The Ancient Allan: Chapter 14

Chapter 14

SHABAKA FIGHTS THE CROCODILE

"Where to?" I said to Bes when we were outside the palace, for I was
so broken with grief that I scarcely knew what I did.

"To the house of the lady Tiu, I think, Master, since there you must
make preparations for your start on the morrow, also bid her farewell.
Oh!" he went on in a kind of rapture which afterwards I knew was
feigned though at the time I did not think about it, "Oh! how happy
should you be who now are free from all this woman-coil, with life new
and fresh before you. Reflect, Master, on the hunting we will have
yonder in Ethiopia. No more cares, no more plannings for the welfare
of Egypt, no more persuading of the doubtful to take up arms, no more
desperate battle-ventures with your country's honour on your sword-
point. And if you must see women--well, there are plenty in Ethiopia
who come and go lightly as an evening breeze laden with the odour of
flowers, and never trouble in the morning."

"At any rate /you/ are not free from such coils, Bes," I said and in
the moonlight I saw his great face fall in.

"No, Master, I am tying them about my throat. See, such is the way of
the world, or of the gods that rule the world, I know not which. For
years I have been happy and free, I have enjoyed adventures and
visited strange countries and have gathered learning, till I think I
am the wisest man upon the Nile, at the side of one whom I loved and
holding nothing at risk, except my own life which mattered no more
than that of a gnat dancing in the sun. Now all is changed. I have a
wife whom I love also, more than I can tell you," and he sighed, "but
who still must be looked after and obeyed--yes, obeyed. Further, soon
I shall have a people and a crown to wear, and councillors and affairs
of state, and an ancient religion to support and the Grasshopper
itself knows what besides. The burden has rolled from your back to
mine, Master, making my heart which was so light, heavy, and oh! I
wish it had stopped where it was."

Even then I laughed, sad as I was, for truth lived in the philosophy
of Bes.

"Master," he went on in a changed voice, "I have been a fool and my
folly has worked you ill. Forgive me since I acted for the best, only
until the end no one ever knows what is the best. Now here is the
house and I go to meet my wife and to make certain arrangements. By
dawn perhaps you will be ready to start to Ethiopia."

"Do you really desire that I should accompany you there, Bes?"

"Certainly, Master. That is unless you should desire that I accompany
you somewhere else instead, by sea southward for instance. If so, I do
not know that I would refuse, since Ethiopia will not run away and
there is much of the world that I should still like to visit. Only
then there is Karema to be thought about, who expects, or, when she
learns all, soon will expect, to be a queen," he added doubtfully.

"No, Bes, I am too tired to make new plans, so let us go to Ethiopia
and not disappoint Karema, who after holding a cup so long naturally
would like to try a sceptre."

"I think that is wisest, Master; at any rate the holy Tanofir thinks
it wisest, and he is the voice of Fate. Oh! why do we trouble who
after all, every one of us, are nothing but pieces upon the board of
Fate."

Then he turned and left me and I entered the house where I found my
mother sitting, still in her festal robes, like one who waits. She
looked at my face, then asked what troubled me. I sat down on a stool
at her feet and told her everything.

"Much as I thought," she said when I had finished. "These over-learned
women are strange fish to catch and hold, and too much soul is like
too much sail upon a boat when the desert wind begins to blow across
the Nile. Well, do not let us blame her or Bes, or Peroa who is
already anxious for his dynasty and would rather that Amada were a
priestess than your wife, or even the goddess Isis, who no doubt is
anxious for her votaries. Let us rather blame the Power that is behind
the veil, or to it bow our heads, seeing that we know nothing of the
end for which it works. So Egypt shuts her doors on you, my Son, and
whither away? Not to the East again, I trust, for there you would soon
grow shorter by a head."

"I go to Ethiopia, my Mother, where it seems that Bes is a great man
and can shelter me."

"So we go to Ethiopia, do we? Well, it is a long journey for an old
woman, but I weary of Memphis where I have lived for so many years and
doubtless the sands of the south make good burial grounds."

"We!" I exclaimed. "/We?/"

"Surely, my Son, since in losing a wife you have again found a mother
and until I die we part no more."

When I heard this my eyes filled with tears. My conscience smote me
also because of late, and indeed for years past, I had thought so much
of Amada and so little of my mother. And now it was Amada who had cast
me out, unjustly, without waiting to learn the truth, because at the
worst I, who worshipped her, had saved myself from death in slow
torment by speaking her name, while my mother, forgetting all, took me
to her bosom again as she had done when I was a babe. I knew not what
to say, but remembering the pearls, I drew them out and placed them
round my mother's neck.

