Ptahmes

“ Able to make himself invisible—as I believed he could—he might as a last resort rob her of her honour and so bend her proud spirit to his wish. It was this thought that finally determined me. I looked up and said quietly to the patient, waiting Arab: "Ptahmes, son of Mery, son of Hap, once High Priest of Amen-Ra, but now I know not what—I swear by the King of Earth and Heaven to destroy the stele and papyri unread if I shall find them, to burn your body and scatter the ashes, and to kill your enemy and mine." ”

“ Hour by hour the virulence of the pestilence increases, and the strong men and weak women, youths and maidens, children and babes, go down before it like corn before the reaper. On every hand the voices of mourners rise into the summer air, and it is I, Ptahmes, the servant of the Gods, the prophet of the King, the man whom thou hast said thou wilt proclaim to the world, who has brought it about. ”

“ It is necessary to assume that Navarro is a true medium, if only for the sake of argument. Well, in that case it is clear that Dr. Belleville and Sir Robert Ottley had found in the tomb of Ptahmes a papyrus containing a tremendous scientific secret. This secret is one which teaches its possessors how to control forces of Nature, in a manner which my imagination can only guess at, for the production of a physical result which I have actually experienced. They have learned how to override the laws of light. ”

“ An action for damages could not lie against you."
"Sir!" he cried.
"Father," said Miss Ottley, "how can Dr. Pinsent's foolish sarcasm affect you? Besides, we need his Arabs."
"Quite so," said Sir Robert. "We need his Arabs. How brightly the stars shine to-night, Dr. Pinsent."
The cool impudence of the pair struck me dumb. I shook with passion. For a moment I thought of calling a halt and returning the way we had come to my own camp with my Arabs. But for my curiosity to see the tomb of Ptahmes very probably I should have done so. ”

“ My guide, however, permitted no sign of emotion to escape him. When everything had been removed the men who had done the work withdrew as silently as they had come, and we three were left alone together.
"Draw near," said the old man solemnly, "and if thou wouldst lose conceit in thy strength, and learn how feeble a thing is man, gaze upon the form of him who lies before you. Here on this stone is all that is left of Ptahmes, the son of Netruhôtep, Magician to Pharaoh, and chief of the Prophets of the North and South." ”

“ Each time at night. Each time he vanished like a shadow."
"Did anyone else see him?"
"My father and Captain Weldon."
"The most hideous brute I ever saw," commented [Pg 70] the Captain; "you could put a good-sized head between his eyes. And such eyes. Dull as mud, but horribly intelligent."
"Well, well," said I. "We'll know more about him some day soon, perhaps, that is, if we stay long enough at the Hill of Rakh. He has a hiding thereabouts—without a doubt. Your father is pining to open the tomb of Ptahmes, I suppose, Miss Ottley?" ”

“ Thus Ptah was one of the forms under which the Egyptians invoked the creator, the highest god. On a pillar of Memphis, now in the Berlin Museum, belonging to the time of the nineteenth dynasty, he is called "the only unbegotten begetter in the heaven and on the earth," "the god who made himself to be god, who exists by himself, the double being, the begetter of the first beginning." Other inscriptions and records denote him as "the creator in heaven and on earth, who has made all things, the lord of all that is, and is not." ”

“ To Khnemu was given the fashioning of animals, while Ptah was employed in making the heavens and the earth. The great metal plate which was supposed to form the floor of heaven and the roof of the sky was made by Ptah, who also framed the [Pg 145] supports which upheld it. We find him constantly associated with other gods—that is, he takes on the attributes or characteristics of other deities for certain fixed purposes. For example, as architect of the universe he partakes of the nature of Thoth, and as the god who beat out the metal floor of heaven he resembles Shu. ”

“ Don't devise modes of expression unknown to the language as at present in use. They can't understand, and therefore don't use words to express definitions.’ Under Patteson's rule the character of the natives was completely transformed. Their savagery disappeared, there was no more war; and, after twenty years, out of a population of eight hundred in the chief island, Mota, all but forty were baptised. To this result Patteson's pupil, George Sarawia, the first Melanesian clergyman, largely contributed. ”

