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Title:      Wisdom's Daughter
Author:     H. Rider Haggard
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Language:   English
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Title:      Wisdom's Daughter
Author:     H. Rider Haggard



The Life and Love Story of
She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed





DEDICATION

  In bygone years the books "She" and "Ayesha" were dedicated to
  Andrew Lang. Now, when he is dead, this, the last romance that
  will be written concerning "/She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed/," is offered
  as a tribute to his beloved and honoured memory.

  Ditchingham, 1922.



EDITOR'S NOTE

  What was the greatest fault of Ayesha, /She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed/?
  Surely a vanity so colossal that, to take one out of many
  examples, it persuaded her that her mother died after looking upon
  her, fearing lest, should she live, she might give birth to
  another child who was less fair.

  At least, as her story shows, it was vanity, rather than love of
  the beauteous Greek, Kallikrates, that stained the hands of She
  with his innocent blood and, amongst other ills, brought upon her
  the fearful curse of deathlessness while still inhabiting a sphere
  where Death is lord of all. Had not Amenartas taunted her with the
  waning of her imperial beauty, eaten of the tooth of Time, never
  would she have disobeyed the command of her master, the Prophet
  Noot, and entered that Fire of Immortality which she was set to
  guard.

  Thus it seems that by denial she would have escaped the net of
  many woes in which, perchance, she is still entangled and of
  Ayesha, Daughter of Wisdom yet Folly's Slave, there would have
  been no tale to tell and, from her parable of the eternal war of
  flesh and spirit there would have been no lesson to be learned.
  But Vanity--or was it Fate?--led her down another road.

The Editor.





WISDOM'S DAUGHTER



INTRODUCTORY

The manuscript of which the contents are printed here was discovered
among the effects of the late L. Horace Holly, though not until some
years after his death. It was in an envelope on which had been
scribbled a direction that it should be forwarded to the present
editor "at the appointed time," words that at first he did not
understand. However, in due course it arrived without any accompanying
note of explanation, so that to this hour he does not know by whom it
was sent or where from, since the only postmark on the packet was
London, W., and the address was typewritten.

When opened the package proved to contain two thick notebooks, bound
in parchment, or rather scraped goat or sheepskin, and very roughly as
though by an unskilled hand, perhaps in order to preserve them if
exposed to hard usage or weather. The paper of these books is
extremely thin and tough so that each of them contains a great number
of sheets. It is not of European make, and its appearance suggests
that it was manufactured in the East, perhaps in China.

There could be no doubt as to who had owned these notebooks, because
on one of them, the first, written in red ink upon the parchment cover
in block letters, appears the name of Mr. Holly himself. Also on its
first pages are various memoranda of travel evidently made by him and
no one else. After these follow sheet upon sheet of apparently
indecipherable shorthand mixed up with tiny Arabic characters. This
shorthand proved to belong to no known system, and though every effort
was made to decipher it, for over two years it remained unread.

At length, when all attempts had been abandoned, almost by chance, it
was shown to a great Oriental scholar, a friend of the Editor, who
glanced at it and took it to bed with him. Next morning at breakfast
he announced calmly that he had discovered the key and could read the
stuff as easily as though it were a newspaper leader. It seemed that
the writing was an ancient form of contracted Arabic, mixed in places
with the Demotic of the Egyptians--a shorthand Arabic and a shorthand
Demotic, difficult at first, but once the key was found easily
decipherable by some six or eight living men, of whom, as it chanced,
the learned scholar into whose hands it had thus fallen accidentally
was one.

So it came about that with toil and cost and time, at length those two
closely written volumes were transcribed in full and translated. For
the rest, they speak for themselves. Let the reader judge of them.

There is but one thing to add. Although it is recorded in notebooks
that had been his property, clearly this manuscript was NOT written by
Mr. Holly. For reasons which she explains it was written with the hand
of SHE herself, during the period of her second incarnation when at
last Leo found her in the mountains of Thibet, as is described in the
book called "Ayesha."




CHAPTER I



THE HALLS OF HEAVEN


To the learned man, ugly of form and face but sound at heart, Holly by
name, a citizen of a northern land whom at times I think that once I
knew as Noot the Holy, that philosopher who was my master in a past
which seems far to him and is forgot, but to me is but as yesterday,
to this Holly, I say, I, who on earth am named Ayesha, daughter of
Yarab the Arab chief, but who have many other titles here and
elsewhere, have told certain stories of my past days and the part I
played in them. Also I have told the same or other stories to my lord
Kallikrates, the Greek, now named Leo Vincey, aforetimes a warrior
after the habit of his race and his forefathers, who for religious
reasons became a priest of Isis, the great goddess of Egypt and, once
I believed, my mother in the spirit. Also I have told these or
different tales to one Allan, a wandering hunter of beasts and a
fighting man of good blood who visited me at Kor, though of this I
said nothing to Holly or to my lord Kallikrates, now known as Leo or
the Lion, because as to this Allan I held it wiser to be silent.

All these stories do not agree together, since often I spoke them as
parables, or in order to tell to each that which he would wish to
hear, or to hide my mind for my own purposes.

Yet in every one of them lay hid something of the truth, a grain of
gold in the ore of fable that might be found by him who had the skill
and strength to seek.

Now my spirit moves me to interpret these parables and set down what I
am and whence I came and certain of the things that I have seen and
done, or at the least such of them as I am permitted to reveal by
those mightier than I of whom I am the servant, as they in their turn
are the servants of others yet mightier than themselves.

Here in these Asian caves I sit, the Hesea of the Mountain, the last
priestess of the worship of Mother Isis upon earth, as aforetime I sat
amid the ruins of Kor in Libya.

At Kor for two thousand years I watched and waited till at length
reborn Kallikrates, whom unwittingly I slew in a rage of jealousy,
came back to me where I had slain him. There, because of the curse
that is on me and him, I lost him again, for in this very place, too,
I was slain most horribly, slain by an excess of life wherewith I
thought to make myself more beautiful even than I was and in striving
to overfill the vase, shattered it to the vilest dust. Thus once more
Fate made a mock of me; once more I lost Kallikrates whom it is my
doom to desire in the flesh and to raise up in the spirit through time
untold.

My soul passed out and on and here for a little while it found a home
masked in the withered shape of an ancient priestess of my worship.

As was foredoomed my lord came back to me and saw the shining soul
within that hideous shape and claimed it with a kiss, as I think the
bravest deed and the most faithful that was ever done by man. In the
magic of that kiss as also was foredoomed, my beauty great again
before his eyes, so that once more I stand a glory upon earth. Now we
are plighted, now, if all goes well, within a year we shall be wed,
aye, within one short year after I have borne him back to Kor and
unsealed the hidden Fire of Life and plunged him in its essence,
giving to him my own gift of undying days.

And yet and yet--who knows the end? He presses me sore, and the
starved woman part of me is passionate and weak and I may yield, and
if his lips touch mine, who can say but that the fire within me will
destroy him, the unfortified, and bring all my plans to dust and
nothingness? I am great, set far above mortals, yet I play against
forces I cannot see, that are greater than I, and it may please them
to snatch the cup from my lips, and once more to overthrow me; for
even though the blood of gods runs in him, as it runs in all of us,
who can stand against their master, Doom, and its decrees? Therefore
I, named Wisdom's Daughter, named Child of Isis, to-night am as full
of fears as any mortal maid craving her lover beneath the moon and not
knowing but that war, or chance, or the vile breath of sickness may
have borne him away into that gulf where all things must be lost--
until they are found again.



From month to month Leo, my lord, hunts upon the mountain after the
fashion of men, and I, Ayesha, brood within the caves after the
fashion of women. Yes, I who am half a goddess still brood within the
caves after the fashion of women who wait and watch. Holly, the
instructed, who loves me, as all men must do, bides here with me in
the caves and we talk together of ancient things whereof the world has
lost count, for he is a learned man skilled in the tongues of Greece
and Rome, and one who thinks and, perchance, remembers.

But yesterday he said to me that I who seemed to know the past and to
whom doors were opened that cannot be entered by human feet, should
write down what I know and have experienced, that in time to come the
world may be the wiser.

This the fancy has taken me to do, though whether I can persevere to
the end, I cannot say. He has given me that wherein I can write. 'Tis
not the old papyrus, but it will serve, and I have pens of reed and
can make ink of various colours, who in the bygone days was no mean
scribe. Also I sleep but little, whose body, filled like a cup with
life, needs small rest, and the long hours of the night pass wearily
for me who lie and brood upon what has been and is to come, searching
the darkness of the future with aching, fearful soul. Moreover, I am
able to write in characters which, with all his learning, Holly cannot
read, I who am not minded that he should know my thoughts and deeds
and betray them to my lord whom they might cause to think the worse of
me.

Why, then, should I write at all? For this reason: in certain matters
I have foreknowledge and my spirit tells me that in a day to come, at
the time appointed, some will guess the secret of my script and render
it into tongues that all may read, so that when, soon or late, upon
the circle of my eternal path, I pass hence to whence I came, and,
like to the Fire-God in the caves of Kor am hid awhile, this record
will remain my monument. Ah! there peeps out the mortal in me, for
see! like any common man or woman I would not be forgot even among the
passing dwellers in a petty world.

Now to my task.



I have a vision of what chanced to my soul before it descended to
dwell on earth, and with it I will begin. Maybe it is but a parable
not to be strictly rendered, a token and a symbol rather than a truth.
Yet of this I am sure that in it there is something of the truth,
since otherwise why through the long centuries did it return to me
again and yet again? Maybe Greece and Egypt had no gods save those
they fashioned for themselves. Holly tells me, as did the Wanderer,
Allan, who also had some smattering of knowledge, that Zeus and
Aphrodite and Osiris and Horus and Ammon are now dethroned with all
their company and lie in the dust like the shattered columns of their
temples, the mock of men who talk of them as the fables of the early
world, so that of all the divinities that I knew, He of the Jews,
although changed of character and countenance, alone is worshipped and
remains.

Doubtless it is so, yet while man lives, always there is God, though
his shapes be many. Always there is the eternal Good, as in the dream
the holy Noot named the ultimate Divine, and behold! it is called
Ammon or otherwise. Always there is Evil and behold! it is called Set
or Baal, or Moloch, or otherwise. Always the stained soul of man seeks
redemption, and he who saves is called Osiris or otherwise. Always
Nature endures and she is called Isis or otherwise. Always the great
world that will not die strains and pulses to new life, and the Life-
bringer is called Aphrodite, or otherwise. And so continually. Where
man is, again I say, there was and is and will be God, or Good--the
Spirit named by many names.

I go to my window-place in this cave-chamber and look out upon the
stars shining countless in the frosty sky and lo! there I see God clad
in one of the most glorious of His garments. I look at the moth
flitting round my lamp or resting on the wall and, by the magic that
is in it, summoning its mate from far, and lo! there I see God in
another of His humbler garments. For God is in all things and
everywhere, and from the great suns down, to Him who sent them forth
and to Whom they return again, all that hath life must bow.



This is the vision wherein I read a parable of eternal truths.

I, Ayesha, daughter of Yarab, not yet of the flesh, but above and
beyond the flesh inhabited the halls of that great goddess of the
earth, a minister of That which rules all the earth (Nature's self as
now I know), who in Egypt was named Isis, Mother of Mysteries.
/Child/, she named me, and /Messenger/; and in that dream or parable,
as a child was I to her, for I drank of the cup of her wisdom and
something of her greatness was in my soul.

The goddess sat brooding in her sanctuary where Spirits came and went
bearing tidings from all lands or emptying at her feet the cups of
offered prayer. About her fell her robes, blue as the sky, and over
the robes hung down her hair dusky as the night, and beneath her bent
brows shone her eyes like stars of the night. In her hand was the rod
of power and the footstool at her feet was shaped like the round
world. There, canopied with light, she sat upon an ebon seat and
brooded while round her beat music like sea waves upon the shore, such
music as is not known upon the earth.

I appeared. I stood before her, I abased myself, I bowed till my
forehead lay upon the ground and my hair swept the dust of the ground.
She touched me with her sceptre, bidding me arise.

"Speak, Child," she said. "What message dost thou bring from the
shores of Nile? How goes my worship in the temples of Isis and are my
servants faithful to my law?"

Then I made answer.

"O Mother divine, I have accomplished my embassy. Unseen, a spirit, I
have wandered through the Land of Egypt. I have visited thy temples, I
have hearkened to the councils of thy priests, I have watched thy
worshippers and read their hearts. This is my report. Thy holy temples
are empty; thy priests neglect thine altars; save a remnant who remain
faithful, thy worshippers bow themselves before the shrines of another
goddess."

"How is this goddess named, O Child of my love and wisdom?"

"She is named Aphrodite of the Greeks, a people who have flowed into
Egypt, also other folk know her as Ashtoreth and Venus. Her sanctuary
of sanctuaries is at Paphos in Cyprus, an island of the sea over
against Egypt. She is the Queen of earthly love and love is the ritual
of her worship, and she makes a mock of thee, O Mother, and of all the
ancient gods, thy brothers and sisters, swearing that thy day and
theirs is done and that she has risen from the sea to rule the world,
and will rule it to the end. Here and there she reveals herself and
conquers by her beauty, making all men to worship her and teaching all
women to follow in her steps and beguile as she does, so that thy very
priests turn to her and thy priestesses break from their vows and
wanton with them."

