THE CHILDREN OF SET

      A CERTAIN PHARAOH who was a great lover of magic had many wise men and miracle workers at all times in his court. Indeed, the day came when he had seen so many wonders that hardly anything could surprise him any more. His appetite for marvels, however, was not abated, and if he could not see a novelty, he desired to hear of one. When therefore a scribe presented a tale discovered on an ancient roll of papyrus, the king composed himself happily to listen, observing that people were more godlike in olden times and their powers more remarkable. With this encouragement, the scribe unrolled the top of his papyrus and thus began.
      There was once a prince who had a fancy to travel about his dominions and passed through many villages where the peasants toiled from dawn to dusk for his sake. After several days, he reached the flowering pastures where his red and white cattle fed on the banks of great canals and marshy pools. Here as night fell, he came upon two herdsmen who had kindled a fire and were cooking outside a shelter which they had erected for themselves out of woven reeds. In the red glaze they looked more like devils than men, unshaven and with fierce eyes glittering beneath shaggy mats of hair. The prince perceived that they had their crooks beside them the straight ends of which were shod with copper points like spears. Being himself unarmed, he therefore thought it prudent to hide awhile and listen to them, that he might judge what manner of men they were.
      "It is better to run away and go for a soldier," grumbled the nearest, taking his crook and giving an angry poke at the fire. "I hardly dare go home at the end of the season without more cattle. The prince is a cruel master, and his overseers are always ready with the stick."
      "That is so, indeed," agreed the second, who was a red-haired youth with massive arms and chest as broad as a barrel. "Nevertheless, why should you lose your cattle here? As it seems to me, the grass never grew so thick about these parts before."
      "It is all very well for you, red-haired son of the demon Set," retorted the first speaker. "No crocodile will touch a red-haired man, for he fears the devil who protects him. I, on the other hand, was born on a day over which those beasts have special power."
      "Where is this crocodile?"
      "It waits by the ford that joins those two great pools," replied the first man gesturing. "Every day I must take my cattle through the water there, and you may be sure that there is no trick to protect them which I do not perform. Having been born in an evil hour, I am careful to carry an ibis feather, which should have power to turn the fiercest crocodile to stone. I also know a strong spell that I always say to the water. 'Halt, crocodile! Do not wave your tail or move your legs. Do not open your mouth. May the water seem to you a barrier of fire. Halt, crocodile, son of the evil one!' "
      "That is all good magic," nodded the red-haired man, "Do you mean to say that the crocodile is not turned to stone?"
      "For seven days he was," admitted the other. "Though I could see his great snout in the water, he could not move as we went by. On the eighth day as I came down to the ford, I met a woman, a child of Set like yourself, with flaming hair and huge eyes the color of green pools. 'How dare you enchant my crocodile?' said she.
      "'Is he your crocodile?' asked I astonished, for even a red-haired one does not adopt such creatures.”
      "'He is, indeed,' said she, 'and today we will wrestle a fall. Then if I win, the beast may have his pick out of your whole herd.'
      “'And if I win?' asked I, for she seemed both small and slender.
      "'Then I will teach you the magic of Thoth,' said she.
      "With that I rushed forward to crush her in my arms, but she slipped sideways. How it was, I do not know, but I found myself traveling head over heels through the air. I came down with a splash in the water, and was lucky to do so, since if I had landed on dry ground, I should certainly have broken my neck. As I scrambled up, that crocodile slid past me, opening his mouth so close that I could have rammed my right hand down his throat. With a fearful snap, he closed on the finest bull in my herd, a great red yearling without so much as one white hair. As you may well suppose, the rest of them scattered in wild confusion, so that I have spent the whole of the day in rounding them up. This is all bad enough, but how shall I prevent this woman from levying tribute upon me on every occasion I must pass? What herdsman will be bold enough to wrestle with her for the magic of Thoth?"
      "I will!" cried the prince, stepping forward into the firelight. “I can prevail, for I wear a talisman which I bought at a great price from the temple and which has hung round the neck of a god."

      Very early the next morning, the herdsmen rounded up their cattle and took them down to the river, the prince going ahead with the young bulls, and the others following with the cows and calves. The ford was a wide, shallow stretch of water whose banks were trampled and muddy from the daily passing of the herd. In the cold light of the morning, it lay very quiet and still. It was not until the sun caught on a patch of water that the prince saw a woman, clad in a thin white garment and veiled in clouds of coppery hair.
