Triumph and work; work
succeeded by the triumph all can see. I like to hear the workmen's
voices within the hall of Seti. I like to see the dust stirred by their
tramping feet.
And then I like to go once more to the little temple, to enter through
its defaced gateway, to stand alone in its silence between the rows of
statues with their arms folded upon their quiet breasts, to gaze into
the tender darkness beyond--the darkness that looks consecrated--to feel
that peace is more wonderful than triumph, that the end of things is
peace.
Triumph and deathless peace, the bugle-call and silence--these are the
notes of Karnak.
VIII
LUXOR
Upon the wall of the great court of Amenhotep III. in the temple of
Luxor there is a delicious dancing procession in honor of Rameses II. It
is very funny and very happy; full of the joy of life--a sort of radiant
cake-walk of old Egyptian days. How supple are these dancers! They seem
to have no bones. One after another they come in line upon the mighty
wall, and each one bends backward to the knees of the one who follows.
As I stood and looked at them for the first time, almost I heard
the twitter of flutes, the rustic wail of the African hautboy, the
monotonous boom of the derabukkeh, cries of a far-off gaiety such as one
often hears from the Nile by night. But these cries came down the long
avenues of the centuries; this gaiety was distant in the vasty halls
of the long-dead years.
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