"All of this I have learned, O Child, and more; yet it was my desire
to hear it from thy lips that cannot lie, since in thee dwells my
spirit. Hearken now! I am minded to be avenged upon these false
Egyptians, and thou shalt be the sword of vengeance wherewith I will
smite them, bringing their ancient glory to the dust and for ever
setting the yoke of bondage on their necks. Aye, I am so minded and it
shall be done, how, I will teach thee afterward. But first, as I have
the power to do, I who under the Strength above me am regent of the
ball of earth, will summon this Aphrodite to my presence here and now,
and bid her speak out her heart to me.

"Hear me, Aphrodite, wherever thou art in earth or heaven. Aphrodite,
I bid thee appear."

Then in vision the Mother rose from her throne. Standing before it,
terrible to see, she beckoned with her sceptre, north and south and
east and west, uttering the secret words of power. Thrice she beckoned
and thrice she spoke the secret words, and waited.



There was a stir at the end of the great hall and a sound of singing.
Behold! floating between the long lines of the flame-clad guardians of
that hall, attended by her subject gods, her maenads and her maidens, a
shape of naked loveliness, came Aphrodite of the Greeks. Veiled in her
curling locks and roped about with gleaming pearls for necklace and
for girdle, she stood before the throne and bowed to the Majesty it
bore, then asked in a laughing voice of music,

"I have heard thy summons, Mother of Mysteries, and I am here. What
wouldst thou of me, Isis, Queen of the World? How can the Sea-born
whose name is Beauty and whose gift is Love, serve thee, Isis, Queen
of the World?"

"Thus, thou who art shameless, thou born of the new gods and fashioned
from the evil that is in the race of men--by lifting thy spell from
off my worshippers. I know thy works. Drunken with desires they flock
to thee in troops and for reward thou givest them the wages of their
sin. Thou layest waste their homes; thou defilest their maidens, thou
turnest men to beasts and makest a mock of them. Thy flowers fade; thy
joys fill the mouth with ashes and those who drink of thy cup suck up
poison in their souls. Thy fair flesh is a rottenness and thy perfumes
are a stench and the incense of thine altars is the reek of hell.
Therefore I command thee, go back to whence thou camest and leave the
world in peace."

"Whither, then, should I go, Mother?" answered Aphrodite with her
silvery laugh, "save into thy bosom, whence indeed I sprang, seeing
that thou art Nature's self and I am thy child. Stern is thy law and
sweet, yet without me thou wouldst have none over whom to rule. Aye,
without me would no child be born and not even a flower would blow.
Without me thou wouldst rule a wilderness with but the wisdom of which
thou boastest to keep thee company. Hearken! We are at war and in that
war I shall be conqueror, for I am eternal and all life is my slave,
because my name is Life. Get thee to thy heavens, Isis, and rule there
with Osiris, Lord of Death, but leave me the living. Soon their day is
done and they pass beyond my spells into thy dominion. There treat
them as thou wilt and be content, for then I have no more need of
them, nor they of me. Why of a sudden art thou so wrath with me, whom
thou hast known from the beginning? Is it because I take new names and
set up my altars in thine own Egypt, altars wreathed with flowers,
leaving all desolate thine where prayers are mumbled from starved
hearts and cold hands make the offering of denial? Come now, Mother
Isis, let us play a game and let Egypt be the stake. Thou hast the
vantage there, seeing that for aeons it has bowed to thy laws and thy
yoke has been upon its neck."

"What, then, O Aphrodite, dost thou promise Egypt to which I and those
who rule with me have given greatness, wisdom, and hope beyond the
grave?"

"None of these high things, Mother. My gifts are love and joy; sweet
love and joy in which for a little while all fears are forgot. Small
gains thou mayest think, looking backward to the past and onward to
the future, thou whose eyes are upon eternity. Yet they shall prevail.
Isis, in Egypt thy day is done; there, as elsewhere, thy sceptre
falls."

"If so, Wanton, with it falls Egypt that henceforth shall be the
world's slave. When conqueror after conqueror sets his foot upon her
neck, then let her think on Isis whom she has forsaken, and wailing,
fill her soul with thy swine's food. Lo! I depart, leaving my curse on
Egypt. Have thy little day till before the Judgment seat we settle our
account. No more will I listen to thy falsehoods and thy blasphemies.
Till then, Wanton, look on my majesty no more."



So in that vision spoke the Mother and was gone. With her, flashing
like lightnings, went the flame-clad guardians that attend the
goddess, leaving the great place empty save for Aphrodite and her
throng, and for the soul of me, Ayesha, who watched and hearkened,
wondering. The Paphian looked around and laughed, then glided to the
vacant throne and seating herself thereon, laughed again, till the
music of her mockery echoing from pillar to pillar, filled all the
temple's halls.

"It is an omen," she cried. "What Isis leaves I take; henceforth her
seat and power are mine. See now my ministers, I queen it here, though
I wear no vulture cap or symbols of the moon, whose brow is better
graced by these abundant locks and whose sceptre is a flower whereof
the odours make men mad. Yes, I queen it here as everywhere, though in
this solemn melancholy fane I lack a subject."

She glanced about her till her glorious, roving eyes fell upon that
spirit which was I.

"Come hither, thou," she said, "and do me homage."

Now in my dream I, that spirit who in the world am named Ayesha, came
and stood before her, saying,

"Nay, I am the child of Isis and to her I bow alone."

"Thinkest thou so?" she answered, smiling and looking me up and down.
"Well, I have another mind. It seems to me that soon thou wilt descend
from this sad realm to the joyous fields of earth, that there thou
mayest fulfil a certain purpose, for such is the fate decreed for
thee. Now, I, Aphrodite, add to that fate and lighten it. Look behind
thee, Spirit that shall be woman!"

I turned and looked, there to behold a shape of beauty that I knew for
Man. So beautiful was he that my breast rose and the life in me stood
still. He smiled at me and I smiled back at him. Then he was gone,
leaving his picture stamped upon my soul.

"This is what I add to that tragic fate of thine, O Spirit that shall
be woman. Take him, the man appointed to thee, who from the beginning
was always thine, and as perchance thou hast done before, in his kiss
forget thy Mother Isis and thy crown of woes."



Thus this vision ends, and though now I, Ayesha, have learned that
Isis, as we knew and named her in the ancient time, is but a symbol of
that eternal holiness which is set above all heavens and all earths, I
say again that, as I believe, in its parable is hid something of the
changeless truth.




CHAPTER II



NOOT THE PROPHET COMES TO OZAL


Such is the vision, such the dream that has haunted me through the
centuries, and brooding over it from age to age, I, Ayesha, doubt not
that in its substance it is true, though its trappings may be fancy-
wrought. At least this I know, that my spirit is the child of immortal
Wisdom, such as once men believed that Isis held, as my undying shape
is born of the beauty that is fabled Aphrodite's gift. At least it is
certain that even before I dipped me in the Fire of Life, the most of
learning and all human loveliness were mine. I know also that it was
my mission to bring Egypt to the dust, and did I not bring it to the
dust, smiting to its heart through proud Sidon, and Cyprus,
Aphrodite's home? And have I not for these deeds borne Aphrodite's
curse, as, because of Aphrodite's yoke laid upon my helpless neck, I
have borne and bear the curse of Isis, I whose destiny it is thus at
once to be the instrument and sport of rival powers whose battle-
ground is the heart of every one of us.

Alas! were my tale known, the world in its haste might judge me hardly
and think that I, who by burning its Phoenician props overturned an
ancient empire, am cruel-natured, or that because I sought the love of
a certain man and in my anger slew him when he turned from me, which
in truth I did not desire to do, that I am wanton and ungoverned. Yet
these things are not so, seeing that it was Fate, not I, that gave
Egypt to the Persian dog (whom in his turn I overthrew) and made of
its people slaves, and my flesh, not I, which after I had tasted of
the Fire that is Nature's Soul, cursed me with passion and its fruits,
perchance because I hated it and would never bow myself to it wholly,
I who followed after purity, desiring not man's love but Wisdom's
gifts and a crown of spiritual gold.

Moreover, I had earthly and righteous warrant to bring about Sidon's
fall and through it that of Egypt, seeing that their kings would have
put me to utter shame and robbed my father of his life, as shall be
told. So, too, I had the warrant of a woman's heart to worship the man
I sought and for the death I brought upon him in my jealous madness my
soul has paid full measure in remorse and tears. Still, since justice
is hard to come by here on the earth, or even in the heaven above, I
know that some would judge me harshly and must bear it with the rest.
Even Holly, and at times my Lord Leo who once was named Kallikrates,
have cherished such thoughts, though their lips dare not utter them,
for I read it in their minds which to me are as an open book.
Therefore never shall Holly, nor my lord either, look upon this
written truth, lest therefrom they might distil some poison of
mistrustful doubt, for it is sure that all men stain the whiteness of
pure verity to the colour of their twisted minds. Therefore, too, I
write it in tongues and symbols that they do not understand, which yet
shall be deciphered in their season.

As I taught Holly long ago in the caves of Kor, and truly, though
afterward for some forgotten reason of my own or to give him food for
thought, I may perhaps have changed my tale, puzzling him with stories
of great Alexander and the rest, by my mortal birth I am an Arabian of
the purest and most noble blood, born in Yaman the Happy and in the
sweet city of Ozal. My father was named Yarab after the great ancestor
of our race, and I, his only child, was named Ayesha after my highborn
mother. Of her, whom I never knew, for she was gathered to the bosom
of whatever god she worshipped but one moon from my birth, this is
said.

At first she would not look upon me, being angered because I was not a
son, but at length at my father's pleading she was prevailed upon to
command that I should be brought to her. When she saw how fair a babe
Heaven had given her, such a babe as had not been known or told of
among our people, she was amazed and put up a prayer that she might
die. This, those who knew her declared, she did for two reasons:--
first because, foreseeing my greatness, she desired that I alone
should hold my father's heart and that of all our tribe, and secondly
because she feared lest, should she live, she might bear other
children whom she would hate when she compared them to my perfectness.

So it came about as, amongst others, my father told me often, that her
prayer was granted and having kissed and blessed me, for a while she
entered into rest.

This is the true story of her end, not the other, which those who
envied me put about in after days, that owing to certain revelations
which came to her at the time of my birth, as to the deeds which I was
doomed to do and the loves and hates which I was doomed to earn, my
mother thought it better to ask death from her gods rather than to
continue in a life which she must live out at my side. This tale, my
father often swore to me when I asked him of it, was as false as the
changeful pictures which are seen at sunset on the desert, and
sometimes at noonday also.

For the rest this beloved father of mine took no other wife while I
was yet a child, fearing lest for her own sake, or her children's, she
should be jealous and maltreat me, and afterward when I became a
maiden, because I would not suffer that another woman should share the
rule of his household with me. As I showed to him, he had servants in
plenty and these should be enough, to which he bowed his head and
answered that without doubt my will was that of God.

Thus it came about that I grew up with my noble father, his adviser
and his strength, and through him, or rather with him, ruled all his
great tribe, who always worshipped me. Be it admitted that from the
first, or at least from the time that I came to womanhood, I brought
him trouble as well as blessing, though through no fault of my own,
but because of the beauty with which, as in those days I believed,
Isis, or Aphrodite, or both of them, had endowed me for their own
divine purposes. Very soon this beauty of mine, also my wit and
knowledge, were noised abroad through all Arabia, so that princes came
from far to court me, and afterward quarrelled and fought, for, being
gentle-hearted, I said a kind word to every one of them and left them
to reason out which was the kindest.

This, for the most part, they did with spears and arrows after the
fashion of violent and insensate men, so that there was much fighting
on my account, which made my father some enemies, because the people
of certain of the princes who were killed swore that I had promised
myself in marriage to them. This, however, I had never done, who
desired to marry no man that I might become a slave, cooped up in a
fortress to bear children that I did not desire with some jealous
tyrant for their father. Nay, being higher-hearted than any of my
time, already I sought to rule the world, and if I must have any
lover, to choose one whom I wished, and, when I wished, to have done
with him.

But at that time I asked no lover who myself was in love--with wisdom.
Knowledge, I saw, was strength, and if I would rule, first I must
learn. Therefore I studied deeply, taking for masters all the wisest
in Arabia who were proud to teach Ayesha the Beautiful, daughter and
heiress of Yarab the great chief who could call ten thousand spears to
his standards, all of his own tribe; and ten thousand more sworn to us
but not of our blood.

I learned of the stars, a deep learning this that taught my soul its
littleness, though it is true that while I studied I wondered, as
still I wonder now, in which of them I was destined to rule when my
day on earth was done. For always from the beginning I knew that
wherever I am, there I must be the first and reign.

Perchance I had learned this aforetime in the halls of Isis who then
to me had seemed so great, though afterward contemplating those stars
in the silence of the desert night, I came to understand that even the
Universal Mother, as men named her in those far days, was herself but
small, one who must fight for sovereignty with Aphrodite and other
gods.

Holly has told me much of what the astronomers in these latter years
have won of Nature's secrets: of how they number and weigh the stars,
and measure to a mile their infinite distance from the earth, and how
assuredly that each of them, even the farthest, is a sun as great or
greater than our own, round which revolve worlds unseen. He has been
astonished also, and affected to disbelieve, when I answered him, that
we of Arabia guessed all these things over two thousand years ago, and
indeed knew some of them. Yet, so it was.

