Part 21 (1/2)
As the waters continued to rise, everyone rejoiced During the first two years offamine Now, on this first flood since I had been restored to the throne, a restoration in nature see, and rising They ca at the portals of the inmost sanctuaries They overwhelmed the dikes and basins and flowed out over the desert sands The mud-brick houses, which were supposedly set a safe distance aere overtaken and began to disintegrate back into Nile ineers at the First Cataract, where the floodwaters initially appeared, sent frantic dispatches There the Niloe by which the floodwaters werenified fertility So at a beaker full of freshly drawn Nile water fro only the slightest hint of color It was completely unlike its usual self, which at this ti black substance that caypt called itself the Black Land, after the black ribbon of rich soil the Nile left behind on its banks each year Not to have that gift was not to be Egypt And after two previous years of too little water!
Was there anything to be done? What caused the black soil to enter the river in the first place, and where did it coh, neither Olympos nor Mardian seemed to have any clear idea, or even an opinion
”It ush out wherever the source of the Nile is,” said Mardian ”And you know no one has ever found that”
”I thought the Nile God Hapi brought it,” said Olympos innocently
”You, who iveanswer,” I said
”I think soht know,” said Mardian ”Let us sound the call rousing those most formidable beasts, scholar-scientists”
A soft breeze, scented with jashed I wished I could just gives and scientists
In aon the second story of a villa overlooking the colonnaded street, I saw a lalow of the roo just that But I, the Queen, must stay awake so he could sleep in peace
”Tomorroill consult with theht I will lie awake thinking of what I ht
My bed, spread with bleached linen sheets, felt soggy totold that engineers set out unfired pottery near the Nile and weighed it after a night to see how much water it had absorbed; in this way they predicted the river's rise If it was true that the Nile gave off a foggy breath, then his exhalation was full of de
No one can stop the Nile, I toldbigger basins to contain the water, and collect et any silt As for the vermin and the snakes--I must inquire about those snake-people, the Psylli, they say they have ic powers
Despite the oppressive air and the tangle of heavy sheets, I slept
I had sent word that a council of scholars and scientists should be assembled at the Museion to help me plan how to combat the threatened disaster Have I recounted the history of the Museion? It is an academy devoted to the Muses--hence its na roorown into a beehive of scholars, ere supported by the Ptoleave thenificent Library with ertips, lecture halls of polished ht from sites all over the world to inspire them, and laboratories in which to study the pheno in return: that they should put their e at our disposal We seldo them to be royal tutors, and so they had the better part of the bargain But noould require their help
I reat rotunda, flanked by my advisors and scribes Ever optireat deal of useful ineers, historians, geographers, and naturalists aiting; they clustered around a large potted plant with thick, sole-like leaves, exa on its trunk They snapped to attention alked in and abandoned the plant
I felt relief at seeing soa shelf full of medicine bottles and jars Surely the remedy must be in one of them!
”Good scholars and scientists of the Museion--fahout the world--I coypt” I paused to let those blunt words soak in ”The report froher than it ever has, but that life-giving substances are not in it So we have a double catastrophe: all the dae of a flood combined with the crisis of a famine I ask you: Is there any known help from science?”
They stared back attheir eyes back and forth, watching to see if anyone would speak Finally a young man stepped forward
”I a voice, completely at odds with his co fruit, bulged out of his upper tunic ”I aest is that we raise the earth--or else lower it--to contain the river Build da enormous reservoir basins Perhaps both”
”And how could we do this in time?” asked another man ”It would require more workmen than built the pyraes already have irrigation basins Perhaps each could enlarge the ones they already have That would not be so prodigious a task,” I said ”But as for building a daineer said, ”No The Nile is too wide We could not stop it up long enough to daain, it is too wide And the current is too strong” He blinked a few times, as if to emphasize his words
”Very well, then” I believed that exhausted the subject There was little we could do to hinder the flood itself ”What happens in a flood? What can we expect? Can anyone here tell e mountain of a man stepped forward ”I am Telesikles,” he said ”I come from the Euphrates valley, where we often have floods Indeed, there is a poereat Utnapishtih, in order to survive 'As soon as a gleam of dawn shone in the sky, came a black cloud from the foundation of heaven Inside it the stor all light to darkness Six days and nights raged the wind, the flood, the cyclone, and devastated the land,' ” he intoned
We all just looked at hi as he recited the poetry, as if the ere blowing over his limbs
”And in the Hebrew holy books of Moses, there is also a flood, and an ark is built,” said another
”We are not going to build boats or arks for everyone in Egypt,” I said ”After all, the flood is not going to cover all the dry land I am not interested in poetic descriptions of floods, but in what actually happens as a result of a flood When Noah stepped out of the ark, everything had been destroyed What will happen to us?”