      “Good morning to you, prince of this land,” said she. “Do you think that the green stone at your breast gives you power to wrestle such as I?"
      "That and my own good courage," said the prince as he laid his arms about her and crooked his leg behind her own. For a moment the two swayed from side to side, panting, while their bare feet made squelching noises in the mud. "Admit my power!" said he through his teeth as he bent her slowly backward, his cheek pressed hard against her own.
      "It is great, but not enough," answered she. With that, her arms went around him and began to squeeze his chest like iron bands. Now she in her turn put a knee behind his and bore him backward, but he clung to her so tightly that she could not throw him down. 
      Once more, therefore, he said, "Admit my power!
      "Never!" cried she, and with a hand beneath his chin she tore him from her and threw him full upon his back into the mud.
      Quick as a flash, the crocodile seized on the best milch cow in the herd. The rest galloped panic-stricken out of the water and fled lowing up the bank with the frantic herdsman in pursuit.
      "Now that is too much!" cried the red-haired man, and with a roar he seized the woman and sent her whirling head over heels into the stream.
      She picked herself up, and the prince did likewise. They turned to face each other, she waist-deep in the water, he bespattered from head to foot with mud. "I should have conquered you!” cried he, shaking with anger. "But for this clown here, I should have wrestled with you every day until I won."
      "We may meet again,” responded she breathing heavily, "but you will never learn from me the magic of Thoth." With that, she smote upon the water with the palm of her hand, and the crocodile came to her, pushing his broad snout up the river like a great, gnarled log.
      "Set your foot on his back," said she to the red-haired man, “and take me by the hand." Side by side they stood on the crocodile as he bore them across the water, and the risen sun turned their flaming heads to gold. So brightly they flashed that the startled prince blinked sharply. When he opened his eyes again, they both were gone.
      "So be it," said he shrugging his shoulders as he turned away from the water. "I too know some magic and have ways to find out more." 

      After this time, another fancy seized the prince. He began to haunt the temples, endlessly deciphering the writings carved on their talismans and on their walls. Day after day he spent at the House of Life in Memphis, poring over ancient scrolls from the library of the priests. It began to be said that he was a magician and knew more secret wisdom than any living man.
      So matters stood when Pharaoh's only daughter lay on her bed of carved cedarwood one night and could not sleep. Then said a waiting woman who watched beside her, "Is it fever which makes you turn, and sigh, and move your headrest up or down as though it did not fit you and was not carved with many soporific spells?"
      Pharaoh's daughter sighed again and answered, "My father grows old and must give me a husband who may in time be god and king over the land. Sometimes he talks of marrying me to his scarred and one-eyed general. At other times, he thinks of his wrinkled minister, or again of his shaven, monkey-faced high priest. Now if I could but know which fate would come upon me, I might bear it. As it is, I have to dread not one, but three."
      "It is not hard to read such things," replied the waiting woman. "Before the sun comes up, you must take a golden bowl, go barefoot into the meadows, and fill it to the brim with dew. Turn your face to the east and wait until the rising sun shines on the water. Then repeat the words that I shall teach you, look in the bowl, and you shall see the face of him you are to wed."
      Very early on the next morning, when the mist was on the ground and the sky was not yet gray, Pharaoh's daughter took a bowl of gold and went out into the meadows of clover to gather dew. When the first rays of the sun shone on the water, she muttered the strange words her woman had told her, and glanced into the bowl. As soon, however, as she saw what lay within it, she gave a fearful shriek and collapsed on the grass as though she were dead. When her servants came running out to raise her, she opened her eyes, but could neither speak nor walk, and so she remained.
      With one accord the whole band of the king's magicians declared that an evil demon had seized on the princess and must be expelled. They therefore surrounded her with balls of clay and spittle in which they had kneaded snakeskin, hairs from a sacred bull, roots dug by moonlight, and little amulets that had been laid upon a corpse. They lighted braziers and filled the gay chamber with the pungent smoke of herbs. They swayed and chanted, calling upon the aid of powerful gods. Daily the brow of the god and king appeared more anxious, while his minister, his priest, and his general whispered together, making common cause now that the princess was beyond the reach of all.