Thus communing with greatness, my soul grew ever greater.

Moreover, I sought other and deeper lore. There wandered a certain
strange man to our town, Ozal, where my father kept his court, if so
it may be called, that is when we were not camping with our great
herds in the desert, as we did at certain seasons of the year after
the rains had caused the wilderness to throw up herbage. This man,
named Noot, was always aged and white-haired, ugly to look on, with a
curious wrinkled face of the colour of parchment, much such a face as
that of Holly will be should he attain to his years. Indeed in this
and other ways he was so like to Holly that often I think that in him
dwells something of Noot's spirit now returned again to earth, as that
of Kallikrates has returned to Leo.

Now this Noot, who came to Egypt none knew whence, for by birth he was
not Egyptian, had been the high-priest of Isis and /Kherheb/ or Chief
Magician in Egypt, one who had much power on earth and still more
beyond the earth, since he was in touch with things divine. Moreover,
he was an honest magician and told the truth even to the kings, as the
gods and his wisdom showed it to him, and this was the cause of his
downfall, for woe betide those who tell the truth to kings or to any
who wield the sceptre of their might. On a certain day Nectanebes, the
first of that name, the Pharaoh of Egypt whom others called Nekht-
nebf, after a victory he had gained over the Persians, was filled with
pride and took counsel with Noot, his Chief Magician, bidding Noot
search out the future and tell him of glories to come to Egypt and to
the Royal House, after he had been gathered to Osiris, that thereon he
might feed his soul.

Noot answered that it was wiser to leave the future to care for itself
and to satisfy his heart with the present and its joys and greatness.

Then the Pharaoh grew wrath and bade him fulfil his command.

So Noot bowed and went, and alone in some tomb or sanctuary drew the
circles, uttered the words of power, and called upon the gods he
served to show him such things as should befall to Egypt and to
Pharaoh's House.

The magic sleep fell upon him and in it appeared the Spirit of Truth
and spoke to him dreadful words of fate and doom. These she bade him
deliver to Pharaoh, but when they were spoken to fly for his life's
sake from Egypt and seek out a maiden called Ayesha, the daughter of
Yarab, the Sheik of Ozal, and with her take refuge since she was an
appointed instrument of Heaven. Moreover, this spirit commanded him to
consult the maiden Ayesha in everything and impart to her all his
gathered learning and the very secrets of the gods that had been
revealed to him, that to any other it would be death to speak.

Now in the morning Noot went into the presence of Pharaoh who rejoiced
to see him, and cried,

"Be welcome, /Kherheb/, the first of all magicians, you that men say
were born beyond the earth, you in whom lives the spirit of Maat,
goddess of Truth. Tell me now what the gods have revealed to you as to
the glories they prepare for the ancient land of Egypt, and the House
of me the Pharaoh who have made her great again, driving out the dogs
of Persians!"

"Life! Blood! Strength! O Pharaoh!" answered Noot, saluting in the
ancient form. "I have heard the word of Pharaoh who commanded me
against my counsel to make divination and to seek to learn of the
future from the gods. Behold! the gods hearkened. Behold! by the mouth
of Maat, Lady of Truth, the goddess of the land where I was born, they
spoke to me in the silence of the night. Thus they spoke. 'Say to
Nectanebes who impiously dares to lift the veil of Time, that because
he has fought for Egypt against the Barbarians who worship other gods,
it is granted to him to die in his bed which shall chance ere long.
Say that after him shall come a usurper whom the Barbarians shall
defeat, so that he dies a slave in the land of Persia. Say that after
him the son of Pharaoh shall wear the Double Crown and be called by
the name of Pharaoh, the last of the true Blood of Egypt who shall
ever sit upon its throne. Say that this son of his is accursed because
he is in league with evil spirits and has worked apostasy, putting
about his neck the chain of Aphrodite of the Greeks and the chains of
Baal and of Moloch which never can be broken. Therefore, though he
make many false offerings, yet is he accursed and the Barbarians shall
overcome him, so that he flees away, nor shall all his magic be a
shield to him. Because of him Egypt shall fall and her cities shall be
burned and her children slaughtered and her temples desecrated, and
never more shall one of her pure and ancient blood hold her sceptre.'
Such is the oracle that the gods have commanded me to speak, O
Pharaoh."

Now when Nectanebes heard these awful decrees of Fate upon him and
upon his son, he trembled and rent his robes. Then rage took him and
he reviled Noot the Prophet, calling him a liar and a traitor, and
saying that he would make an end of him and his prophecies together.
But because they were alone together within a chamber, before he could
summon guards to kill him, Noot, helped of Heaven, fled away out of
the palace and as darkness was falling, mingled with the throng and
could not be found by the soldiers who sought him.

Ere daylight he was far from the city and, disguised, escaped from
Egypt, bringing with him only his /Kherheb's/ staff of power, also the
ancient sacred books of spells or words of strength that were hidden
in his robes. With these he brought, moreover, a little ancient image
of Isis which he made use of in his divination and prayed before by
day and night.



Thus it came about awhile later, one eve when I, the young maiden
Ayesha, stood alone in the desert communing with my soul and drawing
wisdom from the stars, that there appeared before me a withered,
ancient man who, when he saw me, knelt down and bowed to me. I looked
on him and asked,

"Why, aged One, do you kneel to me who am but a mortal?"

"Are you indeed a mortal?" he asked. "Methought that I who am the
head-priest of Isis saw in you the goddess come to earth, and indeed,
Lady, I seem to see the holy blood of Isis coursing in your veins."

"It is true, Priest, that of this goddess whom my mother worshipped I
have dreams and memories and that sometimes she seems to speak with me
in sleep, yet I tell you that I am but a mortal, the daughter of Yarab
the far-famed," I answered to him.

"Then you are that maiden whom I am commanded to seek, she who is
named Ayesha. Know, Lady, that great is your destiny, greater than
that of any kind, and that it is revealed to me that you will become
immortal."

"All who believe in the gods trust to find the pearl, Immortality,
beneath Death's waters, O Priest."

"Yes, Lady, but the immortality that is foretold for you is different
and begins upon the earth, and I confess that I understand it not,
though perhaps it may be an immortality of fame."

"Nor I, Priest. But meanwhile, what would you of me?"

"Shelter and food, Lady."

"And what can you offer for these, Priest?"

"Learning, Lady."

"That I think I have already."

"Nay, Lady Ayesha, not such learning as I can give; the knowledge of
the secrets of the gods; spells that will sway the hearts of kings,
magic that will show things afar and call ghosts from the grave, power
that will set him who wields it upon the pinnacle of worship----"

"Stay!" I broke in. "You are old and ugly! you are tired, your foot
bleeds, you seek protection, and it seems to me that you need food.
How comes it that one who can command so much lore and power is in
want of such things as these that the humblest peasant does not lack,
and must seek to purchase them with flatteries?"

When he heard these words, of a sudden the aspect of that old man
changed. To me his shrunken body seemed to swell, his face grew fierce
and set, and a strange light shone in his deep eyes.

"Maiden," he said in another voice, "I perceive that you are in truth
in need of such a teacher as I am. Had you the inner wisdom, you would
not judge by the outward appearance and you would know that ofttimes
the gods bring misfortunes upon those they love in order that thereby
they may work their ends. Beauty is yours, wit is yours, and a great
destiny awaits you, though with it, as I think, great sorrow. Yet one
thing is lacking to you--humility--and that you must learn beneath the
rods of destiny. But of these matters we will talk afterward.
Meanwhile, as you say, I need food and shelter, which are necessary to
all while still they labour in the flesh. Lead me to your father!"



Without more talk though not without fear, I guided this strange
wanderer to our tents, for at the time we were camping in the desert,
and into the presence of my father, Yarab, who gave him hospitality
after the Arab fashion, but save for the common words of courtesy,
held no converse with him that night.

On the following morning before we struck our camp, however, they had
much speech together, and at the end of it I was summoned to the great
tent.

"Daughter," said my father, pointing to the wanderer who was sitting
cross-legged on a carpet before him after the fashion of an Egyptian
scribe, "I have questioned this learned man, our guest. I discover
from him that he is the First Magician of Egypt, the head-priest also
of the greatest goddess of that land, she whom your mother worshipped.
At least, he says he was these things--but now, having quarrelled with
Pharaoh, that he is nothing but a beggar, which is a strange state for
a magician. Also, according to his tale, Pharaoh seeks his life, as he
declares, because of certain prophecies that he made to him concerning
the fate of Egypt and of Pharaoh's House. It seems that he desires to
abide here with us and to impart his wisdom to you, which wisdom, it
is evident, has brought him to an evil case. Now I ask you, as one
gifted with discretion beyond your years, what answer shall I return
to him? If I keep this Noot here, for that he tells me, is his name,
though of his race and country he will say nothing, perchance Pharaoh,
whose arm is long, will come to seek him and bring war upon us, and if
I sent him away, perchance I turn my back upon a messenger from the
gods. What then shall I do?"

"Ask him, my Father; seeing that one who prophesies evil to the
Pharaoh to his own ruin must be a truthful man."

Then my father stroked his long beard, being perplexed, and inquired
of the wanderer whether he should keep him or send him away.

Noot replied that he thought that my father would do well to send him
away, but better to keep him. He said that he had no revelation on the
matter, though if it were wished he would seek one, but he believed
that although his presence might bring trouble, from his dismissal
would come yet worse trouble. He added that in a vision he had been
commanded by the goddess Isis to find out a certain Lady Ayesha and
become her instructor in mysteries that the purposes of Heaven might
be fulfilled, and that it was ill to flout goddesses whose arms were
even longer than those of Pharaoh.

Now for the second time my father who did nothing great or small
without my counsel, asked my judgment on the matter after I had heard
the words of Noot. I pondered, remembering what the wanderer had
promised to me in the desert, namely, knowledge and the secrets of the
gods, also spells that would sway the hearts of kings, with the gifts
of magic and of power. At length I answered,

"To what end is all this empty talk, my Father? Has not this stranger
eaten of your bread and salt and is it the custom of our people to
drive away from their doors for no fault those to whom they have given
hospitality?"

"True," said my father. "If he were to be sent hence, it should have
been done at once. Abide in my shadow, Noot, and pray your gods to
bring a blessing on me."



So Noot, the priest and prophet, remained with us and from the first
day of his coming, opened out to my eager eyes all the scrolls of his
secret lore. Still it is true that he brought to my father, not
blessing but death, as shall be told, though this did not come for
many moons.

Meanwhile he taught and I learned, for his knowledge flowed into my
soul like a river into the desert and filled its thirsty sand with
life. Of all that I learned from him, because of the oaths I swore,
even now it is not lawful that I should write, but it is true that in
those years of study I grew near to the gods and wrested many a secret
from the clenched hands of Nature.

Moreover, though as yet I did not take the vows, I became a votary of
Isis, as Noot, her high-priest, had authority to make me, and one of
the inner circle. Yes, I determined even then that I would forswear
marriage and all fleshly joys and make to Isis the offering of my
life, while she through her priest vowed to me in return such power
and wisdom as had scarce been given to any woman before me.

Thus the time went by till at length fell the blow and I--for all my
wisdom--never heard Aphrodite laughing behind her veil. Nor indeed did
Noot, but then he was an old man, who, as I drew out of him, save
those of his mother, had not once touched a woman's lips. All learning
was his, but it seemed that in his search for it there were some
things he had passed by. At least so I believed, or rather half-
believed, at this time, but as I learned afterward, there are matters
upon which even the most holy think it no shame to lie, since in the
end Noot confessed to me that in his youth he had been as are other
men. Also I think that he heard the laughter of Aphrodite, though I
did not. However these things may be, as I was to discover afterward,
Mother Isis is a stern mistress to whoever looks the other way.

Also, although Noot told me much, he hid more. Not for many a year was
I to learn that he was a citizen of the ancient, ruined land of Kor,
and the only one who knew the fearful mystery it hid, which in a far
day to come he was commanded to reveal to me, Ayesha, and to no other
man or woman. Nor did he tell me that it was the purpose of Heaven
that under her other shape and name of Truth I should again establish
the worship of Isis in that land and once more make of it a queen of
the world. Yet these things were so and therefore was he sent to me
and for no other reason. Therefore was he commanded to reveal the doom
of Egypt to Nectanebes, that this Pharaoh in his wrath might drive
him, a wanderer, to our tents at Ozal there to dwell for years and
instruct me, the chosen, in all things that I must learn, so that when
at last the appointed hour dawned, I might be fitted for my mighty
task.



But all this while Aphrodite laughed on behind her veil!




CHAPTER III



THE BATTLE AND THE FLIGHT


In the end trouble came upon us thus. As I have said already, my
beauty was the talk of men throughout Arabia, and of women also, who
were jealous of it, since those who travelled in caravans bore its
fame from tribe to tribe and those who sailed upon the sea took up the
report and carried it to distant shores. But now to this tale was
added another, namely that the wearer of so much loveliness was also a
vessel into which the gods had poured all their wisdom, so that there
were few marvels which she could not work and little or nothing that
she did not know. It was added, truly enough, that the channel through
which this wisdom flowed into her heart was a certain Noot who
aforetime had been /Kherheb/ in Egypt and high-priest of Isis.

Presently this tale, carried by the mariners, came to the ears of the
Pharaoh Nectanebes in his city of Sais, who knew well enough that Noot
was the prophet whom he had driven from the land and whom by now he
desired to have back again, for his inspired counsel's sake.

