Part 23 (1/2)
Also his blood is royal”
Here Bes rolled his eyes and smiled, but Tanofir did not seem in the least astonished, and said,
”Much of this is known to uessed Pass on to ill happen in Egypt, before the spirit leaves you”
”There will be war in Egypt,” she answered ”I see fightings; Shabaka and others lead the Egyptians The Easterns are driven away or slain
Peroa rules as Pharaoh, I see him on his throne Shabaka is driven away in his turn, I see hi very sad Tiers reach Shabaka, sent by Peroa and you O holy Tanofir; they tell of trouble in Egypt I see Shabaka and the dwarf coreat ar, for my heart seems to shi+ne He reaches a tereat ar of kings Shabaka and the dwarf give battle to that army and the fray is desperate They destroy it, they drive it into the Nile; the Nile runs red with blood The Great King falls, an arrow from the bow of Shabaka is in his heart He enters the te or dead A veiled priestess is there before an ie, I cannot see her face Shabaka looks on her She stretches out her arms to him, her eyes burn oe frowns and threatens All is done, for Tanofir, Master of spirits, you die, yonder in the temple on the Nile, and therefore I can see no h you, has left me”
Then once more she became as a woman asleep
”You have heard, Shabaka and Bes,” said Tanofir quietly and stroking his long white beard, ”and what that maiden seemed to read in the water you may believe or disbelieve as you will”
”What do you believe, O holy Tanofir?” I asked
”The only part of the story whereof I a a direct answer, ”is that which said that I shall die, and that when I aer be able to cause the maiden Kares may happen or theyin his voice, ”whether they happen or not,of them beforehand”
”What then shall we report to those who bid me seek the oracle of your wisdom, O Tanofir?”
”You can tell theood and evil, but that time would show the truth Hush now, the htened Also it is time for me to be led from this sepulchre to where I sleep, for I think that Ra has set and I am weary Oh! Shabaka, why do you seek to peer into the future, which from day to day will unroll itself as does a scroll? Be content with the present,to learn what offerings he hides beneath his robe in the days and the years and the centuries to cos, O Tanofir, and not in vain”
”Aye and what have they ht of years and holding in rief I have plucked froe of Wisdom's robe Be warned by me, Nephew While you are a man, live the life of a man, and when you become a spirit, live the life of a spirit But do not seek to ether like oil and wine, and thus spoil both I a's, or a slave's wife, whichever itthat I love her well and hold this trade unwholeso visions in a diviner's cup, and I will pray the Gods that they may not be dwarfs as you are, but take on the likeness of their mother, who tells me that she is fair Hush!+ she stirs
”Karema, are you awake? Good Then leadprayer beneath the stars Go, Shabaka and Bes, you are brave lad to have the one for nephew and the other for pupil My greetings to your ood woman and a true, one to whom you will do well to hearken To the lady Amada also, and bid her study her beauteous face in a reat holiness often thwarts itself and ends in trouble for the unholy flesh Still she loves pearls like other women, does she not, and even the statue of Isis likes to be adorned As for you, Bes, though I think that is not your nalers who play with too ive no more evil counsel to your Master on matters that have to do oman Now farewell Let me hear how fortune favours you froame, such as I loved in my youth before I becas would have been different in Egypt to-day But it ritten otherwise, and as ever, woht! I aht reached you yonder in the East, and taught you what to say and do It is well to be wise sometimes, for others' sake, but not for our own, oh!
not for our own”
”Master,” said Bes as we ambled homewards beneath the stars, ”the holy Tanofir is aclimbed to the topmost peak of holiness, he does not seem to like its cold air and warns off those ould follow in his footsteps”
”Then he ht have spared himself the pains in your case, Bes, or in h”
”No, Master, and I alad to have his leave to stay lower down, since that hot place of dead bulls is not one which I wish to inhabit inuse of a maiden to stare into a pot of water, and there reador two of wine Oh! the holy Tanofir is quite right If these things are going to happen let the of them beforehand Who wishes to know, Master, if his throat will be cut?”
”Or that he will bethat such prophecies end in beco that we must Thus, now I must marry yonder Karema if she will marry me for fear lest I should prove the holy Tanofir to be what he called hed and then asked Bes if he had taken note of what the seeress said of our flight south and our return thence with a great army of black ravely, ”and I think this army can be none other than that of the Ethiopians of whoers to tell those who rule ine it I may return to the journeyed all about the world and collected e”
”Perhaps, Bes, those who rule in your place ive it up to you Perhaps they will kill you”