<h2><SPAN name="chap04"></SPAN>CHAPTER IV.<br/>THROUGH THE GATES</h2>
<p>Short as was the time at my disposal before the dinner-gong sounded, it proved
ample for reflection. With every article of attire that I discarded went some
of that boudoir glamour till its last traces vanished with my walking-boots. I
was fallen indeed. I who had come to this place so full of virtuous
resolutions, could now only reflect upon the true and universal meaning of our
daily prayer that we might be kept from temptation. And yet what had tempted
me? For my life’s sake I could not say. The desire to please a most
charming woman and to keep her from making solitary experiments of a dangerous
nature, I suppose, though whether they should be less dangerous carried out
jointly remained to be seen. Certainly it was not any wish to eat of her
proffered apple of Knowledge, for already I knew a great deal more than I cared
for about things in general. Oh! the truth was that woman is the mightiest
force in the world, at any rate where the majority of us poor men is concerned.
She commanded and I must obey.</p>
<p>I grew desperate and wondered if I could escape. Perhaps I might slip out of
the back door and run for it, without my great coat or hat although the night
was so cold and I should probably be taken up as a lunatic. No, it was
impossible for I had forged a chain that might not be broken. I had passed my
word of honour. Well, I was in for it and after all what was there of which I
need be afraid that I should tremble and shrink back as though I were about to
run away with somebody’s wife, or rather to be run away with quite
contrary to my own inclination? Nothing at all. A mere nonsensical ordeal much
less serious than a visit to the dentist.</p>
<p>Probably that stuff had lost its strength by now—that is, unless it had
grown more powerful by keeping, as is the case with certain sorts of
explosives. And if it had not, the worst to be expected was a silly dream,
followed perhaps by headache. That is, unless I did not chance to wake up again
at all in this world, which was a most unpleasant possibility. Another thing,
suppose I woke and she didn’t! What should I say then? Of a certainty I
should find myself in the dock. Yes, and there were further dreadful
eventualities, quite conceivable, every one of them, the very thought of which
plunged me into a cold perspiration and made me feel so weak that I was obliged
to sit down.</p>
<p>Then I heard the gong; to me it sounded like the execution bell to a prisoner
under sentence of death. I crept downstairs feebly and found Lady Ragnall
waiting for me in the drawing-room, clothed with gaiety as with a garment. I
remember that it made me most indignant that she could be so happy in such
circumstances, but I said nothing. She looked me up and down and remarked,</p>
<p>“Really from your appearance you might have seen the Ragnall ghost, or be
going to be married against your will, or—I don’t know what. Also
you have forgotten to fasten your tie.”</p>
<p>I looked in the glass. It was true, for there hung the ends down my shirt
front. Then I struggled with the wretched thing until at last she had to help
me, which she did laughing softly. Somehow her touch gave me confidence again
and enabled me to say quite boldly that I only wanted my dinner.</p>
<p>“Yes,” she replied, “but you are not to eat much and you must
only drink water. The priestesses in Kendah Land told me that this was
necessary before taking <i>Taduki</i> in its strongest form, as we are going to
do to-night. You know the prophet Harût only gave us the merest whiff in this
room years ago.”</p>
<p>I groaned and she laughed again.</p>
<p>That dinner with nothing to drink, although to avoid suspicion I let Moxley
fill my glass once or twice, and little to eat for my appetite had vanished,
went by like a bad dream. I recall no more about it until I heard Lady Ragnall
tell Moxley to see that there was a good fire in the museum where we were going
to study that night and must not be disturbed.</p>
<p>Another minute and I was automatically opening the door for her. As she passed
she paused to do something to her dress and whispered,</p>
<p>“Come in a quarter of an hour. Mind—no port which clouds the
intellect.”</p>
<p>“I have none left to cloud,” I remarked after her.</p>
<p>Then I went back and sat by the fire feeling most miserable and staring at the
decanters, for never in my life do I remember wanting a bottle of wine more.
