Robert Chambers - The Tracer of Lost Persons

"What do you mean? Is there anything in that scroll bearing on this matter?"

"Yes."

"And you can read it? Are you versed in such learning, Mr. Keen?"

"I am an Egyptologist—among other details," said the Tracer calmly.

The young man gazed at him, astonished. The Tracer of Lost Persons picked up a pencil, laid a sheet of paper on the table beside the papyrus, and slowly began to copy the first symbol:

Glyph

"The ancient Egyptian word for the personal pronoun 'I' was anuk ," said the Tracer placidly. "The phonetic for a was the hieroglyph

Glyph

a reed; for n the water symbol

Glyph

for u the symbols

Glyph

for k

Glyph

Therefore this hieroglyphic inscription begins with the personal pronoun

Glyph

or I . That is very easy, of course.

"Now, the most ancient of Egyptian inscriptions read vertically in columns; there are only two columns in this papyrus, so we'll try it vertically and pass downward to the next symbol, which is inclosed in a sort of frame or cartouch. That immediately signifies that royalty is mentioned; therefore, we have already translated as much as 'I, the king (or queen).' Do you see?"

"Yes," said Burke, staring.

"Very well. Now this symbol, number two,

Glyph

spells out the word ' Meris ,' in this way: M (pronounced me ) is phonetically symbolized by the characters

Glyph

r by

Glyph

(a mouth) and the comma

Glyph

and the hieroglyph

Glyph

i by two reeds

Glyph

and two oblique strokes,

Glyph

and s by

Glyph

This gives us Meris, the name of that deposed and fugitive king of Egypt who, after a last raid on the summer palace of Mer–Shen, usurping ruler of Egypt, was followed and tracked to Saïs, where, with an arrow through his back, he crawled to El Teb and finally died there of his wound. All this Egyptologists are perfectly familiar with in the translations of the boastful tablets and inscriptions erected near Saïs by Mer–Shen, the three hundred and twelfth sovereign after Queen Nitocris."

He looked up at Burke, smiling. "Therefore," he said, "this papyrus scroll was written by Meris, ex–king, a speculative thousands of years before Christ. And it begins: 'I, Meris the King.'"

"How does all this bear upon what concerns me?" demanded Burke.

"Wait!"

Something in the quiet significance of the Tracer's brief command sent a curious thrill through the younger man. He leaned stiffly forward, studying the scroll, every faculty concentrated on the symbol which the Tracer had now touched with the carefully sharpened point of his pencil:

Glyph

"That," said Mr. Keen, "is the ancient Egyptian word for 'little,' ' Ket .' The next, below, written in two lines, is 'Samaris,' a proper name—the name of a woman. Under that, again, is the symbol for the number 18; the decimal sign,

Glyph

and eight vertical strokes,

Glyph

Under that, again, is a hieroglyph of another sort, an ideograph representing a girl with a harp; and, beneath that, the symbol which always represented a dancing girl

Glyph

and also the royal symbol inclosed in a cartouch,

Glyph

which means literally 'the Ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt.' Under that is the significant symbol

Glyph

representing an arm and a hand holding a stick. This always means force —to take forcibly or to use violence. Therefore, so far, we have the following literal translation: 'I, Meris the King, little Samaris, eighteen, a harpist, dancing girl, the Ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt, to take by violence—'"

"What does that make?" broke in Burke impatiently.

" Wait! Wait until we have translated everything literally. And, Mr. Burke, it might make it easier for us both if you would remember that I have had the pleasure of deciphering many hundreds of papyri before you had ever heard that there were such things."

"I beg your pardon," said the young man in a low voice.

"I beg yours for my impatience," said the Tracer pleasantly. "This deciphering always did affect my nerves and shorten my temper. And, no doubt, it is quite as hard on you. Shall we go on, Mr. Burke?"

"If you please, Mr. Keen."

So the Tracer laid his pencil point on the next symbol

Glyph

"That is the symbol for night," he said; "and that

Glyph

is the water symbol again, as you know; and that

Glyph

is the ideograph, meaning a ship. The five reversed crescents

Glyph

record the number of days voyage; the sign

Glyph

means a house, and is also the letter H in the Egyptian alphabet.

"Under it, again, we have a repetition of the first symbol meaning I , and a repetition of the second symbol, meaning 'Meris, the King.' Then, below that cartouch, comes a new symbol,

Glyph

which is the feminine personal pronoun, sentus , meaning ' she '; and the first column is completed with the symbol for the ancient Egyptian verb, nehes , 'to awake,'

Glyph

"And now we take the second column, which begins with the jackal ideograph expressing slyness or cleverness. Under it is the hieroglyph meaning 'to run away,' 'to escape.' And under that, Mr. Burke, is one of the rarest of all Egyptian symbols; a symbol seldom seen on stone or papyrus,

Glyph

except in rare references to the mysteries of Isis. The meaning of it, so long in dispute, has finally been practically determined through a new discovery in the cuneiform inscriptions. It is the symbol of two hands holding two closed eyes; and it signifies power."

"You mean that those ancients understood hypnotism?" asked Burke, astonished.

"Evidently their priests did; evidently hypnotism was understood and employed in certain mysteries. And there is the symbol of it; and under it the hieroglyphs

Glyph

meaning 'a day and a night,' with the symbol

Glyph

as usual present to signify force or strength employed. Under that, again, is a human figure stretched upon a typical Egyptian couch. And now, Mr. Burke, note carefully three modifying signs: first, that it is a couch or bed on which the figure is stretched, not the funeral couch, not the embalming slab; second, there is no mummy mask covering the face, and no mummy case covering the body; third, that under the recumbent figure is pictured an open mouth, not a closed one.

"All these modify the ideograph, apparently representing death. But the sleep symbol is not present. Therefore it is a sound inference that all this simply confirms the symbol of hypnotism."

Burke, intensely absorbed, stared steadily at the scroll.

"Now," continued Mr. Keen, "we note the symbol of force again, always present; and, continuing horizontally, a cartouch quite empty except for the midday sun. That is simply translated; the midday sun illuminates nothing. Meris, deposed, is king only in name; and the sun no longer shines on him as 'Ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt.' Under that despairing symbol, 'King of Nothing,' we have

Glyph

the phonetics which spell sha , the word for garden. And, just beyond this, horizontally, the modifying ideograph meaning 'a water garden';

Glyph

a design of lotus and tree alternating on a terrace. Under that is the symbol for the word ' aneb ,'