“ But it is far removed from the clearness of the legend first treated in this paper. Above all, the identification of Ptah with many other forms, the sun-disk, the androgynous Chnum, with Nu, with the seas, etc., show that this form of it comes from a time when the priests could no longer confine themselves to the worship of their local divinities, but were obliged to extend their worship to the gods of other cities and districts. ”

“ On his way to Oberlin, my brother accidentally fell in company with David W. Patten, an incident to which he frequently refers as one of those seemingly trivial occurrences in human life which leave an indelible trace. This gentleman was an early champion of the fulness of the Gospel as taught by Jesus and His Apostles in the meridian of time, and revealed in our own day through the Prophet Joseph Smith; to which cause Elder Patten fell a martyr on the 24th of October, 1838, in Missouri, during the terrible scenes of persecution through which the Latter-day Saints passed in that State. ”

“ The name is said to mean 'opener,' from the circumstance that Ptah was thought to open the day; but this derivation has been combated. Dr. Brugsch suggests 'sculptor' or 'engraver' as the true translation, and as Ptah was the god of all handicrafts it seems most probable that this is correct. Ptah seems to have retained the same characteristics from the period of the Second Dynasty down to the latest times. In early days he seems to have been regarded as a creator, or perhaps he was confounded with one of the first Egyptian creative deities. ”

“ About the Twenty-second Dynasty this triad had practically become one with Osiris, and he had even variants which took the attributes of Min, Amsu, and Khepera. He has been described as the 'triune god of the resurrection.' There is very little doubt that the amalgamation of these gods was brought about by priestly influence.
Ptah was also connected with the god known as Tenen, who is usually represented in human form and wearing on his head the crown with ostrich feathers. He is also drawn working at a potter's wheel, upon which he shapes the egg of the world. ”

“ In Egypt, whose Gods are beyond counting, where almost everybody was a priest, Ptah-hotep—himself a 'Holy Father' and 'Beloved of the God'—has no word to say on religious obligations, devoting his work entirely to the principles of charity and duty to one's neighbour. It is {34} seemingly sufficient to him that one do the right in this world, without thinking overmuch about the other. ”

“ Patmos, like all the small islands in this part of the Archipelago, is governed by a Mudir and Demarchia, or corporation of three or four of the richest Greeks of the place, who, being the richest are said to be generally the most dishonest. If there are no Turks in the island, the Mudir is a mere symbolic representation of Turkish authority; the Greeks rule. Such is the case at Patmos, which is an island full of monks and pirates. ”

“ The association of Ptah, who is regarded as perhaps the oldest of all gods of Egypt, with the square=ptah and the pyramid and the mummy, is of extreme interest, especially as Egyptian texts contain references to “a single god, who becomes a quaternary of gods” (Brugsch II, 408) , and we therefore see that the idea of Four in One was a familiar one. ”

“ As they made their way towards shore a canoe drifted out, and lying in it, wrapped in a native mat, was the body of Bishop Patteson.
A sweet calm smile was on his face, a palm leaf was fastened upon his breast, and upon the body were five wounds—the exact number of the natives who had been kidnapped or killed.
So the good bishop died for the misdeeds of others. The natives but followed their traditions in exacting blood for blood, and their poor dark minds could not distinguish between the good and the bad white men. ”

“ Surely the people who lived in and after the days of Moses might just as consistently have objected to receiving any further revelations from the Lord, because of the caution referred to appearing in the Book of Deuteronomy, as the people of to-day have for objecting to receive any new revelation, because the same caution appears in the last chapter of the revelation on Patmos. Both have reference to particular books only, and it is absurd and folly in the extreme for men claiming to have any knowledge of God, and the great plan of salvation to interpret it otherwise. ”

“ A more serious charge, often made in India, is that missioners destroy the sanctions of morality by undermining the traditional beliefs of the natives, and that the convert is neither a good Asiatic nor a passable European. This depends on the methods employed. It may be true in some cases. Patteson fully realized the danger, as we can see from his words, and built carefully on the foundation of native character. He took away no stone till he could replace it by better material. He was never content merely to destroy. ”