She looked at the wonderful things and smiled, then said,

"Such gems as these become white locks and withered breasts but ill.
Yet, my Son, I will keep them for you till you find a wife, if not
Amada, then another."

"If not Amada, I shall never find a wife," I said bitterly, whereat
she smiled.

Then she left me to make ready before she slept a while.

Work as we would noon had passed two hours, on the following day,
before we were prepared to start, for there was much to do. Thus the
house must be placed in charge of friends and the means of travel
collected. Also a messenger came from Pharaoh praying me for his and
Egypt's sake to think again before I left them, and an answer sent
that go I must, whither the holy Tanofir would know if at any time
Pharaoh desired to learn. In reply to this came another messenger who
brought me parting gifts from Pharaoh, a chain of honour, a title of
higher nobility, a commission as his envoy to whatever land I
wandered, and so forth, which I must acknowledge. Lastly as we were
leaving the house to seek the boat which Bes had made ready on the
Nile, there came yet another messenger at the sight of whom my heart
leapt, for he was priest of Isis.

He bowed and handed me a roll. I opened it with a trembling hand and
read:

 "From the Prophetess of Isis whose house is at Amada, aforetime
  Royal Lady of Egypt, to the Count Shabaka,
 "I learn, O my Cousin, that you depart from Egypt and knowing the
  reason my heart is sore. Believe me, my Cousin, I love you well,
  better than any who lives upon the earth, nor will that love ever
  change, since the goddess who holds my future in her hands, knows
  of what we are made and is not jealous of the past. Therefore she
  will not be wroth at the earthly love of one who is gathered to
  her heavenly arms. Her blessing and mine be on you and if we see
  each other no more face to face in the world, may we meet again in
  the halls of Osiris. Farewell, beloved Shabaka. Oh! why did you
  suffer that black master of lies, the dwarf Bes, to persuade you
  to hide the truth from me?"

So the writing ended and below it were two stains still wet, which I
knew were caused by tears. Moreover, wrapped in a piece of silk and
fastened to the scroll was a little gold ring graven with the royal
/ur�us/ that Amada had always worn from childhood. Only on the
previous night I had noted it on the first finger of her right hand.

I took my stylus and my waxen tablets and wrote on one of them:

 "Had you been a man, Amada, and not a woman, I think you would have
  judged me differently but, learned priestess and prophetess as you
  are, a woman you remain. Perchance a time may come when once more
  you will turn to me in the hour of your need; if so and I am
  living, I will come. Yea, if I am dead I think that I still shall
  come, since nothing can really part us. Meanwhile by day and by
  night I wear your ring and whenever I look on it I think of Amada
  the woman whose lips have pressed my own, and forget Amada the
  priestess who for her soul's sake has been pleased to break the
  heart of the man who loved her and whom she misjudged so sorely in
  her pride and anger."

This tablet I wrapped up and sealed, using clay and her own ring to
make the seal, and gave it for delivery to the priest.

At length we drew near to the river and here, gathered on the open
land, I found the most of those who had fought with me in the battle
against the Easterns, and with them a great concourse of others from
the city. These collected round me, some of them wounded and hobbling
upon crutches, praying me not to go, as did the others who foresaw
sorrow to Egypt from my loss. But I broke away from them almost in
tears and with my mother hid myself beneath the canopy of the boat.
Here Bes was waiting, also his beautiful wife who, although she seemed
sad at leaving Egypt, smiled a greeting to us while the steersmen and
rowers of the boat, tall Ethiopians every one of them, rose and gave
me a General's salute. Then, as the wind served, we hoisted the sail
and glided away up Nile, till presently the temples and palm-groves of
Memphis were lost to sight.

Of that long, long journey there is no need to tell. Up the Nile we
travelled slowly, dragging the boat past the cataracts till Egypt was
far behind us. In the end, many days after we had passed the mouth of
another river that was blue in colour which flowed from the northern
mountain lands down into the Nile, we came to a place where the rapids
were so long and steep that we must leave the boat and travel
overland. Drawing near to it at sunset I saw a multitude of people
gathered on the sand and beyond them a camp in which were set many
beautiful pavilions that seemed to be broidered with silk and gold, as
were the banners that floated above them whereon appeared the effigy
of a grasshopper, also done in gold with silver legs.

"It seems that my messengers travelled in safety," said Bes to me,
"for know, that yonder are some of my subjects who have come here to
meet us. Now, Master, I must no longer call you master since I fear I
am once more a king. And you must no longer call me Bes, but Karoon.
Moreover, forgive me, but when you come into my presence you must bow,
which I shall like less than you do, but it is the custom of the
Ethiopians. Oh! I would that you were the king and that I were your
friend, for henceforth good-bye to ease and jollity."