The big clock ticked and ticked and at last chimed the quarter, jarring on my
nerves in that great lonely banqueting hall. Then I rose and crept upstairs
like an evil-doer and it seemed to me that the servants in the hall looked on
me with suspicion, as well they might.</p>
<p>I reached the museum and found it brilliantly lit, but empty except for the
cheerful company of the two mummies who also appeared to regard me with
gleaming but doubtful eyes. So I sat down there in front of the fire, not even
daring to smoke lest tobacco should complicate <i>Taduki</i>.</p>
<p>Presently I heard a low sound of laughter, looked up and nearly fell backwards,
that is, metaphorically, for the chair prevented such a physical collapse.</p>
<p>It was not wonderful since before me, like a bride of ancient days adorned for
her husband, stood the goddess Isis—white robes, feathered headdress,
ancient bracelets, gold-studded sandals on bare feet, scented hair, ruby
necklace and all the rest. I stared, then there burst from me words which were
the last I meant to say,</p>
<p>“Great Heavens! how beautiful you are.”</p>
<p>“Am I?” she asked. “I am glad,” and she glided across
the room and locked the door.</p>
<p>“Now,” she said, returning, “we had better get to business,
that is unless you would like to worship the goddess Isis a little first, to
bring yourself into a proper frame of mind, you know.”</p>
<p>“No,” I replied, my dignity returning to me. “I do not wish
to worship any goddess, especially when she isn’t a goddess. It was not a
part of the bargain.”</p>
<p>“Quite so,” she said, nodding, “but who knows what you will
be worshipping before an hour is over? Oh! forgive me for laughing at you, but
I can’t help it. You are so evidently frightened.”</p>
<p>“Who wouldn’t be frightened?” I answered, looking with gloomy
apprehension at the sandal-wood box which had appeared upon a case full of
scarabs. “Look here, Lady Ragnall,” I added, “why can’t
you leave all this unholy business alone and let us spend a pleasant evening
talking, now that those Smith people have gone? I have lots of stories about my
African adventures which would interest you.”</p>
<p>“Because I want to hear my own African adventures, and perhaps yours too,
which I am sure will interest me a great deal more,” she exclaimed
earnestly. “You think it is all foolishness, but it is not. Those Kendah
priestesses told me much when I seemed to be out of my mind. For a long time I
did not remember what they said, but of late years, especially since George and
I began to excavate that temple, plenty has come back to me bit by bit,
fragments, you know, that make me desire to learn the rest as I never desired
anything else on earth. And the worst of it has always been that from the
beginning I have known—and know—that this can only happen with you
and through you, why I cannot say, or have forgotten. That’s what sent me
nearly wild with joy when I heard that you were not only alive, but in this
country. You won’t disappoint me, will you? There is nothing I can offer
you which would have any value for you, so I can only beg you not to disappoint
me—well, because I am your friend.”</p>
<p>I turned away my head, hesitating, and when I looked up again I saw that her
beautiful eyes were full of tears. Naturally that settled the matter, so I only
said,</p>
<p>“Let us get on with the affair. What am I to do? Stop a bit. I may as
well provide against eventualities,” and going to a table I took a sheet
of notepaper and wrote:</p>
<p class="letter">
“Lady Ragnall and I, Allan Quatermain, are about to make an experiment
with an herb which we discovered some years ago in Africa. If by any chance
this should result in accident to either or both of us, the Coroner is
requested to understand that it is not a case of murder or of suicide, but
merely of unfortunate scientific research.”</p>
<p>This I dated, adding the hour, 9.47 P.M., and signed, requesting her to do the
same.</p>
<p>She obeyed with a smile, saying it was strange that one who had lived a life of
such constant danger as myself, should be so afraid to die.</p>
<p>“Look here, young lady,” I replied with irritation,
“doesn’t it occur to you that <i>I</i> may be afraid lest
<i>you</i> should die—and <i>I</i> be hanged for it,” I added by an
afterthought.</p>
<p>“Oh! I see,” she answered, “that is really very nice of you.
