Voices from the Other World Read Online Free

promises and be generous with them—so that they lower their shield of submissiveness and obedience. By this means, we may see what is truly inside them.”
    But the prince’s heart recoiled from Pharaoh’s plan. He remonstrated, saying, “I beg you, my lord, not to persuade me to take a position by which my youthful rebellion will be known to both heaven and earth! Nor to accept your long absence, which would rob my heart of its peace, and deprive the people of your care and vigilance.”
    But the king prevailed over the prince’s anxieties, convincing him to bow to his wishes out of a sense of subservience. Userkaf then went to the youthful Queen Tey—she was not the heir apparent’s mother, who had died a long time before—to bid her good-bye. He also bid good-bye to his dear dog, Zay. Then he set out on a merchant ship to the sacred land of Punt, the source of fragrant incense. There he dwelt for not a little while, wandering among her lush, fertile valleys. Everywhere that he set down his foot, he received the honor and hospitality befitting one of Pharaoh’s subjects.
    Yet Userkaf could not cease thinking about what he might encounter from his subjects and his companions upon his return. Whenever ill-thought tormented him, and deadly dreams and apprehensions appeared to him, he sought relief in beautiful memories, to evoke the feeling of trust they had given him, and to seek patience and repose from their inspiration. And when his breast was weighed down by worry and evil whisperings, and his heart stricken by homesickness, he longed to return to his native land.
    So he gathered his scant baggage and sailed on an Egyptian ship, stepping once more onto the shore of that country to which he had offered the flower of his life for the sake of her welfare. He headed straight from the dock to the nearest village, where—dressed as a foreigner—he mixed, unrecognized, among its people. One day he asked a group of them, “O you men, who is your king?”
    A young man with a sunburned face answered him, twirling an axe in his arms, “The blessed one’s name is ‘Sahura.’ ”
    â€œAnd how do you see him?”
    The young man answered with a passion to which his friends said, “Amen”:
    â€œHe comes to our aid if the Nile is too low, and helps us if calamity worsens, and all turns to gloom.”
    The king then asked, “And how do you remember Userkaf?”
    â€œWell enough—if he were still on the scene, and he were still our king.”
    Pharaoh sighed, and asked in a wistful voice, “How can you abandon him, when he had been for you a most laudable ruler and guide?”
    The youth threw him a nasty look, then said, as he gave him his back, “Sedition is an evil cursed by the gods.”
    The king left the village in a melancholy way, heading toward the Nile and the seat of his realm. Looking up, he found himself facing the Temple of Khnum. He asked to meet Samun, the high priest, and was invited to enter the inner sanctum. When the high priest saw him, he knew him despite his alien attire. Overwhelmed with amazement and anguish, he shouted out hoarsely, “My lord, King Userkaf!”
    The king smiled a bitter, sardonic smile, “How can you call me your lord the king when you have given your blessing to a childish usurper who has stolen my throne?”
    The high priest stammered, trembling and looking away, “My lord, what can a weak man do who is not used to fighting?”
    â€œFighting is not a duty to which all men are bound, but loyalty is incumbent upon all men of virtue. So how can you continue in service to one who has betrayed your lord and benefactor?”
    The embarrassment of the king’s old friend increased and perplexity gripped him; he did not answer. So Pharaoh said to him, “Are you able, Samun, to repent for your sin by declaring the illegality of my son Sahura’s rule, and to