The Eye of the Sun - ebook

The Eye of the Sun

_This series about the Sphinx Emerald constitutes, as has been said, a veritable Outline of History–or perhaps “Highlights of History” would be more accurate. For this reason the greatest event in all history could not be left out. Here, then, we see the Holy Family during the exile in Egypt._

IN the time when Cnaeus Gabinius ruled Egypt as Prefect for Augustus, you might have noticed an old man with white hair and tattered garments, who drove a skinny donkey along the trail. This was in Lower Egypt, some twelve miles from the fortress of Babylon on the Nile. Not on the river itself, but on the great canal which connected the Nile with the sea–part of the great maze of channels and canals cutting up the lower country. One could float down by boat to Alexandria and the Bitter Lakes from almost anywhere here.

The old wanderer came to a strange spot, where sandy mounds, half-buried buildings and statues denoted a former city of the Egyptians, its ruins spreading for miles around. A miserable little native huddle of huts stood by the water, but this offered no asylum for a weary old man.

Something else, luckily, caught his eye. Ahead showed two obelisks of fine Aswan granite topped with copper caps. Near them was a sycamore of light tender green; by its gnarled surface roots a spring showed. Beside this stood the tent of some vagrants, an ass staked out close by.

With a grunt of relief the old man, feeble and barely able to totter along, turned to this spring. His animal carried empty water-skins and a packet of food, nothing else. They had evidently come in by the Syrian Desert trail. The old man himself carried a jewel that was one of the world’s great gems, but no one would have suspected it. Upon nearing the spring he saw a woman and her baby sitting under the tree. Her husband, a bearded man who wore Jewish dress, was making repairs to a saddle.

At the scent of water, the skinny donkey quickened pace. The old man stumbled, caught at the animal, and fell. He tried to rise and could not, merely clawing the sand in futile effort. The Jew came hastening to his side and helped him gain his feet. A kindly fellow, this Jew, with cheerful smile.

“Here y’are, Father,” he said encouragingly. “Come over to the shade and rest. I’ll bring you water. Had a bit too much sun, haven’t you?”

To one who had come through the burning desert afoot, water meant life; but shade answered a terrible heart-craving. The old man sank down beside the mother and child, and his eyes closed; he was weak and pallid and spent. The Jew brought a gourd with water; and his wife, a young and extremely pretty woman, held it to the old man’s lips. He swallowed, and after a little sat up and looked around.

“May the gods give you blessings for your kindness,” he said.

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