      At last when Pharaoh saw that he had no help from his magicians, and that the very images from the temple had visited his daughter in vain, he sent swift boats up and down the river to the farthest parts of his kingdom, declaring that anyone who could cure the princess might have her to wife. Thus all the wise men of the kingdom flocked to the palace, with their staffs, their scrolls, and the paraphernalia of their magic, but even the oldest and most repulsive among the holy men of Egypt brought no cure.
      As for the prince, he did not go with the others, but told Pharaoh's messengers, "There is only one magic that will cause the dumb to speak and the lame to walk. That is the magic of Thoth, and as I do not know it, I will not go to the daughter of Pharaoh until it is found. It does not lie in the temples, but in the marshlands, where once I met a woman who knew what it was." With these words, he called for his own boat, painted in blue and picked out with gilding, in which he went about his own dominions seated under a canopy of palms. He bade his rowers take him to the eastern arm of the Delta, and set him on shore where the grasslands and the marshlands both begin.
      On this eastern side of the Delta lies a wide, flat country where thatched huts rise on little hillocks amid stagnant ponds or acres of whispering reeds. Flickering lights move across the marsh in the darkness at some seasons, and wise men do not travel at such times. During the day it is a noisy country, full of the sighing of winds and the screaming of birds. It is a land in which a man's cry goes unheard or unregarded, though men have disappeared in the mud from time to time. Even the fowlers keep to the slimy pools about their villages, while farther in, where the water is deep and dark green, they do not dare to go.
      Through this country went the prince, walking first on the high causeways that led through inhabited parts, and then plunging across the mud on tracks known only to the wildcats, snakes, or foxes that preyed upon the creatures of the marsh. Birds hung about his head uttering cries of strange omen. Snakes hissed, but seeing the green stone at his breast, they slid away. The little marsh lights danced and flickered around him, leading to bottomless tracts of quaking mud.

      At last he came to the center of the marsh and saw that within it there lay a dark lake, surrounding an island on which grew thick, green bushes like a wall. He glanced at the water, in which were neither weeds nor fishes, and saw, uncoiling himself from the depths, a water snake. The creature lifted his head from the surface and hissed as the prince passed by him, searching for a place where solid ground gave access to the water's edge. Presently he found a spot where the reeds grew thinly, and he halted, scanning the water before him carefully. A little red eye blinked at him and with a roar a great black hippopotamus opened his laws so wide that the prince could see down his huge red mouth into his throat. The prince passed on once more and came to a little cove with a small, firm beach of sand. He looked across at the island and at the water in between. All was absolutely still. Advancing a single pace, he wetted his feet in the lake. With an imperceptible motion a great gray log came floating along the shore.
      The prince regarded the log, and partway down its length he saw a cold, fishy eye that stared at him. Then he knew his search was at an end and said to himself, "Here is the giant crocodile, and with him must be the children of Set." With that, he took a small scroll from his bosom and struck the water, murmuring powerful words. With a great roar the lake divided before him, piling itself upon either side as though it had been contained by walls of glass. The prince set foot on the road which lay between them, leading straight as an arrow to the island in their midst.
      A red-haired man came down to the bank of the island and stood there watching the prince as he walked across. "Why should I not pick you up and throw you head over heels into the water where my monsters could finish you off?" cried he.
      The prince looked at him and saw that he was broad and burly as ever, and that his red beard still made a bush about his face. He was clothed no longer in rags, but in fine white linen, and a broad collar of gold lay round his neck. He raised his hands as though to seize on the prince, who smiled at him unconcerned and answered, "If I perish, you will never get rid of this path to your island. Give me what I ask, and I will show you how waters divide, and how they may be closed."
      "What do you want?" said the magician, scowling. "There has been trouble between us both since the day when you tried to win the magic of Thoth instead of me."
      "Give me a charm that can cure Pharaoh's daughter, and you shall have that which makes the waters divide."
      "That is no fair exchange," said the magician, "but you shall have what you ask, and it will go hard if I cannot find means to make things even." Thereupon he brought out a box of iron and took from it another box made of cedarwood and marked with mysterious carvings. In this was a box of ebony and ivory, containing another of silver, which in its turn when opened revealed a casket of gold. In the golden casket lay a small and tattered papyrus, yellow with age and marked with mysterious signs in a strange, black ink. This the magician plunged into a bowl of water, dabbing and pressing on it with his fingers until the ink was completely washed away. Then he poured the blackened water into a vial and gave it to the prince, saying, "This has the power of the words which were written on the papyrus. Let the princess take three sips, and she will be cured. I warn you, however, you had best not think to marry her, for it is not her destiny."
