked, the veins upon his forehead stood out 
 like knotted ropes, his large eyes flashed with 
 fires of wrath. He quickly raised his golden 
 scepter as if he would have felled the audacious 
 Hittite at his feet. The wand of sard and gold 
 snapped between his clenched fingers. 
 
 Controlling himself by a mighty effort Pha 
 raoh pointed to the door and somehow managed 
 to articulate the one word: "Begone!"
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE LUMINOUS BOOK 
 
 HIGH up among the tombs lived Unis, 
 neophyte of the Temple of Amen. The 
 abandoned tomb-chapel which served to 
 shelter him immediately overlooked the tree- 
 embowered villa of Enana the Magician, for 
 whom, at times, the youthful prophet worked. 
 His only attendant was Bata, an aged Ethio 
 pian, not so long ago his nurse. 
 
 Bata was seen almost daily in the market 
 place. Here she not only collected the various 
 offerings of the simple herdsmen and peasants, 
 but acted as go-between in the affairs of the 
 superstitious farmers, herdsmen and petty 
 officials who were in the habit of consulting her 
 master. For Unis carried on a desultory prac 
 tice in necromancy, astrology and divination. 
 Bata collected the fees, which were generally 
 paid in kind. 
 
 119
 
 120 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 Unis spent the few "auspicious days'* which 
 the Egyptian calendar allowed to each month, 
 seated upon a low bench beneath a sycamore 
 tree on the border of a narrow canal, immedi 
 ately opposite Enana's island home. Here he 
 listened to those who came to consult him or 
 wrote letters for those who required it. 
 
 In his character of seer, Unis had found it 
 necessary to act in many varied capacities. 
 During the course of a single day, he was often 
 called upon to act as scribe, physician, exorcist, 
 diviner, faith-healer and farmer. 
 
 Unis was supposed to know the past ; he could 
 foretell the future. He could "see" one who 
 had tampered with his neighbor 's landmarks or 
 altered the flow of water in his neighbor's dykes. 
 He could forewarn of an approaching sand 
 storm that nine days' terror of the traveler. 
 He could provide the necessary amulets against 
 the bite of snake or scorpion. He could tell the 
 whereabouts of lost cattle or name that man or 
 woman who had made off with the offerings to 
 the dead. 
 
 Thus, a timid maiden, desirous of a love-
 
 The Luminous Book 121 
 
 charm, was advised to drink the ashes of a 
 lizard dissolved in water and to swallow it, with 
 a prayer to Hathor, some auspicious evening 
 when Aah, the silver moon, shone at her 
 brightest. 
 
 Consulted by some young gallant of the city, 
 on similar, though less wholesome lines, Unls 
 would draw a circle in the sand. A circle, a gold 
 bangle ! Money can open many a door I 
 
 The circle might be readily understood, but 
 the outline of the jackal above it death's em 
 blem, spiritual and physical was generally 
 beyond the young man's powers of comprehen 
 sion. 
 
 To the aged Teta, desirous of a potion which 
 would assure to him the wished for one hundred 
 and ten years, Unis replied: "I see the fea-bird 
 poised above thy tomb. ' ' Teta was found dead 
 upon his couch the following morning. 
 
 To Benta the ambitious Unis had taught the 
 value of patience by pointing to Auta hard at 
 work upon his granite statue of the Princess 
 Bekit-aton. 
 
 Six months of cutting, chiseling, rubbing and
 
 122 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 burnishing had the persevering Auta lavished 
 upon his masterpiece, and, throughout those 
 weary months, but three simple implements had 
 served him for his difficult task a wooden mal 
 let, a bronze chisel and a flint burnisher. Apart 
 from this, sand, water and emery-dust were 
 Auta's only helpers. 
 
 Though Unis was consulted by peasant and 
 petty official, peasant and official alike con 
 sidered him mad. As such he became a person 
 to be pitied and cared for, as one afflicted by the 
 gods, yet one through whom the gods spoke. 
 Thus, Unis could come and go wheresoever and 
 whensoever he pleased. 
 
 Except for his periodic visits to the sycamore, 
 Unis was rarely seen. All his time was spent 
 in the great temple library or amidst the crum 
 bling shrines and half-choked tombs of the 
 necropolis. 
 
 To the guards of the cemetery he was some 
 one 's animated ka, a restless 'soul' seeking, per 
 haps, to identify his ruined tomb or to find and 
 become reunited to the lost 'souls' of his wife 
 and children. He was constantly on the lips
 
 The Luminous Book 123 
 
 of the public-storytellers as an ever-present 
 example of the truth of one of the oldest and 
 most familiar of Egyptian wondertales, the 
 Adventures of Menti. 
 
 In point of fact, Unis was as much flesh and 
 blood as anyone. Yet none, whether courtier, 
 priest or peasant, could have guessed the reason 
 of his tireless researches among the open shafts 
 and ruined chapels of the older part of the great 
 Theban cemetery. 
 
 However, the very fact that the Thebans were 
 so frequently regaled with the story of Menti 
 might well have given them a clue as to the true 
 reason of Unis' occupation in that haunted spot. 
 
 It seems that Menti 's "spirit" returned from 
 enjoying a few hours among living men and re- 
 entered his mummy to find that the bodies of 
 his wife and child were missing from their 
 coffins. Menti at once compelled their restora 
 tion by means of his knowledge of the names, 
 charms and talismans contained in "the magic 
 Book of Thoth. 
 
 Written, 'twas said, by the God Thoth him 
 self, this wonder-working Book had once be-
 
 124 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 longed to that Architect and Seer of old, Im- 
 hotep. It was a common saying in Unis' day 
 that the Great Step Pyramid west of white- 
 walled Memphis, could never have been raised 
 had it not been for the compelling incantations 
 recited in the prescribed attitude and with the 
 proper tone of voice by that now deified archi 
 tect of the godkings of old, Imhotep. 
 
 Before the death of Imhotep, it was said that 
 he had hidden the Magic Book behind the sar 
 cophagus in which lay King Zozer, his master, 
 deep within his stupendous pyramid. A thou 
 sand years later its hiding place had been re 
 vealed to Amenhotep, son of Hap, in a dream. 
 
 Amenhotep's possession of the Book must 
 have been a fact. How else could he have 
 erected the colossal Temple to the "spirit" of 
 the late Pharaoh ; how otherwise could he have 
 built the Temple at Kha-en-Mat, the beautiful 
 Temple on the Island and the great colonnaded 
 Temple of Amen, upon which, at the command 
 of Pharaoh Akhten-aton, work had but recently 
 been relinquished.
 
 The Luminous Book 125 
 
 Indeed, without Thoth to assist him, who 
 could have raised the two great statues of the 
 late Pharaoh, over seven hundred tons in 
 weight. Who could have lifted above the court 
 the stupendous architraves of his Mortuary 
 Temple, two hundred tons of stone, and, finally, 
 who could have perfected the huge stone tablet, 
 thirty feet in height, and covered it with gold 
 and gems? None but the God Thoth, of course ! 
 
 But, would Thoth willingly stop the Sunboat 
 and descend to earth merely to raise for men 
 monuments that should rival the very halls of 
 the gods themselves? 
 
 Not unless compelled thereto by the fact that 
 his Names were known to mortals, his stolen 
 Talismans in the possession of some inhabitant 
 of earth. 
 
 One object alone on earth contained those 
 Hidden Names and Talismans, together with 
 the "Utterances" which could compel both 
 Thoth and Set to leave their appointed places 
 in the sky and descend to earth. 
 
 This series of irresistible "incantations,"
 
 126 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 these compelling " utterances" which could thus 
 drag the very gods from heaven, were all con 
 tained in the "Luminous Book of Thoth." 
 
 Herein were inscribed the Hidden Names of 
 all the Gods, the Triads, the Enneads of the 
 Sky. Herein were the Mysterious Names of the 
 Keepers of the Double Gates of Heaven ; of the 
 Serpents that guard the approaches of Duat, of 
 Ea in his Boat, of Osiris on his Throne ! 
 
 So awe-inspiring a hold upon the imagina 
 tion of the Thebans had the legend of this mys 
 terious Book that its name was never men 
 tioned. Earely, indeed, was it alluded to by the 
 priests. 
 
 Like that of Pharaoh,. the sun-god manifest in 
 the flesh, like that of the Unseen Statue of the 
 Great Temple of Amen, like that of the ab 
 horred Crocodile God of Ombos, its name was 
 never taken upon the lips. 
 
 When the architect Amenhotep, son of Hap, 
 was gathered to his fathers, Pharaoh com 
 manded that he should be buried beneath a
 
 The Luminous Book 127 
 
 little temple which stood somewhat to the south 
 of his own stupendous mortuary temple. 
 
 Here, for a time, Unis had acted as lector, 
 intoning the prayers and offering to the hidden 
 &o-statue of the dead architect the various por 
 tions of meat, bread and wine with which Pha 
 raoh had endowed the tomb, out of taxes 
 received from the nearby town of Onit. In so 
 doing, Unis stood immediately above the sub 
 terranean chamber in which the mummy of 
 Amenhotep lay. 
 
 Unis had been called from his duties at the 
 son of Hap's tomb by Enana, and set to worE 
 among the ancient manuscripts of the great 
 library of Amen. 
 
 Enana would have him find some clue to the 
 present whereabouts of the Book of Thoth. As 
 he loved life and feared death he was told to 
 keep for his master's ears alone any news to 
 this effect. 
 
 Unis soon became an initiate of the Sorcerers 
 of Amen, then minor prophet of Amen. "With
 
 128 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 such a powerful master as Enana, First Magi 
 cian of the Temple, Unis felt that he should go 
 far. He gave himself up wholly to the work in 
 hand. Certain hints gleaned from the docu 
 ments led him to believe that the Book had, as of 
 old, been secreted in a tomb, in this case an un 
 named tomb on the western shore. 
 
 Unis took up his residence in one of the aban 
 doned tombs. With unremitting assiduity and 
 stoical fortitude he spent day after day among 
 the excoriated boulders, the dusty mounds, the 
 bat-infested shafts and tumbled-in shrines 
 which constituted the older corner of the The- 
 ban necropolis. 
 
 In this fruitless search the Gods Hunger and 
 Thirst were his only companions. 
 
 Unis turned once more to the library. With 
 indomitable patience he continued his re 
 searches among its unending shelves of musty 
 documents. 
 
 Soon he noticed that the name of Amenhotep, 
 the son of Hap, was very frequently coupled 
 with that of the lost Book. In fact, Unis finally
 
 The Luminous Book 129 
 
 convinced himself that the Book lay buried with 
 the body of that old sage, in the subterranean 
 vault of the little temple at which he had for 
 merly served. 
 
 Armed with permission to spend a night in 
 the temple, Unis waited until Ahmes, the pres 
 ent &a-priest, had retired into the outer fore 
 court, in an alcove of which he slept. When the 
 aged priest had snuffed out his lamp, Unis 
 descended into the vault immediately beneath 
 the offering-tablet and altar. 
 
 With determined perseverance, Unis tapped 
 walls and floor, slowly, systematically. In the 
 western corner of the floor his work met with 
 success. The pavement thereabouts emitted a 
 hollow sound. In a few moments Unis had lifted 
 a square slab which fitted so nicely to the floor 
 that the joints had been invisible. Lamp in 
 hand, Unis descended a short flight of steps, 
 picked his way along an uneven rocky passage, 
 and presently stood in the vaulted tomb-cham 
 ber of the son of Hap. 
 
 For an instant unreasoning fear clutched at
 
 130 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 the heart of the reckless priest. There stood 
 the alabaster sarcophagus which held the body 
 of the sage. Unis read the inscription engraved 
 upon the side: "Amenhotep, born of Yatu; his 
 father Hap, son of Hap, Justified of Osiris." 
 There lay Amenhotep and, with him, the Book. 
 
 The Book I Unis 'fears vanished. Trembling 
 with excitement and high hopes the young priest 
 set himself to his self-imposed task. It was an 
 auspicious night in the calendar of the prophets 
 of Amen! The Star of Thoth was in the 
 ascendent ! 
 
 Unis set to work with a short, stout bronze 
 bar. Hour after hour went by unnoted by the 
 feverishly excited youth. 
 
 At last the stone cover yielded to his efforts. 
 Unis' eyes gleamed with joy and anticipation. 
 Enana, his master, would be hailed as one with 
 Imhotep, builder of the pyramids, with Ptah- 
 hotep the Philosopher, with Amenhotep, son of 
 Hap, himself! Perhaps he too would compel 
 the gods to do his bidding ! 
 
 Unis gave a last push to the great cover. It 
 fell to the sand-covered floor with a plull thud.
 
 The Luminous Book 131 
 
 He lowered the lamp. There before him was 
 the outer coffin of the old sage. This, in turn, 
 Unis lifted and found, beneath, the gem- 
 crusted coffin solid gold it seemed in which 
 Amenhotep's royal master had caused the son 
 of Hap to be placed. 
 
 The heat in the little chamber was intense. 
 The blood in Urn's ' temples throbbed with his 
 exertions. His body gleamed in the flickering 
 light ; perspiration ran from every pore. For a 
 time the youth returned to the upper chamber 
 where he could fill his lungs with the purer and 
 cooler air. 
 
 But not for long. In a few moments he re 
 turned to the tomb chamber. He lifted the gor 
 geous coffin-lid from the linen-swathed form it 
 concealed. At once the stifling odor of myrrh, 
 liquidambar, cinnamon, and other strong es 
 sences again almost overcame him. 
 
 Unis bent down. With an effort he lifted the 
 mummified figure. He felt about underneath 
 the head. Nothing ! Unis tried the feet of the 
 tightly-draped figure. No book ! 
 
 Then Unis did something for which he knew
 
 132 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 punishment on earth was severe. What might 
 be his fate in the hereafter Unis did not dare to 
 think! Lifting the body from the coffin alto 
 gether, he commenced slowly and methodically 
 to unwrap it. Yard upon yard of aromatic 
 linens he loosened, until finally nothing but the 
 blackened form of Amenhotep lay before him. 
 
 No eyes had Unis for the jewels with which 
 Amenhotep 's sorrowing master had covered the 
 dead architect. The throbbing brain of Unis 
 was concentrated upon but one thing, the Magic 
 Book. 
 
 It was not in the wrappings. It was not be 
 tween the knees of the deceased, where, as Unis 
 knew, so often documents are placed. It was 
 not between the folded hands of Amenhotep. It 
 was neither at his head nor at his feet. 
 
 Unis replaced the body in its coffin, throwing 
 the linens in upon it pellmell. He covered it 
 with its two wooden covers. The great stone 
 outer cover he knew must stay where it had 
 fallen. He could have that replaced by others, 
 following his report on the present condition of
 
 The Luminous Book 133 
 
 the extra wrappings of the son of Hap, which 
 had been his ostensible reason for entering the 
 tomb. 
 
 Unis once again took mallet in hand. He 
 carefully and methodically examined both walls 
 and floor. 
 
 He dared not rap upon the False Door. 
 Behind it slept Amenhotep's living self, as 
 represented by his statue. 
 
 Unis had far more terror of that enchanted 
 wooden portrait of the dead man than he had 
 of the body, 1 the shell, of Amenhotep itself. 
 
 Alas, all his efforts were in vain. The Book 
 of Books was not in the tomb. 
 
 Bitterly disappointed, Unis stooped to pick 
 up his flickering lamp. As he did so his eyes fell 
 upon a gleaming object which was almost hidden 
 in the sand at his feet. Mechanically he picked 
 it up and glanced at the blue and green inlays. 
 The ta-emblem and solar-disc upon its gold 
 base showed it to be the scarab-ring of Amen 
 hotep, son of Hap. 
 
 From that date, Unis spent all the daylight
 
 134 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 hours among the tombs of the Theban cemetery. 
 He systematically covered every foot of the hill 
 side, entering both the ancient tombs, and the 
 modern, as far as he was allowed. At night he 
 delved among the ancient scrolls of the library 
 of Amen. 
 
 Each night upon his return he had been met 
 by the impatient Enana. Every night, week in, 
 week out, he had perforce to shake his head, to 
 spread his scratched and often bleeding hands 
 deprecatingly. 
 
 Of late Unis ' step had lost its elasticity. An 
 unnatural brightness glistened in his sunken 
 eyes. To-night, especially, Enana 9 s mind had 
 been filled with anxiety for his safety. 
 
 Unis should have rounded the point by the 
 tamarisk grove hours ago. Enana 's anxiety 
 was not for Unis. His one thought was of the 
 Book. The Book he must have, if he would put 
 his present plans into effect. 
 
 Had the young priest but known it, he was 
 the third person sacrificed by Enana, the Magi 
 cian, to the finding of the Book. 
 
 As Enana turned to enter the low doorway
 
 The Luminous Book 135 
 
 of the tomb in which Unis had recently taken 
 up his quarters, an unusual light in the valley 
 below caught his attention. He paused. At 
 the foot of the steep incline, at the upper 
 reaches of which he stood, moved an unnatural 
 pinkish flame. It seemed to palpitate, to wax 
 and wane as it moved, for move it did. 
 
 Nearer, ever nearer, it came, constantly grow 
 ing larger and brighter, until suddenly by its 
 light Enana recognized the pallid face of Unis, 
 his assistant. 
 
 As Unis came towards him the overjoyed 
 Enana noticed that his long thin arms were held 
 straight out before him, that there, upon his up 
 turned palms lay the Luminous Book! 
 
 It needed no word of Unis to tell him what it 
 was. The light that glowed about its pure white 
 leather cover proved it the Book of Books. 
 
 The overjoyed Magician advanced toward the 
 young priest, but suddenly halted, as he caught 
 the horrible expression which distorted the lat 
 ter 's livid face. It was as if Unis was being 
 compelled against his will to hold the Book. 
 
 Unis' eyes were open, but they did not seem
 
 136 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 to see. His feet carried him along, whither he 
 seemed not to care. Foam flecked his black 
 ened lips ; beads of perspiration stood out upon 
 his forehead. 
 
 Gazing straight before him, slowly Unis ad 
 vanced. Hesitating for a bare second at the 
 threshold of the doorway one might have sup 
 posed that he was unfamiliar with it he 
 slowly entered the chamber, set the Book care 
 fully down upon a cedar table near the upper 
 wall, turned and left as silently as he had en 
 tered. 
 
 The room, which had formerly been in total 
 darkness, was now illumined as though by a 
 temple lamp. For a moment Unis paused, 
 turned his unseeing eyes full upon his master, 
 the next he had vanished behind a great stone 
 stela which stood beside the ancient tomb which 
 had been his dwelling place. 
 
 Far better it had been for Unis had he con 
 tinued to fear the pursuing fury of the lea-statue 
 of the son of Hap ! 
 
 Alas for Unis! Searching one day through
 
 The Luminous Book 137 
 
 the manuscripts of the library of Hotephra, 
 Great High Priest of Amen, he had stumbled 
 upon the son of Hap's will. It lay folded in 
 the High Priest's copy of the temple ritual. The 
 secret hiding-place of the Book wa c thus re 
 vealed to him.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 PHABAOH SEEKS TO EXALT A FOREIGN GOD 
 
 PHARAOH stirred. 
 At once two ebony black Nubians recom 
 menced to wave their ostrich-feather fans 
 above his restless head. 
 
 Again did Shamash, an Asiatic eunuch, hold 
 to his master's nose a small glass phial of som- 
 nific poppy-oil. 
 
 Once again did Bekit, his little daughter, 
 chafe with fragrant sandal oil his fleshless 
 ankles. 
 
 All in vain ! Pharaoh's frame failed to relax. 
 
 Suddenly, with an impatient gesture, Pharaoh 
 pushed aside the ivory head-rest and summoned 
 Dedu, Keeper of the Royal Linen. 
 
 The rebuffed, but smiling Bekit, held to her 
 father's lips a blue glazed goblet filled to its 
 lotif onn brim with sparkling Thinite wine. As 
 he drank, the swaying forms of Ata and Mai,
 
 Pharaoh Exalts a Foreign God 139 
 
 youngest of the court dancers, rose from the 
 floor beyond him. Barely had they assumed a 
 single graceful posture before the gold seal-ring 
 upon Pharaoh's hand flashed in the semi-gloom. 
 He waved them impatiently aside. 
 
 Entering softly, Dedu, Keeper of the Royal 
 Linen, carefully drew back the curtains from 
 the windows. These green byssus draperies 
 had served to keep out the brilliant rays of the 
 sun, as reflected from Queen Thi's "pleasure 
 lake," on the northern shore of which Perao, the 
 royal palace, stood. 
 
 Thus, one might admire the charming decora 
 tion of the room, with its green tiled walls, its 
 cedar columns, its elaborately designed ceiling, 
 and its painted stucco floor covered with pow 
 dered lazuli and gold dust. 
 
