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
Philippus started up from the divan on which he had been reclining atbreakfast with his old friend. Before Horapollo was a half-empty plate;he had swallowed his meal less rapidly than his companion, and lookeddisapprovingly at the leech, who drank off his wine and water as hestood, whereas he generally would sit and enjoy it as he talked to theold man of matters light or grave. To the elder this was always thepleasantest hour of the day; but now Philippus would hardly allow himselfmore than just time enough to eat, even at their principal evening meal.
Indeed, not he alone, but every physician in the city, had as much as hecould do with the utmost exertion. Nearly three weeks had elapsed sincethe attack on the nuns, and the fearful heat had still gone on increasing. The river, instead of rising had sunk lower and lower; thecarrier-pigeons from Ethiopia, looked for day by day with growing anxietyand excitement, brought no news of a rising stream even in the upperNile, and the shallow, stagnant and evil-smelling waters by the banksbegan to be injurious, nay, fatal, to the health of the whole population.
Close to the shore, especially, the water had a reddish tinge, and theusually sweet, pure fluid in the canals was full of strange vegetablegrowths and other foreign bodies putrid and undrinkable. The commonpeople usually shirked the trouble of filtering it, and it was among themthat the greater number died of a mortal and infectious pestilence, tillthen unknown. The number of victims swelled daily, and the approach ofthe comet kept pace with the growing misery of the town. Every oneconnected it with the intense heat of the season, with the delay in theinundation, and the appearance of the sickness; and the leech and hisfriend often argued about these matters, for Philippus would not admitthat the meteor had any influence on human affairs, while Horapollobelieved that it had, and supported his view by a long series ofexamples.
His antagonist would not accept them and asked for arguments; at the sametime he, like every one else, felt the influence of a vague dread of someimminent and terrible disaster hanging over the earth and humanity atlarge.
And, just as every heart in Memphis felt oppressed by such forebodings,and by the weight of a calamity, which indeed no longer threatened thembut had actually come upon them, so the roads, the gardens, the palms andsycamores by the way-side were covered by thick layers of dingy, chokingdust. The hedges of tamarisk and shrubs looked like decaying walls ofcolorless, unburnt mud-bricks; even in the high-roads the wayfarer walkedin the midst of dense white clouds raised by his feet, and if a chariot,or a horseman galloped down the scorching street, fine, grey sand at oncefilled the air, compelling the foot-passengers to shut their eyes andlips.
The town was so silent, so empty, so deserted! No one came out of doorsunless under pressure of business or piety. Every house was a furnace,and even a bath brought no refreshment, for the water had long sinceceased to be cold. A disease had also attacked the ripening dates asthey hung; they dropped off in thousands from the heavy clusters underthe beautiful bending crown of leaves; and now for tw