Uarda : a Romance of Ancient Egypt — Volume 03Ebers, Georg
History
Uarda : a Romance of Ancient Egypt — Volume 03
Ebers, Georg
Egypt -- History -- To 332 B.C. -- Fiction; German fiction -- Translations into English
"I wanted," sobbed the little one, "to bring the cake to Uarda. She is
ill--I had so much--"
"Poor child," said the paraschites, stroking the boy's hair; "there-give
it to Uarda."
Scherau went up to the sick girl, knelt down by her, and whispered with
streaming eyes:
"Take it! It is good, and very sweet, and if I get another cake, and
Hekt will let me out, I will bring it to you.
"Thank you, good little Scherau," said Uarda, kissing the child. Then
she turned to Pentaur and said:
"For weeks he has had nothing but papyrus-pith, and lotus-bread, and now
he brings me the cake which grandmother gave old Hekt yesterday."
The child blushed all over, and stammered:
"It is only half--but I did not touch it. Your dog bit out this piece,
and this."
He touched the honey with the tip of his finger, and put it to his lips.
"I was a long time behind the reeds there, for I did not like to come out
because of the strangers there." He pointed to Nebsecht and Pentaur.
"But now I must go home," he cried.
The child was going, but Pentaur stopped him, seized him, lifted him up
in his arms and kissed him; saying, as he turned to Nebsecht:
"They were wise, who represented Horus--the symbol of the triumph of good
over evil and of purity over the impure--in the form of a child. Bless
you, my little friend; be good, and always give away what you have to
make others happy. It will not make your house rich--but it will your
heart!"
Scherau clung to the priest, and involuntarily raised his little hand
to stroke Pentaur's cheek. An unknown tenderness had filled his little
heart, and he felt as if he must throw his arms round the poet's neck and
cry upon his breast.
But Pentaur set him down on the ground, and he trotted down into the
valley. There he paused. The sun was high in the heavens, and he must
return to the witch's cave and his board, but he would so much like to go
a little farther--only as far as to the king's tomb, which was quite
near.
Close by the door of this tomb was a thatch of palm-branches, and under
this the sculptor Batau, a very aged man, was accustomed to rest. The
old man was deaf, but he passed for the best artist of his time, and with
justice; he had designed the beautiful pictures and hieroglyphic
inscriptions in Seti's splendid buildings at Abydos and Thebes, as well
as in the tomb of that prince, and he was now working at the decoration
of the walls in the grave of Rameses.
Scherau had often crept close up to him, and thoughtfully watched him at
work, and then tried himself to make animal and human figures out of a
bit of clay.
One day the old man had observed him.
The sculptor had silently taken his humble attempt out of his hand, and
had returned it to him with a smile of encouragement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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