United States or Uzbekistan ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Now hearing this I, Ana, walked through the curtains and prostrated myself, saying, "I am that scribe, O Royal Son of the Sun." "How dare you enter the Prince's presence without being bidden " began Pambasa, but Seti broke in with a stern voice, saying, "And how dare you, Pambasa, keep this learned man waiting at my door like a dog?
At that moment the door opened, and old Pambasa entered, saying: "The Hebrew woman, Merapi, would see you; also two Hebrew men." "Admit them," said Seti. This morning even it would have been 'to see your Highness, uttered with bows so low that his beard swept the floor. Now it is 'to see you' and not so much as an inclination of the head in common courtesy.
Bear in mind, Pambasa, that before we are born we must have slept, since of that time we remember nothing, and after we are dead we certainly seem to sleep, as any who have looked on mummies know. Now answer." The chamberlain stared at the wine flask on the table as though he suspected his master of having drunk too much. Then in a hard official voice he said: "She comes! She comes!
Tell me of something that will lighten my heart, for it is heavy." "There are jugglers without, Prince, one of whom says he can throw a rope into the air and climb up it until he vanishes into heaven." "When he has done it in your sight, Pambasa, bring him to me, but not before. Death is the only rope by which we climb to heaven or be lowered into hell.
Pambasa, come hither and conduct my secretary, Ana, to the empty room that is next to my own, the painted chamber which looks toward the north, and bid my slaves attend to all his wants as they would to mine." "Why did you tell me you were a scribe, my lord Ana?" asked Pambasa, as he led me to my beautiful sleeping-place. "Because that is my trade, Chamberlain."
I remember that scribe . Well, it is plain that he has returned from Memphis," and she eyed my dusty robe. "Royal One," I murmured abashed, "do not blame me that I enter your presence thus. Pambasa led me here against my will by the direct order of the Prince." "Is it so? Say, Seti, does this man bring tidings of import from Memphis that you needed his presence in such haste?"
One day, however, a long-bearded old man, with a gold-tipped wand of office, who had a bull's head embroidered on his robe, stopped in front of me and, calling me a white-headed crow, asked me what I was doing hopping day by day about the chambers of the palace. I told him my name and business and he told me his, which it seemed was Pambasa, one of the Prince's chamberlains.
His appearance with his wand of office and long white beard, of which he was so proud because it was his own, drew from Seti the only laugh I had heard him utter for many weeks. "So you are back again, Chamberlain Pambasa," he said.
"Then with your leave I will be your guide through it this night, and afterwards we will sup and talk." I bowed and he clapped his hands, whereon a servant appeared, not Pambasa, but another. "Bring two cloaks," said the Prince, "I go abroad with the scribe, Ana. Let a guard of four Nubians, no more, follow us, but at a distance and disguised. Let them wait at the private entrance."
"May all the gods reject me from the Fields of the Blessed if I fail in this trust," I answered, and departed wondering, to seek sleep which, as it chanced, I was not to find for a while. For as I went down the corridor, led by one of the ladies of the household, whom should I find waiting at the end of it but old Pambasa to inform me with many bows that the Prince needed my presence.
Word Of The Day