      "I think it is," answered the prince, "but that is a matter which you and I must settle on some different ground. Meantime, do you walk back with me through the water, and I will give you my charm when I am safe on the farther bank."

       After some days, the prince came up to Pharaoh's city in his blue and gold barge, while all the people flocked to the wharf to stare at it. The princess still lay on her cedarwood couch in the palace with charms heaped all about her, consisting of clay images, rolls of papyrus, carvings, stones, pieces of skeletons, or strange dried skins. Sweet and pungent smokes poured from a number of braziers. Naked black men, bearded Syrians, red-eyed enthusiasts, priests, and ragged beggars howled or whirled before her, some after the fashion of their country even gashing themselves with knives.
      "Turn all this trash out!" commanded the prince. With relief the servants began to gather up the charms in armfuls and throw them into the yard. With howls of protest, the wise men ran after them to rummage, each for his own treasure, in the heaps outside.
      "Bring fans to drive away this smoke," ordered the prince, “and clean the chamber." He waited in silence, leaning against one of the painted pillars while this was done.
      At last the chamber was swept clean and strewn with silvery sand in which was mingled the dust of lapis lazuli. Fresh lotus garlands were hung upon the pillars, that their scent might purify the air. The prince called for a cup and, filling it from his vial, he lifted the princess slightly in order that she might drink.
      At the first sip, the princess sat up and looked about her, so that the servants cried out and ran to Pharaoh with the news, "There is more to do yet," said the prince as he held the draught to her lips the second time.
      At the second sip, the princess stood and walked, but though she turned her eyes from one to another and opened her mouth, no utterance came. When the price offered her the cup for the third time, she took it in her own hands and drank from it. With a sudden gesture she turned aside to her waiting woman and said, "It is not he." Bursting into a passion of weeping, she hid her face upon the woman's neck.
      At this moment appeared the god and king, almost running and with his fanbearers stumbling beside him in a panting effort to keep up his dignity. With infinite relief he welcomed the prince, having long repented his rash promise, since he had seen what sort of folk had flocked to the palace with their nasty cures. "Of all the princes in my dominions," said he rejoicing, "this one is the fittest to be god and king over Egypt after me." 
      Meanwhile the princess went on weeping and said to her woman, "If it were only he!"
      Great were the preparations for the princess's wedding, but she took no part in them except to send to the temples and ask if he who had cured her should indeed have her to wife. The images with one accord nodded their heads to this question, as much as to say in full sight of the priests and people, "It shall be he."
       "It was not his face that I saw in the golden bowl," said the princess to her woman. "How then can the gods themselves declare that I must marry him?"
      "You are to marry the man who truly cured you," replied the green-eyed waiting woman, "that is, not he who gave you the draught, but he who owned the spell. How do we know that this prince is a true magician and has not stolen the charm from someone greater?"
      "But how shall I find this out?" asked the princess trembling.
      "I will teach you," said the waiting woman. She brought out a talisman shaped like a fish and carved of smooth green malachite, which she hung about the princess's neck, while instructing her in what she should do and say.
      In the last hours of the day when Pharaoh visited his house of women, the princess went to him, saying, "Though you have given me a lake for my own pleasure and set a golden boat on it which shines like the sun, you have never yet joined me there in the cool of the evening, to hear the sound of soft singing across the water as my women row about."
      This suggestion pleased the Pharaoh, who was tired of his draughtboard and of the tales of ancient magic with which the women diverted him. He went down to the golden boat, which the princess had caused to be strewn with scarlet cushions that she and her father might lie at their ease beneath the canopy, instead of sitting stiffly side by side in chairs. They therefore lay on the deck and listened to the women singing, while the princess dabbled her arm in the water, leaning out across the side. As they reached the center of the lake, the fish of green malachite which the princess was wearing dropped off her neck and vanished with a little plop into the depths beneath.
      The princess began to weep and wail, "My fish! My fish of green malachite! Without this jewel all my luck has gone from me!"