 In answer to a hasty motion on the part of 
 his silent master, Dedu commenced to bind him 
 in the long, flaring-skirted gala robes of the 
 day, things of wonder for the seemingly in 
 numerable ramifications of their softly rippling 
 white pleats. A gem-encrusted belt of ruddy
 
 140 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 Nubian gold was clasped about his slender 
 waist, a girdle broad in the back and tapering 
 towards the front, where a fiercely charging 
 oryx, carved from a solid block of Babylonian 
 lazuli, served to conceal the mechanism of the 
 clasp. The restless monarch's feet were bound 
 in soft gazelle-hide sandals, sandals dyed a 
 rich rose-pink, gilded and turned up at the toe. 
 Over a padded linen skull-cap was set the royal 
 warbonnet, a magnificent dome-shaped head 
 dress of a brilliant sky blue. From the center 
 of this regal head-covering, and immediately 
 above the monarch's low and unnaturally re 
 treating forehead, the red jasper eyes of two 
 golden asps glittered like spots of hidden fire, 
 as they quivered upon flexible wires with every 
 movement of the impatient monarch. 
 
 In public, the vain and indolent monarchs 
 who had followed Thothmes, Conqueror of Asia, 
 had ever affected the Warbonnet above all other 
 headdresses. At sight of its bright blue inlays 
 the discreet and sycophantic courtiers invari 
 ably burst into vociferous applause; the sol-
 
 Pharaoh Exalts a Foreign God 141 
 
 diers, with howls of delight, broke into stirring 
 war-dances. With the people at large it was 
 hailed with delight. To them it symbolized Im 
 perial Egypt, an Egypt to which tribute arrived 
 from Nubia to the ''great bend" of the distant 
 Euphrates. Thus, policy had dictated the 
 Linen Keeper's choice, for the fiction of Pha 
 raoh as world-conqueror must be maintained. 
 
 Deftly the fawning Dedu encircled Pharaoh's 
 emaciated arms and wrists with jeweled bands, 
 his hollow chest with the wesekJi, a broad, flat 
 band of jewels composed of alternate strands of 
 van-colored stones. The tender green of 
 Nubian emerald, the soft rose of native car- 
 nelian, the violet or rich purple of Asiatic 
 amethyst and the several red tones of trans 
 lucent sard and banded agate, were intensified 
 as much by Pharaoh's swarthy countenance as 
 by the pure white linen tunic over which they 
 were spread. 
 
 Finally, the scepter of gold, banded with deep 
 red sardonyx, was placed in Pharaoh's ner 
 vously twitching hand, and Akhten-aton, "Ter-
 
 142 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 TOT of Asia/' shuffled to the door, where his 
 ivory carrying-chair, his sixteen priestly bear 
 ers, his sun-shade and fan-bearers, and his pet 
 lion, awaited him. 
 
 With the inevitable prayer for "health and 
 long life" upon their lips, one and all saluted 
 the god-king by raising their right hands and 
 crooking their lean backs in the obsequious 
 Syrian mode, but recently introduced. 
 
 In the columned forecourt of the Great Hall, 
 the stentorian voice of the Court Herald 
 warned of Pharaoh's approach and Akhten- 
 aton, Son of the Sun-god, Lord of the Two 
 Lands, Ruler of Rulers, Bull that Goreth Bulls, 
 gave the looked-for signal that should start the 
 forward movement of that great procession 
 which would usher him into the Double Audi 
 ence Hall with all the dignity of a ruler, whose 
 sway, nominally at least, extended from the 
 further confines of Nubia to the Great Eiver of 
 Mitanni. 
 
 Soon, no one but Wozer, Keeper of the Gates, 
 his spear-men and the cooks and butlers, re-
 
 Pharaoh Exalts a Foreign God 143 
 
 mained within the palace walls. It was with a 
 sigh of satisfaction that Wozer heard the ever- 
 receding tones of the chanting prophets and 
 priestesses of the temple who headed the pro 
 cession. 
 
 'As Ptah the Cellarer rolled heavily by, Wozer 
 made a gesture expressive at once of thirst and 
 a good game. Thereafter, Ptah and he forgot, 
 for a time, that there was a gate to watch or 
 fragrant jars of wine to seal. Skull-cap to 
 headcloth, both lost themselves in a high-staked 
 game of draughts ! 
 
 The Great Double Hall to which Pharaoh had 
 been conducted consisted of a long, high nave. 
 On either side this gigantic lotus-columned nave 
 stood smaller aisles. Both nave and aisles were 
 bathed in the subdued light which filtered 
 through pierced alabaster gratings. 
 
 The dimly seen roof was composed of huge 
 flat slabs of sandstone painted blue, and dotted 
 with myriads of little gold stars. The bulging 
 shafts of the columns which supported it 
 gigantic pillars covered from capital to base
 
 144 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 with brilliantly colored representations of 
 Egypt's host of deities glowed in the shim 
 mering light with a thousand prismatic colors. 
 The floor was of beaten gold, its high walls a 
 glitter of yellow tiles inlaid with varicolored 
 paste hieroglyphs. These seemingly unending 
 lines of inscription extolled the late Pharaoh for 
 gifts which he had given, perforce, to the tem 
 ples, or lauded him for certain imaginary deeds 
 of prowess performed in unknown campaigns 
 in Nubia and Asia. 
 
 At the upper end of the hall, raised upon a 
 low dais, stood the throne of Egypt, the 
 " golden throne of Horus." As was fitting, its 
 curved arms were supported by the bent backs 
 of pinioned Nubians and Asiatics. 
 
 To the right, and immediately overlooking the 
 royal dais, was a balcony reserved for Nof erith, 
 the Queen; for Thi, the all-powerful Queen- 
 Mother, and for a few favored ladies of their 
 suites. This balcony, at the moment, was hung 
 with rich embroideries. 
 
 In front of Pharaoh's throne stood painted
 
 Pharaoh Exalts a Foreign God 145 
 
 cedar vase-stands, from whose blue-glazed jars 
 drooped sprays of feathery acacia, sweet- 
 scented mimosa and nodding papyrus. To the 
 left, high upon a lotus-festooned stand, stood a 
 huge oryx-handled bowl of solid gold, part of 
 the Asiatic spoil of Pharaoh's warlike ancestor 
 Thothmes, the conqueror of Asia. From its 
 fitfully glowing interior rose a thin blue line of 
 aromatic incense, which broke and spread in 
 gray, semi-transparent rings as it touched the 
 gold stars which dimly flashed amidst the deep 
 blue of its lofty ceiling. 
 
 The herald's announcement of the approach 
 of Pharaoh stopped for a moment the sibilant 
 whispers of the ladies, as the court nobles, a 
 line of white-robed figures, ranged themselves 
 about the dais in order of precedence. Soon 
 after, to the acclaiming shouts of the multitude, 
 Akhten-aton, himself, appeared. Assisted by 
 Shamash and the ever-attentive Dedu, Pharaoh 
 slowly seated himself upon the throne of his 
 ancestors. 
 
 Following a motion from his long thin hand,
 
 146 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 an usher threw wide the cedar doors at the end 
 of the hall and, standing upon its granite 
 threshold, cried to the vast concourse of restless 
 figures now visible in the court : 
 
 1 1 Long live Pharaoh, our Lord ! 
 
 1 ' Millions of millions of years to him, even so 
 long as the sun endureth ! ' ' 
 
 With a roar the accustomed royal salutation 
 was taken up : 
 
 "Life, health, abundance and fullness of joy 
 be to Pharaoh, our Lord, forever and forever!" 
 
 The crowd of petty nobles, counts, monarchs 
 and captains now pressed forward. With heads 
 bent, spines arched, right hands raised, slowly 
 and reverently they ranged themselves about 
 the lower end of the hall. Were it possible, the 
 forms of these white-robed newcomers flashed 
 with the glitter of well-nigh as many jewels and 
 gold or silver orders as did those of the more 
 exalted nobles gathered about Pharaoh's 
 throne. 
 
 Those who were unable, for lack of space, to 
 gain access to the hall, had perforce, to stand
 
 Pharaoh Exalts a Foreign God 147 
 
 outside in the unprotected court and exposed to 
 the blinding shafts of the vaulting sun. 
 Yet, few complained, so momentous was the 
 step now contemplated by the fanatical young 
 Pharaoh. 
 
 Anticipation and, it may well have been fear 
 of the result, explained the unusual sternness 
 of expression visible upon the faces of all pres 
 ent, a tension seldom seen upon the faces of this 
 pleasure-loving people. 
 
 For weeks past the Theban capital, nay, 
 Egypt itself, had been a seething maelstrom of 
 riotous priests, mutinous soldiery, and pit- 
 eously clamorous slaves and petty farmers. 
 
 With the speed of a hungry jackal the news 
 had spread that Pharaoh had at last determined 
 upon the final break with the priests of Amen in 
 Karnak. 
 
 Pharaoh's keen interest in the Syrian cult of 
 Thi, his mother, was well known. The new Sun 
 cult already had a certain following, at least 
 among the nobles of the court. At this very 
 moment many members of the nobility had
 
 148 Hank: the Enchantress 
 
 recently bound themselves to support their 
 royal master in the revolutionary step he now 
 contemplated. 
 
 It is true that the more exalted members of 
 Pharaoh's court still continued their visits to 
 the great temple of Amen in Karnak. But the 
 nasal intonation of Ameni, the ibis-nosed lector, 
 had of late merely served to amuse them. As to 
 Pharaoh, himself, the over-powering reek of 
 incense, flowers, fresh-baked bread, and blood, 
 did but sicken him. The glitter in the silver eyes 
 of a host of granite statues, ancestors of his, 
 &a-figures of a long line of loyal and devout fol 
 lowers of Amen, both unnerved and repelled him. 
 
 From his golden throne Pharaoh's prominent 
 eyes swept the oil-coned heads of his subjects. 
 One and all were dressed, be- jeweled and 
 anointed as for a gala day. Their loyal shouts 
 of welcome had warmed his heart. At the same 
 time, their enthusiasm seemed to give him the 
 necessary strength for his momentous task. 
 
 No sooner was he seated, and the jeweled 
 scepter placed upon a stand at his side, than the
 
 Pharaoh Exalts a Foreign God 149 
 
 nobles on his right, ever the most exalted, 
 pressed about him. Some prostrated themselves 
 before him ; some kissed the pointed tip of his 
 gilded sandal, while others, in this case the aged 
 members of his court or blood relations, em 
 braced the pleated skirt that tightly bound his 
 knees. 
 
 Suddenly Pharaoh signaled that he would 
 hear no more, and immediately, with a wave of 
 his scepter, rose to his feet. 
 
 At once, as if by magic, whisperings ceased. 
 No one so much as breathed. Such a hush fell 
 upon that crowded hall that one could hear 
 without the shrill cries of the quarrelsome 
 hawks, that flew in circles back and forth from 
 the eaves of the roof. 
 
 As one, that vast audience sank to its knees. 
 As one, it broke into the stirring shout of wel 
 come: 
 
 ' * Hail, Life-giver ! Hail, Electrum of Kings ! 
 Hail, Thou who art the very breath of our nos 
 trils ! Life, health and peace be thine, so long as 
 Ra endures ! ' '
 
 150 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 Then again the same expectant hush fell upon 
 that shimmering hall. Pharaoh raised his hand. 
 His soft, but resonant voice filled the long hall : 
 
 "My children! We have summoned you be 
 fore us that you may hear the words of Pha 
 raoh, which change not! For centuries past 
 hath Egypt been a jest in the mouths of 
 strangers who cried : 
 
 "These be the sons of the Egyptians that 
 have raised to themselves more gods than they 
 have days in which to worship them.' Had we 
 not been hindered by the priests of Amen yon 
 der, long ago, yea, even in our fathers ' time, this 
 reproach had been removed from amongst us! 
 Henceforth, my children, cease to cry upon the 
 Triads; upon Amen, Mut, and Khonsu; upon 
 Horus, Set and Ausar! 
 
 "As you all know, the gods of Thebes, of On, 
 of white-walled Memphis, are but attributes of 
 the one beneficent sun-god, of Aton the Glori 
 ous, the Life-giver, who dwelleth within the 
 Sun! 
 
 "Henceforth, let Aton, not Amen, be upon
 
 Pharaoh Exalts a Foreign God 151 
 
 your lips ! Let Aton, not Amen, be upon the lips 
 of your children ! Thus, as in times past, Egypt 
 shall worship one god from Nubia to Suan of 
 the North. May Aton's bright beams embrace 
 you ! May Aton 's rays forever enfold you ! ' * 
 
 Across the flashing waters of the Nile, where 
 the great temple of Karnak raised its giant 
 pylons high above the palm groves which 
 fronted it, Huy, Great High Priest of Amen, 
 frowned darkly as the sound of the loud ap 
 plause which followed Pharaoh 's speech, 
 reached his ears. 
 
 To Huy and the prophets of Amen that sound 
 heralded the beginning of a war to the death. 
 
 But Enana, the Magician, did but smile.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE STATUE OF AMEN DISAPPEARS 
 
 IN Thebes a religious drama was enacted 
 annually, a drama in which was portrayed 
 the eternal conflict waged between Amen, 
 the sun-god, and Apep, Prince of Darkness. 
 
 Unknown to the peasant, as indeed to many 
 a priestly participant, the story of the drama, in 
 truth, perpetuated the prehistoric invasion of 
 Egypt by those "Followers of Horus" who had 
 subdued, and, eventually, become absorbed by 
 the original inhabitants of the Nile Valley. 
 
 At that early date, Thebes had been but a 
 small village, a cluster of mud huts and a small 
 shrine, over whose walls rose the emblem of the 
 primitive cult. 
 
 Since that time, three thousand years had 
 come and gone, and Thebes had become the 
 richest and most powerful city of the ancient 
 world. 
 
 152
 
 The Statue of Amen Disappears 153 
 
 Now, since Horus, son of Hathor, was the 
 leader of the victorious invaders, and the two 
 great battles had taken place at Nekhen and 
 Abdu Thebes being entirely outside the field 
 of operations the various incidents enacted in 
 this great religious spectacle had nothing what 
 ever to do with Thebes nor, indeed, with its 
 famed local deity, the sun-god Amen. 
 
 But the priests of Amen's great temple at 
 Thebes had always looked with envy at the 
 popularity of the yearly spectacle as enacted in 
 the two rival cities. Thus, when finally a The- 
 ban prince became Pharaoh, the first care of the 
 Chief Prophet of Amen had been to get the 
 royal seal affixed to a permit looking toward the 
 perpetual endowment of a similar festival in his 
 own city of Thebes, a six days' wonder that 
 should utterly eclipse anything of which 
 Nekhen, Abdu or any other rival god or city 
 could boast. 
 
 In the drama as presented at Thebes, the son 
 of Hathor became the sun-god Amen of Thebes.
 
 154 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 The " Followers of Horns" were personified by 
 Theban priests, local notables and others. 
 
 As to the ' l Followers of Set, ' ' the enemies in 
 .the drama, such miscreants were portrayed by 
 unhappy foreign slaves, criminals and the like, 
 many of whom were sacrificed before the altar 
 of the sun-god, following the conclusion of the 
 customary mimic battle and mock attempt to 
 carry off the holy statue of Amen. 
 
 The great Theban festival called for a full 
 week of continued merrymaking. Military 
 tournaments were instituted, athletic contests 
 took place; boat races were a daily occurrence 
 along the river front. In the palace magical 
 contests were held, the wisdom of ancient sages 
 was discussed, or great prophets of the day 
 were brought before Pharaoh's throne. 
 
 In the latter case Pharaoh heard, at first hand, 
 of the marvelous deeds of magic under the an 
 cestors of the Pyramid Age, or was admonished 
 to give more thought to his oppressed and hun 
 gry people. 
 
 One stalwart hermit had had the temerity to
 
 The Statue of Amen Disappears 155 
 
 prophesy the overthrow of Pharaoh and the 
 coming of "a righteous king," under whom 
 Egypt would return to the blissful state of long 
 ago, "before death was," and mankind, both 
 native and foreign, would become united in an 
 international brotherhood which would make 
 one the lands of men and the Blessed Fields of 
 Aaru, the abode of the gods ! 
 
 The rash prophet was not handed to the 
 strangler, but led courteously from the Pres 
 ence. An order for a tomb, a fine limestone 
 coffin, and a tomb-statue, followed him to his 
 distant home. During the Feast of the Apts, 
 one might speak one's true mind, even before 
 Majesty. 
 
 To-day, the day of "bringing in the god," 
 crowds jostled and pushed along every Theban 
 lane and alley. Everyone sought the Avenue of 
 Sphinxes, or the Eiver Road. The latter route, 
 which extended from the main pylon of the 
 Temple to the Sacred Quay, was policed along 
 its short extent by a double line of foreign 
 spearmen.
 
 156 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 The two-horse chariot of the chief of these 
 mercenaries dashed madly up the well guarded 
 course, turned and disappeared down the long 
 Avenue of Sphinxes which led to the Southern 
 Temple. The Chief would take one last survey 
 of the flower-strewn route before the "Appear 
 ance of the sun-god " should commence. 
 
 The gold statue of Amen the Hidden One, 
 would presently be taken from the Holy of 
 Holies in the dim shrine of the Northern Apt, 
 and escorted up-stream on the Sacred Barge to 
 the jeweled sanctuary of the Temple of the 
 Southern Apt. 
 
 Before the open cedar doors of the temple 
 Pharaoh himself might be seen upon his port 
 able throne of gold and ivory, high above the 
 shoulders of twenty-four priestly bearers. As 
 usual, his tame lion stood upon the dais at its 
 royal master's side. 
 
 The grand procession now moved forward. 
 It was headed by a priest, who solemnly burned 
 incense in a long hawk-headed bronze censer. 
 All about him musicians played and women-of-
 
 The Statue of Amen Disappears 157 
 
 the-temple, women playing to the mystical 
 harem of the god, sang the adorations to the 
 sun-god. Two other groups marked time by 
 clapping of hands and playing of ivory cas 
 tanets. 
 
 Immediately in front of the king's throne 
 marched serried ranks of kilted Egyptian sol 
 diers, singing as they went. Their raw-hide 
 shields moved across their naked breasts in time 
 with the music. At the close of each verse they 
 lifted their short spears or axes above their 
 heads and shouted a short but resounding: 
 "Hai! Amen! Ya hai! Amen!" 
 
 Soon the long lines of onlookers had taken up 
 the refrain, and the limpid air of the Capital 
 thrilled to the wild cries of "Hai! Amen! Ya 
 hai! Amen!" As the gold throne of the 
 Monarch advanced, groups of white-robed 
 nobles fell into line behind it. 
 
 Then followed a long line of women from the 
 Temples of Amen, Mut and Khonsu, who 
 marked the time of the hymn of praise by shak 
 ing golden sistra and rattling menats, short
 
 158 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 but thick necklaces of beryl, amethyst and car- 
 nelian beads. With much beating of drums and 
 clicking of castanets a group of feathered 
 negroes pressed close after the singers. 
 
 There followed another long line of soldiers, 
 Egyptian, Asiatic, Nubian, Libyan, and, finally, 
 a little group of Cretans, remarkable not so 
 much for the breadth of their shoulders as for 
 the slimness of their waists, "hornet waisted" 
 they had been nicknamed by the Thebans. These 
 latter were almost lost behind their enormous 
 ox-hide shields. 
 
 Each group carried its own special type of 
 weapon, since there were definite regiments of 
 archers, axemen, spearmen and slingers, and 
 each company was headed by its own device or 
 standard bearer. 
 
 At last the heavy bronze doors of the Temple 
 of Amen slowly opened and a seemingly unend 
 ing line of white-robed priests issued from the 
 deep shadows of the stupendous pylons. 
 
 High upon their gleaming shoulders rested 
 portable barques containing the various sacred
 
 The Statue of Amen Disappears 159 
 
 deities belonging to the various temples which 
 were well-nigh hidden by the lofty enclosure 
 walls. Certain priests offered incense to these 
 gods, at intervals, along the whole extent of the 
 route. 
 
 In the midst of one group might be seen a 
 number of spirited bulls, with horns decorated 
 in gold. Great yokes of flowers and sweet- 
 smelling leaves were hung about their throats. 
 
 Trailing out behind these last followed a long 
 line of priests carrying the standards of the 
 gods, since the whole company of the Blessed 
 Gods marched, unseen, in this great procession. 
 
