Moon of Israel: A Tale of the ExodusHaggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
History
Moon of Israel: A Tale of the Exodus
Haggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
Exodus, The -- Fiction; Jews -- History -- To 70 A.D. -- Fiction
The kin of this girl clamoured that he should be killed, because he had
offered insult to a high-born lady of Israel. This Seti refused, saying
that the offence was not one of death, but that he would order him to
be publicly beaten. Thereupon Amenmeses, who was fond of the soldier, a
good man enough when not in his cups, sprang up in a rage, saying that
no servant of his should be touched because he had offered to caress
some light Israelitish woman who had no business to be wandering about
alone at night. He added that if the man were flogged he and all those
under his command would leave the camp and march back to make report to
Pharaoh.
Now the Prince, having consulted with the councillors, told the woman
and her kin that as Pharaoh had been appealed to, he must judge of the
matter, and commanded them to appear at his court within a month and
state their case against the soldier. They went away very
ill-satisfied, saying that Amenmeses had insulted their daughter even
more than his servant had done. The end of this matter was that on the
following night this soldier was discovered dead, pierced through and
through with knife thrusts. The girl, her parents and brethren could
not be found, having fled away into the desert, nor was there any
evidence to show by whom the soldier had been murdered. Therefore
nothing could be done in the business except bury the victim.
On the following morning the Inquiry began with due ceremony, the Prince
Seti and the Count Amenmeses taking their seats at the head of a large
pavilion with the councillors behind them and the scribes, among whom I
was, seated at their feet. Then we learned that the two prophets whom I
had seen at Pharaoh’s court were not in the land of Goshen, having
left before we arrived “to sacrifice to God in the wilderness,” nor
did any know when they would return. Other elders and priests, however,
appeared and began to set out their case, which they did at great
length and in a fierce and turbulent fashion, speaking often all of
them at once, thus making it difficult for the interpreters to render
their words, since they pretended that they did not know the Egyptian
tongue.
Moreover they told their story from the very beginning, when they had
entered Egypt hundreds of years before and were succoured by the vizier
of the Pharaoh of that day, one Yusuf, a powerful and clever man of
their race who stored corn in a time of famine and low Niles. This
Pharaoh was of the Hyksos people, one of the Shepherd kings whom we
Egyptians hated and after many wars drove out of Khem. Under these
Shepherd kings, being joined by many of their own blood, the Israelites
grew rich and powerful, so that the Pharaohs who came after and who
loved them not, began to fear them.
This was as far as the story was taken on the first day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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