Four days on the water from the mouth of a mighty river were we cast away, and some were drowned and some died of sickness.But us wild men took through wastes and marshes, where the sea-fowl hid the sky, bearing us ten days' journey till we came to a hollow mountain, where a great city had been and fallen, and where there are caves of which no man hath seen the end; and they brought us to the Queen of the people who place pots upon the heads of strangers, who is a magician having a knowledge of all things, and life and loveliness that does not die.And she cast eyes of love upon thy father, Kallikrates, and would have slain me, and taken him to husband, but he loved me and feared her, and would not.Then did she take us, and lead us by terrible ways, by means of dark magic, to where the great pit is, in the mouth of which the old philosopher lay dead, and showed to us the rolling Pillar of Life that dies not, whereof the voice is as the voice of thunder; and she did stand in the flames, and come forth unharmed, and yet more beautiful.Then did she swear to make thy father undying even as she is, if he would but slay me, and give himself to her, for me she could not slay because of the magic of my own people that I have, and that prevailed thus far against her.And he held his hand before his eyes to hide her beauty, and would not.Then in her rage did she smite him by her magic, and he died; but she wept over him, and bore him thence with lamentations: and being afraid, me she sent to the mouth of the great river where the ships come, and I was carried far away on the ships where I gave thee birth, and hither to Athens I came at last after many wanderings.Now I say to thee, my son, Tisisthenes, seek out the woman, and learn the secret of Life, and if thou mayest find a way slay her, because of thy father Kallikrates; and if thou dost fear or fail, this I say to all of thy seed who come after thee, till at last a brave man be found among them who shall bathe in the fire and sit in the place of the Pharaohs.I speak of those things, that though they be past belief, yet I have known, and I lie not.""May the Lord forgive her for that," groaned Job, who had been listening to this marvellous composition with his mouth open.
As for myself, I said nothing: my first idea being that my poor friend, being demented, had composed the whole thing, though it scarcely seemed likely that such a story could have been invented by anybody.It was too original.To solve my doubts I took up the potsherd and began to read the close uncial Greek writing on it; and very good Greek of the period it is, considering that it came from the pen of an Egyptian born.
Besides the uncial writing on the convex side of the sherd at the top, painted in dull red, on what had once been the lip of the amphora, was the cartouche already mentioned as being on the _i_ scarabaeus _i_ , which we had also found in the casket.The hieroglyphics or symbols, however, were reversed, just as though they had been pressed on wax.Whether this was the cartouche of the original Kallikrates, or of some prince or Pharaoh from whom his wife Amenartas was descended, I am not sure, nor can I tell if it was drawn upon the sherd at the same time that the uncial Greek was inscribed, or, copied on more recently from the Scarab by some other member of the family.Nor was this all.At the foot of the writing, painted in the same dull red, was the faint outline of a somewhat rude drawing of the head and shoulders of a sphinx wearing two feathers, symbols of majesty, which, though common enough upon the effigies of sacred bulls and gods, I have never before met with on a sphinx.
Also on the right-hand side of this surface of the sherd, painted obliquely in red on the space not covered by the uncial, and signed in blue paint, was the following quaint inscription:
IN EARTH AND SKIE AND SEA
STRANGE THYNGES THER BE.
HOC FECIT
DOROTHEA VINCEY.
Perfectly bewildered, I turned the relic over.It was covered from top to bottom with notes and signatures in Greek, Latin, and English.The first in Uncial Greek was by Tisisthenes, the son to whom the writing was addressed.It was, "I could not go.Tisisthenes to his son, Kallikrates."This Kallikrates (probably, in the Greek fashion, so named after his grandfather) evidently made some attempt to start on the quest, for his entry, written in very faint and almost illegible uncial, is, "Iceased from my going, the gods being against me.
KaIlikrates to his son."
Between these two ancient writingsthe second of which was inscribed upside down and was so faint and worn that, had it not been for the transcript of it executed by Vincey, I should scarcely have been able to read it, since, owing to its having been written on that portion of the tile which had, in the course of ages, undergone the most handling, it was nearly rubbed outwas the bold, modern-looking signature of one Lionel Vincey, "AEtate sua 17," which was written thereon, I think, by Leo's grandfather.To the right of this were the initials "J.B.V.," and below came a variety of Greek signatures, in uncial and cursive character, and what appeared to be some carelessly executed repetitions of the sentence "to my son,"showing that the relic was religiously passed on from generation to generation.
The next legible thing after the Greek signatures was the word "ROMAE, A.U.C.," showing-that the family had now migrated to Rome.Unfortunately, however, with the exception of its termination (cvi) the date of their settlement there is forever lost, for just where it had been placed a piece of the potsherd is broken away.
