第15章 THE PAPYRUS(2)
"The good Lord God," he said, "lived in heaven like a Pharaoh, under the tents of His harem, and under the trees of His gardens.He was the Ancient of Ancients, and older than the world; and He had but one Son, the Prince Jesus, whom He loved with all His heart, and who surpassed in beauty the virgins and the angels.And the good Lord God said to Prince Jesus--" 'Leave My harem and My palace, and My date trees and My running waters.Descend to earth for the welfare of men.There Thou shalt be like a little child, and Thou shalt live poor amongst the poor.
Suffering shall be Thy daily bread, and Thou shalt weep so profusely that Thy tears shall form rivers, in which the tired slave shall bathe with delight.Go, My Son!'
"Prince Jesus obeyed the good Lord, and He came down to earth, to a place named Bethlehem of Judaea.And He walked in fields, amidst the flowering anemones, saying to His companion--" 'Blessed are they who hunger, for I will lead them to My Father's table! Blessed are they who thirst, for they shall drink of the fountains of heaven! Blessed are they who weep, for I will dry their tears with veils finer than those of the almehs!'
"That is why the poor loved Him, and believed in Him.But the rich hated Him; fearing that He should raise the poor above them.At that time, Cleopatra and Caesar were powerful on the earth.They both hated Jesus, and they ordered the judges and priests to put Him to death.To obey the Queen of Egypt, the princes of Syria erected a cross on a high mountain, and they caused Jesus to die on this cross.But women washed His corpse, and buried it; and Prince Jesus, having broken the door of His tomb, rose again to the good Lord, His Father.
"And, from that time, all those who believed in Him go to heaven.
"The Lord God opens His arms, and says to them--" 'Ye are welcome, because ye love the Prince, My Son.Wash, and then eat.'
"They bathe to the sound of beautiful music, and, all the time they are eating, they see almehs dancing, and they listen to tales that never end.They are dearer to the good Lord God than the light of His eyes, because they are His guests, and they shall have for their portion the carpets of His house, and the pomegranates of His gardens."Ahmes often spoke in this strain, and thus taught the truth to Thais.
She wondered, and said--
"I should like to eat the pomegranates of the good Lord."Ahmes replied--
"Only those who are baptised may taste the fruits of heaven."And Thais asked to be baptised.Seeing by this that she believed in Jesus, the slave resolved to instruct her more fully, so that, being baptised, she might enter the Church; and he loved her as his spiritual daughter.
The child, unloved and uncared for by its selfish parents, had no bed in the house.She slept in a corner of the stable amongst the domestic animals, and there Ahmes came to her every night secretly.
He gently approached the mat on which she lay, and sat down on his heels, his legs bent and his body straight--a position hereditary to his race.His face and his body, which was clothed in black, were invisible in the darkness; but his big white eyes shone out, and there came from them a light like a ray of dawn through the chinks of a door.He spoke in a husky, monotonous tone, with a slight nasal twang that gave it the soft melody of music heard at night in the streets.
Sometimes the breathing of an ass, or the soft lowing of an ox, accompanied, like a chorus of invisible spirits, the voice of the slave as he recited the gospels.His words flowed gently in the darkness, which they filled with zeal, mercy, and hope; and the neophyte, her hand in that of Ahmes, lulled by the monotonous sounds, and the vague visions in her mind, slept calm and smiling, amid the harmonies of the dark night and the holy mysteries, gazed down on by a star, which twinkled between the joists of the stable-roof.
The initiation lasted a whole year, till the time when the Christians joyfully celebrate the festival of Easter.One night in the holy week, Thais, who was already asleep on her mat, felt herself lifted by the slave, whose eyes gleamed with a strange light.He was clad, not as usual in a pair of torn drawers, but in a long white cloak, beneath which he pressed the child, whispering to her--"Come, my soul! Come, light of my eyes! Come, little sweetheart! Come and be clad in the baptismal robes!"He carried the child pressed to his breast.Frightened and yet curious, Thais, her head out of the cloak, threw her arms round her friend's neck, and he ran with her through the darkness.They went down narrow, black alleys; they passed through the Jews' quarter; they skirted a cemetery, where the osprey uttered its dismal cry; they traversed an open space, passing under crosses on which hung the bodies of victims, and on the arms of the crosses the ravens clacked their beaks.Thais hid her head in the slave's breast.She did not dare to peep out all the rest of the way.Soon it seemed to her that she was going down under ground.When she reopened her eyes she found herself in a narrow cave, lighted by resin torches, on the walls of which were painted standing figures, which seemed to move and live in the flickering glare of the torches.They were men clad in long tunics and carrying branches of palm, and around them were lambs, doves, and tendrils of vine.