But, of course, you would think like that; it is your nature.”</p>
<p>“Yes,” I replied. “Nature, not merit.”</p>
<p>She went to a cupboard which formed the bottom of one of the mahogany museum
cases, and extracted from it first of all a bowl of ancient appearance made of
some black stone with projecting knobs for handles that were carved with the
heads of women wearing ceremonial wigs; and next a low tripod of ebony or some
other black wood. I looked at these articles and recognized them. They had
stood in front of the sanctuary in the temple in Kendah Land, and over them I
had once seen this very woman dressed as she was to-night, bend her head in the
magic smoke before she had uttered the prophecy of the passing of the Kendah
god.</p>
<p>“So you brought these away too,” I said.</p>
<p>“Yes,” she replied with solemnity, “that they might be ready
at the appointed hour when we needed them.”</p>
<p>Then she spoke no more for a while, but busied herself with certain rather
eerie preparations. First she set the tripod and its bowl in an open space
which I was glad to note was at some distance from the fire, since if either of
us fell into that who would there be to take us off before cremation ensued?
Then she drew up a curved settee with a back and arms, a comfortable-looking
article having a seat that sloped backwards like those in clubs, and motioned
to me to sit down. This I did with much the same sensations that are evoked by
taking one’s place upon an operation-table.</p>
<p>Next she brought that accursed <i>Taduki</i> box, I mean the inner silver one,
the contents of which I heartily wished I had thrown upon the fire, and set it
down, open, near the tripod. Lastly she lifted some glowing embers of wood from
the grate with tongs, and dropped them into the stone bowl.</p>
<p>“I think that’s all. Now for the great adventure,” she said
in a voice that was at once rapt and dreamy.</p>
<p>“What am I to do?” I asked feebly.</p>
<p>“That is quite simple,” she replied, as she sat herself down beside
me well within reach of the <i>Taduki</i> box, the brazier being between us
with its tripod stand pressed against the edge of the couch, and in its curve,
so that we were really upon each side of it. “When the smoke begins to
rise thickly you have only to bend your head a little forward, with your
shoulders still resting against the settee, and inhale until you find your
senses leaving you, though I don’t know that this is necessary for the
stuff is subtle. Then throw your head back, go to sleep and dream.”</p>
<p>“What am I to dream about?” I inquired in a vacuous way, for my
senses were leaving me already.</p>
<p>“You will dream, I think, of past events in which both of us played a
part, at least I hope so. I dreamt of them before in Kendah Land, but then I
was not myself, and for the most part they are forgotten. Moreover, I learned
that we can only see them all when we are together. Now speak no more.”</p>
<p>This command, by the way, at once produced in me an intense desire for
prolonged conversation. It was not to be gratified, however, for at that moment
she stood up again facing the tripod and me, and began to sing in a rich and
thrilling voice. What she sang I do not know for I could not understand the
language, but I presume it was some ancient chant that she learned in Kendah
Land. At any rate, there she stood, a lovely and inspired priestess clad in her
sacerdotal robes, and sang, waving her arms and fixing her eyes upon mine.
Presently she bent down, took a little of the <i>Taduki</i> weed and with words
of incantation, dropped it upon the embers in the bowl. Twice she did this,
then sat herself upon the couch and waited.</p>
<p>A clear flame sprang up and burned for thirty seconds or so, I suppose while it
consumed the volatile oils in the weed. Then it died down and smoke began to
come, white, rich and billowy, with a very pleasant odour resembling that of
hot-house flowers. It spread out between us like a fan, and though its veil I
heard her say,</p>
<p>“The gates are wide. Enter!”</p>
<p>I knew what she meant well enough, and though for a moment I thought of
cheating, there is no other word for it, knew also that she had detected the
thought and was scorning me in her mind. At any rate I felt that I must obey
and thrust my head forward into the smoke, as a green ham is thrust into a
chimney. The warm vapour struck against my face like fog, or rather steam, but
without causing me to choke or my eyes to smart. I drew it down my throat with
a deep inhalation—once, twice, thrice, then as my brain began to swim,
threw myself back as I had been instructed to do. A deep and happy drowsiness
stole over me, and the last thing I remember was hearing the clock strike the
first two strokes of the hour of ten. The third stroke I heard also, but it
sounded like to that of the richest-throated bell that ever boomed in all the
world. I remember becoming aware that it was the signal for the rolling up of
some vast proscenium, revealing behind it a stage that was the
world—nothing less.</p>
<p class="p2">
What did I see? What did I see? Let me try to recall and record.</p>
<p>First of all something chaotic. Great rushes of vapour driven by mighty winds;
great seas, for the most part calm. Then upheavals and volcanoes spouting fire.
