Mingi of Egypt

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22337, 26 February 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

Mingi of Egypt

CHAPTER I Many, many yaars ago, in the land where the great river Nile flows, Mingi, a little Egyptian boy, looked pleadingly at a man who stood frowning down upon him. The man's dark, face was stern and forbidding. "Your sister, Akkara," he said, "has dared to enter the sacred temple without permission. - ' She must be punished." . . Mingi looked at. his little sister. Tears ran down her bronzed cheeks, "I could not read the Writing on the wall," Akkara said.' her lips quivering. "Oh, Mingi, my brother, do not let them shut me up in the temple chamber!"' Akkara's bare arms glistened in the sun. Mingi placed his hand comfortingly on his sister's shoulder.

The messenger of the high priest brushed Mingi's hand aside. Roughly he seized Akkara by the shoulder. "Did you touch the papyrus scroll?" he asked. "No, no!" she cried, terrified. "My bands were laid on nothing. I stepped inside through the break in the wall of the temple—" Manetho, the messenger of the high priest, placed his hand firmly over Ankara's mouth, lest she speak th*> name of the god in whose honour the ternple. was built. "In one 6f the chambers she shall be imprisoned. She sought to enter without permission," Manetho said, as he pulled the sobbing child away. "" , '

Mingi looked sorrowfully after his sister. He saw her small dark feet dragging in the yellow sand. Akkara waved her hand at Mingi, though her head was lowered, and Mingi knew how sad her large, dark eyes would be. Then Mingi lay : down oh the river bank to think, . He looked at the dull green rivfer, and at' the yellow lilies, all spotted with brown. Overhead the sky was deep blue. Farther away, the acacia trees were filled with purple bloSßOmd. Everywhere there was the green of the palm trees and the tamarisk. Egypt was beautiful on that day so j long ago - T*> e *e were colour and sunshine everywhere, save in the heavy heart at Mingi. A girl child, his sister, had entered the holy temple. That was terrible, but he knew that Akkara mean! no harm. He must go home and tell his mother that his sister had been taken away by the messenger of the high priest The bare yellow rocks turned to ?S,.m.S s the and -la<*en water wS&I T re ln * he s Hy- As Mingi looked, he saw a mirage. There «MJ? be sail - with pupS sails on a aea of red. Sis. m&h C B FB d , lQ JSP* OUt <*■ ' *• marsh. Suddenly Mingi sat upright. wff cc<^ t J ,fted ! JP »»e«d from the Nile. Mingi gassed at ihe queer 2£? 'J?** "5 JheJaw* that opened like a door on hinges. Little Mingi was not afraid. %u rnother had told him many times that a crocodile brought good fortune to children, flhelold>lm how anxiously she had waited, as othw Egyptian mothers did, for him to

see his first' crocodile. If he gazed long enough, surely good would come to his little sister. Another : thought came to Mingi. He iHrotxl.'■ -think of his soul,-his other self. That was the Ka that came into his body when he; was a babe. Ka would find a way for hfrn "lb help Akkara. J Mingi rose ■ quJcMy. He would 'go to the great Pharaoh, the king. But first, he must tell his-mother about Akkara. Swiftly Mingi ran to the mud house where Maktaten, his mother, lived. He could see her moving a rope b'ack and forth. An inflated fecat-Ekin was attached to the rope. Mingi knew that inside the skin there was goat's milk. He had often *een his mother churn their butter this way. , Maktaten raised her eyes from her Work. "Where is Akkara?" she asked.

; "She went, inside the temple," Mihgl'replied. ' • "Oh, «he wouldn't dareP Maktaten breathed heavily. Her large eyes tolled excitedly. "She went inside the temple," reSeated Mingi, taking his mother's and in his.

"And did Akkara see the carving on the wall?"

Mingi nodded. "And then what happened?" asked Maktaten breathlessly. In those days; mothers set greater store by a man-child; still, Maktaten loved her little girl. "When my back was turned, Akkara wandered into the temple," Mingi said. "I was standing in the shade of the sacred tamarisk tree. A messenger of the high priest took Akkara away. She will be shut up in one of the temple chambers." "Oh, my poor Akkara! She will be frightened]" Maktaten wrung her hands in despair. "The great god who causes the Nile to overflow may be angry."

"Mother," said Mingi, his black, deep-set eyes flashing, "I saw a crocodile. That was a good omen." That was true, but still the mother was sore grieved. Not so long ago she had chanted hymns when the night was still, in order that the baby Akkara might sleep.

"Grieve not. My other self—Ka, my soul—has given unto me light. - ' Mingi stood straight. He smiled, and his parted lips showed beautiful white teeth. They looked like ivory against his bronze skin. The mother's sad face brightened. She raised her body to its full

height. Her straight garment pi brown linen fell nearly to her ankles. Hound her dark hair ' a blue ribbon was fastened. Her black hair fell loose, a lock on either side, of her face. "I have thought of a way to save Akkara," said Mingi. "And how, my son?" "I shall go even unto the great Pharaoh."

Maktaten's eyes were filled with terror. "Oh, my Mingi, what if you offered affront to the great king? Your life would be forfeited."

Mingi shook his head; then hs raised it proudly. "I go," he said, pointing to the little grey donkey grazing not far away. Maktaten brought a goat-skin water bottle and placed it in the pannier, the basket that was tied to the donkey's back. Then Maktaten went over to her clay oven and took out some millet cakes, flat and round, that she had herself baked. She handed them to Mingi. Mingi mounted the donkey. He smiled back at his mother. Then he rode on. His head was carried bravely, his bronze, oval face upturned. The sun beat down on his bare head.

"Aku," Mingi said lo the little donkey, "you are going to the Pharaoh's palace. The sun is high in the heavens. You must go fast." Aku twitched his ears; though he did not answer, Mingi was certain that he understood.

(To be continued.)

RIDDLEMEREE

My first is in girl but not in boy, My "second is in Judith but not ifj Roy, My third is in, peach and also in plum,-.". .. : My fourth is in., sing but not in. hum, ■ " My fifth: ie in doming 'but not in-

go, My whole is a flower that we all know.

—PAULINE SHEPHEARD,

Fendalton. (Answer to Pauline Shepheard'a ridtflemeree, —"Lupin.")