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Ra'hel's maid endeavoured to force her way through; the javelins rattled on her head like hammers on an anvil. She began to yell like a bird plucked alive. An officer came out on hearing the tumult; the soldiers stopped beating Thamar. "What does this woman want?" said the officer, "and why are you beating her in this way?"
It was allowed among the Egyptians, the Athenians and even among the Jews, to marry one's sister on the father's side. But still, according to their books, the young Thamar, before being ravished by her brother Amnon, says to him: "Nay, my brother, do not thou this folly, but speak unto the king; for he will not withhold me from thee."
The arm which Thamar had raised still rested upon the mantle of striped wool, showing whiter by contrast with the dark stuff; the wrist was circled with a bracelet of sandal wood, the commonplace adornment of the coquetry of poverty; but if the ornament was rude and roughly chased, the flesh it covered seemed to have been washed in the perfumed bath of riches.
Georgia, which lies on the southern declivities of the Caucasus, was nominally converted to Christianity in the days of Constantine the Great, when its heroic queen Thamar ruled over one of the most powerful empires of western Asia; but beautiful on these mountain tops as were the feet of those who brought the glad tidings and published peace, the doctrines of the cross made but little impression on the benighted minds of these worshippers in the temple of nature.
And after this Bathsheba, that had been Uriah's wife, brought forth another son named Solomon, which was well-beloved of God, and after David, Solomon was king. After this David had much war and trouble and anger, insomuch that on a time Amnon, oldest son of David, loved Thamar his sister.
Thamar held up a lamp, while Ra'hel, bending over the girl, looked for the wound; but no red streak showed upon the pallor of Tahoser, and her dress had no crimson stain. They stripped off her wet garment, and cast over her a piece of striped wool, the gentle warmth of which soon restored her suspended circulation.
It is observable that the ancient Hebrews used rings even in the time of the wars of Troy. Did not Judah, as mentioned in the 38th chapter of Genesis, abuse his daughter-in-law, Thamar, who had disguised herself, by giving her his ring and bracelets, as a pledge of the faith he had promised her?
"If she does, I shall throw her body by night into the Nile," continued the obstinate Thamar, "and the crocodiles will undertake to make it disappear." The day passed, the night came, and at the accustomed hour Poëri, having given the usual signal, appeared as he had done the night before on the threshold of the hut.
In her dreams Tahoser saw Poëri standing by her; ecstatic joy lighted up her features, and half raising herself, she seized the hand of the young man to bear it to her lips. "Her lips are burning," said Poëri, withdrawing his hand. "With love as much as with fever," replied Ra'hel, "but she is really ill. Suppose Thamar were to fetch Mosche.
Thamar repeated obstinately, "I want to see the Pharaoh at once." "A very good time you have chosen for it! The Pharaoh slew but a short time ago three messengers with a blow of his sceptre. He sits on his terrace, motionless and sinister like Typhon, the god of evil," said a soldier who condescended to give this explanation.
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