Then tropic scenes of infinite luxuriance. Terrific reptiles feeding on the
brinks of marshes, and huge elephant-like animals moving between palms beyond.
Then, in a glade, rough huts and about them a jabbering crowd of creatures that
were only half human, for sometimes they stood upright and sometimes ran on
their hands and feet. Also they were almost covered with hair which was all
they had in the way of clothes, and at the moment that I met them, were
terribly frightened by the appearance of a huge mammoth, if that is the right
name for it, which walked into the glade and looked at us. At any rate it was a
beast of the elephant tribe which I judged to be nearly twenty feet high, with
enormous curving tusks.</p>
<p>The point of the vision was that I recognized myself among those hairy
jabberers, not by anything outward and visible, but by something inward and
spiritual. Moreover, I was being urged by a female of the race, I can scarcely
call her a woman, to justify my existence by tackling the mammoth in her
particular interest, or to give her up to someone who would. In the end I
tackled it, rushing forward with a weapon, I think it was a sharp stone tied to
a stick, though how I could expect to hurt a beast twenty feet high with such a
thing is more than I can understand, unless perhaps the stone was poisoned.</p>
<p>At any rate the end was sudden. I threw the stone, whereat a great trunk shot
out from between the tusks and caught me. Round and round I went in the air,
reflecting as I did so, for I suppose at the time my normal consciousness had
not quite left me, that this was my first encounter with the elephant Jana,
also that it was very foolish to try to oblige a female regardless of personal
risk....</p>
<p>All became dark, as no doubt it would have done, but presently, that is after a
lapse of a great many thousands of years, or so it appeared to me, light grew
again. This time I was a black man living in something not unlike a Kaffir
kraal on the top of a hill.</p>
<p>There was shouting below and enemies attacked us; a woman rushed out of a hut
and gave me a spear and a shield, the latter made of wood with white spots on
it, and pointed to the path of duty which ran down the hill. I followed in
company with others, though without enthusiasm, and presently met a roaring
giant of a man at the bottom. I stuck my spear into him and he stuck his into
me, through the stomach, which hurt me most abominably. After this I retired up
the hill where the woman pulled the spear out and gave it to another man. I
remember no more.</p>
<p>Then followed a whole maze of visions, but really I cannot disentangle them.