The end of it was that the Pharaoh sent an embassy to my father,
Yarab, demanding that I should be given to him or to his son, the
young Nectanebes, I know not which, in marriage, and that Noot should
return to Egypt as my guardian, and there be reinstated in all his
offices.

My father answered, speaking with my voice, that least of anything did
I desire to become one of the women of Pharaoh, a man already near the
grave, or even of Pharaoh's son, I who was a free-born Arabian, and
that as for Noot, his head felt safer on his shoulders in Ozal where
he was an honoured guest, than it would at Pharaoh's court.

These words Nectanebes took ill, so ill indeed that, for this and
other reasons of policy, he sent an army to invade Yaman the Happy,
and to capture me and kill Noot, or drag him away to Egypt in chains.
Of all these plans we had warnings, partly through the priests of Isis
in Egypt who still acknowledged Noot as their head, although another
had been raised up in his place and filled his office, and partly
through dreams and revelations that came to him from Heaven. Therefore
we made ready and gathered in great strength to fight against Pharaoh.

At length his hosts came, borne for the most part in ships of Cyprus
and of Sidon whereof at that time the kings were his allies, or rather
vassals.

They landed upon a plain by the seashore and watching from our hills
beyond, we suffered them to land. But that night, or rather just
before the following dawn when their camp was still unfortified, we
poured down upon them from our hills. Great was the fray! for they
fought well. I led the horsemen of our tribe in this, my first battle,
and by the light of the rising sun charged again and yet again into
the heart of the hosts of Pharaoh, having no fear since I knew well
that none could harm me.

There was a certain company of Greeks, two thousand of them perhaps,
who served Pharaoh, and in the centre of them was his general, which
company stood firm when the others fled. Thrice we attacked it with
the horsemen and thrice were beaten back. Then my father came to my
aid with his picked kinsmen mounted upon camels. Again we charged and
this time broke through. Those about Pharaoh's general saw me and
strove to make me captive, hoping to carry me back to him, whatever
happened to the host. They surrounded me, one caught the bridle of my
horse. Him I slew with a javelin, but others snatched at me. Then I
cried to Isis and I think that she clothed me in some garment of her
majesty, since foes well away in front of me, calling out--

"This is a goddess, not a woman!"

Yet I was cut off, ringed round by them, for all my companions were
slain or driven back.

They pressed in on me to take me living, till I was hedged in with a
ring of swords. My father appeared mounted on his swift white
dromedary that was called Desert Wind, followed by others. They broke
through the ring, and there was a fierce fight. My father fell,
pierced by the spear of the general of the Egyptians. I saw it and,
filled with madness, I charged at that general and drove my javelin
through his throat, so that he fell also. Then a cry went up and the
host of Pharaoh melted away, flying for the ships. Some gained them,
but the most remained dead upon the shore or were taken captive.

Thus ended that battle and such was the answer that we of Ozal sent to
Pharaoh Nectanebes. Therefore it was also that because of the death of
my beloved father at their hands I hated Egypt, and not only Egypt but
Cyprus and Sidon in whose ships her hosts had been borne to attack us,
yes, and swore to be avenged upon them all, which oath I kept to the
full.

Now my father being dead, I, the daughter of Yarab, became ruler of
our tribe in his place with Noot for my counsellor. For certain years
I ruled it well. Yet troubles arose--in this fashion. By now the fame
of my glory and loveliness had spread through all the earth, so that,
more even than before, I was beset with demands for my hand from
chiefs and kings who went well-nigh mad when I refused them. In the
end, being brothers in their grief because I would have none of them,
I whom they called by the names of Hathor and Aphrodite and other
goddesses famed for beauty according to their separate worships, they
made a great conspiracy together and sent envoys bearing a message.
This was the message:--

That unless my people would give me up so that my husband might be
chosen from among their number by the casting of lots, they would join
their armies together and fall upon us and kill out our tribe so that
not one remained to look upon the sun, save myself alone, who should
then be the reward of him who could take me.

Now when I heard this I was filled with rage and having caused those
messengers to be scourged before me, sent them back to their masters
bearing my defiance. But when they were gone, the elders of the tribe
came to me and said through their spokesman,

"O Daughter of Yarab, O Ayesha the Wise and Lovely, we adore you as
one beyond price. Yet it is true that we love our wives and children
and desire to live, not to die. How can we who are but few stand
against so many kings? We pray you, therefore, Ayesha, to choose one
of them to be your husband, for then because of jealousy doubtless
they will destroy each other and we, your servants, shall be left in
peace. Or if you will not marry, then we pray you to hide your beauty
elsewhere for a while, so that the kings do not come to seek it here."

I hearkened and was angry because of the cowardice of this people who
set their own welfare about my will and refused to fight with those
who threatened me. Still, being politic, I hid my mind and said that I
would consider and give them an answer on the third day. Then I took
counsel of Noot and together we made divinations and prayed to the
gods, but most of all to Isis.

The end of it was that before the dawn on the second day a small
caravan of five camels might have been seen, had there been any to
watch, leaving the city of Ozal and heading for the sea.

On the first of those camels sat an old merchant. On the second his
wife or his daughter, or his woman, heavily veiled. On the three
others was his merchandise. Woven carpets it seemed to be, though if
opened, those carpets would have proved to be filled with a very great
treasure in gold and pearls and sapphires and other gems, which for
generations had been gathered together by my father, Yarab, and those
who went before him out of the profits of their trade and of their
flocks and herds, and hid away against the time of need.

That merchant was Noot the priest and prophet, and that woman was I--
Ayesha. That treasure was mine and the camels were led by certain men
who had served my father and now served me, being sworn to me by
secret oaths that might not be broken.

We gained the sea and took ship to Egypt in a vessel that I had caused
to be prepared. Yes, before we were missed the coast of Arabia was
behind us, since I had given it out that I had gone to a secret place
to consider of my answer to the elders of the people. As I heard
afterward, when it was known that I had turned my back on them, there
were woe and lamentations in every household of the tribe.
Understanding what they had lost the men among them beat their breasts
and wept, though it is said that some of the women rejoiced, because I
outshone them all and they were jealous of me.

Afterward the kings and chiefs of whom I have spoken descended upon
them to seek me, whereupon my people swore that I had been changed
into a goddess and gone up into heaven. Some believed this, declaring
that they had always held me to be more than mortal, but others of a
coarser, common mind declared that I had been hidden away, and falling
on the tribe, dispersed it, seizing many and selling them into
slavery.

Thus then did the children of Yarab pay the price of their treachery
to me, though I have heard that afterward once more they became a
great people under the rule of some baseborn grandson of my father,
and worshipped me as a guardian goddess from generation to generation,
having come to believe that I was not a woman, but a spirit whom the
gods sent to dwell with them for a while.



So Noot and I came safely to Naukratis, a Grecian city upon the
Canopic mouth of the Nile, and there abode disguised as a merchant and
his daughter trading in precious stones and other costly wares, and
thus adding to my wealth, though of this there was little need, since
already it was great.

It was here that for the first time I went veiled in the Eastern
fashion, in order to hide my beauty from the eyes of men.

Under cover of this trade I and Noot lived for two years or more while
I studied the lore and language of the Egyptians, learning to read
their picture-writing which the Greeks call hieroglyphs, and mastering
their history. Also I perfected myself in the Grecian tongue and read
the works of their great writers as well as those of the Romans.
Moreover, I learned other things, since at the beginning of the year
Nectanebes, the Pharaoh who had sought me in marriage, being now dead,
and Egypt for a while in the hands of the usurper Zehir, who some say
was his son born of a concubine, we travelled up the Nile disguised
and came to the ancient city of Thebes. This we did slowly, stopping
at every great town, where we received the hospitality of the head
priests of the various gods, Ammon, Ptah, and the rest, since to these
priests Noot by secret signs revealed himself. Indeed the news of our
coming was passed on before us so that always we found some waiting to
welcome us who, once within the temple walls, were treated like the
greatest, although we were garbed as humble travellers. All of these
priests we found full of rage, both because the gods of the Greeks,
and even of the Persians and Sidonians, were being set above their
own, and still more for the reason that their revenues were seized and
used to pay Grecian mercenaries, so that they who had been very rich
were now poor and the gods lacked their offerings, nor could their
holy temples be repaired.

Of all these things I took note whose heart was set upon one thing
only,--to bring about the fall of the Egyptians and their allies that
had slain my father whom I loved, as indeed I was fated to do.
Therefore by a word here and a word there I blew the anger that
smouldered in them to flame, hinting of rebellion and the setting up
of a new dynasty in Egypt, of which at that time I thought to be the
first, a priestess-queen, Isis-come-to-Earth. Of this plan I hinted
also through the mouth of Noot, nor was it ill received, since already
those priests to whom he had told my history and the revelations that
had come to him concerning me, looked on me as something more than
woman. Could a mortal maid, they asked, have so much beauty and so
much learning; was I not in truth a goddess clothed in woman's flesh?

Only on the road I purposed to tread there was this stumbling block,
that each of those high-priests desired that he himself, or at least
one who worshipped /his/ god, were it Ammon or Osiris or Ptah, or
Khonsu, should be the Pharaoh of that new dynasty. For they were
jealous each of the other and could not agree together, as is common
among rival priests.

We passed on to Thebes where I saw the wonders of the mighty temples
which stood there reared by a hundred kings, which Holly tells me now
are but ruins, though the great hall of columns among which I used to
wander still stands in part. Also I crossed the Nile and visited the
tombs of the Pharaohs.

Standing beneath the moon in that desolate Valley of Dead Kings, for
the first time, I think I came to know all the littleness of Life and
of the vanities of earth. Life, I saw, was but a dream; its ambitions
and its joys were naught but dust. Those kings and those queens, some
of them had been very great in their day; the people worshipped them
as gods and when they stretched out their sceptres, the world
trembled. And now what were they? But names, if so much as a name
remained of them.

I saw a great queen whose tomb some while before had been broken into
by robbers, Persians or Greeks I was told. They had unrolled her mummy
and stripped her of her royal ornaments and there she lay, she in whom
had centred all the world's pomp, a little black and withered thing,
grinning at us from the dust, like a dead ape, a sight so strange and
unhuman that the priest who guided us, a coarse fellow, broke into
laughter. I remembered that laugh and afterward paid him back for it,
though he never knew whence his misfortune came.

I, Ayesha, have many sins to my count and at that time was full of
faults, as perchance still I am to-day. Thus I was proud of my beauty
and my genius which were given to me above any other woman; passionate
and revengeful, too, and led on by ambitions. Yet this I swear by all
the gods of all the heavens, that ever in my secret self I have set
the spirit above the flesh and desired to attain to another glory than
that of earth. From the flesh came my sins, because it was begotten of
other flesh and the flesh is sin incarnate. Yet my soul sins not,
because it comes from that which is sinless and, its tasks
accomplished here, laden with knowledge and purified by suffering, to
this holy fount at last it shall return again. At the least such are
my faith and hope.

So it came about that there in the Valley of Dead Kings I swore myself
to the worship of God (since all the gods are one God) and to use the
world as a ladder whereby I might climb nearer to His throne.

Thus I swore with old Noot for witness, noting that he shook his wise
head and smiled a little at the oath. For if I forgot Aphrodite and
the flesh, he remembered them, or perchance he to whom the Future
spoke already guessed something of my fate which it was not lawful
that he should tell. Also at that time I knew nothing of that
everlasting King of Fire who dwells in majesty beneath the rocks of
Kor, nor of his evil gifts. Least of all did I know that Noot himself
was by inheritance and appointment the guardian of the Fire.

From Thebes we passed up Nile to Philae on the Isle of Elephantine,
where Mother Isis had her holy sanctuary, and Nectanebes, the first of
that name, he who had sought me as a wife and now was not long dead,
had begun to build a temple of surpassing beauty to the goddess, which
temple was completed in my time by his son, the second Nectanebes, he
with whom I had to do and brought to nothingness.

Here I abode a year making final preparations utterly to vow myself to
the goddess. I kept the fasts, I purified my heart, I passed the
trials and at length alone I seemed to die and descended into the gulf
of death and fled through the Halls of Death pursued by terrors, till
I saw, or dreamed I saw, the goddess in her glory and fell swooning at
her feet. More I may not say, even now that over two thousand years
have passed since that holy hour of fears and victory, save this one
thing which indeed has come to pass. When I arose from that swoon
certain words were written on my mind, though whether the goddess whom
I seemed to see or some spirit spoke them to me I do not know. These
were the words:--

"Far to the south in this land of Libya beyond the region of Punt, is
an ancient city, whence my worship came ere Egypt had a people.
Thither, Daughter of Isis, shalt thou bear it back and there shalt
thou blow upon it with thy breath and keep alive the holy spark that
at last is doomed to die upon the earth amidst those snows which as
yet no southern foot has trod. There, Daughter, in that fallen and
deserted land, my prophet Noot shall welcome thee. There shall he
guard the Door of Life which of mortal women thou alone shalt pass.
There shalt thou stain thy hands with blood, and there in solitude
amidst the tombs, with tears from thy repentant eyes, shalt thou wash
thy sin away. Yet of the seed that thou sowest in fire in the womb of
the world, thou shalt reap the harvest upon the mountain tops amidst
the snows."

