And we went forth.

CHAPTER VI

OF THE INITIATION OF HARMACHIS; OF HIS VISIONS; OF HIS PASSING TO THE CITY THAT IS IN THE PLACE OF DEATH; AND OF THE DECLARATIONS OF ISIS, THE MESSENGER

In silence we passed into the Shrine of Isis.  It was dark and bare—­only the feeble light from the lamp gleamed faintly upon the sculptured walls, where, in a hundred effigies, the Holy Mother suckled the Holy Child.

The priest closed the doors and bolted them.  “Once again,” he said, “art thou ready, Harmachis?”

“Once again,” I answered, “I am ready.”

He spoke no more; but, having lifted up his hands in prayer, led me to the centre of the Holy, and with a swift motion put out the lamp.

“Look before thee, Harmachis!” he cried; and his voice sounded hollow in the solemn place.

I gazed and saw nothing.  But from the niche that is high in the wall, where is hid that sacred symbol of the Goddess on which few may look, there came a sound as of the rattling rods of the sistrum.[*] And as I listened, awestruck, behold!  I saw the outline of the symbol drawn as with fire upon the blackness of the air.  It hung above my head, and rattled while it hung.  And, as it turned, I clearly saw the face of the Mother Isis that is graven on the one side, and signifies unending Birth, and the face of her holy sister, Nephthys, that is graven on the other, and signifies the ending of all birth in Death.

     [*] A musical instrument peculiarly sacred to Isis of which
     the shape and rods had a mystic significance.—­Editor.

Slowly it turned and swung as though some mystic dancer trod the air above me, and shook it in her hand.  But at length the light went out, and the rattling ceased.

Then of a sudden the end of the chamber became luminous, and in that white light I beheld picture after picture.  I saw the ancient Nile rolling through deserts to the sea.  There were no men upon its banks, nor any signs of man, nor any temples to the Gods.  Only wild birds moved on Sihor’s lonely face, and monstrous brutes plunged and wallowed in his waters.  The sun sank in majesty behind the Libyan Desert and stained the waters red; the mountains towered up towards the silent sky; but in mountain, desert, and river there was no sign of human life.  Then I knew that I saw the world as it had been before man was, and a terror of its loneliness entered my soul.

The picture passed and another rose up in its place.  Once again I saw the banks of Sihor, and on them crowded wild-faced creatures, partaking of the nature of the ape more than of the nature of mankind.  They fought and slew each other.  The wild birds sprang up in affright as the fire leapt from reed huts given by foemen’s hands to flame and pillage.  They stole and rent and murdered, dashing out the brains of children with axes of stone.  And, though no voice told me, I knew that I saw man as he was tens of thousands of years ago, when first he marched across the earth.