Nor is it worth while doing so since after all they were only of the nature of
an overture, jumbled incidents of former lives, real or imaginary, or so I
suppose, having to do, all of them, with elementary things, such as hunger and
wounds and women and death.</p>
<p>At length these broken fragments of the past were swept away out of my
consciousness and I found myself face to face with something connected and
tangible, not too remote or unfamiliar for understanding. It was the beginning
of the real story.</p>
<p class="p2">
I, please remember always that I knew it was I, Allan, and no one else, that
is, the same personality or whatever it may be which makes each man different
from any other man, saw myself in a chariot drawn by two horses with arched
necks and driven by a charioteer who sat on a little seat in front. It was a
highly ornamented, springless vehicle of wood and gilded, something like a
packing-case with a pole, or as we should call it in South Africa, a
disselboom, to which the horses were harnessed. In this cart I stood arrayed in
flowing robes fastened round my middle by a studded belt, with strips of
coloured cloth wound round my legs and sandals on my feet. To my mind the
general effect of the attire was distinctly feminine and I did not like it at
all.</p>
<p>I was glad to observe, however, that the I of those days was anything but
feminine. Indeed I could never have believed that once I was so good-looking,
even over two thousand years ago. I was not very tall but extremely stalwart,
burly almost, with an arm that as I could observe, since it projected from the
sleeve of my lady’s gown, would have done no discredit to a
prize-fighter, and a chest like a bull.</p>
<p>The face also I admired very much. The brow was broad; the black eyes were full
and proud-looking, the features somewhat massive but well-cut and highly
intelligent; the mouth firm and shapely, with lips that were perhaps a trifle
too thick; the hair—well, there was rather a failure in the hair, at
least according to modern ideas, for it curled so beautifully as to suggest
that one of my ancestors might have fallen in love with a person of negroid
origin. However there was lots of it, hanging down almost to the shoulders and
bound about the brow by a very neat fillet of blue cloth with silver studs. The
colour of my skin, I was glad to note, was by no means black, only a light and
pleasing brown such as might have been produced by sunburn. My age, I might
add, was anywhere between five and twenty and five and thirty, perhaps nearer
the latter than the former, at any rate, the very prime of life.</p>
<p>For the rest, I held in my left hand a very stout, long bow of black wood which
seemed to have seen much service, with a string of what looked like catgut, on
which was set a broad-feathered, barbed arrow. This I kept in place with the
fingers of my right hand, on one of which I observed a handsome gold ring with
strange characters carved upon the bezel.</p>
<p>Now for the charioteer.</p>
<p>He was black as night, black as a Sunday hat, with yellow rolling eyes set in a
countenance of extraordinary ugliness and I may add, extraordinary humour. His
big, wide mouth with thick lips ran up the left side of his face towards an ear
that was also big and projecting. His hair, that had a feather stuck in it, was
real nigger wool covering a skull like a cannon ball and I should imagine as
hard. This head, by the way, was set plumb upon the shoulders, as though it had
been driven down between them by a pile hammer. They were very broad shoulders
suggesting enormous strength, but the gaily-clad body beneath, which was
supported by two bowed legs and large, flat feet, was that of a dwarf who by
the proportions of his limbs Nature first intended for a giant; yes, an
Ethiopian dwarf.</p>
<p>Looking through this remarkable exterior, as it were, I recognized that inside
of it was the soul, or animating principle, of—whom do you think? None
other than my beloved old servant and companion, the Hottentot Hans whose loss
I had mourned for years! Hans himself who died for me, slaying the great
elephant, Jana, in Kendah Land, the elephant I could not hit, and thereby
saving my life. Oh! although I had been obliged to go back to the days of I
knew not what ancient empire to do so in my trance, or whatever it was, I could
have wept with joy at finding him again, especially as I knew by instinct that
as he loved the Allan Quatermain of to-day, so he loved this Egyptian in a
wheeled packing-case, for I may as well say at once that such was my
nationality in the dream.</p>
<p>Now I looked about me and perceived that my chariot was the second of a
cavalcade. Immediately in front of it was one infinitely more gorgeous in which
stood a person who even if I had not known it, I should have guessed to be a
king, and who, as a matter of fact, was none other than the King of kings, at
that time the absolute master of most of the known world, though what his name
may have been, I have no notion. He wore a long flowing robe of purple silk
embroidered with gold and bound in at the waist by a jewelled girdle from which
hung the private, sacred seal; the little “White Seal” that, as I
learned afterwards, was famous throughout the earth.</p>
<p>On his head was a stiff cloth cap, also purple in colour, round which was
fastened a fillet of light blue stuff spotted with white. The best idea that I
can give of its general appearance is to liken it to a tall hat of fashionable
shape, without a brim, slightly squashed in so that it bulged at the top, and
surrounded by a rather sporting necktie. Really, however, it was the
<i>kitaris</i> or headdress of these monarchs worn by them alone. If anyone
else had put on that hat, even by mistake in the dark, well, his head would
have come off with it, that is all.</p>
<p>This king held a bow in his hand with an arrow set upon its string, just as I
did, for we were out hunting, and as I shall have to narrate presently, lions
are no respecters of persons. By his side, leaning against the back of the
chariot, was a tall, sharp-pointed wand of cedar wood with a knob of some green
precious stone, probably an emerald, fashioned to the likeness of an apple.