Such were the words branded upon my memory when I awoke from the swoon
after the night of trial. Later I repeated them to Noot, my Master,
praying him to read their meaning, which either he could not or would
not do. He said, however, it was true that far to the south there
stood a great city, now a ruin sparsely peopled, whence came the first
forefathers of the Egyptians thousands of years before the pyramids
were built. He said also that he knew the road to that city by sea and
by land, though how he knew it he would not tell. Nor would he
interpret the rest of those dream words. Yet, when I harassed him with
questions he said carelessly, as one who hazards a guess, that
perchance the goddess meant that it would be my lot after its fall or
corruption in Egypt, to bear back her worship to this its earlier home
and there establish a great nation of her servants. As to the "Door of
Life" that I alone could pass, of which he was named the Guardian, and
the "northern snows," he declared that he knew not what was meant by
them, but doubtless these things would be made clear in their season.

So he spoke somewhat lightly, like one who humours a frightened child,
as though he would make me think that I had but dreamed a dream. This
indeed I came to believe, as is the fashion of mankind concerning
things that they cannot see or handle, however real those things may
appear in the hour of their experience. For these in the end always we
write down as dreams, such as haunt us by the thousand in our sleep.

Yet now that two thousand years have gone by, I know that this dream
was true. For is there not a city called Kor and was I not there
doomed to find the Door of Life whereof Noot was guardian? And did I
not sin there and from generation to generation wash the blood from
off my hands with tears of bitterest repentance, and afterward expiate
that sin in loss and shame and agony? And lastly do I not reap that
harvest of tears upon the mountain tops amidst the northern snows
whither the spirit bore me, still holding in those hands the embers of
the worship of that regnant Good who to us of the ancient world was
known as the Universal Mother to whom I swore myself in Philae's
temples?

But enough of these things now; let them be spoken of in their season.




CHAPTER IV



THE KISS OF FATE


There came a man to Philae. Watching from a pylon top whither I had
gone to pray alone, I saw him land upon the island and from far off
noted that he was a godlike man, clad in armour such as the Greeks
used, over which was thrown a common cloak, hooded as though to
disguise him; one who had the air of a warrior. At a distance from the
temple gate he halted and looked upward as though something drew his
glance to me standing high above him upon the pylon top. I could not
see his face because of the shadow thrown by the great walls behind
which the sun was sinking, but doubtless he could see me well enough,
whose shape was outlined against the veil of golden light that must
have touched me with its glory, though, as that light was behind me,
my face also would be hidden from him. At least he stood a little
while as though amazed, staring upward steadily, then bowed his head
and passed into the temple, followed by men bearing burdens.

Some pilgrim to the shrine, I thought to myself, then turned my mind
to other matters, remembering that with men I had no more to do. Thus
for the first time here in the body, all unknowing, I looked upon
Kallikrates and he looked on me, but often afterward I have thought
that there was a veiled lesson or a parable in the fashion of this
meeting.

For did I not stand far above him, clothed in the glory of heaven's
gold, and did he not stand far beneath in the gloom of the shadows
that lay upon the lowly earth, so that between us there was a space
unclimbable? And has it not been ever thus throughout the centuries,
for am I not still upon the pylon top clad in the splendour of the
spirit, and is he not still far beneath me wrapped with the shadows of
the flesh? And since as yet the secret of the pylon stair is hidden
from him, must I not descend to earth if we would meet, leaving the
light and my pride of place that I may walk humbly with him in the
shadow? And is it not often so between those that love, that one is
set far above the other, though still this rope of love draws them
together, uplifting the one, or dragging down the other?

The man passed into the temple and that night I heard he was a Grecian
captain of high blood, one who though young had seen much service in
the wars and done great deeds, Kallikrates by name, who had come to
seek the counsel of the goddess, bringing precious gifts of gold and
Eastern silks, the spoil of battles in which he had fought.

I asked why such an one sought the wisdom of Isis, and was told that
it was because his heart was troubled. It seemed that he had been
dwelling at Pharaoh's court as a captain of the Grecian guard, and
that there he had quarrelled with and slain one who was a brother to
him, if indeed he were not his very brother. This ill deed, it was
said, preyed upon his soul and drove him into the arms of Mother Isis,
seeking for pardon and that comfort which he could not find at the
hand of any of the gods of the Greeks.

Again I asked idly enough why this Kallikrates had killed his familiar
friend or his brother, whichever it might be. The answer was--because
of some highly placed maiden whom both of them loved, so that they
fought from jealousy, after the fashion of men. For this reason the
life of Kallikrates was held to be forfeit according to the stern
military law of the Grecian soldiers, and he must fly. Also the deed
had tarnished that great lady's name; also his heart was broken with
remorse and hither he came to pray Isis to mend it of her mercy, he
who had forsaken the world.

The tale moved me a little, but again I cast it from my mind, for are
not such things common among men? Always the story is the same: two
men and a woman, or two women and a man, and bloodshed and remorse and
memories which will not die and the cry for pardon that is so hard to
find.

Yes, I cast it from my mind, saying lightly--oh! those evil-omened
words--that doubtless his own blood in a day to come would pay for
that which he had spilt.



For a while, some months indeed, this Grecian Kallikrates vanished
from my sight and even from my thoughts, save when, from time to time,
I heard of him as studying the Mysteries among the priests, having, it
was said, determined to renounce the world and be sworn to the service
of the goddess. Noot told me that he was very earnest in this design
and made great progress in the faith, which pleased the priests who
desired above all things to convert those that served Grecian gods
with whom the deities of Egypt, and above all Isis, were at war.
Therefore they hastened his preparation so that as soon as might be he
should be bound to the Heavenly Queen by bonds that could not be
loosed.

At length his fasts and instruction were completed; his trials had
been passed and the hour came when he must make his last confession to
the goddess and swear the awful oaths to her very self.

Now since Isis did not descend to earth to stand face to face with
every neophyte, it was necessary in this great ceremony that one
filled with her spirit should take her place and as may be guessed,
that one was I, Ayesha the Arab. To speak truth, in all Egypt, because
of my beauty, my learning, and the grace that was given to me, there
was none so fitting to wear her mantle as myself. Indeed afterward
this was acknowledged when, with a single voice, the Colleges of her
servants throughout the land, men and women together, promoted me to
be her high-priestess, and gave me, who aforetime among them was known
by the title of Wisdom's Daughter, the new name of /Isis-come-to-
earth/, or in shorter words, /The Isis/. For my own name of Ayesha I
kept hid lest it should be discovered that I was that chieftainess,
the child of Yarab, who had defeated the army of Nectanebes.

Therefore at a certain hour of the night, draped in the holy robes,
wearing on my brow the vulture cap and the bent symbol of the moon,
holding in my hand the /sistrum/ and the cross of Life, I was
conducted to the pillared sanctuary and seated alone upon the throne
of blackest marble, with the round symbol of the world for my
footstool.

Thus, having learned my part and the ancient hallowed words that I
must say, I sat awhile wondering in my heart whether Isis herself
could be more glorious or more fair. So indeed did the priests and
priestesses who saw me thus arrayed and bent the knee to me as though
I were the very goddess, which in truth many of the humbler among them
half believed.

Thus I sat in the moonlight that flowed from the unroofed hall beyond,
while the carven gods watched me with their quiet eyes.

At length I heard the sound of footsteps whereon there came a
priestess and flung over me the white veil of innocence sewn with
golden stars that until the appointed moment must hide Isis from her
worshipper. The priestess withdrew and, wrapped in the dark, hooded
robe that signified the stained flesh about to be cast away, which hid
all of him so that his face could not be seen, came that tall neophyte
led by two priests who held his right hand and his left. I noted those
hands because they were so white against the blackness of the robe,
and even by the moonlight saw that they were beautiful, long and thin
and shapely, though the palm of one, the right, was somewhat broadened
as though by long handling of the tools of war.

The priests led him to the entrance of the shrine and in hushed
whispers bade him kneel upon a footstool and make his sacrifice and
confession to the goddess as he had been taught to do. Then they
departed leaving us alone.

There followed silence which at length I broke, whispering,

"Who is this that comes to visit the Mother in her earthly shrine and
what is his prayer to the Queen of Heaven and Earth?"

Though I spoke so gently and so low, perhaps because of their very
sweetness, my words seemed to frighten him, or perhaps he believed
that he stood in the very presence of the goddess; at least he
answered in a voice that trembled,

"O holy Queen adored, in the world I was named Kallikrates the comely.
But the priests, O Queen, have given me a new name, and it is, /Lover-
of-Isis/."

"And what have you to say to Isis, O Lover-of-Isis?"

"O Queen eternal, I have to tell my sins and ask her pardon for them,
I who have passed the Trials and am accepted by her servants. If it is
granted, then to her I must make the oath, binding myself eternally to
love and serve her, her and no other in heaven or on earth."

"Set out those sins, O Lover-of-Isis, that my Majesty may judge of
them, whether they can be forgiven or are beyond forgiveness," I
answered in the words of the appointed ritual.

Then he began and told a tale that made me redden behind my veil, for
all of it had to do with women, and never before had I learned what
wantons those Greeks could be. Also he told of men whom he had slain
in war, one of them in the battle against my tribe, in which strangely
enough it seemed he had fought as a lad, for this man was a great
warrior. Of these killings, however, I took no account, because they
had been of those who were the enemies of himself or of his cause.

In stern silence I listened, noting that save for these matters of
light love and fightings, the man seemed innocent enough, for in his
story there was naught of baseness or of betrayal. Moreover, it seemed
that he was one in whom the spirit had striven against the flesh, and
who, however much his feet were tangled in the poisonous snares of
earth, from time to time had set his eyes on Heaven.

At length he paused and I asked of him,

"Is the black count finished? Tell now the truth and dare to hold
nothing back from the goddess who notes all."

"Nay, O Queen," he answered, "the worst is yet to come. I came to
Egypt as a captain of the Grecian guard that watches the House of
Pharaoh at Sais. With me came another man, my half-brother, for our
father was the same, with whom I was brought up and loved as never I
loved any other man, and who loved me. He was a glorious warrior,
though some held that I was more handsome in my person, Tisisthenes by
name, that in my Grecian tongue in which I speak means the Avenger.
Thus he was called because my father, whose first-born he was, desired
that he might grow up to work vengeance upon the Persians who slew his
father named like myself, Kallikrates, the most beauteous Spartan that
was ever born. Foully they slew him before the battle of Plataea,
whilst he was aiding the great Pausanius to make sacrifice to the
gods. This Tisisthenes my brother I killed with my own hand."

"For what cause did you kill him?"

"There was a royal maiden at that court, one fairer than any woman has
been, is, or will be--ask not her name, O Mother, though doubtless it
is known to you already. This lady both of us saw at the same time and
by the decree of Aphrodite both of us loved. As it chanced it was I
who won her favour, not my brother. We were spied upon; the tale was
told; trouble fell upon that royal maiden who, when she should be old
enough, was sworn in marriage to a distant king. To save her name she
made denial, as we must do. She swore there was naught between her and
me, and to prove it turned her face from me and toward my brother. I
came upon them together in a garden. She had plucked a flower which
she gave to him and he kissed the hand that held the flower. She saw
me and fled away. I, maddened with jealousy, smote my beloved brother
in the face and forced him to fight with me. We fought. He guarded
himself but ill, as though he cared nothing of the end of that fray. I
cut him down. He lay before me dying, but ere he died, he spoke:

"'This is a very evil business,' he said. 'Know Kallikrates, my most
beloved brother, that what you saw in the garden between that royal
maid and myself was but a plot to save you both, since thereby I
purposed to take on to my own head the weight of your transgression
against the law of this land, because she prayed it and it was my
wish. This I have done, and for this reason I suffered you to slay me,
though during that fight twice I could have pierced you, because you
were blinded with rage and forgot your swordsmanship. Now it will be
said that you found me pursuing this royal maiden and rightly slew me
according to your duty and that it was I who loved her and not you, as
has been commonly reported. Yet in truth I love her well and am glad
to die because it was to you that her heart turned and not to me; also
because thereby I save both her and you. Yet, Kallikrates, my brother,
the gods give me wisdom and foresight in this the hour of my death,
and I say that you will do well to have done with this lady and all
women, and to seek rest in the bosom of the gods, since, if you do
not, great trouble will come upon you, and through this same curse of
jealousy such a death as mine shall be yours also. Now let us who are
the victims of Fate kiss each other on the brow as we used to do when
we were children, playing together in the happy fields of Greece, from
whom death was yet a long way off, forgiving each other all and hoping
that we may meet once more in the region of the Shades.'

"So we embraced, and my brother Tisisthenes gave up his spirit in my
arms and looking on him I wished that I were dead in his place. Then
as I turned to go the soldiers of our company found me and seeing that
I had slain my brother, would have brought me to trial, not because we
had fought together, but because he was my superior in rank and
therefore I who, being under his command, drew sword on him, by the
law of the Greeks, must die. Yet before I could be put upon my trial,
some of those who loved me and guessed the truth of the business
thrust me out of our camp disguised, with all the treasure that I had
won in war, bidding me hide myself awhile till the matter was
forgotten. O Queen, I did not desire to go; nay, I desired to stay and
to pay the price of my sin. But they would not have it so. I think
indeed that there were others behind, great ones of Egypt, moving in
this matter; at least I was thrust forth, all being made easy for me,
and all eyes growing blind."

