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.]
AN EGYPTIAN PRINCESS, Part 1.
By Georg Ebers
Psamtik went at once from his father's apartments to the temple of thegoddess Neith. At the entrance he asked for the high-priest and wasbegged by one of the inferior priests to wait, as the great Neithotepwas at that moment praying in the holiest sanctuary of the exalted Queenof Heaven.
[The temples of Egypt were so constructed as to intensify the devotion of the worshipper by conducting him onward through a series of halls or chambers gradually diminishing in size. "The way through these temples is clearly indicated, no digression is allowed, no error possible. We wander on through the huge and massive gates of entrance, between the ranks of sacred animals. The worshipper is received into an ample court, but by degrees the walls on either side approach one another, the halls become less lofty, all is gradually tending towards one point. And thus we wander on, the sights and sounds of God's world without attract us no longer, we see nothing but the sacred representations which encompass us so closely, feel only the solemnity of the temple in which we stand. And the consecrated walls embrace us ever more and more closely, until at last we reach the lonely, resonant chamber occupied by the divinity himself, and entered by no human being save his priest." Schnaase, Kunstaeschirhtc I. 394.]
After a short time a young priest appeared with the intelligence that hissuperior awaited the Prince's visit. Psamtik had seated himself underthe shadow of the sacred grove of silver poplars bordering the shores ofthe consecrated lake, holy to the great Neith. He rose immediately,crossed the temple-court, paved with stone and asphalte, on which thesun's rays were darting like fiery arrows, and turned into one of thelong avenues of Sphinxes which led to the isolated Pylons before thegigantic temple of the goddess. He then passed through the principalgate, ornamented, as were all Egyptian temple-entrances, with the wingedsun's disc. Above its widely-opened folding doors arose on either side,tower-like buildings, slender obelisks and waving flags. The front ofthe temple, rising from the earth in the form of an obtuse angle, hadsomewhat the appearance of a fortress, and was covered with coloredpictures and inscriptions. Through the porch Psamtik passed on into alofty entrance-chamber, and from thence into the great hall itself, theceiling of which was strewn with thousands of golden stars, and supportedby four rows of lofty pillars. Their capitals were carved in imitationof the lotus-flower, and these, the shafts of the columns, the walls ofthis huge hall, and indeed every niche and corner that met the eye werecovered with brilliant colors and hieroglyphics. The columns rose to agigantic height, the eye seemed to wander through immeasurable space, andthe air breathed by the worshippers was heavy with the fragrance of Kyphiand incense, and the odors which arose from the laboratory attached tothe temple. Strains of soft music, proceeding from invisible hands,flowed on unceasingly, only occasionally interrupted by the deep lowingof the sacred cows of Isis, or the shrill call of the sparrow-hawk ofHorus, whose habitations were in one of the adjoining halls. No soone