This was the royal sceptre. Immediately behind the chariot walked several great
nobles. One of them carried a golden footstool, another a parasol, furled at
the moment; another a spare bow and a quiver of arrows, and another a jewelled
fly-whisk made of palm fibre.</p>
<p>The king, I should add, was young, handsome with a curled beard and clear-cut,
high-bred looking features; his face, however, was bad, cruel and stamped with
an air of weariness, or rather, satiety, which was emphasized by the black
circles beneath his fine dark eyes. Moreover pride seemed to emanate from him
and yet there was something in his bearing and glances which suggested fear. He
was a god who knows that he is mortal and is therefore afraid lest at any
moment he may be called upon to lose his godship in his mortality.</p>
<p>Not that he dreaded the perils of the chase; he was too much of a man for that.
But how could he tell lest among all that crowd of crawling nobles, there was
not one who had a dagger ready for his back, or a phial of poison to mix with
his wine or water? He with all the world in the hollow of his hand, was filled
with secret terrors which as I learned since first I seemed to see him thus,
fulfilled themselves at the appointed time. For this man of blood was destined
to die in blood, though not by murder.</p>
<p class="p2">
The cavalcade halted. Presently a fat eunuch glittering in his gold-wrought
garments like some bronzed beetle in the sunlight, came waddling back towards
me. He was odious and I knew that we hated each other.</p>
<p>“Greeting, Egyptian,” he said, mopping his brow with his sleeve for
the sun was hot. “An honour for you! A great honour! The King of kings
commands your presence. Yes, he would speak with you with his own lips, and
with that abortion of a servant of yours also. Come! Come swiftly!”</p>
<p>“Swift as an arrow, Houman,” I answered laughing, “seeing
that for three moons I, like an arrow, have rested upon the string and flown no
nearer to his Majesty.”</p>
<p>“Three moons!” screeched the eunuch. “Why, many wait three
years and many go to the grave still waiting; bigger men than you, Egyptian,
though I hear you do claim to be of royal blood yonder on the Nile. But talk
not of arrows flying towards the most High, for surely it is ill-omened and
might earn you another honour, that of the string,” and he made a motion
suggestive of a cord encircling his throat. “Man, leave your bow behind!
Would you appear before the King armed? Yes, and your dagger also.”</p>
<p>“Perchance a lion might appear before the King and he does not leave his
claws and teeth behind,” I answered drily as I divested myself of my
weapons.</p>
<p>Then we started, the three of us, leaving the chariot in charge of a soldier.</p>
<p>“Draw your sleeves over your hands,” said the eunuch. “None
must appear before the King showing his hands, and, dwarf, since you have no
sleeves, thrust yours into your robe.”</p>
<p>“What am I to do with my feet?” he answered in a thick, guttural
voice. “Will it offend the King of kings to see my feet, most noble
eunuch?”</p>
<p>“Certainly, certainly,” answered Houman, “since they are ugly
enough to offend even me. Hide them as much as possible. Now we are near, down
on your faces and crawl forward slowly on your knees and elbows, as I do. Down,
I say!”</p>
<p>So down I went, though with anger in my heart, for be it remembered that I, the
modern Allan Quatermain, knew every thought and feeling that passed through the
mind of my prototype.</p>
<p>It was as though I were a spectator at a play, with this difference. I could
read the motives and reflections of this former <i>ego</i> as well as observe
his actions. Also I could rejoice when he rejoiced, weep when he wept and
generally feel all that he felt, though at the same time I retained the power
of studying him from my own modern standpoint and with my own existing
intelligence. Being two we still were one, or being one we still were two,
whichever way you like to put it. Lastly I lacked these powers with reference
to the other actors in the piece. Of these I knew just as much, or as little as