 A renewed wave of cheering went up as the 
 linen-draped shrine of Amen appeared. A 
 vacant place was kept clear behind it, in which 
 marched the * ' souls ' ' of dead kings ! Thirty-six 
 tall priests carried this Holy of Holies towards 
 a gleaming barge, moored to the water's edge 
 at the Sacred Quay. Over two hundred feet 
 long, this barge was built throughout its entire 
 extent of cedar from the Lebanus Terraces. Its 
 sides were covered to the water's edge with
 
 160 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 pure Nubian gold. Enormous necklaces of gold 
 were hung at prow and stern. The ' ' Two eyes 
 of Horus, ' ' at the prow, were inlaid in brilliant 
 blue lazuli from Babylon. The great checkered 
 linen sail, which lay furled upon the silver deck, 
 was of the square Egyptian type. It was dec 
 orated with squares of red and blue embroidery. 
 
 There was now as much noise and excitement 
 on the river as on shore. The captains of fifty 
 great painted barges awaited the signal to pull 
 up their mooring-stakes as soon as the Sacred 
 Barge should be well under way. Were it pos- 
 ,sible, the startled air trembled to still louder 
 shouts as excited overseers, taskmasters and 
 men commenced to pull at the great towing 
 ropes. The swift Nile current made it neces 
 sary that the barge be dragged up-stream by a 
 whole army of young and lusty Egyptians. 
 
 Along the line of route people began to dis 
 appear from the gayly decorated windows. The 
 last scene of the day's ceremony was about to 
 take place within the still unfinished forecourt 
 of the Southern Temple of Amen.
 
 The Statue of Amen Disappears 161 
 
 Carrying-chairs were frantically demanded, 
 but soon abandoned, as who could make head 
 way in that fashion in the midst of such a 
 crowd? A few fortunate people managed to 
 squeeze through the broad square lined with its 
 rows of booths, where slaves were hastily pre 
 paring wine, fruit, flowers and incense or cut 
 ting up the unfortunate bulls as part of the 
 " beautiful festival of the Apt." 
 
 Pharaoh offered incense to his father Amen 
 as four exalted members of the priesthood 
 poured out wine from festooned jars of painted 
 pottery. With the exception of these four 
 noblemen, high initiates of the Sorcerers of 
 Amen and Huy, the Great High Priest, no one 
 could witness the taking of the image of Amen 
 from its jeweled shrine and its transference to 
 the silver tabernacle within the granite naos 
 which stood, beside "the position which the 
 king takes," deep within the gloom of the upper 
 temple. 
 
 Pharaoh himself, though the personification 
 of Amen, dare not venture beyond that fixed
 
 1 62 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 " position/* a spot marked by a huge block of 
 turquoise from the Sinaitic mines, set in the 
 richly painted wall of the upper temple. 
 
 Around the great forecourt, the nobles knelt 
 or stood, according as they belonged to the two 
 rival factions of Amen or Aton. 
 
 To the latter group, this marked what was no 
 doubt the very last procession of its kind. Hence 
 these adherents of Aton, the Syrian God, stood 
 stiffly in the background. A covert smile might 
 have been noted on many a swarthy face among 
 them. 
 
 Pharaoh's expression was one of cold in 
 difference. 
 
 Throughout the whole scene the apathetic 
 monarch seemed not to be conscious of where 
 he was or of what he was doing. It is true, he 
 successfully finished each and every detail of 
 the exacting ritual of Amen. But, what he did, 
 he did mechanically. 
 
 The last mock-reverence finished, Pharaoh 
 retired.
 
 The Statue of Amen Disappears 163 
 
 As his throne was borne swiftly toward the 
 royal barge, his mask of impassibility vanished. 
 He sank back and allowed his gaze to travel 
 from one side to the other. There was an air 
 of expectancy in each turn of his head. He even 
 went so far as to bow to the acclamations of 
 his people, and this not a little. to their bewilder 
 ment, since Pharaohs, in public, were custom 
 arily, at best, but breathing statues. 
 
 Scarcely had the king set foot upon the deck 
 of his beautiful barge, "Star of the Gods," 
 when a frightful tumult broke out along the 
 bank, immediately fronting the great barge of 
 Amen. Wild shrieks from the women-of-the- 
 temple, hoarse and angry cries from the men, 
 intermingled with mocking laughter and shouts 
 of derision. 
 
 A great crowd of angry priests of Amen 
 might be seen pushing their way through the 
 dense crowd which was massed in front of the 
 giant statues of Thothmes, whose temple stood 
 near by. Frantic attempts were being made by
 
 164 Hank: the Enchantress 
 
 the priests of Amen to burst through this crowd. 
 Yet each insistent attempt ended in failure, as 
 did a last charge in one serried block. 
 
 The crowd itself was by now so divided into 
 factions that blows were falling right and left, 
 and hapless people were constantly being 
 trampled under foot. 
 
 Shrieking: "Sacrilege! Sacrilege !" the 
 priests turned and rushed headlong to their 
 boats. 
 
 The Holy Figure of the Hidden One, the 
 sacred Statue of Amen, the sun-god, had dis 
 appeared. 
 
 The followers of Aton had scored their first 
 success, and that success one of tremendous im 
 port!
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 ENANA CALLS TO His AID THE GODS JUSTICE AND 
 VENGEANCE 
 
 THE nameless horror that had driven the 
 youthful Unis from his side had no terrors 
 for Enana the Magician. 
 
 Enana stood bathed in the palpitating glow 
 of the self -illuminated Book. Slowly he ap 
 proached his hands to its cover, a cover as white 
 as the sandals of the gods themselves. 
 
 The instant Enana 's shriveled fingers came in 
 contact with its radiance, a sudden change came 
 over him. Enana 's face glowed; a circle of 
 light played about his head. His eyes blazed 
 with a light of triumph. 
 
 Holding the Magic Book before him, he com 
 menced to sway back and forth, back and forth, 
 like some mystic of the temple about to 
 prophesy. 
 
 The aged Magician began to speak, softly at 
 
 165
 
 166 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 first, but with a flow of words that scarcely 
 waited for breath. 
 
 "What saith the son of Hap? Seek the Book 
 of Thoth. Eat not, drink not, sleep not, until 
 the Book is found! Two magic formulaB hath 
 the Book ! Eecite the first and thou shalt charm 
 the sky, the earth, the moon, the heights, the 
 depths! Thou shalt converse with the birds. 
 Thou shalt understand the sayings of the fish 
 and reptiles! 
 
 "Eecite the second and, even though thy 
 desire be among the Silent Ones, the Dead, 
 yet shall thou have power to raise them upon 
 their feet in the forms and with the hearts their 
 mothers gave them. 
 
 "By the Double Spell thou shalt produce a 
 Eising of the Moon at will. Thou shalt be en 
 abled to stop the Sun's Ascension. Yea, thou 
 shalt darken the faces of both Sun and Moon. 
 By the Double Spell thou shalt see the Ascen 
 sion of Ea and the Cycle of the Gods. 
 
 "Eecited at the full of the Moon, thou shalt 
 master the Hidden Names of the Gods, whereby
 
 Enana Seeks the Gods' Aid 167 
 
 thou shalt become possessed of their amulets 
 and talismans. Yea, thou shalt become greater 
 than Ea himself!" 
 
 Slowly Enana the Magician opened the Book. 
 In characters of gold the secret incantations 
 of the gods were spread before him. Here ap 
 peared the Secret Names of the Six White Gods 
 of Day and the Six Black Gods of Night. Here 
 were the irresistible words of power that could 
 stop the planets in their courses and Ra in his 
 passage of the sky. Here again were the Mys 
 tic Names of Thoth and Set. Here were the 
 dread Jiekau-spells that could revivify the dead 
 or consign the living to annihilation and their 
 " doubles " to extinction. 
 
 Enana closed the magic book. Carefully he 
 placed it in his bosom. The soft effulgence at 
 once disappeared. 
 
 Leaving the little chamber, Enana stood upon 
 the terrace. Below and about him stretched the 
 city, the city of the dead. A rift of dully gleam 
 ing waters and, beyond it, lay another city, 
 the city of the living.
 
 168 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 A dull roar, a deep murmur, as of many 
 voices, came up to him where he stood. In 
 honor of the annual Feast of the Apts, lights 
 were breaking out alike in temple, palace and 
 peasant hut. 
 
 To-night the doors would be left open. Thus 
 would the living welcome the "souls" of their 
 dead. 
 
 Already lines of flickering torches showed 
 where many a devout &a-servant, together with 
 priests to assist him, could be seen winding 
 along the well-beaten paths or marching up the 
 inclined planes of the sphinx or tree-bordered 
 avenues by which the royal mortuary-temples 
 were approached. 
 
 The Feast of the Apts was indeed, as it was 
 often styled, a veritable "Feast of Lights." 
 
 Enana gazed northward. Across the river, a 
 bright circle of lights showed where his brother- 
 priests of Amen had commenced the encircling 
 of the walls of Amen's temple. Huy and his 
 brother-priests still put on a bold front. 
 
 Fires were lit at intervals along the Nile em-
 
 Enana Seeks the Gods' Aid 169 
 
 bankments. The river itself now reflected many 
 a fire that leaped, died, and leaped into life 
 again, along the great quay fronting the temple 
 of the Southern Apt. 
 
 Nearer, scarcely a stone's throw away, it 
 seemed, appeared the lights of the innumerable 
 lamps which served to illuminate the pleasure- 
 barge of Thi, the Queen-Mother. As Enana well 
 knew, Pharaoh and his immediate family were 
 accustomed to join the nightly fete from this 
 point of vantage. 
 
 Enana raised his hands in the direction of the 
 broad patch of buildings and trees which 
 marked at once the royal palace and the nearby 
 villa of Menna, the Overseer. 
 
 Suddenly a brilliant meteor shot from the 
 highest zenith and seemed to bury itself in the 
 waters of the palace lake. Enana 's voice rose 
 upon the night air : 
 
 An omen, Pharaoh! an omen Thi! an omen Menna! 
 By the Power of the Book, closed to ye are 
 The gates of the Sky. Closed to ye are 
 The Pouble Doors of Heaven 1
 
 170 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 Ye shall not cross the Lily Lake of the Sky, 
 Ye shall not sail upon the Boat with Ba! 
 The Magic Vestments shall not be spread for ye I 
 The White Sandals shall be hidden from ye! 
 Yea, by the Secret Names I know, by the ,, 
 
 Hidden Talismans I possess, your bodies 
 Shall be destroyed; your tombs shall know 
 Them not! Your Jcas shall not stand behind ye! 
 Your bos shall not sit upon your tombs! 
 Annihilation is your portion; obliteration 
 Your destiny! 
 
 Enana's voice rose to a shrill falsetto; his 
 whole form seemed to tremble as he cried aloud 
 the first dread incantation : 
 
 Thoth! Thoth! Thoth! 
 
 Come to my aid in thy name of Wisdom I 
 
 Set! Set! Set! 
 
 Descend to me in thy name of Evil! 
 
 Turn thy face earthward, Thoth! 
 
 Turn thy face earthward, Set! 
 
 Enter my heart, Ye Gods; let thy 
 
 Hearts become my heart; thy wisdom 
 
 My Wisdom. 
 
 I know thy Hidden Names, Thoth! 
 
 Thy Talismans are before me, Set! 
 
 Thoth thou art compelled, Set thou art 
 
 Compelled. Hither to me, Wisdom! Hither 
 
 To me, Evil! 
 
 Send inspiration, Thoth ! Grant opportunity, Set !
 
 Enana Seeks the Gods' Aid 171 
 
 As the aged Magician's voice shrilled out 
 upon the night air Bata, the unhappy; UiuV 
 aged nurse, suddenly awoke. 
 
 Softly she stole down the corridor from a 
 chamber at the rear of the tomb, where she 
 usually slept. Bata reached the open door just 
 in time to hear Enana command the very gods 
 to descend to earth. The horrified Bata fell 
 in a faint across the threshold. 
 
 When at length Bata returned to conscious 
 ness, she somehow managed to crawl back to her 
 room, dumb with terror. Bata had seen the old 
 Magician's trembling form aglow with a mystic 
 light, his upturned face shining with some 
 inward flame. Before him, out of the gloom 
 there had suddenly appeared two heavily 
 cloaked figures. Bata never doubted but that 
 the tall forms were those of the great gods 
 Thoth and Set.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 RAMSES AND SESEN 
 
 THE youthful Ramses, leader of the recent 
 successful expedition against the Nubians, 
 had won for himself many titles of dis 
 tinction. Yet, chief among these undoubtedly, 
 was his new appointment to the rank of Fan- 
 Bearer-on-the-Right-of-Pharaoh. 
 
 The post of Fan-Bearer was an office eagerly 
 sought by the more exalted nobles, since it gave 
 one the ear of Pharaoh, as did perhaps no other 
 position at Court. The one possible exception 
 was the post held by Dedu, son of Den, through 
 four generations at least, the coveted post of 
 Keeper-of -the-King 's-Robes. 
 
 The title of Fan-Bearer had been given 
 Ramses by Pharaoh at Thi's earnest solicitation. 
 The Queen-Mother had been prompted to this 
 step through no love she bore the youthful sol 
 dier, but as part of a plan which was intended 
 
 172
 
 Ramses and Sesen 173 
 
 to lull the stubborn adherents of Amen into a 
 sense of false security. 
 
 The aged Enana, grandfather to Eamses, 
 was the subject of the Queen-Mother's especial 
 detestation. Indeed, detestation was by far too 
 mild a word to express her feelings in respect to 
 the old magician. 
 
 By conferring the title of Fan-Bearer upon 
 Enana 's grandson, Thi hoped to put Enana and 
 the other followers of Amen off their guard. 
 For, would not the very title imply a definite 
 and continuous sojourn in the capital? 
 
 Yet, of late, Thi felt that the attempt to keep 
 the young soldier near the Court had been ill- 
 advised. For various rumors, vague hints of an 
 alarming nature, had reached the ears of Menna 
 the Overseer. 
 
 These ill-defined rumors had been promptly 
 reported to Thi, with various embellishments, of 
 course, on the part of Menna, son of Menna. 
 
 Without a doubt, someone who knew the 
 Court, someone who was familiar with the 
 secret intrigues of harem life in the palace, had
 
 174 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 been quietly spreading broadcast palace secrets 
 of a most terrifying nature. 
 
 One report had it that the present Pharaoh 
 was a Syrian, born before Thi's parents came 
 down into Egypt. 
 
 It was hinted that Yakab the Chancellor was 
 his true father. Had they not both the same 
 extraordinarily attenuated figure? Did not 
 both suffer from the same racking cough? Did 
 not both speak with a marked lisp? Thi, the 
 Queen-Mother, was almost stout; the late Pha 
 raoh had been a corpulent man, in his youth 
 possessed of unusual strength. The face was 
 that of Thi, perhaps, but the body that of Yakab 
 the Chancellor! 
 
 Yes, it was plain that Thi had done away with 
 Pharaoh's former wife, the Lady Hanit; that 
 Menna and Thi had planned the murder of the 
 true heir to the throne, the Lady Hanit 's son, 
 in order that Yakab 's son, by Thi, might ascend 
 the Egyptian throne, 
 
 Finally it was whispered that the murdered 
 Prince still lived; that he had escaped from
 
 Ramses and Sesen 175 
 
 Menna, son of Menna, into whose baleful charge 
 he had been placed. 
 
 All unwittingly, Eamses had been drawn into 
 this maelstrom of palace intrigue. His name 
 was frequently mentioned in connection with 
 the probable succession to the throne. 
 
 The subject of a successor to the Horus 
 Throne was one of great importance at this 
 moment. Queen Noferith had borne the king 
 but girls "five little beams of Shu the sun- 
 god" their royal father had playfully called 
 them. And of these one had recently become 
 the perfume of the heavenly lotus which the 
 sun-god holds to his august face ! 
 
 Pharaoh felt sure that Ramses himself knew 
 nothing of these rumors. In many a bitter dis 
 cussion with his mother and Menna the Over 
 seer Pharaoh had frequently stated his convic 
 tion that Eamses would utterly condemn such 
 traitorous thoughts should they ever come to his 
 ears. 
 
 Pharaoh had loved Ramses like a brother. 
 He had admired him as some superior being.
 
 176 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 For a time neither Henna's craftily embellished 
 reports nor Thi's openly avowed hatred of 
 Enana 's grandson could turn Pharaoh from his 
 blind trust in the good faith of his boyhood's 
 hero. 
 
 Himself ever a sickly child, Pharaoh had 
 sighed for his coming of age, that he might take 
 the field with Eamses, and be himself a witness 
 of the latter 's many deeds of valor. 
 
 For years had Pharaoh pictured himself in 
 the famous Warbonnet of the Pharaohs, that 
 bright blue headdress which Thothmes and a 
 long line of heroic forebears had carried far 
 into the ranks of their stricken foes and, with 
 one exception, returned in safety to their ac 
 claiming people. Yes, even King Sequenen's 
 horrible death, at the hands of the Hyksos in- 
 ;vaders, was better far than his present life of 
 inaction, a life varied only by tiresome harem 
 plots, counterplots and the probaoilities of a 
 general religious or civil upheaval. 
 
 But Pharaoh, under Thi's baleful influence, 
 was as pliable as the clay in the deft fingers of
 
 Ramses and Sesen 177 
 
 the potter. The Queen-Mother presently took 
 fright at these oft-repeated and ever highly- 
 colored rumors, and it was not long before she 
 and Menna had convinced Pharaoh that the 
 grandson of Enana, at Thebes, was a constant 
 menace. 
 
 Thus, when "the rewards of the King" were 
 yet warm in Ramses' hands, that happy young 
 warrior was dismayed to receive a roll of 
 papyrus, straight from the hands of Majesty, a 
 brief note whose finely written contents neces 
 sitated another exile from Sesen, from Thebes 
 and the home he so dearly loved, the villa of 
 Enana the Magician, his grandsire. Ramses 
 was commanded to depart for the north with 
 the setting of the morrow's sun, there to take 
 over the Egyptian army guarding the hostile 
 frontier in Asia. Bitter disappointment, and 
 somewhat of anger, caused the voice of Ramses 
 to tremble as he directed his chairmen to set 
 him down at Enana 's villa. 
 
 The home of Ramses' grandsire was built 
 upon a circular island on the western side of
 
 178 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 the Nile. Seen from a distance, this island ap 
 peared to float upon the quiet waters. The 
 low white walls which surrounded its garden, its 
 branching cedars, full crested palms and 
 feathery mimosa trees, were mirrored in the 
 waters of the inundation. 
 
 Enana the Magician had felt called upon to 
 live comparatively near to Semet, Thebes* un 
 ending burial ground, since, during the former 
 monarch's lifetime he had been appointed 
 1 ' Guardian of the Royal Tombs. ' ' 
 
 Enana was proud of his skill in necromancy ; 
 Enana was even more proud of his knowledge of 
 astrology, botany, medicine and of his intimate 
 acquaintance with the Magic Scrolls of the Con 
 jurers and Sorcerers of Amen. But, above all 
 else, Enana enjoyed hearing himself addressed 
 as Guardian of the Ancestors, whenever a sum 
 mons from Majesty or a Court Function had 
 necessitated his presence at the Palace. Alas, 
 as far as Enana and Eenet, his wife, were con 
 cerned, such functions had long since ceased ! 
 
 Nevertheless, to-day was a gala day with
 
 Ramses and Sesen 179 
 
 Enana, a day of rejoicing to his entire house 
 hold. For to-day Enana, son of Enana, had 
 arrived at the ever-prayed for one hundred and 
 ten years ! 
 
 One other living person alone could boast of 
 such a record and that was the father of Thi, the 
 Queen-Mother. But luya was only a nobleman 
 by courtesy, an Asiatic, an heretical believer in 
 Aton. Enana scorned luya as a pretentious old 
 scoundrel, who spent the major part of his time 
 decrying everything Egyptian and lauding 
 Syria, and all things Syrian. , 
 
 All morning had the aged Magician, and the 
 Lady Eenet, his wife, sat beside the garden pool 
 listening to the effusive congratulations of his 
 friends, his neighbors, and the many members 
 of his house and wide domain. 
 
 All that morning his bustling servants had 
 been busy arranging the various presents along 
 the awning-shaded corridor which faced the 
 tree-set garden. 
 
 Bars and collarettes of gold, electrum and 
 silver ; bead stands of lazuli, malachite, crystal,
 
 180 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 carnelian, amethyst, beryl, jasper; great pend 
 ants in gold, silver or bright blue fayence; 
 finger-rings of gold encrusted with colored 
 pastes or set with little green glazed beetles, 
 carved in stone and engraved below with felici 
 tous expressions; treasures big and little were 
 piled high in seemingly innumerable vessels and 
 exposed on brightly painted wooden tables or 
 stands along the halls and corridors. 
 
 Clusters of white, soft pink or pale blue lotus 
 flowers were bound about frames bent to repre 
 sent the anekh or sign of "longevity." The 
 nofer or sign of "happiness," in the shape of 
 little lutes, hung from every branch in the gar 
 den. 
 
