The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker (ebook and pdf reader .txt) đ
- Author: Bram Stoker
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his bent.â
âMr. Trelawnyâs hope was at least as great as my own. He is not so
volatile a man as I am, prone to ups and downs of hope and despair; but
he has a fixed purpose which crystallises hope into belief. At times I
had feared that there might have been two such stones, or that the
adventures of Van Huyn were travellerâs fictions, based on some ordinary
acquisition of the curio in Alexandria or Cairo, or London or Amsterdam.
But Mr. Trelawny never faltered in his belief. We had many things to
distract our minds from belief or disbelief. This was soon after Arabi
Pasha, and Egypt was so safe place for travellers, especially if they
were English. But Mr. Trelawny is a fearless man; and I almost come to
think at times that I am not a coward myself. We got together a band of
Arabs whom one or other of us had known in former trips to the desert,
and whom we could trust; that is, we did not distrust them as much as
others. We were numerous enough to protect ourselves from chance
marauding bands, and we took with us large impedimenta. We had secured
the consent and passive co-operation of the officials still friendly to
Britain; in the acquiring of which consent I need hardly say that Mr.
Trelawnyâs riches were of chief importance. We found our way in
dhahabiyehs to Aswan; whence, having got some Arabs from the Sheik and
having given our usual backsheesh, we set out on our journey through the
desert.
âWell, after much wandering and trying every winding in the interminable
jumble of hills, we came at last at nightfall on just such a valley as
Van Huyn had described. A valley with high, steep cliffs; narrowing in
the centre, and widening out to the eastern and western ends. At
daylight we were opposite the cliff and could easily note the opening
high up in the rock, and the hieroglyphic figures which were evidently
intended originally to conceal it.
âBut the signs which had baffled Van Huyn and those of his timeâand
later, were no secrets to us. The host of scholars who have given their
brains and their lives to this work, had wrested open the mysterious
prison-house of Egyptian language. On the hewn face of the rocky cliff
we, who had learned the secrets, could read what the Theban priesthood
had had there inscribed nearly fifty centuries before.
âFor that the external inscription was the work of the priesthoodâand a
hostile priesthood at thatâthere could be no living doubt. The
inscription on the rock, written in hieroglyphic, ran thus:
ââHither the Gods come not at any summons. The âNameless Oneâ has
insulted them and is for ever alone. Go not nigh, lest their vengeance
wither you away!â
âThe warning must have been a terribly potent one at the time it was
written and for thousands of years afterwards; even when the language in
which it was given had become a dead mystery to the people of the land.
The tradition of such a terror lasts longer than its cause. Even in the
symbols used there was an added significance of alliteration. âFor
everâ is given in the hieroglyphics as âmillions of yearsâ. This symbol
was repeated nine times, in three groups of three; and after each group
a symbol of the Upper World, the Under World, and the Sky. So that for
this Lonely One there could be, through the vengeance of all the Gods,
resurrection in neither the World of Sunlight, in the World of the Dead,
or for the soul in the region of the Gods.
âNeither Mr. Trelawny nor I dared to tell any of our people what the
writing meant. For though they did not believe in the religion whence
the curse came, or in the Gods whose vengeance was threatened, yet they
were so superstitious that they would probably, had they known of it,
have thrown up the whole task and run away.
âTheir ignorance, however, and our discretion preserved us. We made an
encampment close at hand, but behind a jutting rock a little further
along the valley, so that they might not have the inscription always
before them. For even that traditional name of the place: âThe Valley
of the Sorcererâ, had a fear for them; and for us through them. With
the timber which we had brought, we made a ladder up the face of the
rock. We hung a pulley on a beam fixed to project from the top of the
cliff. We found the great slab of rock, which formed the door, placed
clumsily in its place and secured by a few stones. Its own weight kept
it in safe position. In order to enter, we had to push it in; and we
passed over it. We found the great coil of chain which Van Huyn had
described fastened into the rock. There were, however, abundant
evidences amid the wreckage of the great stone door, which had revolved
on iron hinges at top and bottom, that ample provision had been
originally made for closing and fastening it from within.
âMr. Trelawny and I went alone into the tomb. We had brought plenty of
lights with us; and we fixed them as we went along. We wished to get a
complete survey at first, and then make examination of all in detail.
As we went on, we were filled with ever-increasing wonder and delight.