my former self knew, that is if he ever really existed. There was nothing
unnatural in my faculties where they were concerned. I had no insight into
their souls any more than I have into those of the people about me to-day. Now
I hope that I have made clear my somewhat uncommon position with reference to
these pages from the Book of the Past.</p>
<p>Well, preceded by the eunuch and followed by the dwarf, I crawled though the
sand in which grew some thorny plants that pricked my knees and fingers,
towards the person of the Monarch of the World. He had descended from his
chariot by help of a footstool, and was engaged in drinking from a golden cup,
while his attendants stood around in various attitudes of adoration, he who had
handed him the cup being upon his knees. Presently he looked up and saw us.</p>
<p>“Who are these?” he asked in a high voice that yet was not
unmusical, “and why do you bring them into my presence?”</p>
<p>“May it please the King,” answered our guide, knocking his head
upon the ground in a very agony of humiliation, “may it please the
King——”</p>
<p>“It would please me better, dog, if you answered my question. Who are
they?”</p>
<p>“May it please the King, this is the Egyptian hunter and noble,
Shabaka.”</p>
<p>“I hear,” said his Majesty with a gleam of interest in his tired
eyes, “and what does this Egyptian here?”</p>
<p>“May it please the King, the King bade me bring him to the presence, but
now when the chariots halted.”</p>
<p>“I forgot; you are forgiven. But who is that with him? Is it a man or an
ape?”</p>
<p>Here I screwed my head round and saw that my slave in his efforts to obey the
eunuch’s instructions and hide his feet, had made himself into a kind of
ball, much as a hedgehog does, except that his big head appeared in front of
the ball.</p>
<p>“O King, that I understand is the Egyptian’s servant and
charioteer.”</p>
<p>Again he looked interested, and exclaimed,</p>
<p>“Is it so? Then Egypt must be a stranger country than I thought if such
ape-men live there. Stand up, Egyptian, and bid your ape stand up also, for I
cannot hear men who speak with their mouths in the dust.”</p>
<p>So I rose and saluted by lifting both my hands and bowing as I had observed
others do, trying, however, to keep them covered by my sleeves. The King looked
me up and down, then said briefly,</p>
<p>“Set out your name and the business that brought you to my city.”</p>
<p>“May the King live for ever,” I replied. “As this lord
said,” and I pointed to the eunuch——</p>
<p>“He is not a lord but a dog,” interrupted the Monarch, “who
wears the robe of women. But continue.”</p>
<p>“As this dog who wears the robe of women said”—here the King
laughed, but the eunuch, Houman, turned green with rage and glowered at
me—“my name is Shabaka. I am a descendant of the Ethiopian king of
Egypt of that same name.”</p>
<p>“It seems from all I hear that there are too many descendants of kings in
Egypt. When I visit that land which perhaps soon I must do with an army at my
back,” here he stared at me coldly, “it may be well to lessen their
number. There is a certain Peroa for instance.”</p>
<p>He paused, but I made no answer, since Peroa was my father’s cousin and
of the fallen Royal House; also the protector of my youth.</p>
<p>“Well, Shabaka,” he went on, “in Persia royal blood is common
also, though some of us think it looks best when it is shed. What else are
you?”</p>
<p>“A slayer of royal beasts, O King of kings, a hunter of lions and of
elephants,” (this statement interested me, Allan Quatermain, intensely,
showing me as it did that our tastes are very persistent); “also when I
am at home, a breeder of cattle and a grower of grain.”</p>
<p>“Good trades, all of them, Shabaka. But why came you here?”</p>
<p>“Idernes the satrap of Egypt, servant of the King of kings, sought for
one who would travel to the East because the King of kings desired to hear of
the hunting of lions in the lands that lie to the south of Egypt towards the
beginnings of the great river. Then I, who desired to see new countries, said,
‘Here am I. Send me.’ So I came and for three moons have dwelt in
the royal city, but till this hour have scarcely so much as seen the face of