I laughed, but Bes did not laugh at all, only turned to his wife who
already ruled him as though he were indeed a slave, and said, "Lady
Karema, make yourself as beautiful as you can and forget that you have
ever been a Cup or anything useful, since henceforth you must be a
queen, that is if you please my people."

"And what happens if I do not please them, Husband?" asked Karema
opening her fine eyes.

"I do not quite know, Wife. Perhaps they may refuse to accept me, at
which I shall not weep. Or perhaps they may refuse to accept you, at
which of course I should weep very much, for you see you are so very
white and, heretofore, all the queens of the Ethiopians have been
black."

"And if they refuse to accept me because I am white, or rather brown,
instead of black like oiled marble, what then, O Husband?"

"Then--oh! then I cannot say, O Wife. Perhaps they will send you back
to your own country. Or perhaps they will separate us and place you in
a temple where you will live alone in all honour. I remember that once
they did that to a white woman, making a goddess of her until she died
of weariness. Or perhaps--well, I do not know."

Then Karema grew angry.

"Now I wish I had remained a Cup," she said, "and the servant of the
holy Tanofir who at least taught me many secret things, instead of
coming to dwell among black barbarians in the company of a dwarf who,
even if he be a king, it seems has no power to protect the wife whom
he has chosen."

"Why will women always grow wroth before there is need?" asked Bes
humbly. "Surely it would be time to rate me when any of these things
had happened."

"If any of them do happen, Husband, I shall say much worse things than
that," she replied, but the talk went no further, for at this moment
our boat grounded and singing a wild song, many of those who waited
rushed into the water to drag it to the bank.

Then Bes stood up on the prow, waving his bow and there arose a mighty
shout of, "/Karoon! Karoon!/ It is he, it is he returned after many
years!"

Twice they shouted thus and then, every one of them, threw themselves
face downwards in the sand.

"Yes, my people," cried Bes, "it is I, Karoon, who having been
miraculously preserved from many dangers in far lands by the help of
the Grasshopper in heaven, and, as my messengers will have told you,
of my beloved friend, lord Shabaka the Egyptian, who has deigned to
come to dwell with us for a while, have at length returned to Ethiopia
that I may shed my wisdom on you like the sun and pour it on your
heads like melted honey. Moreover, mindful of our laws which aforetime
I defied and therefore left you, I have searched the whole world
through till I found the most beautiful woman that it contained, and
made her my wife. She too has deigned to come to this far country to
be your queen. Advance, fair Karema, and show yourself to these my
Ethiopians."

So Karema stepped forward and stood on the prow of the boat by the
side of Bes, and a strange couple they looked. The Ethiopians who had
risen, considered her gravely, then one of them said,

"Karoon called her beautiful, but in truth she is almost white and
very ugly."

"At least she is a woman," said another, "for her shape is female."

"Yes, and he has married her," remarked a third, "and even a king may
choose his own wife sometimes. For in such matters who can judge
another's taste?"

"Cease," said Bes in a lordly way. "If you do not think her beautiful
to-night, you will to-morrow. And now let us land and rest."

So we landed and while I did so I took note of these Ethiopians. They
were great men, black as charcoal with thick lips, white teeth and
flat noses. Their eyes were large and the whites of them somewhat
yellow, their hair curled like wool, their beards were short and on
their faces they wore a continual smile. Of dress most of them had
little, but their elders or leaders wore lion and leopard skins and
some were clad in a kind of silken tunic belted about the middle. All
were armed for war with long bows, short swords and small shields
round in shape and made from the hide of the hippopotamus or of the
unicorn. Gold was plentiful amongst them since even the humblest wore
bracelets of that metal, while about the necks of the chieftains it
was wound in great torques, also sometimes on their ankles. They wore
sandals on their feet and some of them had ostrich feathers stuck in
their hair, a few also had grasshoppers fashioned of gold bound on the
top of their heads, and these I took to be the priests. There were no
women in their number.

As the sun was sinking we were led at once to a very beautiful tent
made of woven flax and ornamented as I have described, where we found
food made ready for us in plenty, milk in bowls and the flesh of sheep
and oxen boiled and roasted. Bes, however, was taken to a place apart,
which made Karema even more angry than she was before.

Scarcely had we finished eating when a herald rushed into the tent
crying, "Prostrate yourselves! Yea, be prostrated, the Grasshopper
comes! Karoon comes."