Again he paused, and I, Ayesha, clothed as the goddess, asked,

"And what did you then, you who could slay you brother for the sake of
a woman?"

"Then, Divine One, I fled up Nile, where, because of the trouble that
was in the land, Pharaoh's arm could not reach me, nor the arm of the
commander of the Greeks. Tarrying not and without speech with that
high maiden who was the cause of my sin, I fled up Nile."

"Why did you fly up Nile and not back to your own people, O most
sinful man?"

"Because my heart is broken, Queen, and I desired to seek the mercy of
Isis whose law I had learned already and to become her priest. I knew
that those who bow themselves to her may look no more on woman, but
thenceforth must live virgin to the death, and it was my will to look
no more on woman, since woman had stained my hands with a brother's
blood, and therefore I hated her."

Now I, Ayesha, asked,

"What gods did you worship before your heart was turned to Isis, Queen
of Heaven?"

"I worshipped the gods of Greece and first among them Aphrodite, Lady
of Love."

"Who has paid you well for your service, making of you a murderer of
one of your own blood who, before she blinded your eyes, was more to
you than any on the earth. Do you then renounce this wanton
Aphrodite?"

"Aye, Queen, I renounce her for ever. Never more will I offer at her
altars or look on woman in the way of love. If I may have pardon for
my sins, here and now I vow myself to Isis as her faithful priest and
servant. Here and now I blot the name of Aphrodite from my heart; yea,
I reject her gifts and tread down all her memories beneath my aspiring
feet that at last shall bear my soul to peace."

Thus the man spoke in a quivering and earnest voice, and was silent.
Yes, deep silence reigned in that holy place, whilst I, Ayesha,
although it is true that as a woman I misdoubted me of such rash
oaths, as the minister of the goddess, prepared myself to grant pardon
to this seeker in the hallowed, immemorial words, and to open to his
troubled heart the doors of purity and rest eternal.

Then suddenly in that silence clearly I heard the sound of silvern
laughter, soft, sweet laughter that seemed to come from the skies
above and though it was so low to fill the shrine and all the hall
beyond. I looked about me but could see naught. It would seem, too,
that the Greek heard also, for he turned his head and looked behind
him, then once more let it fall upon his hands.

Whence came that sound? Could it be that she of Paphos----? Nay, it
was impossible, and not thus would I be turned from my office, I who
was clothed with the robe and for that hour wielded the might of Isis.

"Hearken, O man, in the world named Kallikrates," I said. "On behalf
of Isis, the All-Mother, goddess of virtue and of wisdom, speaking
with her voice, hearing with her ears, and filled with her soul, I
wash you clean of all your sins and accept you as her priest,
promising you light burdens on the earth and beyond the earth great
rewards for ever. First swear the oath that may not be broken, and
then draw near that I may kiss you on the brow, accepting you as the
slave and lover of Isis, from this day until the moon, her heavenly
throne, shall crumble into nothingness."

Having spoken thus, letting the words fall one by one, slowly as the
tears of the penitent fell upon the ground, I uttered the oath, the
form of which even now I must not write.

It was a dreadful oath covering all things, and binding him who took
it to Isis alone, an oath that if it were forgot wrought upon the
traitor the agelong doom of death in this world and woe in the worlds
to come, till by slow steps, with pierced heart and bleeding feet, the
holy height from which he had fallen should be climbed again.

At length it was finished and he said faintly,

"I swear! With fear and trembling still I swear!"

Then I beckoned to him with the /sistrum/ of which the little shaken
bells make a faint compelling music that already he had learned to
follow, and he came and kneeled before me. There I laid the Cross of
Life upon his head and gave him blessing, laid it upon his lips and
gave him wisdom, laid it upon his heart and gave him existence for
thousands upon thousands of years. All these things I did in the name
and with the strength of Isis the Mother.

Came the last rite, the greeting of the Mother to her child new-born
in spirit, the rite of the Kiss of welcome. At that moment supreme a
light fell on me from above: perchance it came from Heaven, perchance
it was an art of the watching priests; I do not know. At least it fell
upon me illumining my glittering robes and jewelled headdress with a
soft splendour in the darkness of that shrine. At that moment, too, at
a touch my veil fell down, so that the moonlight struck full upon my
face making it mystical and lovely in the frame of my flowing hair.

The priest new-ordained lifted his bent head that I might consecrate
his brow with the Kiss of welcome, and his hood fell back. The
moonlight shone on his face also, his beautiful face like to that of a
sculptured Grecian god, shapely, fine-featured, large-eyed, and
crowned with little golden curls--for as yet he was unshorn; yes, a
face more beautiful than that which I had seen on any man, set above a
warrior's tall and sinewy form.

By Isis! I knew this face; it was that which had haunted me from
childhood, that which often I had seen in a dream of halls beyond the
earth, that of a man who in this dream had been sworn to me to
complete my womanhood. Oh! I could not doubt, it was the same, the
very same, and looking on it, the curse of Aphrodite fell upon me and
for the first time I knew the madness of our mortal flesh. Yea, my
being was rent and shattered like a cedar beneath the lightning
stroke; I was smitten through and through. I, the priestess of Isis,
proud and pure, was as lost as any village maid within her lover's
arms.

The man, too! He saw me and his aspect changed; the holy fervour went
out of his eyes and into them entered something more human, something
more fateful. It was as though he, too, remembered--I know not what.

With a mighty effort of the will, aware that the eyes of the goddess
and perchance of her priests also were upon me, I conquered myself and
with beating heart and heaving breast bent down to touch his brow with
the Kiss of ceremony. Yet, I know not how--I know not if the fault
were his or mine or perchance of both of us--it was his /lips/ I
touched, not his brow, just touched them and no more.

It was nothing, or at any rate but a little thing, in one instant come
and gone, and yet to me it was all. For in that touch I broke my holy
vows, and he, new-sworn to the worship of the goddess, broke his, yes,
in the very act of sacrifice. What drove us to it? I do not know, but
once again I thought I heard that low, triumphant laughter, and it
came into my mind that we were the sport of an indomitable power
greater than ourselves and all the oaths that mortals swear to gods or
men.

I waved my sceptre. The new-made priest arose, bowed and withdrew, I
wondering of whom he was the priest--of Isis or of Aphrodite. The
singing of a distant choir broke out upon the silence, the heirophants
came and led him away to be of their company till his death: the
ceremony was ended. My attendants, arrayed as the goddesses Hathor and
Nut, conducted me from the shrine. I was unrobed of my sacred
panoplies and once more from a goddess became a woman, and as a woman
I sought my couch and wept and wept.

For had I not at the first temptation in my heart broken the law and
betrayed the trust of her who, as then I believed, is and was and
shall be; her whose veil no mortal man had lifted, the Mother of the
sun and all its stars?




CHAPTER V



THE SUMMONS


None knew my fault. Yet I knew, and what is known to one soul is known
to all souls, since one is all and all are one. Moreover, it was known
to That which begets souls, That from which they come and to which
they return again, again to come, as Plato, the great philosopher, who
died before my day, has taught us in his writings. Also it was known
to that accursed priest who was the cause and partner of my crime. I
was overcome; I was eaten up with shame, I who thought myself purer
than the mountain snows, as indeed I was and, in the flesh, to this
hour have remained.

Soon I could no longer bear my torment. To Noot I went, Noot the high-
priest, my counsellor and master, and in a secret place kneeling on my
knees, there I told him all.

He hearkened with a little smile upon his withered face, then
answered,

"Daughter, in your honesty you do but reveal that which I knew--how I
knew it matters not. And now take comfort, since the blame is not
altogether yours, or even that of this new-made priest, whose foot was
caught in the same snare. You worship Isis, as I do, but what is Isis
whom we portray on earth as a woman glorious above all women? Is she
not Nature's self, the universal Mother, the Supreme in whom all gods
and goddesses have a part? She wars on Aphrodite, it is true, yet does
not that mean that in verity she wars upon herself? And are we not as
Isis is, not one but many poured into a single mould, for do we not
all war upon ourselves? Believe me, Daughter, the human heart is a
great battleground where the higher and the lower parts of us fight
with spiritual spears and arrows, till one side or the other wins
victory and hoists the banner of good or evil, or Isis or of Set. Only
out of a struggle comes perfectness; that which has never struggled is
a dead creature from whom little may be hoped. The ore must be melted
in the fire and lo! the most of it is dross, refuse to be thrown away.
Had it never known the fire, there could be no pure gold to adorn the
brows of Heaven, nor even copper and iron to shape the swords of men.
Rejoice, then, that you have felt the hurt of fire."

"Master," I answered, "Lord of Wisdom to whom alone Ayesha bows the
knee, your words are true and comfortable, yet bethink you, and if it
is permitted, interpret me this riddle. I dreamed a dream of the time
before my earthly days--you know it well for I have told it to you. I
dreamed of a place in Heaven and of two goddesses matched against each
other and of a command that was laid upon me to bring woe upon those
who had deserted the one and turned to the other. Now if they were
parts of a single whole, why should this command be laid upon me?"

"Daughter, in your dream you were ordained to be a Sword of Vengeance,
not because the Egyptians turned from one part of the holy Unity to
another part of that Unity, but because they have become corrupt and
faithless, worshipping no gods save themselves and following after
that which is low, not that which is high. Such is my answer, yet of
the truth or the falsehood of that dream I say nothing. Perchance it
was but a dream."

"Perchance, Master. Yet in that dream, true or false, I saw a face,
and lo! a few nights gone I, draped as Isis in the shrine, I saw that
face again and knew it; knew also that with it my fate is intertwined.
What of this?"

"Daughter, who are we that we should read the mysteries of Fate, we
who know not whence we come nor whither we go, nor what we have been,
nor why we are? It may be that you have some mission toward the spirit
that is clothed in the flesh of yonder man. It may be that you are
destined to uplift that spirit, and in so doing yourself to be trodden
down. If so, I say that in the end you shall rise again and bear him
upward with you."

He paused, and I knelt silent, pondering the prophecy, for such I knew
it well to be. Then again he spoke,

"You heard a laughter in the shrine, yet there was no laughter save
that of the evil in your own heart, mocking and triumphant. Such
laughter mayhap you will often hear, but while you can hear it and
repent, be not dismayed. When the ears of the soul grow deaf then
utter loss is near; while they are open, hope remains. Those who still
strive can never wholly fall. Fate rules us every one, yet within the
circle of that Fate power is given to us to work out our redemption. I
have finished. Ask me no more."

"What punishment, Master?" I asked.

"Daughter, this. For a while look no more upon that man. I say for a
while, since with you I hold that his destiny and yours are
intertwined. I have a command for you: that presently you accompany me
hence to lands beyond the seas. Now, go rest, and in rest find
forgetfulness."

So I went, wondering yet comforted, though I knew well that Noot the
Holy had not told me all, no, nor yet the half of what he knew. For
often those to whom the gods give vision are forbid to speak it, lest,
as in the old Hebrew parable, men should eat of the tree of knowledge
and grow like to them. Or perchance they cannot speak it, since it
comes to them in a tongue which may not be rendered in the words that
the passer-by would understand. So indeed it is with me to-day.



Thus it came about that soon I and my master, Noot, left Philae and as
before travelled the Nile disguised. Never since then have my eyes
looked upon that island and its holy fane which Holly, who has visited
it, tells me is now a ruin with stark, Hathor-headed columns standing
here and there amongst the tumbled stones. He says, moreover, that his
people who rule the land to-day purpose to sink it beneath the Nile
that the lands below may be enriched and multiplied. Herein I see an
allegory; the temples of Isis are drowned and the learning they held
is lost in order that more food may grow to feed the common and the
ignorant. Yet to what end, seeing that if there is more food, more men
will come to eat it, all of them common and ignorant, while Isis and
her wisdom are swallowed in the slime. Thus has it ever been in Egypt,
and doubtless elsewhere, for such is Nature's law. Food breeds
multitudes and where carrion is, there are flies, while in the deserts
both are lacking. Yet I think that the deserts and the few that wander
on them beneath the sun and stars are nearer far to God.

Once more disguised as merchants, I and Noot, my master, took ship and
visited far lands to see their state and gather wisdom. We visited
Rome, then breaking her shackles and rising to her greatness. They
were a great people, those Romans that Noot out of his foresight told
me would one day rule the world. Or perhaps it was I who told Noot,
judging them by their qualities; I am not sure. At least I loved them
not, because of their rude natures, their lack of arts and their love
of power and gain. Therefore when I had studied their language and
their politics I passed on.

We came to Greece and tarried there awhile, studying philosophies and
other things. The Greeks I did love, because they were beautiful and
called forth beauty from all they touched. Also they were brave who
defied the Persian might and had they but stood together, might have
queened it on the earth. But they would not, for ever State tore out
the throat of State, so that in the end all were undone and
overwhelmed by a multitude of commoner folk who held Greece before
them, for such was their destiny. Moreover, they worshipped gods made
like themselves, with all the faults of men grown greater and more
vile, and told fables concerning them fit to please children, which I
thought strange in a people that could produce such philosophers and
poets. Yet those gods had come down to them from their fathers, and it
is hard to shake off the yoke of gods until some greater god appears
and breaks it with the hammer of war.