 There had been but one thing lacking in a 
 morning of never-to-be-forgotten successes. As 
 Khufu the Butler had remarked, not a single 
 member of the Eoyal House had visited their 
 honored master; not even a Eoyal Usher had 
 come with the customary messages of felicita 
 tion or with the usual "gold of honor." To 
 Khufu, as to the other devoted servants of the
 
 Ramses and Sesen 181 
 
 aged Magician, this neglect was the occasion of 
 grave concern. 
 
 Not so to Enana! Well he knew the reason 
 of this breach of courtesy, this public affront. 
 
 Enana 's early training had been behind the 
 walls of Amen 's great temple in the Apt. There 
 for years had he served Amen, God of Thebes, 
 as chorister, incense-bearer, lector, keri heb 
 and, lastly, as Chief Magician. 
 
 Enana was known as a devoted follower of 
 Amen, as an ardent and incorruptible believer 
 in the power of the greatest of all gods, Amen 
 of Thebes. As such he knew well that he had 
 incurred the undying hatred of Thi the Syrian, 
 whose one ambition in life, now that her son 
 was established on the throne, was the over 
 throw of Amen and the destruction of all the 
 other local gods of Egypt. If Thi could com 
 pass it, Aton, the Syrian sun-god, should be the 
 sole object of worship from Suan of the north to 
 Suan of the south. 
 
 At the present moment, however, Enana had 
 pushed from his mind all thoughts of Thi, All
 
 1 82 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 his present enjoyment was centered in the 
 scheme next his heart and in his anticipation of 
 seeing Ramses, his grandson, whom it mostly 
 concerned. 
 
 At any moment the young soldier might dash 
 through the gate in that impetuous way so dear 
 to the frail old man. 
 
 Enana sat with his wrinkled hands resting 
 upon the squares of gold leaf with which his 
 tunic was faced. His beady black eyes were 
 fixed upon the open door, his ears alert to catch 
 the first shout of Ramses' bearers, as they 
 rounded the great Mortuary Temple near by. 
 From time to time his hand went to his bosom 
 where rested the magic book. 
 
 But the sun-god began his descent into the 
 realms of darkness, lights broke out in the dis 
 tant city, a line of chanting priests bearing 
 torches appeared upon the walls of Amen- 
 hotep 's temple, the light upon the high stand at 
 Enana 's elbow was lit. Yet Eamses did not 
 come. 
 
 Ah, Enana, but a little patience! Magician
 
 Ramses and Sesen 183 
 
 though thou art, the Goddess Hathor is more 
 powerful than thou! 
 
 Even as Ramses had finished reading the 
 royal command and set his hand to the arm of 
 his carrying-chair, Senab the Usher advanced 
 bowing and handed him a second note. 
 
 Joy lit up the stern face of the young soldier 
 as he read; a sudden animation seemed to fill 
 his whole being. Bidding his chairmen await 
 him in the outer court, he turned and followed 
 Seneb, the Usher, through the columned aisles 
 of the Audience Hall. 
 
 Arrived before the line of granite sphinxes 
 which fronted the Treasury of Silver, Seneb 
 bowed again, turned on his heel and left him. 
 
 Three women stood beneath a doorway which 
 fronted the innermost court. Eagerly Ramses 
 advanced as the form of the Princess Sesen 
 stepped out from its shadows: 
 
 "Sesen, they told me thou wert with thy 
 Father in Thinis I Had I known, in truth, that 
 the Palace held thee, I would have come to 
 claim thy promised reward.
 
 184 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 * ' By Hathor ! Thou are more radiantly beau 
 tiful than when I left thee last ! How often have 
 I lain awake at night thinking of thee. The hot 
 nights upon the desert sand passed quickly, 
 restfully, for dreams of thee ! 
 
 "Sesen, thou knowest all my lovej'all my 
 hopes are centered in thee. What are the 
 rewards of Majesty to the reward that thou hast 
 promised me thyself. Look ! I have kept my 
 word. I found the famous jewel which Enana 
 told thee of and it is thine ! ' ' 
 
 Slowly Ramses drew from his girdle a great 
 emerald set in gold. A rose-colored band of 
 fine gazelle hide showed it to have been worn 
 about the forehead of its former owner, the 
 Nubian King. 
 
 King Shaba will need "the panther's eye" 
 no more. His ashes lie beneath the smouldering 
 ruins of his palace. Vultures hover above the 
 demolished houses of Napata, his Capital. 
 
 Sesen clasped her hands upon her bosom with 
 delight. Without replying she took the jewel 
 from Ramses' hand and bound it about her
 
 Ramses and Sesen 185 
 
 gold-filleted wig. Ramses smiled down upon' the" 
 happy little maid, as she sank into his arms. 
 The great jewel seemed to glow upon her fore 
 head, as if it pulsed to the rapid beating of her 
 heart : 
 
 * * Sesen, my Lotus ! I love thee, I love thee ! ' ' 
 ''And I, Ramses, my hero, feared for thee. 
 Hathor's altar has groaned beneath the burden 
 of my offerings for thy safe return. ' ' 
 
 Her words brought to Ramses' mind the com 
 mand of Pharaoh. He had found her but to lose 
 her. 
 
 "Dove of Hathor, but a few short weeks and 
 I return to claim thee for the Lady of my 
 House." 
 
 ' ' Thou returnest T Whither goest thou f ' ' 
 "Alas, my Dove! The King commands 
 that I head the Egyptian host which now 
 stands facing Kheta and her allies in Syria. 
 By to-morrow's sunset I must leave to help 
 old Noferhotep with his task. Yet, have no 
 fear for me. The Little People, I think, 
 do but try out Noferhotep. He, poor
 
 1 86 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 man, grows weary of the task of waiting, 
 with nothing but patrol work at best to break 
 the monotony of his years of frontier life. Fear 
 not for me. I have thy love, my Sesen! If 
 need be, I could cut my way through Asia, with 
 thy name my battle-cry. To-morrow I will see 
 thee after the morning service. The Lady 
 Eenet and her maids will come to escort thee 
 to our house for the betrothal. Breath 
 of Ba, how happy will she be, she and 
 Enana, my grandsire. Now must I hurry to 
 them. As thou knowest, 'tis a gala day with my 
 grandsire. May Hathor bless thee, my Sesen; 
 may Aah cast her protecting beams about thee." 
 For an instant the lovers held one another in 
 a close embrace. The next, Ramses had mounted 
 his chair. As he did so, twinkling lights broke 
 out among the dark patch of trees in which 
 stood Enana 's distant villa.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 A BASH PROMISE 
 
 IN his wooing of the Lady Sesen, Menna, son 
 of Menna, worked tirelessly. Menna had 
 been born upon the fifth of Paophi, and who 
 does not know that a child born upon that 
 auspicious day is ever successful in affairs of 
 the heart! 
 
 Following his gift to her of Bhanar, the 
 beautiful Syrian, each day brought to Sesen 
 bunches of grapes, bursting pomegranates or 
 succulent dates from Menna 's famous gardens. 
 Frequently there were left at her door bags of 
 powdered gold or lazuli for the floor of her 
 rooms, or the choicest of fragrant oils and per 
 fumes for her toilet. These last were sealed in 
 little jars of rich blue glass or in black obsidian 
 vases capped with gold. 
 
 To-day Sesen opened an ebony coffer richly 
 inlaid with ivory and gold. Enclosed within she 
 
 187
 
 1 88 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 found a frail wooden spoon, an incense spoon, 
 carved to represent a little maiden stretched at 
 full length in the attitude of a swimmer. The 
 names and titles of Menna, the Overseer, ap 
 peared upon this exquisite work of art, yet, if 
 truth be told, Benny the Syrian had fash 
 ioned it. 
 
 As with Henna's other gifts, a closely written 
 sheet of fine papyrus accompanied the gift, 
 whereon Sesen read of Henna's passionate 
 desire for a meeting. Enana had advised her to 
 fan the flame of Henna's passion for reasons he 
 kept to himself. What would he say to this 
 effusion? 
 
 The lines were written alternately in letters 
 of red and black : 
 
 The cool zephyrs of the Northland can alone extinguish 
 the flame of my love! 
 
 I am become like the dried mimosa, ripe for the baker's 
 oven, 
 
 The fire of her eyes hath withered it. 
 
 When the dove pours forth its plaintive song, Sesen ap 
 pears beneath the sycamore. 
 
 Her slender form is mirrored in the garden pool.
 
 A Rash Promise 189 
 
 Seeing her, the Moon-goddess pines away with jealousy; 
 
 the Sun-god bids her shine in his stead. 
 A full moon is her gleaming face; 
 The brightness of day glows upon her forehead; 
 Her full throat gleams like the crystals which encircle it; 
 The rose of the flamingo's wing is upon her cheek; 
 Her eyes, painted with black Thinite kohl, were the gift of 
 
 Hathor at her birth, 
 
 The fires that burn within them scatter flaming darts; 
 Countless as the desert sands are the victims of those eyes! 
 Waving is her slender form, like the palm trees of Erment. 
 The dark shades of night hide in her hair, fragrant with 
 
 musk and myrrh. 
 
 A pomegranate is her mouth, her little teeth bright mother- 
 of-pearl. 
 By day she perfumes the air with the odors of the Incense 
 
 Land. 
 
 Her luster illuminates the darkest night! 
 Ah, deign to heed my pleading, Daughter of Hathor! 
 As apart from thee, I am as one among the Silent Ones; 
 
 as one whose mouth has not been opened. 
 Ask the Moon-goddess of my bitter state. 
 She will tell thee that I am indeed the ally of sorrow and 
 
 anguish. 
 
 "With a frown Sesen tore the note into little 
 pieces and went on with her interrupted game 
 of draughts with Merit-aton, Pharaoh's eldest 
 daughter. 
 
 Until Menna had stumbled upon Benny, the
 
 190 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 Syrian, hawking his despised figurines in the 
 inhospitable streets of Thinis, Beq, an Egyptian 
 sculptor attached to his house, had served 
 Menna the Overseer as messenger. 
 
 For Menna, when not on duty at the Palace, 
 was accustomed to rise late. Henna's mornings 
 were spent at the bath. Indeed, it not infre- 
 frequently happened that the sun had begun 
 his downward flight across the heavens before 
 the lordly Overseer had succeeded in escaping 
 from the minstrations of his slaves. 
 
 For several hours he must perforce suffer 
 the attentions of his body-servants, his wig- 
 keeper, sandal-bearer, perfumer, and the keeper 
 of his jewels. 
 
 Thus, one stalwart Ethiopian, having finished 
 rubbing his handsome frame with aromatic oils, 
 another slipped about him the tunic and over 
 dress of the day. And what to an ordinary 
 mortal constituted a tight tunic, appeared to 
 Benkhu, the Prince's body-servant, positively 
 loose and ill-fitting. 
 
 And since Menna affected extremes, his tunic
 
 A Rash Promise 191 
 
 fitted far more closely, his voluminous and 
 richly plaited over-dress swung out in far more 
 ample folds, than those of any other of the fop 
 pish members of the Theban Court. 
 
 Indeed, Menna left Benkhu's nimble fingers 
 dressed as few others of the courtiers could be 
 dressed. 
 
 His costuming completed, Menna listened to 
 the reports of his farm overseers, and to those 
 of his spies both of court, bazaar and temple. 
 For Menna, though outwardly faithful to Aton, 
 still continued to hold the honorific post of 
 Scribe of the Estates of Amen. 
 
 His business attended to, Menna essayed a 
 game of draughts with one of his friends, or 
 rowed about the lake in Thi's pleasure-barge. It 
 was the policy of Menna never to be far from 
 Thi, the Queen-Mother. 
 
 When Renny, the Syrian, had been enrolled 
 among the retainers of Menna, the Overseer 
 had affected to see much of him. He went to the 
 length of separating Benny from Beq and the 
 native Egyptian craftsmen attached to his
 
 192 Hank: the Enchantress 
 
 house. He even provided Kenny with a studio 
 to himself. 
 
 To this workshop Menna himself would come 
 at times, ostensibly to seek instruction in model 
 ing, sculpture and wood-carving. As a matter 
 of fact his visits were prompted by the desire to 
 use Benny and his art as in former times he had 
 that of Beq and the native craftsmen. 
 
 Eenny fell in with this whim of his powerful 
 patron. Many a minor ornament, such as a 
 small lotus bowl, incense-spoon or sacred image, 
 had Benny produced, without neglecting to leave 
 some slight detail for the handsome Overseer to 
 finish. Benny's artistic productions Menna in 
 continently made his own, adding Tils name and 
 titles together with the date of its completion. 
 
 Coming from the hand of such a critical 
 student of the arts, these small, but ever choice 
 mementoes were eagerly sought at Court. No 
 one doubted but that they were the work of the 
 gifted Overseer himself. 
 
 Of late gifts and mementoes of this sort had 
 suddenly ceased to materialize, and Menna,
 
 A Rash Promise 193 
 
 taxed with laziness by his friends at Court, 
 gave it to be understood that a far more im 
 portant undertaking now engaged his time. 
 But the true reason of the present inaction of 
 the Overseer was due to Benny, the Syrian. 
 
 That unhappy youth, in his constant visits to 
 the Palace to deliver his masters' gifts and 
 notes to Sesen, had seen all too much of the 
 beautiful Princess. 
 
 Yet, a single visit, and that his first, had 
 proved more than enough to cause the beauty- 
 loving Kenny to come beneath the spell of 
 Sesen 's haunting loveliness. 
 
 Do what he would to conceal his senseless 
 passion, Eenny felt that the fire at his heart 
 would mount to his eyes, the surging blood, that 
 seemed ever about to burst his heart, would 
 flame into his cheeks. 
 
 At one moment Renny soared into the highest 
 heavens; the next found him plunged into the 
 gloomiest despair. He, an unknown sculptor, a 
 despised foreigner, dared to lift his eyes to an 
 exalted lady of the Egyptian Court !
 
 194 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 Knowing too well the hopelessness of his 
 present position, Kenny sought to hide his pas 
 sion. 
 
 Unluckily for the distracted sculptor, his 
 burning hand had come in contact with the 
 tapering fingers of the Princess. 
 
 Straightway Benny had thrown himself upon 
 his knees and poured out to her startled ears 
 the torrent of passionate words which had so 
 long trembled upon his lips. Benny lost his 
 head ; his discretion vanished to the four winds 
 of Heaven. 
 
 Sesen gazed down at the bowed head of the 
 young sculptor in utter bewilderment. She 
 could not have said whether she was more sur 
 prised, angered or amused. She clapped her 
 hands twice ; she would hand him to the guards. 
 Yet, as the archers appeared from behind the 
 columns of the courtyard, she changed her mind. 
 A sudden wave of tenderest sympathy for 
 Bhanar swept over the Princess. So it was not 
 Bhanar he had sought so eagerly. Her heart 
 ached for the quiet little maid standing so still 
 and mute behind her. She turned to Bhanar :
 
 A Rash Promise 195 
 
 ''So this is that Renny, the Incomparable, of 
 whom thou hast so often spoken, my Bhanar! 
 Dare men so address a Princess of the Blood in 
 thine own country and live? Like master, like 
 man!" 
 
 Renny leaped to his feet, his face aflame with 
 various emotions, amongst which wounded 
 pride, perhaps was not the least. 
 
 "Lady! Since when is it considered a deed 
 ill-done that a man should speak the love and 
 reverence which he bears a maid? The mirror 
 in thy hand should tell thee that few could look 
 upon a face so fair, a form that Hathor's self 
 must envy, and not be stricken with that malady 
 which not even the King's physician hath power 
 to cure! That I love thee I cannot help. My 
 heart beats to thoughts of thee; thy image is 
 stamped upon my very eyes ! 
 
 "As to my master, the Lord Menna, I serve 
 the Prince from gratitude. He found me well 
 nigh starving in the streets of Thinis and gave 
 me food and shelter. All my work he purchased 
 and put me in the place of Beq, a sculptor whose 
 work is excellent, according to your Egyptian
 
 196 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 standard. His portrait of thee I myself have 
 much admired. 
 
 ' ' Yet, Most Beautiful, 'tis not thee ! 'Twould 
 answer as well for any Lady of the Court. Were 
 I to model thee, Fragrance of the Gods, thou 
 shouldst see a living, breathing 'double' of 
 thyself, thy very ka in stone. This I could' 
 prove to thee as could no other/* 
 
 During this conversation Bhanar had con 
 tinued to ply the ostrich-feather fan above her 
 mistress's head. Anguish for Eenny, pity for 
 herself, showed in her beautiful eyes. 
 
 Sesen 's heart bled for her. Sesen knew 
 Bhanar 's history well. Bhanar never tired of 
 talking about her beloved village, of her dear 
 Rippa, nestled among the distant Syrian hills. 
 
 The little Princess had soon perceived that 
 Bhanar 's girlish love for her childhood's com 
 panion had ripened into something stronger. 
 
 She had soon noticed how artfully Bhanar 
 managed to forestall Sesen 's other maids when 
 ever Kenny's name was announced by the usher. 
 
 Benny's joy and relief at finding her in the
 
 A Rash Promise 197 
 
 household of the Princess had been genuine, 
 since for a time, he had felt that he and Yakab 
 had failed her. Thereafter, at each and every 
 visit to the Palace, he had quite naturally sought 
 his beautiful country-woman. He knew that 
 through her he would the more readily reach 
 the lady of his master's infatuation. 
 
 Renny had strict orders to deliver his mas 
 ter's notes into the hand of Sesen in person. 
 This at first he could never have accomplished, 
 had it not been for Bhanar's assistance. 
 
 This insistence of Renny to reach her through 
 Bhanar alone Sesen had misinterpreted. 
 
 Then came that fatal day when Bhanar lis 
 tened to Eenny as he poured out his tale of love 
 for her mistress. Bhanar's heart seemed to 
 stop its beating. From that moment she real 
 ized that she loved Renny with all the love that 
 he that he, alas, felt for Sesen, her mistress. 
 
 At this moment an agonizing sympathy for 
 Renny seemed to freeze her heart. She knew 
 that Renny at best did but provide distraction 
 for the Princess. And now, in this statue of
 
 198 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 which" he talked, Eenny held out still further 
 hopes of diversion. From her frequent visits to 
 Enana's villa, Bhanar knew that the absent 
 Eamses was ever in Sesen's mind, though never 
 once had the little maid referred to him. In 
 vain had she confided her knowledge of the 
 mutual love of Sesen and Eamses to the unheed 
 ing Eenny. 
 
 Sesen turned from the sculptor as if to leave. 
 At the threshold of the steps she paused for a 
 moment : 
 
 11 Syrian, if you can indeed model such a por 
 trait as that of which you speak, gladly will I 
 purchase it of thee, and with it thy freedom.' ' 
 
 The overjoyed Eenny kissed the hand she 
 gave him; 
 
 "Within the month, Most Beauteous One! 
 Give me but four short weeks and thou shalt see 
 thyself as no one within the confines of the four 
 iron pillars could ever hope to model thee. As 
 to payment, I seek it not. Freedom might lead 
 me away from thee ! ' ' 
 
 Eenny again passionately kissed the jeweled
 
 A Rash Promise 199 
 
 fingers of the little Princess and dashed from 
 the Court. How he finally managed to reach his 
 studio door, he never knew. 
 
 Alas, for Renny and his promise. Even as he 
 left the outer corridor, Bar, chief of his master's 
 spies, glided noiselessly from behind one of the 
 great painted columns nearby. 
 
 Thereafter, Menna the Overseer saw to it 
 that Eenny sped upon no more missions to the 
 Palace. On the contrary he was sternly warned 
 to keep within his master's villa-garden, and the 
 little workshop which had been provided for 
 
 him. 
 
 Yet, as luck would have it, in order to keep 
 him busily occupied, Menna commanded him to 
 model a statue of Hathor, Goddess of Beauty. 
 This statue, when completed, Menna intended to 
 present to the late Pharaoh's shrine at Amada 
 to the south. But to Eenny he omitted to men 
 tion that his name and his alone would appear 
 upon its ivory pedestal !
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 A STATUE OF HATHOR. GODDESS OF LOVE 
 
 MENNA the Overseer had little conception 
 of the torture he had inflicted upon the 
 mind of the youthful Eenny when he 
 forbade him his liberty. Hollow-cheeked and 
 well nigh mad, Renny so far disobeyed his 
 patron's orders that he sat for hours, nay, for 
 days at a time, huddled like a beggar at the 
 Palace gate. 
 
 Not even the gentle Bhanar could console hiiri 
 whenever, as so frequently happened, a day 
 went by without its being possible for the dis 
 tracted youth to catch a glimpse of his idol. 
 
 Then, suddenly, he remembered his promise 
 to the Princess. He sought out Khnum, the 
 royal quarryman, who had but now moored to 
 the western bank with a cargo consisting in the 
 main of the precious alabaster of Hatnub. He 
 bribed Khnum to procure him a giant block of 
 
 200
 
 A Statue of Hathor 201 
 
 purest alabaster, a mass of the creamiest ma 
 terial which the alabaster quarries could pro 
 vide. 
 
