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Henry Rider Haggard
THE ANCIENT WORLD SERIES - Complete Haggard Edition: Queen of the Dawn, Belshazzar, Cleopatra, Moon of Israel, Morning Star, The Doom of Zimbabwe, The Wanderer's Necklace and more
Henry Rider Haggard
Published by
Books
- Advanced Digital Solutions & High-Quality eBook Formatting -
2017 OK Publishing
ISBN 978-80-7583-423-2
Table of Contents
Moon of Israel
CHAPTER I SCRIBE ANA COMES TO TANIS
CHAPTER II THE BREAKING OF THE CUP
CHAPTER IV THE COURT OF BETROTHAL
CHAPTER VIII SETI COUNSELS PHARAOH
CHAPTER IX THE SMITING OF AMON
CHAPTER X THE DEATH OF PHARAOH
CHAPTER XI THE CROWNING OF AMENMESES
CHAPTER XII THE MESSAGE OF JABEZ
CHAPTER XIV KI COMES TO MEMPHIS
CHAPTER XVI JABEZ SELLS HORSES
CHAPTER XVII THE DREAM OF MERAPI
CHAPTER XVIII THE CROWNING OF MERAPI
CHAPTER I
SCRIBE ANA COMES TO TANIS
This is the story of me, Ana the scribe, son of Meri, and of certain of the days that I have spent upon the earth. These things I have written down now that I am very old in the reign of Rameses, the third of that name, when Egypt is once more strong and as she was in the ancient time. I have written them before death takes me, that they may be buried with me in death, for as my spirit shall arise in the hour of resurrection, so also these my words may arise in their hour and tell to those who shall come after me upon the earth of what I knew upon the earth. Let it be as Those in heaven shall decree. At least I write and what I write is true.
I tell of his divine Majesty whom I loved and love as my own soul, Seti Meneptah the second, whose day of birth was my day of birth, the Hawk who has flown to heaven before me; of Userti the Proud, his queen, she who afterwards married his divine Majesty, Saptah, whom I saw laid in her tomb at Thebes. I tell of Merapi, who was named Moon of Israel, and of her people, the Hebrews, who dwelt for long in Egypt and departed thence, having paid us back in loss and shame for all the good and ill we gave them. I tell of the war between the gods of Egypt and the god of Israel, and of much that befell therein.
Also I, the King's Companion, the great scribe, the beloved of the Pharaohs who have lived beneath the sun with me, tell of other men and matters. Behold! is it not written in this roll? Read, ye who shall find in the days unborn, if your gods have given you skill. Read, O children of the future, and learn the secrets of that past which to you is so far away and yet in truth so near.
As it chanced, although the Prince Seti and I were born upon the same day and therefore, like the other mothers of gentle rank whose children saw the light upon that day, my mother received Pharaoh's gift and I received the title of Royal Twin in Ra, never did I set eyes upon the divine Prince Seti until the thirtieth birthday of both of us. All of which happened thus.
In those days the great Pharaoh, Rameses the second, and after him his son Meneptah who succeeded when he was already old, since the mighty Rameses was taken to Osiris after he had counted one hundred risings of the Nile, dwelt for the most part at the city of Tanis in the desert, whereas I dwelt with my parents at the ancient, white-walled city of Memphis on the Nile. At times Meneptah and his court visited Memphis, as also they visited Thebes, where this king lies in his royal tomb to-day. But save on one occasion, the young Prince Seti, the heir-apparent, the Hope of Egypt, came not with them, because his mother, Asnefert, did not favour Memphis, where some trouble had befallen her in youth—they say it was a love matter that cost the lover his life and her a sore heart—and Seti stayed with his mother who would not suffer him out of sight of her eyes.
Once he came indeed when he was fifteen years of age, to be proclaimed to the people as son of his father, as Son of the Sun, as