” 'And all round was flat like a roof,' ” Telesikles recited ominously
”That is absurd!” another man said in a shrill voice ”The Queen has asked us for details, not a lot of poetry Everyone will not turn to clay, and the ground in Egypt is already already flat like a roof Be quiet, you fool!” flat like a roof Be quiet, you fool!”
”If I may be permitted--” A hawk-nosedAlthough his face was creased, his hair was still dark and fairly thick ”I aineer with an interest in history I have lived here in Egypt long enough to acquaint myself hat happens in the countryside when too much water descends” He looked around, and saw that no one was going to challenge hih floods are rare, but memory has recorded them In the first place, what happens when the tide co the seashore?”
No one answered
”Co a beach? Never been in Judaea? What a bunch of parochials! Well, the tide co built of sand All the little houses children construct--they're washed away Children aren't the only ones who build of sand What are the Egyptian villages ets wet?” He gestured toward a tub of water that was standing near thefor his de a spray of water out onto the floor ”Watch this In an hour or two it will revert to owns ”Must you be so vehement?” one of them asked
”I wish to s will collapse No great loss or expense, if in advance new ones are built out of reach of the floodwaters Unlike the floods of poetry, this one coradually There is ti around and announcing, ”Standing water, however, is quite different fro water”
This felloas quite a show needed no flourishes
”It breeds insects, frogs, and scus out of its reach as it creeps underground Stored grain, unless it is kept some distance aill become wet and ue of mice!” His voice rose like a thunderclap
”Cal beneath your feet”
”And ill coibe ”Snakes! A plague of serpents!” He grabbed an old man's arm and pulled him out of the crowd of scholars ”Tell them, Aischines! Tell them about the serpents!”
The old man had skin like ancient papyrus: it was all lined and flaking and seeile and brittle ”The snakes! Hie snakes!” he muttered ”The storehouse of venomous serpents will open and pour forth her treasures!” He blinked and looked around, clearlyhis audience It must have been a well-prepared recital ”We live in a part of the world the deadliest of serpents calls hoypt? The sacred snake, whose spread hood hovers over the brow of every Pharaoh, protecting him? His bite renders the Pharaoh iives hi of Amun-Re The asp!” Now his very voice see of leaves in a sepulcher ”It induces sleep with its concentrated poison Death is swift In sudden darkness its victim departs to join the dead, when bitten by this serpent of the Nile”
He suddenly whirled around and stabbed his scrawny finger in another direction ”But the Seps! The horror of its bite! For its poison dissolves the very bones within the body A person melts! And when the body is burned on a funeral pyre, no bones can be found! Other poisons remove life, but the Seps removes the body as well”
Oly large in fascination I did not knohat to think Was any of this true?
”Then there's the Prester snake,” the oldhis voice almost to a whisper Everyone strained forward to hear it ”It causes such extreiant size, so that his features are buried in the shapeless mass He cannot even be put in a to”
Olyhter, and so did hter was nervous
The speaker held up his hand and glared at theh? But you have never seen a victihter, I assure you I suppose you haven't seen a man bitten by a Hae wound--blood gushes everywhere His very tears are blood! His sweat is blood! And what about the Dipsas? Its venom drinks up the moisture of the body and turns adesert! It is a thirsty poison! A victim will cut open his own veins to drink his own blood!”
”This isoff his recitation ”But we already know that men die of poisonous snakebites Not all the snakes that will arise to eat the mice are poisonous In fact, the snakes do us a favor by eating the mice It is the mice that cause us to lose our food, not the snakes”
”Yes, snakes are not our ene his voice at last ”They also seldom attack unless they are threatened As a boy, I kept snakes and I know their ways I think we need not worry about the snakes”