 For days did master-quarryman Khnum seek 
 a block of the unusual proportions demanded by 
 the impatient sculptor. A week went by, an 
 eternity to the tortured artist. 
 
 Finally, just as he was about to despatch a 
 second expedition northward, and during the 
 heat of one of the first days of the great sand 
 storm, Khnum and his sweating assistants 
 hauled a wooden sledge before his dust-covered 
 threshold. And there, high upon the friction- 
 charred vehicle, stood the glossiest block of 
 Hatnub's finest alabaster which the distracted 
 Renny had ever seen. 
 
 For many years men spoke of that never-to- 
 be-forgotten sandstorm, a storm which ushered 
 in days of blinding heat, days in which the flints 
 that strewed the desert plateau cracked beneath 
 the excoriating heat; days in which the ocher- 
 hued river banks, confining a blinding reach of 
 sluggish water, the shriveled and blasted syca-
 
 2O2 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 more, tamarisks and palms, nay, the very capi 
 tal itself, seemed to be confined within the sun- 
 god 's fiery furnace. 
 
 Day in, day out, those death-dealing rays shot 
 from a changeless vault of steely blue. Down 
 sank the tortured cattle; the birds gasped 
 among the shriveled leaves of the trees. The 
 very soil, by now as hard as any southern gran 
 ite, yawned with wide-thrown crevices many 
 cubits deep. Far to the south the broad-winged 
 vultures circled slowly earthward from their 
 lofty posts, as if they too feared the darts of the 
 outraged Amen. 
 
 It was a sudden and appalling visitation 
 which luckily blew itself out within but four of 
 the customary nine days of blinding wind and 
 sand. 
 
 Yet, throughout those four memorable days 
 and thereafter Benny worked as he had never 
 worked before. 
 
 Now, there came a day when Menna ordered 
 his carrying-chair and bade his bearers set him 
 down before the door of Benny's workshop.
 
 A Statue of Hathor 203 
 
 At the Overseer's repeated knocks the bolts 
 were slowly drawn. Through the barely opened 
 door Renny, blinded by the glare, gazed unsee- 
 ingly toward the extended hand of his smiling 
 patron : 
 
 "How now, Syrian? Hast turned magician? 
 Bar tells me thou must needs have conned the 
 Jiekau-spell that bringeth food and drink, since 
 all the food that is brought thee stands untasted. 
 Breath of the Goddess I Why hast sulked be 
 hind barred doors these weeks and more?" 
 Menna made as if to step within. 
 
 "Ah, master, most noble lord, I do beseech 
 thee, go not within ! Bethink thee, Splendor of 
 Thebes, when first I came to thee, thou didst 
 assure to me that privacy which, far more than 
 thy golden uten, I did ask of thee! Continue 
 now thy favor some little time, I pray. Thy 
 statue of the Goddess Hathor is ... !" 
 
 " Amemet eat me I Days, nay weeks, have we 
 waited for a sight of it ! Now is our sore-tried 
 patience at an end." 
 
 With a firmness unexpected in the cus-
 
 2O4 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 tomarily indolent Menna, the Overseer pushed 
 the trembling Kenny aside and entered the 
 workshop. 
 
 At first, so sudden was the change from the 
 glare of noonday to the murky shadows of the 
 room, that Menna could distinguish nothing. 
 When at last his eyes grew somewhat accus 
 tomed to the gloom, he found himself staring 
 at the tinted statue of a regally robed woman, 
 a life-sized figure so startlingly realistic that for 
 a moment he instinctively drew back. 
 
 Upon a pedestal festooned with drooping 
 lotus and fragrant mimosa stood the smiling 
 figure of the Princess Sesen. So lifelike did the 
 statue appear to the bewildered noble, that for 
 a space of a full minute, he waited, expecting 
 her lips to part, her tongue to utter the cus 
 tomary greetings. 
 
 Once his jeweled fingers had assured him that 
 the figure was but tinted stone, Menna burst into 
 voluble exclamations of wonder and delight. 
 
 11 Verily, said I not that thou hadst learned
 
 A Statue of Hathor 205 
 
 some potent charm, some mighty hekau, known 
 but to the blessed gods alone? 
 
 " Breath of Hathor! 'Tis the work of Ptah, 
 nay, of Khnum himself, Fashioner of Mankind ! 
 None but a god could thus turn stone to flesh, 
 put breath in the nostrils, life in the eye ! 
 
 "Ah Syrian! if this be Syrian art, my heated 
 arguments were but wasted breath ! Compared 
 to our Egyptian figures, shackled, mummified, 
 as lifeless as the granite they are carved in, here 
 stands grace and freedom, life itself ! 
 
 "By the Theban Triad, the very blind would 
 know this figure for the Princess, the Lady 
 Sesen . . . I" 
 
 Menna broke off abruptly. Sesen? 
 
 Suddenly Menna 's face flamed in anger. 
 Could there indeed be something between the 
 Princess and this slave, this nobody? 
 
 Nay, as far as the Princess was concerned, 
 Menna felt sure that Bar's reports of Benny's 
 heedless temerity were false. At the moment 
 Menna felt sure that he had good cause to trust
 
 206 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 the Princess. He fingered a scented note tucked 
 in his jeweled belt. 
 
 But Renny . . . f 
 
 Menna shook his perfumed wig, and turning, 
 spoke the young man's name. Thrice he called, 
 then strode to the half opened door. 
 
 Kenny had vanished. 
 
 With a threatening imprecation the irate 
 Overseer turned once more to the statue. 
 
 Yes, here was Hathor, Goddess of Beauty, 
 Goddess of Love, as none in Egypt had ever con 
 ceived her I 
 
 Henna's brain worked fast. The statue he 
 vowed to make his own. Bar and his minions 
 were despatched to do away with Kenny ! 
 
 What a sensation would this work produce at 
 Court, and especially upon the mind of the art- 
 loving Pharaoh! Menna allowed himself 
 visions of a naturalistic school modeled upon 
 the Syrian, an essentially realistic school which 
 should utterly banish the hieratic canons im 
 posed upon the Egyptian craftsmen by the
 
 A Statue of Hathor 207 
 
 dictates of precedent and the will of an all- 
 powerful priesthood. 
 
 Meantime, thought the Overseer, the statue 
 must be kept from sight, at least, until Benny 
 was safely out of the way. 
 
 He sent off a chairman to bring clay, string 
 and his signet ring. With his own hands he 
 covered the statue with the quarryman's mats 
 which still clustered in one corner of the little 
 chamber. 
 
 In less time than it takes to tell it the tinted 
 figure of the little Princess disappeared from 
 sight. Menna closed the door and, slipping to 
 the bronze bolt, bound it with cord and set his 
 scarab-seal upon a clay pellet which he fastened 
 thereto. This done, he hurried home. To-day 
 was a momentous day with Menna, Overseer of 
 the King's Estates.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE CURSE OF HUY, GREAT HIGH PRIEST OF. 
 
 AMEN 
 
 WHAT Belur the Hittite Ambassador had 
 said, concerning the expected outbreak 
 of a religious war throughout Egypt, 
 was true. Moreover, no one was greatly sur 
 prised at his report of the disaffection of 
 Egypt's Asiatic vassals. 
 
 In his efforts to establish the cult of the Syr 
 ian sun-god, in place of that of the various 
 Egyptian deities, Pharaoh had little time to at 
 tend to the exacting affairs of his country's vast 
 empire abroad. 
 
 However, Belur 's words cannot have taken 
 him altogether by surprise, since runners had 
 brought letters daily from the few faithful 
 vassal-kings along his Syrian border, letters 
 begging help from Egypt. 
 
 Indeed, of late, these hints of troubles to come 
 208
 
 The Curse of Huy 209 
 
 had resolved themselves into the most urgent 
 appeals for troops to assist in stemming the 
 advance of the dreaded Hittites. Two messen 
 gers had Noferhotep sent from the frontier on 
 a like errand. After a protracted delay Pharaoh 
 had despatched one division of Ethiopian troops 
 to his support. 
 
 Yet, not until this moment, when a swift cedar 
 boat was carrying Belur and his suite north 
 ward, did Pharaoh appreciate to the full the 
 significance of those despairing cries for aid. 
 As he now saw it, Belur had come as spokes 
 man for a combined array of Egypt's Asiatic 
 foes, the very mention of whose names froze 
 the blood in Pharaoh's veins. 
 
 Thereafter Pharaoh 's spies were very active, 
 along the border. 
 
 Time went by, yet nothing happened. Per 
 haps the boastful words of the Hittite were but 
 intended to intimidate him. Or could it have 
 been that the bold front which he had assumed 
 had in turn deceived the Hittite? 
 
 Hearing nothing further of Eimur of Char-
 
 210 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 chemisli, or of the kings of Kadesh and 
 Megiddo, Pharaoh again took up the work so 
 near his heart. All his best efforts were now 
 centered upon the establishment of the Syrian 
 solar-cult throughout Egypt. 
 
 To this drastic move Pharaoh was incited by 
 Yakab and by his mother, Thi, not so much on 
 account of any real love they had for Aton, the 
 Syrian deity, but mainly as a means of ridding 
 themselves of the obstructive influence of Huy, 
 Enana and the powerful priesthood of Amen 
 in Karnak. 
 
 Realizing that the vast buildings of Amen's 
 temples in Karnak could never be moved, Thi 
 pointed out to Pharaoh how comparatively easy 
 it would be for him to forsake Thebes and the 
 Palace of Amenhotep, his father, and to erect a 
 new palace, a new city, elsewhere. 
 
 To this end Thi had urged Pharaoh to aban 
 don Thebes and had prevailed upon him to erect 
 a new capital, the City of the Sun, far to the 
 north'. 
 
 It was to raise this new capital, together with
 
 The Curse of Huy 211 
 
 all the houses and villas surrounding it, that 
 thousands of captive slaves were now put to 
 work deep within the quarries of Hatnub, quar 
 ries famed alike on account of the superb 
 quality of their fine white limestone and the 
 translucency of their striated alabasters. 
 
 In building Pharaoh's new city gigantic 
 blocks in both of these rich materials were 
 brought down from the hills along a specially 
 leveled causeway. Each giant block had been 
 secured upon great wooden sleds of hardened 
 sycamore, and hauled to the new site by the con 
 certed efforts of sweating oxen and groaning 
 sleds. 
 
 Overseers were told off to prod the oxen; 
 others to lash the scarred backs of the unhappy 
 Asiatic slaves. The chief of each section occu 
 pied himself in pouring water upon the ground 
 to prevent the sled from taking fire by friction, 
 or oil to facilitate the movement of the sled. 
 
 When not so engaged the chief sang a love- 
 song in time to the thwack of the overseers' 
 staves, as they further lacerated the bloody
 
 212 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 backs of the staggering captives. It was com 
 monly said of a chief of a quarry-gang that he 
 needed but three canopic jars at his entomb 
 ment, since he lacked a heart. 
 
 At the site of the new city other dull-eyed 
 Asiatics, similarly flogged into line, worked 
 waist-deep in sandy pits or muddy ditches. Day 
 in, day out, the heavy wooden brick-carriers bit 
 into the cracked and blistered shoulders of 
 emasculated Amu. 
 
 Indeed, long before the quickening rays of 
 Aton had mounted above the low hills which 
 shut in the City of the Sun to the east, sweat, 
 mud and blood had baked upon the naked backs 
 of Ethiopian, Libyan, Canaanite and Kheftiu 
 alike. Nay, Egyptians themselves, the down 
 trodden herdsmen, were as like as not torn from 
 their ripening fields to toil perhaps at pressing 
 bricks for Pharaoh 's palace, library and villa, 
 or, cursed, cuffed and beaten by the shrieking 
 taskmasters, to crack their thews at the well- 
 nigh smoking ropes which encircle some colossal 
 shaft, shrine or statue intended for the great 
 temple of the sun-god Aton.
 
 The Curse of Huy 213 
 
 From their lofty posts above the valley 
 watchful vultures craned their necks, as they 
 slowly circled earthward. Such a stupendous 
 undertaking exacted a heavy toll of death. 
 
 But what of deserted Thebes, of Huy and the 
 priests of Amen? 
 
 Ever since the theft of the cultus-statue of the 
 temple by the Atonites the priests at Karnak 
 had shut themselves up behind the great w^alls 
 of the Temple of Amen. Behind those massive 
 walls they had continued to intone the ritual of 
 Amen to an empty shrine and the Theban 
 Eecention of the Book of the Dead to deserted 
 courts and forgotten offering-tables. Aton and 
 its ritual they anathematized, though an Aton 
 shrine had, for a time, been forced upon them. 
 
 In their present extremity Huy, the great 
 High Priest of Amen, relied for support upon 
 the people, as did indeed his brother hiero- 
 phants of Memphis, TVinis and Abydos. 
 
 Yet, no help came from the priests of Ptah, 
 of Atum, of Osiris. The starving and plague- 
 stricken peasants in whom they trusted failed 
 to assist them.
 
 214 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 For their part the peasants well knew that no 
 matter which of the opposing factions gained 
 the upper hand, their present state of utter 
 wretchedness would remain unchanged. 
 
 What cared they for Amen, Ptah or Aton, 
 when the Nile-god failed them, when Hapi 
 neglected to pour his life-giving waters over 
 their parched and stricken fields ! 
 
 What was Amen or Aton to them, as they 
 watched their ashen, granite-hard soil crack 
 beneath the pitiless shafts of a ruthless sun- 
 god! 'Twas an ill time to pray to him under 
 any one of his three hundred names. 
 
 And so it happened that, at Pharaoh's com 
 mand, an Atonite force attacked the battle- 
 mented walls of Amen's temple in Karnak. 
 
 As a result, the ancient temple of Sesostris 
 was utterly destroyed. Oldest of all the temples 
 within the encircling walls, its cedar columns, 
 its silver floors, its walls of gold inlaid with 
 malachite and lazuli, together with its hundreds 
 of gold and silver statues of the kings of old, 
 all were lost in a conflagration started by the
 
 The Curse of Huy 215 
 
 overturning of a colossal incense-bowl which 
 stood in front of the shadow of the god Min, 
 outlined in silver in the panels of the sanctuary 
 door. 
 
 That night Huy, great High Priest of Amen, 
 lay dead, the poisoned cup clenched in his hand. 
 
 Yet, before he went forth upon his last long 
 journey across the rocky heights of Duat and 
 the demon-haunted valleys of the Underworld, 
 Huy had arrayed himself in full regalia and 
 taken his stand before the yellow curtain which 
 screened the now empty shrine of the great god 
 Amen. 
 
 Aloud he cried, "0 Ancient One, Primordial 
 God! By the power of thy Hidden Name, by 
 the Heads of the Demigods that surround thee, 
 hear the prayer of Huy, thy servant ! 
 
 " Grant that the line of Ahmes be broken I 
 Grant that no child of Pharaoh sit upon thy 
 golden throne ! 
 
 "Let Pharaoh's name be blotted from remem 
 brance ! Let Pharaoh 's Jca be forced to wander 
 among the dunghills of forgotten cities!"
 
 216 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 Slowly Huy raised the poisoned cup: "And 
 now, nameless One, before I go forth upon 
 the way of trial, a token that thou dost grant 
 my prayer. Give me a sign, Holy One, a sign, 
 Amen, Lord of Lords ! ' ' 
 
 As if in answer to the High Priest's cry, 
 there came a sound as of the shaking of distant 
 sistra and silver cymbals. There followed the 
 thrumming of many harps and the sound of reed 
 pipes. Suddenly, through the yellow curtain, 
 there was seen a light which slowly increased in 
 brightness. 
 
 In terror the awe-struck priests surrounding 
 Huy hid their eyes. When again they dared to 
 open them, they saw that the great curtain had 
 been rent in two and, below it, stretched at full 
 length, lay the white-robed figure of Huy, their 
 leader. 
 
 In sorrow, Antefy, his successor, commanded 
 his bearers to carry him to the chariot of Mei, 
 the Atonite, where seven and seventy times 
 seven at the feet of Pharaoh's victorious repre 
 sentative, in words at least, he fell.
 
 The Curse of Huy 217 
 
 The other disheartened ministers of Amen 
 nominally embraced the Aton creed then and 
 there, or, with Antefy, their new leader, retired 
 to a self-imposed exile among the arid sands of 
 Nubia far to the south. 
 
 The fall of Huy and the priests of Amen, 
 seeming to prove the strength and determina 
 tion of Pharaoh, Memphis, Thinis and Abydos, 
 and thereafter, nearly every local shrine 
 throughout Egypt, at once raised altars to Aton, 
 the Syrian sun-god. 
 
 Once again fortune favored the Atonites!
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 WHY MENNA 's CHAIKBEABEB STAKED His ALL 
 
 MENNA, Overseer of the King's Estates, 
 was known to the Court as a hard and 
 self-seeking man, and this in spite of 
 his sleekness of skin, his luxurious habits and 
 his untiring efforts to outshine the other "fol 
 lowers of the king" both in beauty of person, 
 knowledge of literature and the arts, indeed, in 
 all those visible evidences of culture which dis 
 tinguished the Egyptian court. 
 
 In spite of this outward display and ostenta 
 tion Menna, son of Menna, was appreciated at 
 his full value by courtier, priest and peasant 
 alike. Well they knew that but a tithe of the 
 fat revenues which Menna collected for the king 
 or had formerly collected for the unhappy Huy, 
 Great High Priest of Amen, went to swell the 
 
 218
 
 The Chairbearer Stakes His All 219 
 
 royal ''treasuries of gold and silver" or the 
 "treasure of the god." As yet, however, 
 through fear of the Overseer's "eyes and ears" 
 spies, native and foreign no one had dared 
 to inform upon him at the Palace. 
 
 In spite of all Menna could do to ingratiate 
 himself with her, the Lady Sesen ever sought to 
 avoid him. Yet Menna never despaired. His 
 attentions were pressed upon her, in spite of all 
 she could do to prevent. Recently the fringed 
 Asiatic garments of his servants, an affectation 
 of the much-traveled Prince, were seldom ab 
 sent from her sight. 
 
 Yet to-day something had happened which 
 might bring it well within the realms of possi 
 bility that she might break with the persistent 
 Overseer once and for all. 
 
 During the course of one of her visits to the 
 home of Ramses' grandparents Enana had con 
 fided to her a secret which appeared to her 
 astonished ears well-nigh incredible. For from 
 him she learned the astounding news that Hanit, 
 her former beloved mistress, Queen Hanit
 
 22O Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 whom she had but yesterday it seemed, seen 
 laid to rest yonder in the Valley of the Tombs, 
 was alive, alive! 
 
 Rendered fairly dumb at once with amaze 
 ment and joy, Sesen sat at Enana's knees as if 
 fascinated, her cheeks aglow, her eyes dancing 
 with excitement, her lips parted as if she would 
 drink in his every word. 
 
 This, then, was the reason of Enana's fever 
 ish restlessness of late. Queen Thi herself, 
 whom nothing escaped, had remarked it, had 
 even commented upon it to Sesen. 
 
 Naturally, Sesen at the time could give no 
 adequate explanation of the unusual behavior, 
 the ill-restrained excitement, which seemed to 
 agitate the wizened body of the old magician. 
 And Queen Thi finally set it down as being due 
 to loss of favor at court. 
 
 In fact, Enana had suddenly withdrawn en 
 tirely from all court functions. A faithful ad 
 herent of the great god, Amen of Thebes, and 
 a brother of Huy, late High Priest of Amen, 
 Enana could not but see in Thi and Pharaoh the
 
 The Chairbearer Stakes His All 221 
 
 murderers of Huy, his brother, and the im 
 placable foes of Amen whom he loved and 
 served. 
 
 So the shriveled body which Kathi had sworn 
 was that of Hanit had been another's. Sesen 
 recalled that Enana had often remarked the 
 striking resemblance which existed between the 
 ex-Queen Hanit and the Lady Meryt. 
 
 It was Meryt 's body then which lay in its 
 rock-hewn tomb back yonder swathed in yards 
 of milk-white linens, encased in a triple cedar 
 coffin glowing with gold and gem-incrustations ! 
 It was Meryt 's body which now rested in its 
 huge granite sarcophagus, deep beneath the 
 crumbling Western Hills! It was Meryt 's 
 mummified form upon which she herself had 
 placed that last sad offering, a chaplet of 
 flowers, berries and leaves ! Hanit, her beloved 
 mistress, still lived ! 
 
 Sesen could hardly follow Enana through the 
 astounding threads of his story. She gathered 
 that the ruse by which her mistress had been 
 saved from certain death at Queen Thi's hands
 
 222 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 had been Enana 's own, though its successful 
 accomplishment had been due to the faithful 
 Kathi. 
 
