"_Wait!_ Wait until we have translated everything literally. And, Mr.
Burke, it might make it easier for us both if you would remember that I have had the pleasure of deciphering many hundreds of papyri before you had ever heard that there were such things."
"I beg your pardon," said the young man in a low voice.
"I beg yours for my impatience," said the Tracer pleasantly. "This deciphering always did affect my nerves and shorten my temper. And, no doubt, it is quite as hard on you. Shall we go on, Mr. Burke?"
"If you please, Mr. Keen."
So the Tracer laid his pencil point on the next symbol
[Ill.u.s.tration: Glyph]
"That is the symbol for night," he said; "and that
[Ill.u.s.tration: Glyph]
is the water symbol again, as you know; and that
[Ill.u.s.tration: Glyph]
is the ideograph, meaning a ship. The five reversed crescents
[Ill.u.s.tration: Glyph]
record the number of days voyage; the sign
[Ill.u.s.tration: Glyph]
means a house, and is also the letter H in the Egyptian alphabet.
"Under it, again, we have a repet.i.tion of the first symbol meaning _I_, and a repet.i.tion of the second symbol, meaning "Meris, the King." Then, below that cartouch, comes a new symbol,
[Ill.u.s.tration: Glyph]
which is the feminine personal p.r.o.noun, _sentus_, meaning "_she_"; and the first column is completed with the symbol for the ancient Egyptian verb, _nehes_, "to awake,"
[Ill.u.s.tration: Glyph]
"And now we take the second column, which begins with the jackal ideograph expressing slyness or cleverness. Under it is the hieroglyph meaning "to run away," "to escape." And under that, Mr. Burke, is one of the rarest of all Egyptian symbols; a symbol seldom seen on stone or papyrus,
[Ill.u.s.tration: Glyph]
except in rare references to the mysteries of Isis. The meaning of it, so long in dispute, has finally been practically determined through a new discovery in the cuneiform inscriptions. It is the symbol of two hands holding two _closed_ eyes; and it signifies power."
"You mean that those ancients understood hypnotism?" asked Burke, astonished.
"Evidently their priests did; evidently hypnotism was understood and employed in certain mysteries. And there is the symbol of it; and under it the hieroglyphs
[Ill.u.s.tration: Glyph]
meaning "a day and a night," with the symbol
[Ill.u.s.tration: Glyph]
as usual present to signify force or strength employed. Under that, again, is a human figure stretched upon a typical Egyptian couch. And now, Mr. Burke, _note carefully_ three modifying signs: first, that it is a _couch_ or _bed_ on which the figure is stretched, not the funeral couch, not the embalming slab; second, there is no mummy mask covering the face, and no mummy case covering the body; third, that under the rec.u.mbent figure is pictured an _open_ mouth, not a _closed_ one.
"All these modify the ideograph, apparently representing death. But the sleep symbol is not present. Therefore it is a sound inference that all this simply confirms the symbol of hypnotism."
Burke, intensely absorbed, stared steadily at the scroll.
"Now," continued Mr. Keen, "we note the symbol of force again, always present; and, continuing horizontally, a cartouch quite empty except for the midday sun. That is simply translated; the midday sun illuminates nothing. Meris, deposed, is king only in name; and the sun no longer shines on him as "Ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt." Under that despairing symbol, "King of Nothing," we have
[Ill.u.s.tration: Glyph]
the phonetics which spell _sha_, the word for garden. And, just beyond this, horizontally, the modifying ideograph meaning "a _water_ garden";
[Ill.u.s.tration: Glyph]
a design of lotus and tree alternating on a terrace. Under that is the symbol for the word "_aneb_,"
[Ill.u.s.tration: Glyph]
a "wall." Beyond that, horizontally, is the symbol for "house." It should be placed under the wall symbol, but the Egyptians were very apt to fill up s.p.a.ces instead of continuing their vertical columns. Now, beneath, we find the imperative command
[Ill.u.s.tration: Glyph]
"arise!" And the Egyptian personal p.r.o.noun "_entuten_,"
[Ill.u.s.tration: Glyph]
which means "you" or "thou."
"Under that is the symbol
[Ill.u.s.tration: Glyph]
which means "priest," or, literally, "priest man." Then comes the imperative "awake to life!"
[Ill.u.s.tration: Glyph]
After that, our first symbol again, meaning "_I_," followed horizontally by the symbol
[Ill.u.s.tration: Glyph]
signifying "to go."
"Then comes a very important drawing--you see?--the picture of a man with a jackal"s head, not a dog"s head. It is not accompanied by the phonetic in a cartouch, as it should be. Probably the writer was in desperate haste at the end. But, nevertheless, it is easy to translate that symbol of the man with a jackal"s head. It is a picture of the Egyptian G.o.d, Anubis, who was supposed to linger at the side of the dying to conduct their souls. Anubis, the jackal-headed, is the courier, the personal escort of departing souls. And this is he.
"And now the screed ends with the cry "Pray for me!"