Here I must say that I found that the title of Karoon meant "Great
Grasshopper," but Karema who did not know this, asked indignantly why
she should prostrate herself to a grasshopper. Indeed she refused to
do so even when Bes entered the pavilion wonderfully attired in a
gorgeous-coloured robe of which the train was held by two huge men. So
absurd did he look that my mother and I must bow very deeply to hide
our laughter while Karema said,

"It would be better, Husband, if you found children to carry your robe
instead of two giants. Moreover, if it is meant to copy the colours of
a grasshopper, 'tis badly done, since grasshoppers are green and you
are gold and scarlet. Also they do not wear feathers set awry upon
their heads."

Bes rolled his eyes as though in agony, then turning, bade his
attendants be gone. They obeyed, though doubtfully as though they did
not like to leave him alone with us, whereon he let down the flap of
the pavilion, threw off his gorgeous coverings and said,

"You must learn to understand, Wife, that our customs are different
from those of Egypt. There I was happy as a slave and you were held to
be beautiful as the Cup of the holy Tanofir, also learned. Here I am
wretched as a king and you are held to be ugly, also ignorant as a
stranger. Oh! do not answer, I pray you, but learn that all goes well.
For the time you are accepted as my wife, subject to the decision of a
council of matrons, aged relatives of my family, who will decide when
we reach the City of the Grasshopper whether or not you shall be
acknowledged as the Queen of the Ethiopians. No, no, I pray you say
nothing since I must go away at once, as according to the law of the
Ethiopians the time has come for the Grasshopper to sleep, alone,
Karema, as you are not yet acknowledged as my wife. You also can sleep
with the lady Tiu and for Shabaka a tent is provided. Rest sweetly,
Wife. Hark! They fetch me."

"Now, if I had my way," said Karema, "I would rest in that boat going
back to Egypt. What say you, lord Shabaka?"

But I made no answer who followed Bes out of the tent, leaving her to
talk the matter over with my mother. Here I found a crowd of his
people waiting to convey him to sleep and watching, saw them place him
in another tent round which they ranged themselves, playing upon
musical instruments. After this someone came and led me to my own
place where was a good bed in which I lay down to sleep. This however
I could not do for a long while because of my own laughter and the
noise of the drums and horns that were soothing Bes to his rest. For
now I understood why he had preferred to be a slave in Egypt rather
than a king in Ethiopia.

In the morning I rose before the dawn and went out to the river-bank
to bathe. While I was making ready to wash myself, who should appear
but Bes, followed, but at a distance, by a number of his people.

"Never have I spent such a night, Master," he said, "at least not
since you took me prisoner years ago, since by law I may not stop
those horns and musical instruments. Now, however, also according to
the law of the Ethiopians, I am my own lord until the sun rises. So I
have come here to gather some of those blue lilies which she loves as
a present for Karema, because I fear that she is angry and must be
appeased."

"Certainly she is very angry," I said, "or at least was so when I left
her last night. Oh! Bes, why did you let your people tell her that she
was ugly?"

"How can I help it, Master? Have you not always heard that the
Ethiopians are chiefly famous for one thing, namely that they speak
nothing but the truth. To them she, being different, seems to be ugly.
Therefore when they say that she is ugly, they speak the truth."

"If so, it is a truth that she does not like, Bes, as I have no doubt
she will tell you by and by. Do they think me ugly also?"

"Yes, they do, Master; but they think also that you look like a man
who can draw a bow and use a sword, and that goes far with the
Ethiopians. Of your mother they say nothing because she is old and
they venerate the aged whom the Grasshopper is waiting to carry away."

Now I began to laugh again and went with Bes to gather the lilies.
These grew at the end of a mass of reeds woven together by the
pressure of the current and floating on the water. Bes lay down upon
his stomach while his people watched from a distance on the bank
amazed into silence, and stretched out his long arms to reach the blue
lotus flowers. Suddenly the reeds gave way beneath him just as he had
grasped two of the flowers and was dragging at them, so that he fell
into the river.

Next instant I saw a swirl in the brown water and perceived a huge
crocodile. It rushed at Bes open-mouthed. Being a good swimmer he
twisted his body in order to avoid it, but I heard the great teeth
close with a snap on the short leathern garment which he wore about
his middle.

"The devil has me! Farewell!" he cried and vanished beneath the water.

Now, as I have said, I was almost stripped for bathing, but had not
yet taken off my short sword which was girded round me by a belt. In
an instant I drew it and amidst the yells of horror of the Ethiopians
who had seen all from the bank, I plunged into the river. There are
few able to swim as I could and I had the art of diving with my eyes
open and remaining long beneath the surface without drawing breath,
for this I had practised from a child.