 Sesen begged to be allowed to visit Hanit, 
 but Enana restrained her. He spoke of the 
 terrible change in the demeanor of the once 
 gentle and studious Queen. He spoke of her 
 vindictive hatred of Pharaoh, of Thi and, more 
 than these perhaps, of Menna, son of Menna, 
 whom she considered the murderer of the 
 prince, her son. 
 
 Since her escape from the Temple all her 
 time had been spent in study, and that with but 
 one end in view. Vengeance upon the trio 
 whom she had such cause to hate had become 
 with her an obsession. 
 
 It appeared that in the realms of black art 
 Hanit had become the equal of Enana himself. 
 Day and night had she pored over the lector's 
 rolls of papyrus, until each and every one of 
 their incantations had become hers. She knew 
 all the hidden spells of the Conjurers of Amen. 
 She could part the waters at a word. Her
 
 The Chairbearer Stakes His All 223 
 
 ebony wand could cause grass to grow where no 
 vegetation had lived before. Behead a bird or 
 animal and, at a word from Hanit, it would 
 spring to its feet alive and whole. Even the 
 secrets of the masons and royal architects were 
 hers. She knew the secret blocks of stone 
 which, touched by even the weakest hand, 
 opened or closed many a ponderous granite 
 door of tomb or shrine. 
 
 Yes I She would have vengeance upon Pha 
 raoh, upon Thi, upon Menna . . . ! 
 
 At the mention of Henna's name Sesen 
 thoughtfully drew from the folds of her robe a 
 small roll of papyrus, delicately scented and 
 inscribed in black and red with another effusive 
 expression of the Overseer's undying passion 
 and his plea for a tryst. Enana read it twice, 
 then carefully rolled it up and placed it se 
 curely beneath his leather girdle, saving as he 
 did so: 
 
 1 'Here may be found the bait to lure Prince 
 Menna to his bitter doom! It reaches Hanit 's 
 hands this very night 1 Verily, what said that
 
 224 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 sage of old, Imhotep? 'Love is the greatest ally 
 of the gods!' " 
 
 Trembling with suppressed excitement the 
 old magician rose. He placed a caressing hand 
 upon the head of the little Princess and de 
 parted somewhat abruptly, leaving her to 
 marvel at the miraculous escape of her former 
 mistress and to speculate as to the nature of 
 Hanit 's vengeance upon Menna. 
 
 And Menna? Not long after Enana had left 
 the little Princess the overjoyed Menna felt 
 that he could, at last, afford to ignore the reports 
 brought in by Bar and his other spies. Menna 
 no longer feared the existence of an understand 
 ing between Renny and the little Princess. A 
 note from Sesen, a note most tenderly inscribed, 
 rested at the moment between Menna 's thumb 
 and forefinger. He smiled as he placed the note 
 to his lips. He inhaled the perfume of myrrh- 
 paste, where Sesen 's fingers had touched the 
 smooth papyrus. Sesen the Haughty, Sesen the 
 Unapproachable, Sesen whom the great Ramses 
 loved, had yielded to his attentions and passion-
 
 The Chairbearer Stakes His All 225 
 
 ate appeals. It had been a far longer siege than 
 usually fell to the lot of the Overseer, but, at 
 last, the usual stream of presents, poems, and 
 entreaties had done its work. Sesen had agreed 
 to meet him amidst the ruins near Mentuho- 
 tep's shrine! 
 
 "Mentuhotep's shrine? That forgotten ruin! 
 An extraordinary place," mused the Prince. 
 For a moment he doubted the missive; a hint 
 of suspicion clouded the gleam of triumph 
 which glowed in his eyes. 
 
 Somewhat thoughtfully he reread the note. 
 The next he had stretched his jeweled hand 
 toward a little bronze mirror which rested upon 
 an ivory rack at his elbow. It was a small 
 mirror, its handle a maiden standing with arms 
 outstretched as if to support the disk above. 
 
 But half conscious of what he was doing, 
 Menna gazed at his handsome features as re 
 flected in the burnished oval of the mirror. 
 Slowly his features relaxed. He smiled, and, 
 laying down the mirror, clapped his hands. He 
 gave direction to the obsequious Syrian who
 
 226 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 immediately appeared, that Bentu, chief of his 
 chairbearers, be sent to him immediately. 
 
 Soon after, Bentu left his master's presence, 
 his face, wreathed in smiles, his ivory teeth 
 flashing. Bentu walked on air, he could hardly 
 refrain from snapping his fingers and dancing 
 his joy like "the curly-headed ones," as he 
 hurried down the quiet corridors. An excur 
 sion such as his master planned for the morrow 
 customarily ended well for Bentu, chief of the 
 carriers. 
 
 Throughout the long night following, while 
 Menna tossed upon his ivory-footed couch, 
 Bentu gambled away his last worldly posses 
 sions. 
 
 At first Bentu lost three heifers at a throw. 
 Then seven sheep went to Beq, the sculptor. 
 Quickly followed the loss of thirty geese, the 
 two gold uten which encircled his wrist, his 
 hound Antef, and finally, most prized posses 
 sion of all, his bright blue scarab-seal. All 
 passed to Beq, the sculptor. 
 
 But what cared Bentu, the Carrier! In his
 
 The Chairbearer Stakes His All 227 
 
 master's explicit directions as to clothes for 
 the carriers, as to food and drink, Bentu 
 scented an assignation. The new hood was to 
 be put on the carrying-chair. It was a beautiful 
 hood, made of the finest linen, in stripes of 
 green and gold. A love affair without a doubt ! 
 There was a woman in it, and women as Bentu 
 knew full well women paid well for messen 
 gers and carriers! 
 
 Bentu curled himself up in a corner of Beq's 
 studio and went promptly to sleep. He feared 
 to go home ; his wife might ask questions, and 
 Bentu was in mortal dread of Sebekmeryt his 
 Nubian wife.
 
 CHAPTER XVm 
 
 WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MENNA, SON OF MENNA, 
 WENT A-WOOING 
 
 THE ruined Shrine of Mentuhotep lay 
 somewhat to the north of the great sand 
 stone mortuary-temple of Amenhotep III. 
 Fronting it stood a dwarf pyramid sur 
 rounded by brightly-painted columned porticos. 
 Far to the south stretched Queen Thi's beauti 
 ful "pleasure lake," which seemed, at this dis 
 tance, a veritable bowl of gold rimmed with 
 emeralds. The glowing walls and avenues of 
 stately trees which marked Queen Hatshepsut's 
 terraced temple, shut it in toward the north. 
 High above, and seemingly ever in danger of 
 crashing down upon it, towered the precipitous 
 and ever crumbling masses of the purple Lib 
 yan Hills. 
 
 The way thither led along the Necropolis 
 Eoute, a high-banked road which passed im- 
 
 228
 
 Menna Goes A-wooing 229 
 
 mediately in front of the obelisks and twin 
 statues fronting the granite threshold of Amen- 
 hotep's stupendous mortuary-temple. 
 
 At this season of the year the wayfarer might 
 appreciate the full height of the waters of the 
 inundation, since their turgid reaches now 
 swirled about the walls of the Eoyal Palace to 
 the south, and lapped the high walls of Amen- 
 hotep's mortuary temple itself> though the 
 latter 's massive walls and pylons stood well 
 back upon the edge of that crescent-shaped 
 strip of land whose upper reaches had been set 
 apart by the Thebans from time immemorial, 
 as their place of burial. 
 
 This late afternoon the waters flashed like 
 streams of fire as the sun sank ever lower, ever 
 more rapidly it seemed, toward the low blue line 
 of the southern hills which sheltered Erment, 
 city of the falcon-headed Wargod. 
 
 The arid sand-drifts, which stretched along 
 the lower slopes of the Theban hills, seemed 
 composed rather of snow than sand, so brilliant 
 was the glare, so clear the atmosphere.
 
 230 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 Most welcome to the eye were the villa- 
 gardens of the nobles, with their deep green 
 groves of date palm, sycamore and acacia. 
 Many resembled little islands that seemed to 
 float upon the flashing waters. 
 
 But neither desert glare nor flashing water 
 could detain Prince Menna. Within the hour 
 Atum, the evening sun, would sink below the 
 southern hills; the cool north breeze would 
 spring up, as was its custom. 
 
 Menna 's chair-bearers had stood before his 
 villa door an hour ahead of time. Bentu, their 
 chief, placed his hands upon his heart and 
 gazed heavenward, simulating the ardent lover. 
 Another love-affair, without a doubt. 
 
 Such missions meant uten, necklaces or 
 rings; a spree at Hentiu's at any rate, and 
 Bentu loved the very sight of a bursting wine 
 skin! 
 
 Bentu 's speculations were interrupted by the 
 sudden appearance of the door-keeper. With a 
 knowing wink at Bentu the latter obsequiously 
 bowed, as Menna strode through the curtained 
 door.
 
 Menna Goes A-wooing 231 
 
 Another moment and Menna, Superintendent 
 of the King's estates, high above the shoulders 
 of six stalwart Nubians, was borne swiftly 
 along the highway which led to the northern 
 end of the curving Theban Plain. 
 
 Taking his cue from the gorgeous costume 
 scarcely concealed beneath his master's fringed 
 and brightly colored Syrian cloak, Bentu 
 launched into one of Ata's love-songs. His 
 grinning comrades punctuated each verse with 
 a staccato "ha-ha, o-ay!" 
 
 Menna sank back against his cushions; he 
 smiled. It pleased him that this black shadow 
 of his had divined his mission. Nay, Menna 
 felt himself so at peace with the world that he 
 gave command to allow a peasant's all too- 
 heavily laden donkey to pass unchallenged, an 
 unheard of proceeding on the part of a Theban 
 noble ! 
 
 Bentu 's hopes rose. Under such circum 
 stances all things were possible. He might re 
 ceive a jeweled necklace, golden bars; a small 
 farm, perhaps. 
 
 Indeed, Bentu 's expectations assumed so
 
 232 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 rosy an aspect, that he broke into a dance, 
 clapping his hands or snapping his fingers in 
 time to his leapings and posturings, quite in 
 the manner of the Nubians, the curly-headed 
 people to the south. 
 
 With the sudden disappearance of the swol 
 len sun-disk behind the deep blue hills of 
 Erment, song and dance abruptly ceased. 
 Menna indicated that he would descend from 
 his chair, and all, master and men together, 
 addressed a short prayer for the success of the 
 Sun-god in his ceaseless conflict with Apep, 
 Fiend of Darkness. 
 
 Piety was a habit with Menna, as with Bentu 
 and the rest. 
 
 This done, once more Henna's chair swung 
 along the high embankment. Once again the 
 warning shouts or blows from the forked staff 
 of Bentu kept the narrow way free. 
 
 Arrived before the tree-set entrance to the 
 Temple of Thothmes, Menna left his servants 
 and continued westward, past Amenhotep the 
 Second's temple, on foot. Soon his tall figure
 
 Menna Goes A-wooing 233 
 
 was lost among the groves of cedars, karobs 
 and acacias with which the tomb precincts of 
 the nobles Senmut. Ra, and Rekmara, were 
 thickly planted. 
 
 Passing the great monument of the architect 
 Senmut, from which vantage point the great 
 cedar which marked the tomb precinct of his 
 father and mother was visible, Menna turned 
 towards the yellow terraces of Hatshepsut's 
 ivory-columned temple. To the left, he could 
 already distinguish the little pyramid and the 
 terraced colonades of the Mentuhotep Shrine, 
 near which was the spot he sought. A few min 
 utes more and he had crossed the ruined fore 
 court of that ancient king's memorial shrine. 
 
 For a moment Menna looked about him. He 
 consulted a memorandum which he took from 
 his jeweled belt. Then again, with an antici 
 patory smile, he ascended to the highest terrace 
 and suddenly vanished into a dark opening 
 which seemed to lead into the very face of the 
 stupendous cliffs which towered above. 
 
 Menna was soon in total darkness. He felt
 
 234 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 himself descending a long, narrow passage-way 
 pitched at a very steep incline. He must have 
 gone some two hundred paces when he felt, 
 rather than saw the glow of a light. Soon he 
 could distinguish the polished surface of the 
 granite slabs with which the narrow walls were 
 faced. 
 
 All was well ! The Princess awaited him ! 
 
 Standing in the opening of the doorway, 
 Menna softly spoke her name. The Princess 
 did not answer, but stood well back within the 
 shadows of an alabaster naos, a shrine which, 
 centuries before, had held a statue of the deified 
 king, Mentuhotep. At the right he saw a dark 
 and narrow doorway in which were visible a 
 few ascending steps cut in the rock. 
 
 The slim figure of the Princess was concealed 
 beneath a long Memphite cloak. She appeared 
 not to have heard his greeting. 
 
 Again Menna softly called her name: 
 "Sesen! My Lily, My Lotus! Behold thy 
 lover, Daughter of Hathor!" 
 
 Still the figure was silent. Smilingly Menna
 
 Menna Goes A-wooing 235 
 
 drew near; he understood. With a wealth of 
 flattering phrases on his lips, he sought to catch 
 her to him. As he did so, the figure turned, and 
 revealed to his astounded gaze the burning eyes 
 of Hanit, of Hanit the former Queen ! 
 
 Yet, Hanit was dead! He had seen her em 
 balmed body laid away in her rock-hewn tomb ! 
 
 With a hoarse and inarticulate cry Menna 
 turned and fled. 'Twas the visible Jca of the 
 outraged queen, 'twas Hanit 's vindictive 
 double! Nay, it 'twas Hanit herself, whose 
 mummified form he himself had seen, what time 
 Huy, the Great High Priest, had performed the 
 last rites, with the ceremonial opening of the 
 eyes, the ears, the mouth ! Had not he himself 
 placed a wreath upon her well-swathed form, 
 and thereafter seen the coffin lowered in her 
 rock-hewn tomb? 
 
 As Menna stumbled up the steep incline of 
 the rock-hewn passage, black horror seized 
 upon him; a paralyzing terror rose from his 
 throbbing heart and mounted to his numbed 
 brain. He tore the heavy gold chains and the
 
 236 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 jeweled wesekli from his throat. He felt that 
 he was choking. 
 
 " Breath of Ra! The doorway, air, light, the 
 blessed daylight I" 
 
 As Menna groped his way up the passage he 
 heard in front of him, a dull thud as of some 
 heavy falling body. For a moment his head 
 long flight was arrested. The solid rock be 
 neath his feet seemed to tremble. He rushed up 
 the last few yards of the narrow corridor and 
 came suddenly in violent contact with an im 
 movable block of polished granite. 
 
 A cold perspiration burst out upon his fore 
 head ; his knees trembled beneath him. He was 
 trapped. 
 
 The overseer made a last attempt to think 
 clearly. For a few moments he succeeded in 
 stifling the terror that gripped his heart. 
 
 Menna carefully felt the walls over and over 
 again to left, to right, in front! Not a crack 
 nor a crevice. Always that granite door ! In an 
 agony of fear Menna hurled himself against it. 
 Hft shrieked, he raved, he cursed.
 
 Menna Goes A-wooing 237 
 
 Finally the Overseer, no longer human, 
 turned and crept back along the granite 
 passage-way. The dust of centuries rose into 
 his throat and filled his lungs. Its fine, impal 
 pable particles got into his eyes. The drop 
 pings of innumerable bats covered his robes; 
 his scented wig had fallen from his head. 
 
 Slowly Menna scrambled down the passage, 
 now in a crouching position, now on all fours. 
 His blood-red eyes gleamed in the gloomy ob 
 scurity like those of a savage panther of the 
 south. Blood trickled slowly from his inflamed 
 nostrils ; his lips were drawn far back upon the 
 gums, as if he snarled. 
 
 Menna stood again in the shrine-chamber. 
 The light still flickered along its granite sides, 
 upon the ivory-toned naos and the figures and 
 hieroglyphs with which it was decorated. The 
 prince gazed wildly about him. Even the pon 
 derous inner door had now swung into place. 
 
 Stretching out his bleeding hands he ap 
 proached the huge shrine. He would cast him 
 self upon the mercy of Hanit's vengeful spirit,
 
 238 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 for by now Menna was long past fear of has 
 or has, of "ghosts" or "doubles!" He called 
 her name as, with outstretched hands he shuffled 
 hesitatingly towards the shrine. 
 
 Hanit had vanished ! 
 
 With a low moan Menna crumpled up and 
 pitched headlong at the foot of the shrine. 
 Above his head the light brightened for an in 
 stant, then slowly sank and, suddenly, vanished. 
 Once again the painted forms of gods and 
 demons alone reigned supreme amidst the fetid 
 heat and darkness.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE HITTITES ADVANCE 
 
 PHARAOH'S recently completed City of 
 the Sun stretched at some length along 
 both sides of the Nile, about sixty miles 
 north of the ancient city of Siut, sacred to the 
 Wolf-god. 
 
 To-day, fronting its white quay, a fleet of 
 barges swung idly at anchor. From the high 
 poop of one, a large temple-barge by its decora 
 tion, Merira, High Priest of Aton, was about to 
 disembark. At the landward end of its gang 
 plank, which had been stretched to the well-built 
 limestone wall of the quay, a knot of white-robed 
 priests of Aton bowed a fawning welcome 
 to their portly brother hierophant. Sixteen 
 stalwart lay-brothers stood expectantly beside 
 the dignitary's hooded-chair. Soon, Merira, 
 High Priest of Aton, high above the gleaming 
 
 239
 
 240 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 heads of his chanting followers, vanished down 
 the avenue of criosphinxes which led toward the 
 massive pylons of the imposing Aton Temple. 
 
 Parallel with the well-planted gardens and 
 vineyards of the Temple of the Sun ran the 
 northern wall of Pharaoh's new palace. The 
 southern wall divided it from the gardens which 
 hedged in the home of the General Mei, a 
 favorite of Pharaoh. Both the grounds about 
 the Aton Temple, the palace, villa, and library 
 of Pharaoh and the house of Mei, ran backward 
 from the Nile bank to the first rise of the low 
 hills to the east. 
 
 Pharaoh's gardens, both of villa, library and 
 palace, were already thickly planted with the 
 rarest of native trees and vines, but myrrh, 
 sandalwood, dom-palm and young Lebanus 
 cedar from the terraces, might be seen both in 
 the gardens of the monarch and in those of his 
 favorites. 
 
 At this moment the huge limestone palace 
 glowed in the heat of midafternoon like a piece 
 of painted ivory. The sun's rays turned to fire
 
 The Hittites Advance 241 
 
 the gold caps of the lofty cedar flag-posts which 
 towered above the walls. 
 
 At the end of a long avenue of young acacias 
 one could distinguish the archers-of-the-guard, 
 as they paced to and fro before the palace 
 gates. A pair of Syrian horses, harnessed to a 
 light chariot, pawed the sandstone flagging 
 before the entrance-pylon, or reared high in 
 air, did the iron-wristed katana show the least 
 sign of relaxing his grip upon the gilded reins. 
 
 Queen Noferith was about to visit the hillset 
 tomb of one of her daughters, who had died 
 shortly after the royal family had taken up its 
 residence in the new city. The royal-nurse, 
 Thuya, and the three sisters of the dead Prin 
 cess, were already well on their way to the 
 tomb, bearing offerings of food, flowers and 
 cosmetics for the use of the Jca. 
 
 Within the interior of the palace, Pharaoh 
 was busily engaged with that corpulent official, 
 the chief-scribe, Enei. At the moment Enei 
 was squatting cross-legged among the reeds 
 and water-fowl painted upon the stucco floor of
 
 242 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 the room. Upon his kilted knees lay the open 
 sheet of a long leather-roll already closely 
 written in red and black with lines of deftly in 
 scribed hieratic. 
 
 Enei held a long reed pen in one hand ; two 
 others stuck out behind his elephantine ears. 
 He had been occupied all morning transcribing 
 from Pharaoh's own lips the "Hymn to Aton," 
 which for weeks had engrossed his fanatical 
 master. 
 
 Famine and pestilence at home, revolt in 
 Nubia, new mutterings of trouble along the 
 Asiatic frontier, one and all had to give place 
 now to the completion of this Sun-hymn, and 
 the ritual of the Aton cult. 
 
 The ritual had already been chanted in the 
 Temple of the Sun. Indeed, it had been intoned 
 for the first time in a little chapel erected 
 among the now well-nigh deserted temples of 
 Amen at Karnak. Here was bitter hearing for 
 the exiled priest of Amen ! 
 
 Pharaoh was extremely anxious to hear the 
 High Priest Merira chant his "Hymn to the 
 Sun," a composition which Pharaoh had writ-
 
 The Hittites Advance 243 
 
 ten for the express use of the Priests of the 
 Temple of Aton. In order to finish the hymn 
 Pharaoh had shut himself up in his library 
 with orders that on no account should he be 
 disturbed. Ambassadors, envoys, nobles of the 
 empire, spies and messengers, all must wait 
 who sought an audience of the engrossed mon 
 arch. 
 
