This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D.W.]
By Georg Ebers
Translated from the German by Mary J. Safford
Deep silence brooded over the water and the green islands which rose likeoases from its glittering surface. The palms, silver poplars, andsycamores on the largest one were already casting longer shadows as theslanting rays of the sun touched their dark crowns, while its glowingball still poured a flood of golden radiance upon the bushes along theshore, and the light, feathery tufts at the tops of the papyrus reeds inthe brackish water.
More than one flock of large and small waterfowl flew past beneath thesilvery cloudlets flecking the lofty azure vault of heaven; here andthere a pelican or a pair of wild ducks plunged, with short calls whichceased abruptly, into the lush green thicket, but their cackling andquacking belonged to the voices of Nature, and, when heard, soon diedaway in the heights of the tipper air, or in the darkness of theunderbrush that received the birds. Very few reached the little city ofTennis, which now, during the period of inundation in the year 274 B.C.,was completely encircled by water.
From the small island, separated from it by a channel scarcely threearrow-shots wide, it seemed as though sleep or paralysis had fallen uponthe citizens of the busy little industrial town, for few people appearedin the streets, and the scanty number of porters and sailors who wereworking among the ships and boats in the little fleet performed theirtasks noiselessly, exhausted by the heat and labour of the day.
Columns of light smoke rose from many of the buildings, but the sunbeamsprevented its ascent into the clear, still air, and forced it to spreadover the roofs as if it, too, needed rest.
Silence also reigned in the little island diagonally opposite to theharbour. The Tennites called it the Owl's Nest, and, though for noespecial reason, neither they nor the magistrates of King Ptolemy II everstepped upon its shores. Indeed, a short time before, the latter hadeven been forbidden to concern themselves about the pursuits of itsinhabitants; since, though for centuries it had belonged to a family ofseafaring folk who were suspected of piracy, it had received, twogenerations ago, from Alexander the Great himself, the right of asylum,because its owner, in those days, had commanded a little fleet whichproved extremely useful to the conqueror of the world in the siege ofGaza and during the expedition to Egypt. True, under the reign ofPtolemy I, the owners of the Owl's Nest were on the point of beingdeprived of this favour, because they were repeatedly accused of piracyin distant seas; but it had not been done. Yet for the past two years aninvestigation had threatened Satabus, the distinguished head of thefamily, and during this period he, with his ships and his sons, hadavoided Tennis and the Egyptian coast.
The house occupied by the islanders stood on the shore facing the littlecity. It had once been a stately building, but now every part of itseemed to be going to ruin except the central portion, which presented aless dilapidated appearance than the sorely damaged, utterly neglectedside wings.
The roof of the whole long structure had originally consisted of palmbranches, upon which mud and turf