“ Patty was so frightened that her milk-teeth chattered. You little folks who go to pleasant, orderly schools, and receive no heavier punishment than black marks in a book, can't have much idea how she suffered.
She expected every day after this to see a rope come out of Mr. Purple's pocket, and was sure if he hung anybody it would be Patty Lyman. Mr. Purple soon found she was afraid of him, and it gratified him, [Pg 124] because he was just the sort of man to like to see little ones tremble before him.
"I tell you what," said Moses, indignantly, "he's all the time picking upon Patty." ”

“ Light baffling winds continually, and we in a vessel as different from the "Southern Cross" as possible, absolutely guiltless, I should think, of having ever made two miles an hour to windward "in a wind." The one thing that stands out as having relieved its dreariness is the presence of Mr. Patteson, the visits he used to pay to us, and the exquisite pathos of his voice as, from the corner of the hold where we lay, we could hear him reading the Morning and Evening Prayers of the Church and leading the hymn. ”

“ Patteson told them that he did not mean to go on merely taking their boys to return them with heaps of fish-hooks and knives, but that, unless they cared for good teaching, to make them good and happy here and hereafter, he should not come like a trader or a whaler. That their sons should go backwards and forwards and learn, but to teach at home; and that they ought to build a holy house, where they might meet to pray to God and learn His will. ”

“ Now the idea of proselyting other nations to a new religion was absolutely unknown to the world at that time. The Greeks and Romans never dreamed of any such thing. They would sometimes add a new god to their old Pantheon, but the idea of turning a nation to the worship of new deities was never before heard of. The Jews were so indignant at the project, that when Paul hinted it to them, they cried, "Away with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not fit that he should live." ”

“ As soon as the Book of Mormon came forth, the counterfeit then spread like the counterfeit gifts exercised by the old magicians of Egypt. When Moses went down with the power and authority of Heaven, the counterfeit sprang up in order to delude the Egyptians, and make them think the power of Moses was the same in character as that exercised by the magicians. When Moses threw down his rod it became a serpent; the rods of the magicians did the same. When Moses brought up frogs on the land, they did the same ”

“ When we speak of the presence of the Lord we speak of an exhibition of power. His presence was with the children of Israel as a cloud by day, and as the shining of a flaming fire by night. Though Israel were not worthy to enter the tabernacle and behold the personage of the Lord and to talk with him, yet Moses, not having forfeited that right, could enter into the tabernacle of the Lord while his glory rested upon it, and he could talk to the Lord face to face. Why? Because he held the higher Priesthood and had been obedient to the higher law and had attended to the higher ordinances. ”

“ Do you suppose that the Lord will suffer any unclean thing to be in that army? Not at all, for his angels and he himself are to go before us. God will not dwell in the midst of a people who will not sanctify themselves before him. That is the reason why he withdrew his presence from ancient Israel. Moses sought diligently to sanctify that numerous people and to bring them into subjection to the law of God; he endeavored to teach them the higher Gospel ordinances and law, which would have exalted them into the celestial kingdom of God, but he could not do it ”

“ Who can tell how far this was fostered by those old-fashioned habits of strictness which it is the present habit to view as repellent? Every morning, immediately after breakfast, Lady Patteson read the Psalms and Lessons for the day with the four children, and after these a portion of some book of religious instruction, such as 'Horne on the Psalms' or 'Daubeny on the Catechism.' The ensuing studies were in charge of Miss Neill, the governess, and the life-long friend of her pupils ”

“ Primitive Methodism and Plymouth Brethrenism supplied the void, gave opportunities of prayer, and gratified the quickened longing for devotion; and therewith arose that association of the Church with deadness and of Dissent with life, which infected even the most carefully tended villages, and with which Patteson was doing his best to contend at Alfington. The stage of gaining the people's affection and confidence, and of quickening their religious life, he had attained ”