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He was a mountebank ... a posturer! And what is this winged thing men name the soul? And who did make the stars? Ombos turned demon-like eyes on me, and his whole face seemed lit up with an appalling mirth. "'Believe them not, for they are not miraculous ones. They will be lost for ever; they will die. Their books and statues may live, but they will die, as sure as the grass grows over graves.
And especially the silence makes a great impression on you. But before you enter this silence, between the amber and ruddy walls that will lead you on to Nubia, and to the land of the crocodile, you have a visit to pay. For here, high up on a terrace, looking over a great bend of the river is Kom Ombos. And Kom Ombos is the temple of the crocodile god.
Ombos told me that the life of Albert Magnus had been written by Dr. Sighart. This Dominican, magnus in magia, major in philosophia, maximus in theologia, was distinguished alike for his knowledge of the black art and his great virtue, for austerity of regimen, and dislike of any form of society. For other details of this philosopher I must refer you to Sighart's excellent monograph and Mr.
Sebek was one of the oldest and one of the most evil of the Egyptian gods. In the Fayum he was worshipped, as well as at Kom Ombos, and there, in the holy lake of his temple, were numbers of holy crocodiles, which Strabo tells us were decorated with jewels like pretty women.
Such things can only trickle slowly into the soul, but presently, ah! they get right hold of one they permeate one, and then there comes a time ... "Ombos snatched at the heavy curtain, and the rings screeched on the brass rod. Clothed in his monkish garb, his face furrowed and seamed; the lustre of his eyes dimmed by the tears of centuries there stood Albertus.
And here at Kom Ombos the crocodile was adored. You are in a different atmosphere. As soon as you land, you are greeted with crocodiles, though fortunately not by them. A heap of their black mummies is shown to you reposing in a sort of tomb or shrine open at one end to the air. By these mummies the new note is loudly struck.
It was the only thing in your place that did not interest me when I first walked in. "I paused, and Ombos prompted me half unconsciously: 'Yes? "'Now! I said, meeting his eyes misting my own in doing so, 'it is the only thing I should like to see. "'Ah! he said.... 'Well, I told you that he might come over you slowly; but the gods direct rightly whom they will.
Dominic, who himself revealed to him the secret of the stone, whereby he discharged all the debts of his bishopric. "These bald facts about our friend Magnus must suffice. Old Ombos had a splendid edition of his works, lately published in Paris under the direction of a certain August Borguet; twenty large folios on all imaginable subjects.
At the guardian's gate by which you go in there sits not a watch dog, nor yet a crocodile, but a watch cat, small, but very determined, and very attentive to its duties, and neatly carved in stone. You try to look like a crocodile-worshipper. It is deceived, and lets you pass. And you are alone with the growing morning and Kom Ombos. I was never taken, caught up into an atmosphere, in Kom Ombos.
My force and body and soul is passing into the Master of Masters.... I shall live and be a god, I shall stand oblivious and indifferent to the centuries as they stalk by. "'You don't mean to tell me ... "Ombos looked up, his red-green eyes gleaming as he answered, "'Most certainly I do ... my soul will pass into that bronze statue when I am ready to give it up. "'The war, Mr.
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