The tomb was one of the most magnificent and beautiful which either of
us had ever seen. From the elaborate nature of the sculpture and
painting, and the perfection of the workmanship, it was evident that the
tomb was prepared during the lifetime of her for whose resting-place it
was intended. The drawing of the hieroglyphic pictures was fine, and
the colouring superb; and in that high cavern, far away from even the
damp of the Nile-flood, all was as fresh as when the artists had laid
down their palettes. There was one thing which we could not avoid
seeing. That although the cutting on the outside rock was the work of
the priesthood, the smoothing of the cliff face was probably a part of
the tomb-builderâs original design. The symbolism of the painting and
cutting within all gave the same idea. The outer cavern, partly natural
and partly hewn, was regarded architecturally as only an ante-chamber.
At the end of it, so that it would face the east, was a pillared
portico, hewn out of the solid rock. The pillars were massive and were
seven-sided, a thing which we had not come across in any other tomb.
Sculptured on the architrave was the Boat of the Moon, containing
Hathor, cow-headed and bearing the disk and plumes, and the dog-headed
Hapi, the God of the North. It was steered by Harpocrates towards the
north, represented by the Pole Star surrounded by Draco and Ursa Major.
In the latter the stars that form what we call the âPloughâ were cut
larger than any of the other stars; and were filled with gold so that,
in the light of torches, they seemed to flame with a special
significance. Passing within the portico, we found two of the
architectural features of a rock tomb, the Chamber, or Chapel, and the
Pit, all complete as Van Huyn had noticed, though in his day the names
given to these parts by the Egyptians of old were unknown.
âThe Stele, or record, which had its place low down on the western wall,
was so remarkable that we examined it minutely, even before going on our
way to find the mummy which was the object of our search. This Stele
was a great slab of lapis lazuli, cut all over with hieroglyphic figures
of small size and of much beauty. The cutting was filled in with some
cement of exceeding fineness, and of the colour of pure vermilion. The
inscription began:
ââTera, Queen of the Egypts, daughter of Antef, Monarch of the North and
the South.â âDaughter of the Sun,â âQueen of the Diademsâ.
âIt then set out, in full record, the history of her life and reign.
âThe signs of sovereignty were given with a truly feminine profusion of
adornment. The united Crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt were, in especial,
cut with exquisite precision. It was new to us both to find the Hejet
and the Desherâthe White and the Red crowns of Upper and Lower
Egyptâon the Stele of a queen; for it was a rule, without exception in
the records, that in ancient Egypt either crown was worn only by a king;
though they are to be found on goddesses. Later on we found an
explanation, of which I shall say more presently.
âSuch an inscription was in itself a matter so startling as to arrest
attention from anyone anywhere at any time; but you can have no
conception of the effect which it had upon us. Though our eyes were not
the first which had seen it, they were the first which could see it with
understanding since first the slab of rock was fixed in the cliff
opening nearly five thousand years before. To us was given to read this
message from the dead. This message of one who had warred against the
Gods of Old, and claimed to have controlled them at a time when the
hierarchy professed to be the only means of exciting their fears or
gaining their good will.
âThe walls of the upper chamber of the Pit and the sarcophagus Chamber
were profusely inscribed; all the inscriptions, except that on the
Stele, being coloured with bluish-green pigment. The effect when seen
sideways as the eye caught the green facets, was that of an old,
discoloured Indian turquoise.
âWe descended the Pit by the aid of the tackle we had brought with us.
Trelawny went first. It was a deep pit, more than seventy feet; but it
had never been filled up. The passage at the bottom sloped up to the
sarcophagus Chamber, and was longer than is usually found. It had not
been walled up.
âWithin, we found a great sarcophagus of yellow stone. But that I need
not describe; you have seen it in Mr. Trelawnyâs chamber. The cover of
it lay on the ground; it had not been cemented, and was just as Van Huyn
had described it. Needless to say, we were excited as we looked within.
There must, however, be one sense of disappointment. I could not help
feeling how different must have been the sight which met the Dutch
travellerâs eyes when he looked within and found that white hand lying
lifelike above the shrouding mummy cloths. It is true that a part of
the arm was there, white and ivory like.
âBut there was a thrill to us which came not to Van Huyn!
âThe end of the wrist was covered with dried blood! It was as though
the body had bled after death! The jagged ends of the broken wrist were
rough with the clotted blood; through this the white bone, sticking out,
looked like the matrix of opal. The blood had streamed down and stained
the brown wrappings as with rust. Here, then, was full confirmation of
the narrative. With such evidence of the narratorâs truth before us, we
could not doubt the other matters which he had told, such as the blood
on the mummy hand, or marks of the seven fingers on the throat of the
strangled Sheik.
âI shall not trouble you with details of all we saw, or how we learned
all we knew. Part of it was from knowledge common to scholars; part we
read on the Stele in
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