      Then said the waiting woman from her place among the rowers, "Is not the prince a great magician? Could he not recover your malachite fish from the very bottom of the sea?"
      The princess appeared comforted at this saying, while Pharaoh himself nodded his head as he declared, "There is much sense in this waiting woman. Though she has green eyes like a daughter of Set, her appearance is almost pleasing when one considers the wisdom of her words." He therefore sent for the prince and bade him fetch the fish of green malachite, adding that it should be but a very small matter to raise such a jewel, even from the depths of the sea.
      The prince looked at the bright water and shook his head, declaring that he was not magician enough to recover the talisman. Even Pharaoh frowned at that, while the princess turned from him passionately, crying, "If that be the case, you are not magician enough for me!" To this she adhered, notwithstanding all entreaties; and she worked upon her father until he too became angry, not having been used to demand a service which was not performed. Before the sun was set, there was a quarrel in the palace and the promised hand of the princess was now refused.

      On the following morning, the prince went down to the wharf, thinking to summon his rowers and depart the way he had come. As he reached it, he was aware that crowds of citizens had gathered to stare at a boat which was approaching up the stream. Unlike most rich men's boats, this was not gilded or painted in bright colors, but appeared a. plain dark gray from stem to stern. This in itself was unusual, but what was extraordinary was that the rowers themselves were from head to foot a plain dark gray. They were not yellowish, like Syrians, brown like Egyptians, or any of the shades of black which Ethiopians display, but were gray in their skins and their hair and what could be seen of their costume, all alike. Indeed, except on their passenger, there was no color visible but darkish gray.
      In his chair of state under a gray awning sat a huge brown man clad in white and wearing a golden collar. Before his flaming head and bristling countenance, the harmless citizens shrank back in mild dismay, leaving a little space by the landing into which the stranger stepped without a word. Turning to his gray boat, he picked it up, whereupon it dwindled in his hand and shrank into a tiny model of gray wax, Muffling it in his robe, he turned himself about, demanding, "Where is the palace of the Pharaoh, whose daughter my servant cured for me?"

      No one dared answer him, but the people made a lane down which he stalked, head high and with the little gray boat beneath his arm. It chanced that Pharaoh was in his hall of audience, wearing the red and white crown and receiving the tribute which kings had sent to him from the ends of the earth. If a god may be said to turn pale, then this one did so when his eyes fell on the fiery countenance of the son of the evil one. His crook and his scepter shook in his hands as he demanded in quavering tones, "How dare this son of the devil face my good godhead on my golden throne? "
       "I have come for your daughter," answered the evil one in ringing tones, your only daughter, whom I sent my servant to cure, and whom you have promised to give me as wife."
      The god and king shivered again, for he was old and the courage of his youth had long forsaken him. His wizened minister leaned forward and said to him with soft malice, "Would it not be well to ask the princess what she says?" Thereupon the one-eyed general and the monkey-faced priest nodded agreement, making common cause in their jealousy against the prince.
      The princess gave a little cry when her eyes fell on the red magician. She went pale as ashes to her very lips, but she did not faint or run away. "I cannot tell who cured me," she admitted, "but I did see this terrible face in my golden bowl."
      Now the Pharaoh looked on the red man, dismayed and silent, for this was worse than giving his daughter to one of the madmen who gashed themselves with knives. In his extremity, a thought came to him, and he said, "In that case, you can recover us the fish of green malachite that lies at the bottom of the lake."
      "Gladly," said the magician, and he strode off through the palace followed by the minister, the priest, the general, and even the Pharaoh with his stumbling fanbearers half running in his wake. At the edge of the lake, the red man took out a scroll, bent down, and struck the water, muttering at the same time some magic words. With a roar, the waters divided, piling themselves up on either side as though they had been contained by walls of glass. The magician turned to the wizened minister, who stood quaking beside him. "Walk in and fetch the fish of malachite. You will not need to wet your foot," said he.
      With a groan, the little old minister tottered forward, giving many an anxious glance at the water on either hand as he went staggering down the narrow lane. He picked up the fish and came hobbling back with all possible speed, while the magician grinned at his terror and the whole court stood amazed.
      "Now shall I have the princess?" cried the evil one, taking the fish and tossing it to her, as he restored the lake with a roar of waters to its former state.