 But a few moments before, Pentu, Chief 
 Court Physician, had backed from his master's 
 presence, loaded down with chains and brace 
 lets of gold. 
 
 Pentu had gained some real or fancied as 
 cendancy over Enei the Scribe in a heated 
 argument as to a probable connection between 
 the sun-god Ba of Heliopolis, Aton, and Adon, 
 the Syrian God of Fertility. Pentu 's bald head 
 glistened like the mirror clasped in the hand 
 of his waiting daughter. Pentu 's broad smile 
 widened, if indeed that might be, as his waiting 
 servants hurled themselves into the dust at 
 sight of his gleaming decorations, those "gifts 
 which the king bestows." 
 
 "What stiff campaign hath earned such rich
 
 244 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 rewards T ' ' asks the travel-worn Eabba, messen 
 ger of Eibaddi, one of Egypt 's vassals in Asia. 
 
 * * Peace, peace, soldier ! Hold thy tongue, fit 
 but to frighten lousy Sand-dwellers! Hast 
 thou not heard? Egypt hath done with war! 
 Corn grows upon our spearshaf ts, boys swim in 
 our shields; our curved swords cut wheat and 
 spelt, our slings kill reed-birds. The 'gifts of 
 Majesty' now reach priests, poets and potters. 
 Breath of Ea ahem Aton, I should have said, 
 a soldier now must stand aside that shaven- 
 headed sucklings from the new religious school 
 may pass! Amemet seize me! Five hours' 
 waiting is enough for me ! Honors to thy son's 
 son," and the officer passes out. 
 
 Some three hours later, Eibbadi's urgent call 
 for assistance, that small clay tablet upon 
 whose safe and speedy deliverance into the 
 hands of the Egyptian king hung the fate of 
 Syria, Eibaddi 's last despairing cry for help, 
 still rested in its metal tube about the impatient 
 Eabba 's neck. 
 
 Tired of his long vigil, Eabba had addressed
 
 The Hittites Advance 245 
 
 a few somewhat pointed remarks in the direc 
 tion of the painted ceiling, but intended for the 
 large ears of Senab the Court Usher. As a not 
 unnatural sequel, another moment found him 
 on the wrong side of the palace door. 
 
 From the threshold of the court-yard two 
 giggling pages made the infuriated Eabba mock 
 bows and salutations in the Syrian manner. 
 
 Thereafter, Kabba wandered aimlessly about 
 and finally disappeared behind the deep red 
 curtains which blew in and out of Thethi's 
 tavern-door. 
 
 The following morning, Eabba awoke to find 
 himself seated upon the edge of a wine-stained 
 couch. In one hand he clasped a faded spray of 
 mimosa. He pulled a chaplet of dried and 
 blackened lotus-flowers from his aching head. 
 Not a bar remained about his arms, not a 
 strand of beads flashed upon his massive chest. 
 Neith, a full-lipped Theban dancer, had them 
 all! 
 
 Eabba 'a hand went to his throat hesitatingly, 
 despairingly. The case that had held his
 
 246 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 master's message, his credentials and his 
 master's seal, all had vanished with that velvet- 
 eyed traitress. 
 
 Ten days ago should the precious letter have 
 been added to the thousands of clay tablets 
 which lined the alcoves of Pharaoh's library 
 and registry. Ten days ago, Eabba the Mes 
 senger should have been well on his way back 
 to Gebal, his hillset station, with Pharaoh's 
 reply. 
 
 Alas! At the moment, Eibaddi 's devoted 
 city lay a mass of smouldering ruins, in the 
 midst of which were scattered the ashes of 
 Eibaddi, Pharaoh's most loyal vassal, his fam 
 ily, and those of the entire squadron of Baal, 
 to which the unhappy Eabba himself belonged. 
 Feeling that the Egyptian monarch had lulled 
 himself into a sense of security, the hosts of the 
 Khabiri and Hittites, headed by Eimur of Char- 
 chemish and the kings of Kadesh and Megiddo, 
 had suddenly swooped upon the territory of 
 Pharaoh's Syrian vassal, Eibaddi the Loyal.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 How BAB AND RENNY MEET FOB THE LAST TIME 
 
 REFLECTED in the quiet reaches of the 
 Nile, a brilliant planet hung, like a silver 
 ball, in the green and gold of Egypt's 
 long-continued afterglow. Below it Aah, the 
 pale young moon, seemed as if it sought to catch 
 that scintillating jewel in the hollow of its cres 
 cent cup. 
 
 The evening's stillness was broken at inter 
 vals by the snarls of marauding hyenas, the 
 barks of jackals and the hooting of the little 
 golden-brown owls which haunted the over 
 hanging eaves of the massive Temple of 
 Khonsu. 
 
 Dusky forms stole stealthily along the nar 
 row alleys of the half-deserted city of Thebes. 
 As they hurried past, the paling afterglow re 
 flected upon the low white walls caused their 
 
 247
 
 248 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 nodding shadows to appear unnaturally en 
 larged, menacing, terrifying. 
 
 Within Benny's workshop the more im 
 mediate shadows were at times revealed by the 
 light from a deep bronze bowl, a brazier filled 
 with glowing incense-wood. The bowl stood 
 upon a low stand immediately in front of 
 Benny's statue of the Princess Sesen. 
 
 Once again relieved of its encircling ropes 
 and mattings, the beautiful statue of the Prin 
 cess stood revealed in all its grace and freedom. 
 Following Henna's sudden and mysterious dis 
 appearance Benny had come again to his work 
 shop to claim the statue which was his. The 
 little crocodile amulet at his throat had, indeed, 
 saved him from Bar's murderous attack. Bar 
 himself felt this to be a fact. 
 
 In the center of the room stood the Princess 
 herself. Her gaze was fixed upon the statue 
 with a mingled expression of awe, pride and de 
 light. At her feet knelt Benny the sculptor, 
 his upturned face transfigured. 
 
 Bhanar, trembling with fear, frequently
 
 Last Meeting of Bar and Renny 249 
 
 opened the door and gazed anxiously, impa 
 tiently it seemed, down the length of the garden 
 path. As she slipped to the lock the broken 
 seals tapped softly against the wooden panels. 
 
 Why so impatient, Bhanar? Why that gleam 
 of hatred in those eyes, ever so gentle, ever so 
 beautiful, as they rest upon the figure of thy 
 mistress? 
 
 To account for Bhanar *s attitude, we must 
 revert once more to Bar, servant to Menna. 
 All unwitting of his master's horrible fate, Bar 
 had set spies about the Princess. He engaged 
 a servant attached to the villa to report day by 
 day the doings of the little Princess, hoping to 
 surprise her in some unguarded evidence of 
 affection for the infatuated Benny. He himself 
 sought and gained the confidence of the jealous 
 Bhanar. 
 
 The beautiful slave-girl, now envenomed by 
 a sudden jealousy of her mistress, confided to 
 the sympathetic Bar a note which Benny had 
 bribed Baquit, the Gate-Keeper, to deliver to 
 the Princess. Bhanar, after many a vain at-
 
 250 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 tempt, had managed to abstract it from her 
 mistress's ebony jewel-box. 
 
 In return for this, the overjoyed Bar had 
 promised her that this very night should see 
 Sesen and Benny parted forever. 
 
 Thus it happened, that when, towards sun 
 down, Sesen commanded Bhanar to get her long 
 Memphite cloak for an outing in the gardens, 
 Bhanar trembled with anticipation. She barely 
 glanced at the ducks, the gazelle's hearts, the 
 Delta wine and the lotus-seed bread, which 
 composed the evening meal. The meal being 
 over and the low tabourets removed, Prince 
 Wozer, Sesen 's father, was carried off upon 
 the shoulders of six chair-bearers in the direc 
 tion of the Theban cemetery. It was the an 
 niversary of the death of a life-long friend and, 
 as had been his habit, he himself would light the 
 first torch preparatory to the service held in the 
 dead man's honor, he with his own hands would 
 place the gifts of food and drink upon the 
 offering-table of the dead noble's tomb. For 
 the last five years Prince Wozer had thus acted 
 the part of &a-servant to Surera the Justified.
 
 Last Meeting of Bar and Renny 251 
 
 When once the long procession of offering- 
 bearers which regularly accompanied her 
 father on such occasions was well on its way, 
 Sesen and Bhanar descended into the palace 
 gardens. 
 
 Arrived at a little postern gate which con 
 nected with the villa-garden of Thi's favorite, 
 the unhappy Menna, the Princess pushed back 
 the barlock, and both passed through. Another 
 moment and they had entered the dimly-lit 
 room of Renny 's former workshop. 
 
 All unsuspecting of Bhanar 's treachery, 
 Sesen had placed the little slave at the door to 
 watch. Bhanar 's heart beat so violently that it 
 well-nigh suffocated her. A glimpse of her mis 
 tress reaching out her fingers toward the statue, 
 her mistress' other self, struck suddenly a 
 tardy repentance into the very soul of the 
 despairing slave-girl. 
 
 Suddenly Bhanar started. Three figures had 
 turned into the narrow garden-path and were 
 rapidly approaching. In the foremost of the 
 three Bhanar recognized Bar the Memphite. 
 Henna's former spy was speaking in loud tones
 
 252 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 and violently gesticulating as lie hurried the 
 others up the path. Two archers of Prince 
 Wozer's guard strode behind him. 
 
 Forgetful of herself, her jealousy and treach 
 ery, Bhanar shrieked aloud; "Benny! My 
 Benny! Bar is here, Henna's spy! Fly, while 
 there is yet time!" 
 
 At her first words, Eenny leaped to the door. 
 A glance showed him his old enemy. Who 
 could have betrayed them? 
 
 Hardly knowing what he would do, he drew 
 the Princess down behind the festooned pedes 
 tal, covering her at the same time with its 
 heavy wreaths and flowers. 
 
 Even as he paused, rapidly scanning the 
 effect, the outer door was burst violently open 
 and the giant Bar pushed headlong into the 
 room. 
 
 In the doorway, looming large against the 
 afterglow, Kenny beheld the sturdy forms of 
 the two archers. 
 
 Bar shot a hasty glance at the statue, then 
 ripped out an oath: "Dog, son of a dog, the 
 Princess. Where is she T ' '
 
 Last Meeting of Bar and Renny 253 
 
 With a smile upon his pale face, Benny 
 slowly raised his hand and pointed to the 
 statue. Then suddenly as Bar turned, he sprang 
 straight at the Memphite and struck, alas, in 
 vain, for his dagger broke short off against 
 Bar's hidden leather corslet. 
 
 Realizing that his last moment had come, 
 Eenny slowly drew his long Asiatic sleeve 
 across his bowed head. Motionless, he an 
 ticipated the arrow that trembled between the 
 thumb and forefinger of one of the guardsmen 
 who, at his sudden attack upon the Memphite, 
 had moved up into the room. 
 
 The twang of the bow thrummed in his ears, 
 and, with it, a choking sob and the thud of a 
 falling body. 
 
 Quickly Eenny threw aside the light covering 
 from his face, dreading what his trembling heart 
 too truly warned him he should see. With a 
 cry of agony he dropped beside the limp body 
 of the dead Bhanar. Gently he lifted her head, 
 scanned her face, breathed her name. In vain ! 
 Too well had Wenamon's arrow done its work!
 
 254 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 A few red feathers and an inch of reed showed 
 just above the white robe of his little country 
 woman. The rest of the long shaft was buried 
 in her breast. 
 
 Benny rose slowly to his feet. His gaze 
 swept the terrified archers to the threshold of 
 the door. With a roar like that of some south 
 ern panther maddened with its wounds, once 
 more he hurled himself upon the treacherous 
 Bar. 
 
 His onslaught hurled the dagger from the 
 nerveless hand of the horror-struck Memphite. 
 For that worthy stood gazing, as if fascinated, 
 at the upturned face of the dead Bhanar. 
 
 They grappled, tripped and fell, rolling over 
 and over, now one seeming to gain the mastery, 
 now the other. Above their writhing forms the 
 archers awaited their opportunity. 
 
 Kneeling at the base of the pedestal the terri 
 fied little Princess alone made outcry, sending 
 out upon the still evening air shriek upon 
 shriek, intermingled with peals of frenzied 
 laughter.
 
 Last Meeting of Bar and Renny 255 
 
 A slight lessening of the grip and Kenny's 
 powerful hand stole towards Bar's jeweled 
 throat. A snap, a quiver of the big limbs and 
 the Memphite lay motionless. 
 
 Eenny staggered like a drunken man to his 
 feet. Stealthily Wenamon the archer ap 
 proached, with somewhat of the caution with 
 which one might beard a wounded lion in its 
 den. His bow had been cast aside. A dagger 
 gleamed in his raised hand. 
 
 Benny's swaying figure lurched heavily 
 towards the statue of the Princess, to the base 
 of which the Princess herself still clung. As 
 his fingers gripped its flower-festooned base, 
 Wenamon 's dagger flashed. 
 
 Eenny suddenly straightened himself. His 
 bloodshot eyes sought those of the Princess, 
 who stood rooted to the spot. 
 
 * * Sesen ! Sesen, ' ' he cried, and fell dead at her 
 feet.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 OP THE CAPTURE OP BELTJR, THE HITTITE 
 
 THE city of Kadesh lay gleaming in the 
 evening sunlight at the upper end of that 
 vast plain which stretched northward to 
 the Lake Country. As viewed from Shabtuna, 
 where the Egyptian army was now encamped, 
 it seemed a veritable city of towers. 
 
 Along the eastern front of this Asiatic city 
 the waters of the Orontes glittered like a 
 straight Hittite sword. The high, machicolated 
 gate-towers, on the eastern side, were ap 
 proached by a causeway and a broad flight of 
 stone steps. Protected by a white wall on 
 either side, these steps rose from the very 
 waters of the turgid Orontes itself. 
 
 The city towers were black with people, 
 frenzied women for the most part. Their pierc 
 ing shrieks, now of exultation, now of despair, 
 floated out upon the flashing waters of the broad 
 
 256
 
 Of the Capture of Belur 257 
 
 river. The sounds reached the ears of Ramses, 
 the Egyptian general, where he stood. 
 
 Along the city walls youths and old men 
 peered anxiously southward, across the level 
 plain. Men, women and children stood with 
 faces glued to the openings which capped the 
 city walls. 
 
 The eyes of the people of Kadesh were 
 riveted upon the ebb and flow of a gigantic con 
 flict, which had raged throughout the day back 
 and forth across the broad reaches of the plain 
 below. 
 
 The mighty hosts of the Hittites, led by Eimur 
 of Charchemish in person, had struggled since 
 daybreak with the forces of Egypt. 
 
 The battle had opened auspiciously for the 
 Hittites, though the ninth of Khoiak was a 
 favorable day alike to Egyptian and Hittite. 
 To the Egyptians it meant that the very gods 
 would lend their aid in the conflict, for was not 
 this the day in which the god Thoth gained his 
 memorable victory over Set ! 
 
 Yet, so far, matters had gone badly for the
 
 258 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 Egyptians. The Division of Sutekh, led by old 
 Noferhotep, had been surprised at the ford 
 near Shabtuna, and cut to pieces. Noferhotep 
 himself had been drowned in the blood-red 
 waters and his body had not been recovered. 
 
 Alas, Noferhotep, the harpers will not sing 
 before thy silent form ; * ' the feathered dancers ' ' 
 will not join thy funeral dance ! 
 
 It appeared that the spies sent out by the 
 Egyptians had been deceived as to the numerical 
 superiority of the Hittite host. An unknown 
 force of the enemy had been enabled to steal up 
 on Noferhotep 's infantry as it crossed the ford. 
 
 A few wounded stragglers from this unequal 
 action had managed to reach the main Egyptian 
 camp, where their distorted accounts of the 
 recent disaster well-nigh caused a panic. How 
 ever, at this juncture the arrival of Yankhamu 
 with a division of Ethiopian troops, had put 
 new heart into the Egyptian host. 
 
 Thus, then, it had been since daybreak. The 
 tide of battle had leaned now toward the Hit 
 tite, now toward Egypt.
 
 Of the Capture of Belur 259 
 
 The main affray had resolved itself into a 
 frontal attack, which extended right across the 
 plain to the very foothills. 
 
 The Egyptian chariots had endeavored to cut 
 around the right flank of the enemy, hoping to 
 drive them into a swamp which lay to the south 
 west. 
 
 Across the broad plains serried ranks of in 
 fantry pressed to the attack. The reserves of 
 both armies were now brought into action. 
 Thus commenced the final stage of the conflict, 
 a last desperate onslaught which should, once 
 and for all, decide the fate of one of the two 
 opposing armies. 
 
 The non-combatants high upon the battle- 
 mented walls of Kadesh broke into wild shouts 
 of triumph, as the right wing of the Egyptian 
 army was seen to bend, to break and, finally, to 
 rush, in wildest disorder, towards a slight curve 
 in the Orontes river eastward. A mass of the 
 howling sons of Kheta pressed hard upon its 
 heels. 
 
 The people of the city could contain them-
 
 260 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 selves no longer. For them the battle was as 
 good as won. The youths flew down to the 
 great gates which opened as if by magic, and in 
 another moment hot-footed youth, halting old- 
 age, women and little children could be seen 
 spreading in a fan-shaped wave across the 
 dusty expanse which separated the contending 
 forces from the city walls. 
 
 Suddenly, from behind a low ridge to the 
 westward, there appeared a long line of two- 
 horse chariots. In the center, easily recognized 
 by his bright red leather doublet and gilded 
 war-bonnet, stood the young Egyptian general, 
 Eamses. A huge Ethiopian katana, leaning 
 well out over the leather body of the chariot, 
 urged on Eamses' horses by word of mouth 
 and lash of whip. At the right of the chariot 
 bounded a lean Nubian panther. 
 
 The onrushing chariots aligned themselves 
 upon that of their young and impetuous leader. 
 With ever quickening pace the long line swept 
 across the well-nigh deserted right flankj 
 turned, and hurled a devastating avalanche of
 
 Of the Capture of Belur 261 
 
 arrows into the wavering center of the enemy's 
 line. 
 
 Without pausing an instant the gleaming line 
 crashed into the very heart of the Hittite army. 
 Thereafter Charchemish, Kadesh, Megiddo, On, 
 Thebes and Napata, were mingled in an in 
 describable whirl of choking yellow dust, rear 
 ing and screaming horses, yelling and cursing 
 men, and flashing weapons. 
 
 The right flank of the Egyptian army, which 
 had feinted at retreat, now turned upon its pur 
 suers. Many they hurled into the river ; many 
 they slew out of hand. The majority, panic- 
 stricken, took to flight in the direction of the 
 city. 
 
 Scenting disaster, Eimur, King of Char- 
 chemish, fled headlong from the stricken field. 
 The King of Kadesh hurled his wounded com 
 panion, Belur the Hittite, from his chariot, and 
 urged his tired horses toward the southern 
 gate. 
 
 Seeing their King take to flight, the forces of 
 Kadesh broke. One and all followed their royal
 
 262 Hank: the Enchantress 
 
 master as fast as chariot, horse or limbs could 
 carry them. 
 
 In a moment the fleeing soldiers had burst 
 into the densely-massed body composed of their 
 distracted wives, mothers, grandsires and wail 
 ing children. These likewise attempted now to 
 turn and again to seek shelter within the city 
 walls. 
 
 There ensued a state of indescribable con 
 fusion in which terror reigned supreme. And 
 this state of utter panic was not confined to 
 those unfortunates upon the plain, but com 
 municated itself to the few people who still re 
 mained within the city. Fearing the fury of the 
 Egyptian soldiers, these now shut and barred 
 the ponderous city gates. 
 
 There followed such a slaughter of the miser 
 able sons of Kheta as had not been witnessed 
 in the Orontes Valley since the day Great 
 Thothmes had first taken Kadesh by assault. 
 
 Fifteen full days was Pahura the Scribe occu 
 pied in listing the spoils of gilded chariots, 
 jeweled breast-plates, gold and silver temple-
 
 Of the Capture of Belur 263 
 
 vessels, and the treasure of Belli, King of 
 Kadesh. 
 
 As to Belli himself, his obese form was igno- 
 miniously pierced by an arrow, as he dangled at 
 the end of a rope half-way up the city walls. 
 
 Once the Ethiopian division had burst in the 
 city gate, those who had attempted to save their 
 King, and others who had been driven to the 
 battlements surrounding the palace, were 
 hurled over its parapet and met their death 
 either upon the flagging of the court or in the 
 waters of the moat which surround it. 
 
 Bimur, King of Charchemish, fled night and 
 day by means of relays. Not a night did he rest 
 until he found himself once again behind the 
 giant walls of his capital. 
 
