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I will tell you on the way back to Abbot's Ely. It is about time, in fact, that I tried to classify what I have learned. "I then briefly related the story of Ombos and our acquaintance. I concealed nothing, dwelling on the irresistible alluring influence of the bronze statue.
It was alive, and the great muscles were twitching and quivering. To my unutterable horror, I perceived it was not Albertus Magnus.... It was Ombos! His breath came in horrid little flutters, with seconds between each one, as if he had just come to life and was not quite used to it.
I go away to-night." "To Armant?" "To Armant for some days. Then I go farther up the river. I have interests near Kom Ombos. I shall be away some time, and then drop down to Assiout. I have nothing more to do here." "Interests in Assiout, too?" "Oh, yes; at Assiout I have a great many. And just beyond here I have some a little way up the river on the western bank." "Lands?"
'It may come to you one day ... the doors of life and death are left ajar from time to time, and the light of Al Tughrai's lamp of wisdom shines out upon us for a moment between the opening and closing. The carved ivory face of old Ombos seemed softer when he said that. "'Did my brother care for the old bronze? Did he love it as I do, every curve in the lean and corded neck ...
"'The veil is drawn, said the voice of Ombos. 'Master, the veil is drawn. See, if you will. See! "In a fluid light the form darkened. I saw Ombos seated before a table with his head bowed down over a folio volume, quiet and still. The head was ill to look at, and I knew he was dead.... All grew misty and faded into light again. "'The veil is drawn, he droned. 'Look again!
It was also worshipped at Onuphis; and at Nubti or Ombos it was identified with Set, and held sacred. Beside the name of Sebek or Soukhos in Fayum, it was there identified with Osiris as the western god of the dead. The frog was an emblem of the goddess Heqt, but was not worshipped. The cobra serpent was sacred from the earliest times to the present day.
Sebak-Hathor-Chonsu " Ombos. Har-hat-Hathor-Har-sem-ta " Edfu. The son is the successor of his father, and it is his destiny in turn to marry his mother and so to reproduce himself, that is his own successor; and so though constantly dying he is ever renewed. The mother, not being a sun-god, does not die.
"'Hardly what you expected to see, eh? Ombos said, and there was a faint trace of mockery in his tone. "I looked around me helplessly. "'No! I said, sinking into a most luxurious silk-cushioned divan. 'Trenches, and this! I suppose I'll wake up soon. "'Would you like to see my bronze statue of Albert of Cologne? It's the gem of my collection, and has a world-wide reputation!
A noble pile of mellow bronze, irregular yet graceful. Ombos regarded it smilingly, yet with one of his queer, sinister looks. It would have been hard to know what he was thinking.
On the floor lay the dead body of John Travers. The statue of Albertus Magnus had vanished! "And there the story ends. I can give no explanation whatever, beyond what I have related. The bronze figure has never, so far as I know, been seen again, nor has the restless spirit of poor Ombos walked again in our garden and library.
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