      Once more the city hummed with preparations for a wedding, while the princess sat silent in her chamber, and even the waiting woman could get no smile from her. Days passed, and the feast was at last ready. By the hideous groom sat the princess, clad in her richest adornments, though in spite of her eye paint and lip salve, she looked pale as any ghost. The wine was being poured when there came a stir at the door, and a messenger went over to Pharaoh. "Here is the prince," he announced, "who is appearing to claim his bride."
      In came the prince dressed like a bridegroom and demanded his wife before them all.
      The Pharaoh looked from one bridegroom to the other, and though he knew which one he preferred, he did not dare to make a choice. "The princess has sat at her wedding by the man she saw in her golden bowl. Now turn him out, since he has served his purpose, and finish the feast with the true bridegroom," said the prince.
      With a little cackle the wizened minister leaned forward in his place. "At every feast there is some entertainment, he said, "and at this there should be one of a quite unusual sort. Let these two magicians show their powers before us, and let the stronger have the princess as bride. Many a tale will be told of this wedding in the days that lie ahead." He tittered a little with the general, who sat beside him, each hoping that both their rivals would be destroyed.
      The red-haired man arose, nothing loath, and called to the servants to bring him in a goose. Chopping off its head, he placed this on one side of the hall, and threw the body over to the other. Then he made some magical passes, muttered some words, and behold, the goose came together and began to quack loudly and to peck with its beak at the crumbs on the floor.
      "That is nothing," declared the prince, and he called for the attendants to bring him a bull. In his turn, he chopped off the head and disposed of the pieces on either side of the room. Then he made some magical passes, muttered some words, and the bull came together and stood in the midst of the room, snorting and snuffling, while the halter, which had fallen from his severed neck, still lay upon the floor.
      Now when the red-haired one saw that his deed had been surpassed in this fashion, he gave a cry and sprang up where he stood in the form of a blazing fire. With shrieks the company parted on either side, and all fled into the courtyard, where the fire pursued them, catching at pillars and tables as it passed. Suddenly, there was a roar of thunder in heaven, and a great black cloud burst over them, drowning hall, pillars, and courtyard in a fierce downpour. In a moment the fire had been extinguished, the cloud had vanished, and the two magicians were facing each other in front of the dripping guests and blackened hall.
      Once again with a shout the red one changed his shape and became a damp and clinging mist, which covered the palace in darkness and blotted out the kindly rays of the warming sun. With another great roar, a storm of wind fell on it and sent it flying with the wigs and garlands of the company bowling after it.
      With a shriek the princess pointed to her waiting woman, whose heavy wig of ceremony had gone helter-skelter with the rest. All turned and saw that underneath it, her own hair was red as the magician's own. "Seize her!" cried the prince to those about her. "It is the daughter of Set."
      When the red man saw that his accomplice was discovered, he determined to crush them all and changed himself into a falling roof of stone. But the boats of the sun and moon themselves came sailing down through the heavens, caught up the roof of stone, and bore it away. As for the waiting woman, when she saw the sun and the moon themselves were arrayed against her, she flew into the air like a great brown bird and disappeared. The sky was clear once more, and all was still. The prince looked around at the blackened ruins of the banquet, at the crownless Pharaoh and his wigless minister, and he gave his hand to the princess to lead her away. "Come with me," he said, "and we will hold a feast in my own palace whose richness will put the very banquet of Pharaoh to shame."
      With that he led her toward the gate, while Pharaoh, hastily adjusting his crown, came tottering after. As for his fanbearers, they stayed behind, because the wind had left them nothing with which to sustain his dignity.

      When the scribe had finished this tale, he paused. Pharaoh gave a long sigh of pleasure. "Those were the days of real marvels," he declared. "Miraculous cures I have seen, and miraculous plagues of wind, fire, pestilence, or rain, as the case may be. I have even beheld a conjuring trick like that with the bull and the goose. Waxen images, too, are common among us, though seldom on such a large scale as a boat and its rowers. As for the dividing of the waters, however, I do not believe that men could do such a thing in these modern days. I would give my very life to see that sight"'
      A servant came into the hall and fell on his face before Pharaoh. "There is a man called Moses who declares that a spirit has bid him appear before your majesty."
      "A miracle worker," cried the king, "since he talks of a spirit! Let him come in and show his powers, but such a thing as the dividing of water is not to be expected in our times."