Here in Greece it was that I posed to its most famous sculptor for a
statue of Aphrodite, or rather it was as a mould of perfect Womanhood
that I posed, desiring that this sculptor, who pleased me, should have
one flawless model to copy in his future work, for which he blessed
me, naming that statue "Beauty's Self." Yet when I visited him a while
afterward I found that he had changed this name to Aphrodite.

I was angered who did not desire that my loveliness should be
accredited to mine enemy and that of Isis whom I served, and asked him
why this had been done.

He answered, humbly enough, because of a dream in which the Paphian
had appeared to him and threatened him with blindness unless he gave
her own name to so divine a face and form. Moreover, being in the
thrall of superstition he prayed me, even with tears, that thus it
might remain, since otherwise he must break that statue and as he
thought, be blinded as well. So out of pity I let him have his way and
even gave him my hand to kiss in token of forgiveness.

Thus it comes about that Aphrodite unashamed throughout the ages has
taken the tribute of a million eyes, clothed in a borrowed loveliness.
So be it, since what she has stolen is but a fraction of the truth. No
sculptor, however great, can mould the perfect out of frozen stone.

From Greece, still disguised as a merchant and his daughter, we
wandered to Jerusalem, feigning to trade in pearls and gems, since
there I would study the religion of the Jews whereof I had heard so
much. The "City of Peace" it was called among the Egyptians of old
times, or so they interpreted its name, but never found I one in which
there was less of peace. Fierce-faced were those Jews and quarrelsome;
revengeful too and ever waging war, public and private, upon one
another. A peculiar people, as they name themselves, full of hate,
particularly of the stranger within their gates. To trade with them
was scarcely possible, because he who sold them wares was always left
the loser, though for this I who sought their philosophy, not their
gold, cared nothing.

So I turned myself to the study of their faith, and found that God, as
they interpreted Him, was well-nigh as fierce as were his worshippers.
Yet this I will say, that He was one God, not many, and a true God
also, since otherwise how could his prophets have written so
gloriously concerning Him? Moreover, it was their belief that He would
come to earth and lead them to the conquest of the world. This, Holly
tells me, has chanced though not in the shape they hoped, since the
King who came would have led them but to the conquest of the evil that
is in the hearts of men and to the knowledge of a life to be, in which
they had small faith. Therefore they persecuted and slew Him as a
malefactor after their cruel fashion, and what is now accepted by
millions, so says Holly, they still reject.

I preached to them, for my heart burned in me at the sight of their
sacrifices. Yes, I preached to them against the shedding of blood,
telling them of a higher philosophy of gentleness and mercy. For a
while they listened, then took up stones and stoned me, so that had I
and Noot not been protected by Heaven, we should have been slain.
After this affront I turned my back upon Jerusalem and its hook-nosed,
fierce-eyed people, and went to Cyprus where I debated with the lewd
priests of Aphrodite at Paphos. Thence I got me back to Egypt whence I
had been absent many years.

At Naukratis priests of Isis who knew of our coming, how I cannot
tell, perchance Noot had told them by messenger, or in a dream as he
could do, met us and conducted us up the Nile to the temple of Isis at
Memphis. Here we were received in state in the great hall of the
temple and lo! at the head of those who welcomed us was the Greek
Kallikrates, now by his holiness and zeal risen high in the service of
the goddess.

When I saw him, beauteous as of old, my heart stood still and the
blood rushed to my brow.

Yet I gave no sign, treating him as a stranger on whom my eyes had
never fallen until that hour. He for his part stared at me with a
puzzled air, then shook his head as one does who sees a face that he
believes he has met in dream and yet is doubtful. For be it
remembered, this man had looked on me but once, when robed as Isis I
received him into the company of her priests at Philae, and then but
for a moment in the light of the moon. Perchance he still thought that
it was the goddess herself whom he saw thus and not a mortal. At the
least he did not know that I, the beauteous prophetess who came to
Memphis after wanderings through the world, was the same as she who
had sat upon the throne of Isis at Philae and whom by chance he had
kissed upon the lips. Mayhap even he did not remember the kiss, or if
he remembered, set it down as part of the ceremonial. Thus, if I knew
him but too well, to him I was a stranger.

I bethought me of flight, knowing in my heart that to me this man was
as the fabled sword that hung above the head of Damocles, though what
harm I had to fear from him, I did not know.

Again I sought the counsel of Noot who smiled and answered,

"Have I not told you, Daughter, that perils must be faced since those
from which we flee will be swift to overtake us? If Destiny has
brought you and this man together, be certain that it is for its own
purposes. Surely you have learned your lesson and steeled your soul
against all fleshly vanities."

"Yes, my Father," I answered proudly, "I have learned my lesson and
steeled my soul. Moreover, your thought is my thought, nor will I turn
my back on any man. Here I bide, defying woman's weakness and all the
wiles of evil gods."

"Well spoken," answered Noot, and blessed me in the ancient words. Yet
as he did so I noticed that he sighed and shook his head.



For many a moon, I know not how many who, having all time at my
command, seem to have lost its petty count, I remained there in the
temple at Memphis of which soon I became the prophetess and the head
of the priestesses. Ere long the fame of my divinations spread far and
wide, so that from all the land those who sought wisdom or knowledge
of the future would come to consult me, bringing great gifts to the
goddess, though not one gem or piece of gold did Noot and I keep for
ourselves, who indeed had no need of such common dross.

So I sat in a carven chair in the sanctuary, my diviner's bowl at my
side, and uttered dark sayings like to those of the famous oracles of
the Greeks at Delphi, many of which fulfilled themselves. For in
truth, I think that there was a spirit in me--whether it came from the
Heavens or elsewhere I do not know--which enabled me to read much that
was passing upon the earth and even sometimes that which had not yet
happened upon the earth. So the renown of the Lady Isis spread till I
became a power in the land. Moreover, thus I learned many things, for
those who consult an oracle, like those who seek the help of a
physician, lay bare their souls, keeping no secret back.

Now at this time Egypt and all the countries round seethed with war
like a pot boiling on the flames. For years Egypt had beaten off the
attacks of the Persians, but now the Pharaoh Nectanebes, the second of
that name who then sat upon the throne, the last native king who
reigned upon the Nile, was threatened by Artaxerxes, that one of this
accursed race who as named Ochus. This Persian Ochus had gathered a
mighty force to subdue Egypt, hundreds of thousands of men, tens of
thousands of horsemen, hundreds of triremes and of transport ships.

The last act of the tragedy had begun of which the end was to be the
crushing of Egypt who never more should know a Pharaoh of her own
blood and choosing. Of all these things I learned through those who
came to consult the oracle of Isis, and much did I talk of them with
Noot.

Now of myself during these long years of quiet and preparation for
great events, I will say that the things of earth behind me, I grew
nearer to the Divine, and in the night time I communed with my soul
which seemed to have become a part of that which is above the world.
The Greek, Kallikrates, I saw continually, but no word passed between
us save such as had to do with matters of our faith and of the worship
of Isis in whose service he now stood high. Never did we interchange a
touch or a look of love. He was apart from me and I from him. And yet
always in my heart I feared this man, this beautiful man, the warrior
who had become a priest, for some prescience told me that he would
bring disaster on my head, or I should bring it upon his, I knew not
which.

So there we sat in the sanctuary, Noot the wise and aged, who yet
never seemed to change, Kallikrates the priest, and I, and alone or
together gave counsel to kings and captains, or uttered oracles. Clear
seemed our sky and free from trouble, yet on the far horizon in my
spirit I discerned the tempest clouds arising, the terrible clouds in
which the lightnings played like the swords of Destiny that in a day
to come were doomed to overwhelm and pierce us through.

Nectanebes the second, the Pharaoh, came to his palace at Memphis to
gather troops from Upper Egypt and made great offerings to the gods,
seeking their favour in the coming war. Now I saw him for the first
time, a gray-haired, fat, heavy-jowled man, bald-headed, large-nosed,
with great eyes like to those of an ox. Such as Nectanebes, the
magician, the consorter with familiar spirits, named the Destroyer, a
title which the gods who hated him must have given him in irony since
himself he was doomed to be destroyed. But one good thing can I say of
this Nectanebes, that he was a lover of the arts and raised glorious
buildings to the gods. Learning that I, the high-priestess, had dwelt
at Philae, he came to consult me as to the beautiful temple with the
Hathor-headed columns which he built there and through my counsel it
was made perfect, for I drew its plans, or at least those of its
adornments. Holly tells me that even as a ruin, although so small,
there is no lovelier building in all Egypt.

Now this Pharaoh thought me a Greek and did not know that I was an
Arab and the daughter of him of Ozal in Yaman, whom his father, the
first Nectanebes, had brought to his death because once long ago I had
been refused as a wife to himself or to this son of his who now had
succeeded him. Of these things doubtless he remembered little or
nothing, since that was one of the smallest of Egypt's wars. But I, I
remembered and swore that in payment for my father's blood I would
bring his accursed House to ruin. Always also I received him veiled
since I did not desire that he should look upon my beauty and inquire
concerning my history; therefore, as a prophetess had a right to do, I
received the Pharaoh veiled.

Often he came to visit me because he had learned that I was a mistress
of Magic and he who practised magic much hoped that I would teach him
secrets he did not know, and show him how to lay spells upon his
enemies. This indeed I did, but the secrets that I taught him were
evil and the spells were spears that when he threw them would fall
back upon his head.

So the scene was set, and at length came the summons to begin the play
with the watching world for audience.

A writing sealed with Pharaoh's seal was brought to the temple of
Isis, commanding Noot the high-priest and me, Ayesha, who now was
named /Oracle-of-Isis/, and the Greek Kallikrates, Chief of the
Ceremonies, whose office it was to assist me in my divinations, to
attend the court of Pharaoh and there declare to him the future of the
war as it should be revealed to us by the great goddess whom we
served. At first we refused to go, whereon there came another message
which said that if we continued to refuse, we should be brought. The
Pharaoh wished to offer no affront to Isis, the messenger declared,
but the matter was urgent, as great things hung upon the revelations
which we alone could make, and some of the kings and generals who were
gathered in the temple as allies of Nectanebes, being the worshippers
of other gods, could not set foot in the holy shrine of Isis.

Then, there being no help for it, we answered that we would come that
very night at the rising of the moon.

Hastily consulting together we planned the words of an oracle, double-
edged words that yet prophesied good to Nectanebes and encouraged him
to war; for thus we believed we should most quickly bring about his
downfall.

Yet as those words were never spoken I will not write them down.




CHAPTER VI



THE DIVINATION


Accompanied by the priests and priestesses of Isis clad in their robes
and chanting the holy songs, I was borne veiled to the palace of the
Pharaoh in a litter, with its curtains drawn. On my right hand walked
Noot the high-priest, white-bearded, venerable; and on my left the
Greek Kallikrates, Master of the Rites.

Thus we came to the palace of which the outer courts were filled with
Grecian soldiers of the guard, some of whom in past years Kallikrates
had once commanded, although as a shaven priest of Isis, disguised in
his white robes, they knew him no more. These men stared at us, ready
to mock and yet afraid, as did Phoenicians, Sidonians, men of Cyprus,
and others who were gathered in the courts as though awaiting some
great event.

In an outer hall a captain of the guard bade our escort of priests and
priestesses to await our return, but we three, that is I, Ayesha,
Noot, and Kallikrates, were summoned to the small banqueting chamber
where Nectanebes with a few of the most highly placed of his guests
sat at their feast. Among these were the King of Sidon, two more kings
from Cyprus, three Grecian generals, some great nobles of Egypt, and
others. Also certain royal ladies were present, and among them one who
instantly drew my eyes to her. She was younger than I--perchance there
may have been ten years between us, tall, slender, and lovely in her
dark fashion, with a strong, quiet face and large brooding eyes, soft
as a deer's and rather blue than black in colour.

Suddenly as we entered I, who note all, saw these eyes grow frightened
like to those of one who sees some spirit returned from the halls of
Death; saw also the rich-hued face turn pale, then grow red again as
the blood flowed back; saw the breast heave beneath the jewelled
robes, so sharply that a flower fell from them, and the lips of coral
part as though to utter some remembered name.

Wondering what had thus disturbed this beauteous royalty since I,
being veiled, it could not have been the vision of myself, I glanced
round and perceived that Kallikrates, who was on my left, but a little
behind me, had become pale as a dead man and stood like one frozen
into stone.

"Who is that royal woman?" I whispered to Noot through my veil, for
royal I knew her to be by the Uraeus circlet she wore upon her raven
hair.

"Pharaoh's daughter, Amenartas," he whispered back, "whom the Greeks
call /The Maiden/ because she will take no man in marriage."

Then I remembered a certain confession that once I had heard sitting
on the throne of the goddess Isis at Philae, of how the penitent had
loved a girl of the royal House of Egypt, and for her sake killed his
own dear brother; remembered also that this penitent was none other
than the priest Kallikrates. Now I understood all, and though
Kallikrates was naught to me save a fellow servant of the goddess, I
hated that Amenartas and became aware that between her and me there
was war unending, though how and why I knew not.

Next I looked at a man clad in kingly robes who sat on Pharaoh's
right. He was a large man of about five and forty years of age with
dark, handsome face and shifting eyes; one with a jovial aspect which
yet I felt to be but a mask covering a heart full of evil schemes.
From his purple robe sewn with pearls and the style of his attire and
headdress I guessed that this must be Tenes the Phoenician, King of the
city of Sidon that was reported the wealthiest in the world, which
city, having revolted, had joined Egypt in its war against the
Persians. Instantly I weighed that man in the balance of my mind and
wrote him down as an ambitious rogue who was also a coward and, as I
judged from the many charms he wore, full of superstition.

