Controlling himself by a mighty effort Pharaoh pointed to the door and somehow managed to articulate the one word: “Begone!” CHAPTER IX THE LUMINOUS BOOK High up among the tombs lived Unis, neophyte of the Temple of Amen. The abandoned tomb-chapel which served to shelter him immediately overlooked the tree-embowered villa of Enana the Magician, for whom, at times, the youthful prophet worked. His only attendant was Bata, an aged Ethiopian, not so long ago his nurse. Bata was seen almost daily in the market-place. Here she not only collected the various offerings of the simple herdsmen and peasants, but acted as go-between in the affairs of the superstitious farmers, herdsmen and petty officials who were in the habit of consulting her master. For Unis carried on a desultory practice in necromancy, astrology and divination. Bata collected the fees, which were generally paid in kind. Unis spent the few “auspicious days” which the Egyptian calendar allowed to each month, seated upon a low bench beneath a sycamore tree on the border of a narrow canal, immediately opposite Enana’s island home. Here he listened to those who came to consult him or wrote letters for those who required it. In his character of seer, Unis had found it necessary to act in many varied capacities. During the course of a single day, he was often called upon to act as scribe, physician, exorcist, diviner, faith-healer and farmer. Unis was supposed to know the past; he could foretell the future. He could “see” one who had tampered with his neighbor’s landmarks or altered the flow of water in his neighbor’s dykes. He could forewarn of an approaching sandstorm—that nine days’ terror of the traveler. He could provide the necessary amulets against the bite of snake or scorpion. He could tell the whereabouts of lost cattle or name that man or woman who had made off with the offerings to the dead. Thus, a timid maiden, desirous of a love-charm, was advised to drink the ashes of a lizard dissolved in water and to swallow it, with a prayer to Hathor, some auspicious evening when Aah, the silver moon, shone at her brightest. Consulted by some young gallant of the city, on similar, though less wholesome lines, Unis would draw a circle in the sand. A circle, a gold bangle! Money can open many a door! The circle might be readily understood, but the outline of the jackal above it—death’s emblem, spiritual and physical—was generally beyond the young man’s powers of comprehension. To the aged Teta, desirous of a potion which would assure to him the wished for one hundred and ten years, Unis replied: “I see the _ba_-bird poised above thy tomb.” Teta was found dead upon his couch the following morning. To Benta the ambitious Unis had taught the value of patience by pointing to Auta hard at work upon his granite statue of the Princess Bekit-aton.