 Belur, his brother, badly wounded on the 
 field, was brought, a pale and sullen captive, to 
 the chariot of the victorious Ramses. At the 
 present plight of the once haughty ambassador 
 to Egypt Ramses allowed the faintest indica 
 tion of a sneer to break the stony indifference 
 of his glance.
 
 264 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 Following his commands the Prince of Kheta 
 was led away that his wounds might be at 
 tended to. Belur was reserved for a fate far 
 worse than death. Indeed, death would come as 
 a welcome relief to the indignities and tortures 
 that would presently be meted out to him. He 
 was destined to swing from the prow of 
 Ramses' galley head down, where he would be 
 lightly fed, yet, were it possible, not allowed to 
 die, until Pharaoh himself should despatch him. 
 
 According to custom, a captive chief must 
 be presented to the great god Amen of Thebes. 
 Established precedent required that he be killed 
 before the temple portals of the god himself. 
 Whether Aton would scorn such a blood-thirsty 
 offering, Ramses did not pause to think. 
 
 The irruption of the victorious Egyptian 
 army into Kadesh was followed by wholesale 
 loot, division of the women among the soldiery, 
 riotous drunkenness, child-murder and the ap 
 portioning of the manhood of the vanquished 
 among the temples of Egypt. There followed 
 the utter obliteration of the conquered city in a 
 holocaust of fire.
 
 r 
 
 Of the Capture of Belur 265 
 
 Within twenty days from the time Pahura 
 had commenced to list the first golden ewer, the 
 once famous city of Kadesh with its gilded 
 towers and blue-glazed walls, its palace ablaze 
 with lazuli, silver and ivory, and the great tem 
 ple to the Sun-god, a veritable treasure-house 
 of richly colored tiles and bricks, gold, tur 
 quoise, silver, ebony, Lebanus cedar and sweet- 
 smelling woods from the Incense Country, lay a 
 mass of smouldering ruins, encircled during the 
 day by a veritable ring of vultures, throughout 
 the night by droves of snarling and quarreling 
 hyenas. 
 
 But, by this time, the victorious host of Egypt 
 was well on its way up the straight highroad 
 to the frontier, where it was hailed by the ac 
 claiming vanguard of the overjoyed Egyptian 
 populace. 
 
 At the first Egyptian city, Suan-of-the-North, 
 it was rumored that the aged Magician Enana, 
 Ramses' grandsire, together with two unknown 
 and mysterious personages, had been seen to 
 enter Ramses' tent. Thereafter they accom 
 panied him.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE " DOUBLE" OF HANIT 
 
 A FEELING, closely akin to panic, had set 
 tled upon the Egyptian Court. Its mem 
 bers, of whom by far the greater number 
 were, outwardly at least, firm adherents of 
 Aton, had now received a second violent shock 
 to their already perplexed minds. 
 
 Following her safe return from one of her 
 periodic visits to Pharaoh's new capital to the 
 north, Thi the Queen-Mother, had suddenly and 
 most mysteriously vanished. 
 
 The Women's Quarter of the palace was in 
 an uproar. Consternation and, withal a name 
 less dread, was stamped upon the faces of 
 courtier and servant alike. The remembrance 
 of Henna's unaccountable, and still unsolved 
 disappearance, was still fresh in their minds. 
 Upon the evening in which the Queen-Mother 
 266
 
 The "Double" of Hanit 267 
 
 had so suddenly vanished, the Princess Beki- 
 taton had left her side for a few moments in 
 order to warm, with her own hands, a cup of old 
 Thinite wine. When the little Princess returned 
 it was to find the Queen-Mother gone. 
 
 She chanced to look out of the window and 
 was astonished to see Queen Thi, in com 
 pany with another lady of the court, the Lady 
 Kenenet she thought, about to round the bend 
 of the road which led to the Temple of Sekh- 
 met. It was the first time in her experience 
 that the Queen-Mother had gone out so little 
 attended. 
 
 Bekitaton returned to the harem. She did 
 not suspect that anything was amiss until dark 
 ness descended upon the palace. Then and not 
 until then, according to the rigid court eti 
 quette, she again entered the Queen-Mother's 
 room upon this occasion accompanied by the 
 other ladies-in-waiting in order to assist the 
 Queen-Mother to the Banquet Hall. Among 
 the ladies she was surprised to see the Lady 
 Benenet. Upon inquiry she found that Eenenet
 
 268 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 had not left the Women's Quarters that day. 
 And it was the same with respect to the other 
 ladies. Not one had left the Palace walls dur 
 ing the entire day. 
 
 Yet, one lady asserted that she had seen 
 Queen Thi enter the palace within the hour. 
 Somewhat relieved by this, the Princess Beki- 
 taton sought the Queen-Mother in each and 
 every room of the Women's Quarter. Yet this 
 search, similarly, proved unsuccessful. 
 
 Once again she entered the Queen's robing- 
 room. She found no sign of disorder. Queen 
 Thi had apparently left of her own free will. 
 The mystified little Princess called to her assist 
 ance Queen Noferit and other ladies of the 
 harem. 
 
 Again the rooms were searched. Led by the 
 Princess the searchers descended into the gar 
 dens. They entered the quarters of the cooks 
 and butlers. They explored the dark shadows 
 of the various columned courts and the murk 
 ier gloom of the side aisles, together with their 
 innumerable storerooms.
 
 The "Double" of Hanit 269 
 
 Finally, when panic seized upon them, they 
 called to their assistance the Steward of the 
 Palace. At the news Soken's changed expres 
 sion did little to allay their fears. With a ges 
 ture he swept them all back in the direction of 
 
 
 
 the harem. 
 
 In turn the Palace Steward and the other 
 eunuchs once again carefully searched palace, 
 court, garden and lakeside. Darkness descended 
 upon a house filled with grief and consternation 
 on the part of the women, and deadly fear on 
 the part of Soken and the other eunuchs of the 
 palace. 
 
 The fate of Prince Menna, Pharaoh's Over 
 seer, was still upon the lips of palace-servant, 
 priest and peasant alike. Henna's enemies 
 were many. It might well be that someone 
 whom Menna had misused or wronged had at 
 last struck back and that successfully. 
 
 But the sudden disappearance of the Queen- 
 Mother from the midst of her ladies, from a 
 mighty building guarded within and without, 
 caused a thrill of horror and a nameless fear to
 
 2jo Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 run through palace and countryside alike. It 
 was inexplicable. 
 
 The Temple of Sekhmet, the lake, the palace 
 and the palace-gardens, were searched and re 
 searched again and again. Not a spot was 
 overlooked. When at last it became necessary 
 to send the evil tidings to the new capital, the 
 City of the Sun, Pharaoh himself came hur 
 riedly back to Thebes. 
 
 As, day after day, the searching parties re 
 turned empty-handed, Pharaoh lost patience. 
 Hundreds were slain. Soken and many of the 
 palace eunuchs met their death at the 
 strangler's hands. Men soon went to the task 
 of searching for the lost Queen as criminals 
 already condemned to death. 
 
 For a full week the search was renewed. 
 Fresh men were called up for the task. Finally, 
 the soldiers of the Divisions of Khonsu, Ptah 
 and Sutekh were pressed into service. All in 
 vain. 
 
 One remarkable circumstance was discov 
 ered, following the disappearance of the Queen-
 
 The "Double" of Hanit 271 
 
 Mother, and that by the Princess Bekitaton. 
 The portrait of the Ex-Queen Hanit, which had 
 been painted on a column in the Audience Hall 
 of the late Pharaoh, had been carefully and 
 completely obliterated. This had been done 
 just prior to or immediately following the 
 Queen-Mother's disappearance. Nothing re 
 mained, where once the portrait stood, but six 
 words written in red in roughly drawn hieratic : 
 "By the Power of the Book of Thoth." 
 
 No one could explain this desecration of the 
 former Queen's portrait. Mention of the magic 
 Book of Thoth struck terror into every heart, 
 not excepting that of Pharaoh himself. 
 
 Thenceforth Pharaoh's fanatical zeal in the 
 interest of Aton, his Syrian sun-cult, slowly 
 waned and finally ceased. The innumerable 
 gifts to the many new Aton shrines throughout 
 Egypt one had been set up against the very 
 walls of the Temple of Amen in the Apt the 
 gorgeous religious processions, the ceaseless 
 theological studies and debates, all were sud 
 denly abandoned.
 
 272 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 With the change Pharaoh himself seemed to 
 fade. Little nourishment passed his lips. 
 "Within the dim shadows of his private chapel, 
 hour after hour the hollow-eyed monarch stood 
 in prayer before the gold and gem-encrusted 
 statue of Aton, the sun-god. At times the 
 statue appeared to his distracted mind to mock 
 him with a smile half-pitying, half-contemp 
 tuous ! 
 
 Verily, the curse of Huy, High Priest of 
 Amen was upon him! Noferith, his wife, had 
 borne him no heir, no son to follow him upon 
 the gold Horus Throne of Egypt ! The scepter 
 must go to others, to that hollow cousin of his, 
 whom Thi had been wont to call the mirage. 
 
 As for old Ay, another distant relative and 
 possible claimant to the Throne, PHaraoh sus 
 pected that Ay was even now in secret corre 
 spondence with the exiled priests of Amen, 
 whose influence was again making itself felt, 
 not alone in Thebes, but as far north as the new 
 capital, the City of the Sun itself. 
 
 To whom then could he turn? Among the 
 courtiers about him there was not one in whom
 
 The "Double" of Hanit 273 
 
 he could trust. Not one could help him. Alas, 
 too late, he bethought him of the exiled Ramses ! 
 
 In the midst of a rising on the part of his 
 famine-stricken people in the south, an insur 
 rection started by the exiled priests of Amen, 
 Pharaoh took to his ivory couch. 
 
 Thereafter few saw him. He held no more 
 audiences. Dedu, Keeper of the Robes, alone 
 attended him. Even Pentu, his physician, was 
 dismissed and shortly after strangled, together 
 with Mei, Chief of the Military Forces in the 
 new capital. Mei and Pentu had both been 
 found in secret correspondence with the priests 
 of Amen in distant Nubia. 
 
 Dedu, Keeper of the Robes, entered his royal 
 master's apartment late one morning to find 
 him sitting bolt upright, his prominent eyes 
 fixed in a horrified stare upon the curtain which 
 screened the door. A single word fell from 
 Pharaoh's trembling lips as he sank back faint 
 ing in Dedu's outstretched arms. That single 
 word the wondering Dedu swore was . . . 
 Hanit I 
 
 Thereafter, Pharaoh in terror bade his
 
 274 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 guards drive all visitors, petitioners and beg 
 gars from the palace gates. Pharaoh shut him 
 self up within its brightly painted courts and 
 allowed things without to take their course. 
 
 The silver-embossed doors remained fast 
 closed. No watchman paced the battlemented 
 walls and pylons. No plumed Syrian horses 
 pawed the flagging before the outer gates. The 
 gay bannerettes no longer rose upon the gold- 
 tipped poles fronting the main entrance to the 
 palace forecourt. Hushed were the voices of 
 the guards and other palace servants. Even 
 the birds which flitted back and forth among the 
 trees seemed to have forgotten their cheerful 
 songs. 
 
 Finally, one memorable evening, when the 
 dying Pharaoh lay propped up high upon his 
 couch, he beckoned to Prince Antef, Lord of 
 Thebes, who stood in the center of the awe 
 struck group before him. 
 
 Dropping the hairless lids of a pair of 
 vulture-like eyes, eyes filled at the moment with 
 a joy which the Prince tried in vain to conceal,
 
 The "Double" of Hanit 275 
 
 Antef fell upon his knees beside the dying 
 Pharaoh's couch. He already felt the gold 
 diadem of kings about his wig, the royal asps 
 about his forehead. 
 
 Silence descended upon the little room. 
 Silence seemed to fall upon the entire building, 
 both within and without. The wails of the 
 women ceased, the chanting of the priests and 
 the sobs and cries of the palace servants, all 
 abruptly stopped. 
 
 So long continued was the sudden hush that 
 the expectant Antef slowly raised his head. 
 
 As his questioning eyes met those of his 
 royal master, Antef there beheld such a look of 
 terror, a look reflected he saw upon the faces 
 of the nobles behind the dying monarch, that 
 the astounded Theban himself felt somewhat of 
 the chill that seemed to have changed his 
 master and his friends to stone. 
 
 He caught the whispered sound of a once 
 familiar name. It seemed to be on everyone's 
 lips: Hanit! Hanit! Hanit! 
 
 Antef turned himself about. At once that
 
 276 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 same nameless terror held him also in its grip. 
 
 In the doorway stood Queen Hanit, Hanit 
 upon whose mummified form he himself had 
 placed a wreath of flowers ! Antef stumbled to 
 his feet and there remained, his eyes fixed upon 
 this apparition of the Ex- Queen, as if he like 
 wise had been turned to stone. 
 
 A richly plaited robe covered Queen Hanit 's 
 form. About her head was set the vulture dia 
 dem, that circlet of gold which queens of the 
 royal blood alone may wear. Her throat was 
 hidden by a necklace of bright blue beads. 
 Upon one finger she wore a blue glazed ring, a 
 ring such as is worn by the dead alone? Be 
 fore her she held a Book which seemed to glow, 
 as if by some preternatural light. 
 
 By now Antef and the horrified nobles had 
 backed to the furthest corner of the room, 
 whence they continued to gaze at this ap 
 parition of the former Queen, believing it to be 
 in very fact the visible " double" of Thi's mur 
 dered rival. 
 
 Hanit 's black eyes glittered like those of
 
 The "Double" of Hanit 277 
 
 some poisonous snake. She fixed them threat 
 eningly upon the shrunken features of the terri 
 fied monarch: 
 
 "Dost know me, son of Thi!" 
 
 The trembling monarch tried in vain to 
 speak. 
 
 "Dost know me, Syrian?" 
 
 Again Pharaoh essayed to find his nerveless 
 tongue. At last, in a hoarse and breathless 
 whisper, he managed to articulate the one word 
 . . . Hanit! 
 
 Again the soft and unearthly voice of Hanit 
 thrilled their ears : 
 
 "Son of Thi, thou that art about to wander 
 forth upon the steep and stony hills of Duat, 
 hearken unto the utterance of Amen, king of 
 gods! By the power of this Magic Book, thy 
 Hidden Names are revealed to me! Known to 
 me are the Mystic Names of the Genii that pro 
 tect thee! By the Power of the Book, thy ka 
 hath been destroyed ! Thy soul is destroyed ! 
 
 "Awake, awake ! Pass not forth until I have 
 shown thee a marvel, saith Amen, king of gods !
 
 278 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 Stand forth, Son of Amen! Eeceive the 
 Scepter of Amen which is thine ! ' ' 
 
 With this the apparition slowly moved back, 
 and there before them, arrayed in the full re 
 galia of kings, the curved sword of Amen 
 clasped in his hand, stood Ramses, the con 
 queror of Eimur and the Hittites. 
 
 The seeming "double" of the dead Queen 
 raised the Luminous Book high above her head : 
 
 * ' Hearken, Egyptians ! Hearken to the words 
 of Amen, king of gods! With this sword 
 divine hath Eamses, my son, hurled back the 
 Hittites from your borders! With this sword 
 divine hath he won a glorious victory ! Eimur 
 grovels in the dust before him; Belur awaits 
 his bitter doom ! Of a truth is this my son, born 
 of my will, essence of my essence, saith Amen, 
 king of gods! Salute your king! Salute him, 
 Electrum of Kings, Essence of a God!" 
 
 She ceased, and vanished as abruptly as she 
 had appeared. In her place stood a figure 
 arrayed in the regalia of the great god Amen. 
 In his hand he held the Double Crown of Egypt.
 
 The "Double" of Hanit 279 
 
 As if overcome at this manifestation of the 
 power of the great God Amen, Mei-amen, new 
 leader of the Prophets of Amen, slowly and 
 reverently advanced and, falling at Ramses' 
 knees, kissed the hem of his garment. As he 
 rose, few noted the look that passed between 
 them. 
 
 Thereafter, the dead Pharaoh was forgotten. 
 Indeed, as the cries of the palace-women broke 
 out once more, the assembled nobles burst into 
 a shout, new to those resplendent walls, a shout 
 which brought the terrified servants to the 
 door: 
 
 "Hail to thee, Ramses, chosen of Amen! 
 Life, Satisfaction and Health to Pharaoh, our 
 
 lord, forever and ever!" 
 
 ***** 
 
 "Let me see, how do the Egyptians express 
 it? 0,1 remember! Now of the coming to the 
 throne of Ramses, of his marriage to the Prin 
 cess Sesen, of the cutting out of the hated name 
 of Aton from temple, tomb and dwelling, is it 
 not written in letters of red and black upon a
 
 280 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 leather scroll and stored within the Temple of 
 Amen in the Apt unto this day? 
 
 "You know this to be true, Clem! But do 
 you know that Seneb, the mason, was sent to cut 
 out all mention of Menna upon the walls of his 
 tomb? Menna, son of Menna, never reached the 
 Blessed Fields of Aaru, of that you may be 
 sure. 
 
 "Yes, I know what your next question will 
 be! The Luminous Book? 
 
 "Listen! What I am going to tell you is in 
 teresting and true. I can vouch for the story, 
 as I had it from the lips of Enana himself. 
 
 "Enana placed the Magic Book in a cauldron 
 of boiling water drawn from the Sacred Lake 
 by a virgin of the Temple of the Mother-god 
 dess. Thus the mystic powers with which the 
 Book had been imbued became incorporated in 
 the holy water. 
 
 "A draught of this enchanted water Queen 
 Hanit drank and, drinking, died. The remain 
 der, according to her wish, was sprinkled over 
 her body, immediately following the placing of 
 her mummy in the tomb.
 
 The "Double" of Hanit 281 
 
 ' ' Thereafter Enana ' said that which he said, ' 
 Enana ' intoned that which he intoned, ' and the 
 immutable curse of the Conjurers of Amen was 
 repeated before the door of her tomb : 
 
 "' Behold! As Ra, the Sun-god, liveth! 
 Whosoever seeketh to desecrate this tomb 
 dieth! Whosoever toucheth this body to re 
 move it dieth! On earth death is his portion! 
 In the underworld annihilation is his destiny! 
 In the Hidden Name of Amen, king of gods, 
 this curse remaineth, yea, so long as Ra, the 
 Sun-god, endureth!' 
 
 ' l You see, Clem ! It is not to be wondered at 
 that those men died so suddenly, or that the 
 curator, who likewise handled mummy No. 49, 
 himself succumbed. It proves, without the 
 shadow of a doubt, that the curse of the Con 
 jurers of Amen did endure. Sesen can tell 
 you. . . ." 
 
 "Steven, please lie down and stop talking. 
 Don't worry about things. Try to compose 
 yourself." 
 
 As I sank dutifully 'back upon the pillows, I 
 was aware of a soft and deliriously cool hand
 
 282 Hanit: the Enchantress 
 
 which gently pressed my throbbing head. A 
 smiling face bent over me. 
 
 My bewildered eyes wandered from a trim 
 little white cap to a spotless white dress and 
 shoes, white canvas shoes! 
 
 ''Where are her pretty gilded sandals," 
 thought I. 
 
 I tried to speak to her. I even made an effort 
 to catch the soothing hand at my forehead. 
 
 At this the white figure vanished, and in its 
 place, stood Braintree, the Seaforth's doctor. 
 
 I 1 Great Scott, I have it. I am in the hospital ! 
 That was Susan. ..." 
 
 "That's just where you are, Steven. And 
 I must ask you not to excite yourself about it. 
 Here you are and here you have been for some 
 time. Tribe, Dunn and I have slaved over you 
 and won out, at last. 
 
 "But who, may I ask, is Menna? No friend 
 of yours, I'd swear! Susan is equally inter 
 ested in some lady friend of your acquaintance, 
 Sesen I think her name was ! Well, never mind 
 that now. Turn over and rest."
 
 The "Double" of Hank 283 
 
 Then it was a dream ; the vision of a fevered 
 brain! Enana, Hanit, Sesen, Menna, and 
 Eenny could I have been Kenny all were 
 dreams! Hanit! Why such a person never 
 existed. And Bamses ! As yet he wasn't born ! 
 
 I tried to smile at the busy little figure in 
 white. I recognized her now. It was Susan 
 Braintree, my Susan ! 
 
 I caught myself repeatedly murmuring: 
 ''Susan the Lily, Sesen the Lotus, one and the 
 same name, one and the same person perhaps. 
 Ah, my Beautiful Princess! I can smell the 
 sweet unguents which Bhanar has sprinkled 
 upon your dainty wig, the myrrh upon your 
 supple hands ... !" 
 
 Susan presses a little phial to my nostrils. A 
 few short breaths and I sleep. 
 
 THE END
 
 
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