The others I had no time to study for at once the Pharaoh began to
speak.

"Greeting, Prophetess," he said, rising from his chair and bowing to
us, or rather to me, "Greeting, High-priest of Isis, Queen of Heaven,
Mistress of the World; greeting also, Priest, Master of the Rites of
Isis. Pharaoh thanks you all for thus promptly answering to his
summons, since this night Egypt needs your wisdom more perchance than
ever before in all the ages of its history."

"Be pleased, O Pharaoh, to set out what you desire of us, the servants
of the eternal goddess," said Noot.

"This, High-priest: that you should declare the future to us. Hearken!
As you know, the great war has begun. The mighty Tenes here, King of
Sidon, my ally, by the help of the Greeks I sent him, has defeated the
Persians and against these Cyprus also is in revolt. But now
Artaxerxes Ochus has seized the throne of Persia, having murdered all
who stood between it and him, with the help of Bagoas the eunuch, his
counsellor and general. He has raised a countless host and is pouring
down upon Sidon and upon Egypt. Therefore we would learn how the war
shall go and to what gods we must sacrifice to secure the victory."

"O Pharaoh," answered Noot, "in bygone years when your father sat upon
the throne and I was the /Kherheb/, yes, the first magician of Egypt,
he asked me such questions as these, and having prayed to my goddess,
I answered him in the words that she commanded. None heard these words
save your father himself, for he and I were alone together. Yet there
was that in them which made him wroth so that he sought to kill me,
and to save my life I fled out of Egypt, going whither the goddess led
me. Afterward I was called back to Egypt where once more I an high-
priest of Isis though the office of /Kherheb/ is filled by another.
How know I, Pharaoh, if I obey you as I obeyed your father, and again
the goddess should utter prophecies which are not pleasing to the ears
of kings, that once more my life may not be sought in payment?"

"I swear, High-priest," answered Nectanebes eagerly, "that whatever
may be revealed by the goddess, you shall take no harm. I swear it by
the name and throne of the holy Isis, to whom I will make great gifts,
and all this company are witnesses of the oath. If it be broken, may
the curse of Isis and of all the gods of Egypt fall upon the head of
me and mine. Draw nigh now that I may touch you with my sceptre,
thereby forgiving all that you have said or shall say against me or my
House, and restoring to you your office of /Kherheb/ of Egypt, whereof
my father, who to-day is gathered in Osiris, robbed you."

So Noot drew near and Pharaoh touched him with his sceptre, a cedar
wand surmounted with a little golden image of Horus, which he always
carried because of his throne-name which signified "/Horus-of-Gold/."
Moreover, he re-created him /Kherheb/ and in token of it set upon his
shoulders the gold chain from his own neck, and swore to him his place
and power for life and the gift of an alabaster coffin wherein to lie
after life was done. This sarcophagus, however, Noot refused, saying
darkly that it was fated that he should sleep his last sleep far away
from Egypt. Then he, Noot, drew back and as he went I saw Pharaoh's
daughter rise and whisper awhile in her father's ear. He listened and
nodded. Then he said,

"Come hither, priest who is named 'Lover-of-Isis' and Master of her
rites, the royal Lady of Egypt says to me that in bygone days when she
was scarce a woman, she thinks that before you were a priest, you held
some command amongst the Greeks of my guard, as from your stature and
bearing I can well believe. She says also that if her memory serves
her, you slew some man in a quarrel and for this reason fled away and
sought refuge with Isis. If such things happened I have forgotten
them, nor do I ask concerning them. Let them lie. Yet, lest you should
be afraid that old tales may be told against you or vengeance wrought
upon you, come hither also and receive pardon for the past, and
protection and advancement for the future and with these a gift from
Pharaoh."

Now I marvelled at this lady's foresight and cunning which showed her
how to take advantage of Pharaoh's mood and safeguard one who once had
loved her, all of which told me that she must be a wise woman as well
as beauteous. Also it told me that the worship of this man had been
pleasing to her. Then Kallikrates drew near and was touched with the
sceptre. Moreover, Pharaoh spoke to him in like words that he had
spoken to Noot, pardoning him all and promising him much. Moreover, in
token of his favour he gave him a gold cup of Grecian workmanship
having two handles, that was chased about with the story of the loves
of Aphrodite and Adonis, and bordered with a wreath of those anemones
which were fabled to have sprung from his blood. This glorious,
flower-like cup from which the guests, when we entered, were pledging
themselves in wine of Cyprus, Pharaoh lifted from the board and sent
to Kallikrates, a great gift which made it clear to me how deeply he
desired to propitiate the goddess in the persons of her servants.

Lastly the private scribe was commanded to write down these decrees
that he had spoken, which he did forthwith, sealing them with
Pharaoh's seal and giving one copy to Noot whilst keeping the other to
be filed among the records.

Thus Noot and Kallikrates were protected from all things, but to me,
the Prophetess, nothing was said, as I thought for two reasons, first
because I was known to Pharaoh, who as I have told, had often
consulted me upon matters of magic, and secondly because as the "voice
of the goddess" I was holy and above reward or punishment at the hands
of man. Thus I thought, with how much truth shall be seen.

The gifts were received, the papyrus had been hidden away in the robe
of Noot, and there was silence in the chamber. To me, Ayesha, this
heavy silence was full of omen. My soul, made keen and fine with
ceaseless contemplation of things that are above the earth, in that
silence seemed to hear the breath of the watching gods of Egypt. To me
it was as though they had gathered there to listen to the fate of this
their ancient home on earth. Yes, I felt them about me; or at the
least I felt a spirit stirring.

The company at the table drank no more wine and ceased from speech.
They sat still staring in front of them and notwithstanding the
glitter of the ornaments that proclaimed their royalty or rule, to me
they were as dead men in a tomb. Only the Princess of Egypt,
Amenartas, seemed to be alive and outside the circle of this doom, for
I noted that her splendid eyes sought the face, the perfect, carven
face of the priest Kallikrates and that though he stood with folded
arms and gazed fixedly upon the ground, he knew it, for now and again
covertly he glanced back at her.

At length one of those guests could bear no more, and spoke. He was a
close-lipped, war-worn Grecian general who afterward I learned was
named Kleinios of Cos, the commander of Pharaoh's mercenary forces.

"By Zeus!" he cried, "are we men or are we stones, or are we shades in
Hades? Let these diviners divine, and have done, for I would get me to
my wine again."

"Aye," broke in Tenes, King of Sidon. "Bid them divine, Pharaoh, since
we have much to agree upon ere I sail at dawn."

Then all the company cried, "/Divine! Divine!/" save Amenartas only,
who searched the face of Kallikrates with her eyes, as though she
would learn what lay behind its cold and priestly mask.

"So be it," said Noot, "but first I pray Pharaoh to bid all mean men
depart."

Pharaoh waved his sceptre and the butlers and attendants bowed and
went. Then Noot motioned to Kallikrates, who thereon shook the
/sistrum/ that he bore, and in his rich, low voice, uttered a chant to
the goddess, that which was used to summon her presence.

He ended his chant and Noot began to pray.

"Hear me, thy prophet, O thou who wast and art and shalt be, thou in
whose bosom is locked all the wisdom of heaven and earth," he prayed.
"These kings and great ones desire knowledge, declare it unto them
according to thy will. They desire truth--let them learn the truth in
such fashion as thou shalt decree."

Then he was silent. None spoke, yet it seemed that a command came to
the three of us, for suddenly Noot looked at the priest Kallikrates, a
very strange look. Next the priest Kallikrates, rising from his knees,
laid down the /sistrum/ and taking the beautiful cup that Pharaoh had
given him, went to the table and washed it with pure water from a
silver ewer, then filled it to the brim from the ewer and brought it
to me, Ayesha. Now I knew that I was commanded to gaze into that cup
and to say what things I saw.

So I set it on the ground in front of me and kneeling, threw my veil
over it and gazed into the water in the shallow golden cup.

For a little while I saw nothing, till presently a face formed in the
water, the face of the royal lady, Amenartas, which stared up at me
out of the cup. Yes, it stared hard and seemed to threaten me, for in
its eyes were hate and vengeance. Then another face came and covered
it, the face of Kallikrates the priest, and in its eyes were trouble
and desire.

Now I knew that the goddess Isis, or perchance another, she of the
Greeks, spoke to me of matters that had to do with myself and not with
the fate of Egypt. In my heart I prayed to the Queen of Heaven to rid
me of these visions, though to give me others I did not pray her,
since it was my design to speak certain politic words which we had
prepared.

Yet other visions came unsought, for some spirit possessed me, a
spirit of truth and destiny. They were many and all of them terrible.
I saw battlefields; I saw men fall in thousands, I saw cities in
flames. I saw that false-eyed king, Tenes, dead. I saw the General,
Kleinios of Cos, also dead, lying on a heap of Grecian slain. I saw
the Pharaoh Nectanebes flying up Nile upon a boat--I knew it was Nile
because the current rippled against the prow of his ship, I saw him
seized by black savages and throttled with a rope till his tongue hung
out and the great round eyes started from his head. I saw the temples
of Egypt burning and a fierce-faced, drunken king hacking at the
statues of the gods with a Persian sword and butchering the priests
upon the altar. Then I saw no more but a voice called in my ears.

"Death to Egypt! Death and desolation! Death to her king, death to her
priests, death to her gods! Finished, finished, all is finished!"

I cast the bowl from me. It overset but lo! there flowed from it not
water but blood, or dark-hued wine, staining the white marble of the
pavement. I stared at it! All stared at this god-sent horror!

"A trick!" cried the Princess Amenartas. "She has coloured the water
behind the shelter of her veil."

The others too, especially the Greeks, took up the cry, echoing,

"A trick, a brazen trick!"

Only I noted that Pharaoh was silent, Pharaoh who knew that Ayesha,
named /Isis-come-to-Earth/, did not deal in tricks; Pharaoh who
himself practised magic and had seen such omens sent by Set. Lo!
Pharaoh looked afraid and spoke no word, only glared with his great
eyes at the stain upon the marble.

"What answer did the goddess give to your prayer, prophetess," asked
Amenartas, sneering at me.

"This answer, royal Lady of Egypt," and I pointed to the marble, "the
answer of blood."

"Blood! Whose blood? That of the Persians?"

"Nay, Lady, that of many who sit at this feast and who ere long shall
sit at the table of Osiris, and of thousands who cling to them. Yet be
comforted, Lady, not your blood. I think that you have much mischief
to work ere you sit also at the table of Osiris, or mayhap at that of
Set," I added, giving thrust for thrust.

"Declare then their names, Seeress."

"Nay, I declare them not. Go, seek them for yourself, Lady, or let
Pharaoh your father seek, for is he not a magician? though what god
gives him vision I do not know. You name me cheat, or rather you name
the goddess cheat. Therefore the goddess is dumb and her prophetess is
dumb."

"Aye, I name you cheat," she cried, who in her heart was mad with
fear, "and cheat you are. Now let this temple hag who hides her
hideousness behind a silken screen unveil that we may see her as she
is, and let her be searched and the vase of dye be taken from her
bosom or her robes."

"Aye, let her be searched," shouted the guests who were also afraid.

"No need to search, high lords," I said in a quavering voice, as
though I too were overcome with fear. "I will obey the Princess. I
will unveil, yet I beseech you all, make not a mock of me when you see
me as I am. Once I was perchance as fair as that royal Lady who
commands, but years of abstinence and the sleepless search for wisdom
mar the features and wither the frame. Moreover, time touches the
locks, such of them as remain to me, since these too grow thin with
age. Yet I will unveil and the vase of precious dye shall be the prize
of him who first can snatch it from my bosom or my robe."

"Aye," said one of them, it was the king Tenes, "and in payment for
her trick we will make her drink what remains of it to give colour to
her poor old carcase."

"Aye," I answered, "and I will drink what remains of it for I think
the stuff is harmless. Oh! be not angry because a poor conjurer plays
her tricks."

Now Noot stared at me as though he were about to speak. Then his face
changed like to that of a man who of a sudden receives a command that
others cannot hear. He let fall his eyes, remaining silent, and I,
watching, knew that it was the will of the goddess, or at least Noot's
will, that I should unveil.

I glanced at the priest Kallikrates but he stood still, looking like
Apollo's self frozen into stone.

During this play I had loosened the fastenings of my veil and hood and
now of a sudden I cast them from me, revealing myself clad as Isis,
that is in little save a transparent, clinging robe fastened about my
middle. On my breast, hanging from a chain of pearls, were her holy
symbols carved in gems and gold, and on my head her vulture cap
beneath which my tresses hung almost to my feet, having the golden
feathers of the cap adorned with sapphires and with rubies and the
uraeus rising from it fashioned of glittering diamonds.

Aye, I unveiled and stood before them, my arms folded upon the
jewelled girdle beneath my breast.

"Behold! Kings and Lords," I said, "the temple hag stands before you
in such poor shape as it has pleased the gods to fashion her. Now let
him who can see it, come, take the vase that hides this unveiled
trickster's dye."

For a moment there was silence while those brutal men devoured my
white loveliness with their eyes, taking count of every beauty of my
perfect face and form. Amenartas stared at me and her ruddy cheeks
wen