Immediately I saw the great reptile sinking to the mud and dragging
Bes with him to drown him there. But here the river was very deep and
with a few swift strokes I was able to get under the crocodile. Then
with all my strength I stabbed upwards, driving the sword far into the
soft part of the throat. Feeling the pain of the sharp iron the beast
let go of Bes and turned on me. How it happened I do not know but
presently I found myself upon its back and was striking at its eyes.
One thrust at least went home, for the blinded brute rose to the
surface, bearing me with him, and oh! the sweetness of the air as I
breathed again.

Thus we appeared, I riding the crocodile like a horse and stabbing
furiously, while close by was Bes rolling his yellow eyes but
helpless, for he had no weapon. Still the devil was not dead although
blood streamed from him, only mad with pain and rage. Nor could the
shouting Ethiopians help me since they had only bows and dared not
shoot lest their shafts should pierce me. The crocodile began to sink
again, snapping furiously at my legs. Then I bethought me of a trick I
had seen practised by natives on the Nile.

Waiting till its huge jaws were open I thrust my arm between them,
grasping the short sword in such fashion that the hilt rested on its
tongue and the point against the roof of its mouth. It tried to close
its jaws and lo! the good iron was fixed between them, holding them
wide open. Then I withdrew my hand and floated upwards with nothing
worse than a cut upon the wrist from one of its sharp fangs. I
appeared upon the surface and after me the crocodile spouting blood
and wallowing in its death agonies. I remembered no more till I found
myself lying on the bank surrounded by a multitude with Bes standing
over me. Also in the shallow water was the crocodile dead, my sword
still fixed between its jaws.

"Are you harmed, Master" cried Bes in a voice of agony.

"Very little I think," I answered, sitting up with the blood pouring
from my arm.

Bes thrust aside Karema who had come lightly clothed from her tent,
saying,

"All is well, Wife. I will bring you the lilies presently."

Then he flung his arms about me, kissed my hands and my brow and
turning to the crowd, shouted,

"Last night you were disputing as to whether this Egyptian lord should
be allowed to dwell with me in the land of Ethiopia. Which of you
disputes it now?"

"No one!" they answered with a roar. "He is not a man but a god. No
man could have done such a deed."

"So it seems," answered Bes quietly. "At least none of you even tried
to do it. Yet he is not a god but only that kind of man who is called
a hero. Also he is my brother, and while I reign in Ethiopia either he
shall reign at my side, or I go away with him."

"It shall be so, Karoon!" they shouted with one voice. And after this
I was carried back to the tent.

In front of it my mother waited and kissed me proudly before them all,
whereat they shouted again.

So ended this adventure of the crocodile, except that presently Bes
went back and recovered the two lilies for Karema, this time from a
boat, which caused the Ethiopians to call out that he must love her
very much, though not as much as he did me.

That afternoon, borne in litters, we set out for the City of the
Grasshopper, which we reached on the fourth day. As we drew near the
place regiments of men to the number of twelve thousand or more, came
out to meet us, so that at last we arrived escorted by an army who
sang their songs of triumph and played upon their musical instruments
until my head ached with the noise.

This city was a great place whereof the houses were built of mud and
thatched with reeds. It stood upon a wide plain and in its centre rose
a natural, rocky hill upon the crest of which, fashioned of blocks of
gleaming marble and roofed with a metal that shone as gold, was the
temple of the Grasshopper, a columned building very like to those of
Egypt. Round it also were other public buildings, among them the
palace of the Karoon, the whole being surrounded by triple marble
walls as a protection from attack by foes. Never had I seen anything
so beautiful as that hill with its edifices of shining white roofed
with gold or copper and gleaming in the sun.

Descending from my litter I walked to those of my mother and Karema,
for Bes in his majesty might not be approached, and said as much to
them.

"Yes, Son," answered my mother, "it is worth while to have travelled
so far to see such a sight. I shall have a fine sepulchre, Son."

"I have seen it all before," broke in Karema.

"When?" I asked.

"I do not know. I suppose it must have been when I was the Cup of the
holy Tanofir. At least it is familiar to me. Already I weary of it,
for who can care for a land or a city where they think white people
hideous and scarcely allow a wife to go near her husband, save between
midnight and dawn when they cease from their horrible music?"

"It will be your part to change these customs, Karema."

"Yes," she exclaimed, "certainly that will be my part," after which I
went back to my litter.

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