Presently the avenue opened into the temple square. With reverential hand Memphis put back her dwellings and her bazaars, that profane life might not press upon the sacred precincts of her mighty G.o.ds. Here was a vast acreage, overhung with the atmosphere of sanct.i.ty. The grove of mysteries was there, dark with profound shadow, and silent save for a lonesome bird song or the suspirations of the wind. The great pool in its stone basin reflected a lofty canopy of sunlit foliage, and the s.h.a.ggy peristyle of palm-tree trunks.
The shadow of the great structure darkened its approaches before it was clearly visible through the grove. The devotee entered a long avenue of sphinxes--fifty pairs lining a broad highway paved with polished granite flagging.
At its termination the two truncated pyramids that formed the entrance to the temple towered upward, two hundred feet of ma.s.sive masonry.
Egypt had dismantled a dozen mountains to build two.
When he reached the gateway that opened like a tunnel between the ponderous pylons, he was delayed some minutes waiting till the porter should admit him through the wicket of bronze. At last, a lank youth, the son of the regular keeper, appeared, and, with an inarticulate apology, bade him enter.
Within the overarching portals he was met by a novice, a priest of the lowest orders, to whom he stated his mission. With a sign to the young man to follow, the priest pa.s.sed through the porch into the inner court of the temple. This was simply an immense roofless chamber. Its sides were the outer walls of the temple proper, reinforced by stupendous pilasters and elaborated with much bas-relief and many intaglios. The ends were formed by the inner pylons of the porch and outer pylons of the main temple. The latter were guarded by colossal divinities. Down the center of the court was a second aisle of sphinxes. They had entered this when the priest, with a startled exclamation, sprang behind one of the rec.u.mbent monsters in time to avoid the frolicsome salutation of an ape.
"Anubis! Mut, the Mother of Darkness, lends you her cloak! Out!"
Kenkenes cried, striking at his pet. The wary animal eluded the blow and for a moment revolved about another sphinx, pursued by his master, and then fled like a phantom out of the court by the path he came. By this time the priest had emerged from his refuge and was attempting to prevent the young man"s interference with the will of the ape.
"Nay, nay; I am sorry!" the priest exclaimed as Anubis disappeared.
"It is an omen. Toth[2] visiteth Ptah; Wisdom seeketh Power! Came he by divine summons or did he seek the great G.o.d? It is a problem for the sorcerers and is of ominous import!"
"The pestiferous creature followed me unseen from the house," Kenkenes explained, rather flushed of countenance. "To me it is an omen that the idler who keeps the gate is not vigilant."
The priest shook his head and led the way without further words into the temple. Here the young sculptor was conducted through a wilderness of jacketed columns, over pavements that rang even under sandaled feet, to the center of a vast hall. The priest left him and disappeared through the all-enveloping twilight into the more sacred part of the temple.
In a moment, Asar-Mut, high priest to Ptah, appeared, approaching through the dusk. He wore the priestly habiliments of spotless linen, and, like a loose mantle, a magnificent leopard-skin, which hung by a claw over the right shoulder and, pa.s.sing under the left arm, was fastened at the breast by a medallion of gold and topaz. He was a typical Egyptian, but thinner of lip and severer of countenance than the laity. The wooden dolls tumbled about by the children of the realm were not more hairless than he. His high, narrow head was ghastly in its utter nakedness.
Kenkenes bent reverently before him and was greeted kindly by the pontiff.
"Hast thou guessed why I sent for thee?" he asked at once.
"I have guessed," Kenkenes replied, "but it may be wildly."
"Let us see. I would have thee carry a message for the brotherhood."
Kenkenes inclined his head.
"Good. Be thy journey as quick as thy perception. I ask thy pardon for laying the work of a temple courier upon thy shoulders, but the message is of such import that I would carry it myself were I as young and unburdened with duty as thou."
"I am thy servant, holy Father, and well pleased with the opportunity that permits me to serve the G.o.ds."
"I know, and therefore have I chosen thee. My trusted courier is dead; the others are light-minded, and Tape is in the height of festivity.
They might delay--they might be lured into forgetting duty, and," the pontiff lowered his voice and drew nearer to Kenkenes, "and there are those that may be watching for this letter. A n.o.bleman would not be thought a messenger. Thou dost incur less danger than the clout-wearing runner for the temple."
A light broke over Kenkenes.
"I understand," he said.
"Go, then, by private boat at sunset, and Ptah be with thee. Make all speed." He put a doubly wrapped scroll into Kenkenes" hands. "This is to be delivered to our holy Superior, Loi, priest of Amen. Farewell, and fail not."
Kenkenes bowed and withdrew.
It was long before sunset, and he had an unfulfilled promise in mind.
He crossed the square thoughtfully and paused by the pool in its center. The surface, dark and smooth as oil, reflected his figure and face faithfully and to his evident satisfaction. He pa.s.sed around the pool and walked briskly in the direction of another narrow pa.s.sage lined by rich residences.
He knocked at a portal framed by a pair of huge pilasters, which towered upward, and, as pillars, formed two of the colonnade on the roof. A portress admitted him with a smile and led him through the sumptuously appointed chamber of guests into the intramural park.
There she indicated a nook in an arbor of vines and left him.
With a silent foot he crossed the flowery court and entered the bower.
The beautiful dweller sat in a deep chair, her little feet on a carved footstool, a silver-stringed lyre tumbled beside it. She was alone and appeared desolate. When the tall figure of the sculptor cast a shadow upon her she looked up with a little cry of delight.
"Oh," she exclaimed, "a G.o.d led thee hither to save me from the solitude. It is a moody monster not catalogued in the list of terrors." She thrust the lyre aside with her sandal and pushed the footstool, only a little, away from her.
"Sit there," she commanded. Kenkenes obeyed willingly. He drew off his coif and tossed it aside.
"Thou seest I am come in the garb of labor," he confessed.
"I see," she answered severely. "Am I no longer worthy the robe of festivity?"
"Ah, Ta-meri, thou dost wrong me," he said. "Chide me, but impugn me not. Nay, I am on my way to Tape. I was summoned hurriedly and am already dismissed upon mine errand, but I could not use myself so ill as to postpone my visit for eighteen days."
She jeered at him prettily.
"To hear thee one would think thou hadst been coming as often as Nechutes."
"How often does Nechutes come?"
"Every day."
"Of late?" he asked, with a laugh in his eyes.
"Nay," she answered sulkily. "Not since the day--that day!"
Kenkenes was silent for a moment. Then he put his elbow on the arm of her chair and leaned his head against his hand. The att.i.tude brought him close to her.
"All these days," he said at length, "he has been unhappy among the happy and the unhappiest among the sad. He has summoned the shuddering Pantheon, to hear him vow eternal unfealty to thee, Ta-meri--and lo!
while they listened he begged their most potent charm to hold thee to him still. Poor Nechutes!"
"Thou dost treat it lightly," she reproached him, her eyes veiled, "but it is of serious import to--to Nechutes."
"Nay, I shall hold my tongue. I efface myself and intercede for him, and thou dost call it exulting. And when I am fallen from thy favor there will be none to plead my cause, none to hide her misty eyes with contrite lashes."
"Mine eyes are not misty," she retorted.
"Thou hast said," he admitted, in apology. "It was not a happy term.
I meant bejeweled with repentant dew."
She shook her little finger at him.
"If thou dost persist in thy calumny of me, thou mayest come to test thy dismal augury," she warned.
He dropped his eyes and his mouth drooped dolorously.
"I come for comfort, and I get Nechutes and all the unpropitious possibilities that his name suggests."