Joshua — Volume 1 by Georg Ebers
page 9 of 74 (12%)
page 9 of 74 (12%)
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into the sea, whose waters cast them forth again upon the land, but the
sacred earth spurns them and flings them into the air. The pure ether of Shu hurls them back to the ground and now--oh look, listen--they are seeking the way to the wilderness." "To the fire!" cried the old astrologer. "Purify them, ye flames; cleanse them, water." The youth joined his grandfather's form of exorcism, and while still chanting together, the trap-door leading to this observatory on the top of the highest gate of the temple was opened, and a priest of inferior rank called: "Cease thy toil. Who cares to question the stars when the light of life is departing from all the denizens of earth!" The old man listened silently till the priest, in faltering accents, added that the astrologer's wife had sent him, then he stammered: "Hora? Has my son, too, been stricken?" The messenger bent his head, and the two listeners wept bitterly, for the astrologer had lost his first-born son and the youth a beloved father. But as the lad, shivering with the chill of fever, sank ill and powerless on the old man's breast, the latter hastily released himself from his embrace and hurried to the trap-door. Though the priest had announced himself to be the herald of death, a father's heart needs more than the mere words of another ere resigning all hope of the life of his child. Down the stone stairs, through the lofty halls and wide courts of the temple he hurried, closely followed by the youth, though his trembling |
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