Historical Miniatures | Page 2

his window-shutters while his assistant sprinkled water on the ground before the shop. Amram greeted him, "A fine morning, cousin Eleazar."
"I cannot say," answered the tradesman sulkily. "The Nile has remained stationary, and begins to sink. The times are bad."
"Bad times are followed by good times, as our father Abraham knew; and when Joseph, Jacob's son, foresaw the seven lean years he counselled Pharaoh to store up corn in the granaries...."
"May be, but that is a forgotten tale now."
"Yes, and have you also forgotten the promise which the Lord gave to his friend Abraham?"
"That about the land of Canaan? We have waited four hundred years for its fulfilment, and now, instead of receiving it, Abraham's children have become bond-servants."
"Abraham believed through good and through evil days, through joy and through sorrow, and that was counted to him for righteousness."
"I don't believe at all," Eleazar broke in, "or rather, I believe that things go backwards, and that I will have to put up my shutters, if there is a failure in the crops."
Amram went on with a sad face, and came to the market, where he bought a millet loaf, a piece of an eel, and some onions.
When the market-woman took the piece of money, she spat on it, and when Amram received his change, he did the same.
"Do you spit on the money, Hebrew?" she hissed.
"One adopts the customs of the country," answered Amram.
"Do you answer, unclean dog?"
"I answer speech, but not abuse."
The Hebrew went on, for a crowd began to gather. He met the barber, Enoch, and they greeted each other with a sign which the Hebrews had devised, and which signified, "We believe in the promise to Abraham, and wait, patient in hope."
Amram reached at last the temple square, passed through the avenue of Sphinxes, and stood before a little door in the left pylon. He knocked seven times with his hand; a servant appeared, took Amram by the arm and led him in. A young priest tied a bandage round his eyes, and, after they had searched his bag, they took the cabinet-maker by the hand, and led him into the temple. Sometimes they went up steps, sometimes down them, sometimes straight-forward. Now and then they avoided pillars, and the murmur of water was heard; at one time there was a smell of dampness, at another of incense.
At last they halted, and the bandage was taken off Amram's eyes. He found himself in a small room with painted walls, some seats, and a cupboard. A richly-carved ebony door divided this room from a larger one which on one side opened on to a broad staircase leading down to a terrace facing eastward.
The priest left Amram alone after he had shown him that the door required repair, and had, with an unmistakable gesture, enjoined on him silence and secrecy.
When Amram was left alone, and found himself for the first time within the sacred walls which could not overawe a Hebrew's mind, he yet felt a certain alarm at all the mysteriousness, of which he had heard since his youth. In order to shake off his fear of the unknown, he resolved to satisfy his curiosity, though at the risk of being turned out, if he met anyone. As a pretext he took a fine plane in his hand, and entered the great hall.
It was very spacious. In the midst was a fountain of red granite, with an obelisk set upright in the basin. The walls were adorned with figures painted in simple colours, most of them in red ochre, but also in yellow and black. He drew off his sandals, and went on into a gallery where stood mummy-coffins leaning against the wall.
Then he entered a domed room, on the vault of which were painted the great constellations of the northern hemisphere. In the middle of the room stood a table, on which lay a half-globe covered with designs resembling the outlines of a map. By the window stood another table, with a model of the largest pyramid set upon a land-surveyor's board, with a scale of measurements. Close by stood an alidade, an instrument for measuring angles.
There was no visible outlet to this room, but after some search the uninitiated Hebrew found some stairs of acacia-wood leading up through a wooden tower. He climbed and climbed, but when he looked through the loopholes, he found himself always on a level with the roof of the domed room. But he continued to ascend, and after he had again counted a hundred steps and, looked through a loop hole, he found himself on a level with the floor of the domed room. Then a wooden door opened, and an elderly man in half-priestly garb received him with a greeting as though he were a well-known and expected superior. But