the great King, although by many messengers I have announced my presence,
showing them the letters of Idernes giving me safe-conduct. Therefore I propose
to-morrow or the next day to return to Egypt.”</p>
<p>The King said a word and a scribe appeared whom he commanded to take note of my
words and let the matter be inquired of, since some should suffer for this
neglect, a saying at which I saw Houman and certain of the nobles turn pale and
whisper to each other.</p>
<p>“Now I remember,” he exclaimed, “that I did desire Idernes to
send me an Egyptian hunter. Well, you are here and we are about to hunt the
lion of which there are many in yonder reeds, hungry and fierce beasts, since
for three days they have been herded in so that they can kill no food. How many
lions have you slain, Shabaka?”</p>
<p>“Fifty and three in all, O King, not counting the cubs.”</p>
<p>He stared at me, answering with a sneer,</p>
<p>“You Egyptians have large mouths. I have always heard it of you. Well,
to-day we will see whether you can kill a fifty-fourth. In an hour when the sun
begins to sink, the hounds will be loosed in yonder reeds and since the water
is behind them, the lions will come out, and then we shall see.”</p>
<p>Now I saw that the King thought me to be a liar and the blood rose to my head.</p>
<p>“Why wait till the sun begins to sink, O King of kings?” I said.
“Why not enter the reeds, as is our fashion in the Land of Kush, and
rouse the lions from sleep in their own lair?”</p>
<p>Now the King laughed outright and called in a loud voice to his courtiers,</p>
<p>“Do ye hear this boasting Egyptian, who talks of entering the reeds and
facing the lions in their lair, a thing that no man dare do where none can see
to shoot? What say ye now? Shall we ask him to prove his words?”</p>
<p>Some great lord stepped forward, one who was a hunter though he looked little
like it, for the scent on his hair reached me from four paces away and there
was paint upon his face.</p>
<p>“Yes, O King,” he said in a mincing voice, “let him enter and
kill a lion. But if he fail, then let a lion kill him. There are some hungry in
the palace den and it is not fit that the King’s ears should be filled
with empty words by foreigners from Egypt.”</p>
<p>“So be it,” said the King. “Egyptian, you have brought it on
your own head. Prove that you can do what you say and I will give you great
honour. Fail, and to the lions with him who lies of lions. Still,” he
added, “it is not right that you should go alone. Choose therefore one of
these lords to keep you company; he who would put you to the test, if you
will.”</p>
<p>Now I looked at the scented noble who turned pale beneath his paint. Then I
looked at the fat eunuch, Houman, who opened his mouth and gasped like a fish,
and when I had looked, I shook my head and said as though to myself,</p>
<p>“Not so, no woman and no eunuch shall be my companion on this
quest,” whereat the King and all the rest laughed out loud. “The
dwarf and I will go alone.”</p>
<p>“The dwarf!” said the King. “Can he hunt lions also?”</p>
<p>“No, O King, but perchance he can smell them, for otherwise how shall I
find them in that thicket within an hour?”</p>
<p>“Perchance they can smell him. How is the ape-man named?” asked the
King.</p>
<p>“Bes, O King, after the god of the Egyptians whom he resembles.”</p>
<p>“Dare you accompany your master on this hunt, O Bes?” inquired the
King.</p>
<p>Then Bes looked up, rolling his yellow eyes, and answered in his thick and
guttural voice,</p>
<p>“I am my master’s slave and dare I refuse to accompany him? If I
did he might kill me, as the King of kings kills his slaves. It is better to
die with honour by the teeth of a lion, than with dishonour beneath the whip of
a master. So at least we think in Ethiopia.”</p>
<p>“Well spoken, dwarf Bes!” exclaimed the King. “So would I
have all men think throughout the East. Let the words of this Ethiop be written
down and copies of them sent to the satraps of all the provinces that they may
be read to the peoples of the earth. I the King have decreed it.”</p>
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