Page 215 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

tion in the air. And o£ expectation-even a

For today great Amon was to acknowledge publicly Amose as

ns son and as the true shepherd and ruler of both upper and
lower Egypt, the rightful wearer of the crowns, both white and

red. And there were many who believed that Amose could make

the claim good, expel the foreigners who so long had occupied

the northern kingdom, and unite both Egypts at last beneath an
Egyptian ruler.

The actual ceremony would take place, of course, within

the temple, the offerings of fruit and flowers and barley cakes,
the anointing, and the expounding of Amon’s will by the high

priest, the assumption of the double crown and the taking up of

the crook and the flail. The crowds who slowly massed tighter
outside the temple were waiting to see the sequel, the presenta­

tion of the new pharaoh to his subjects. No one who could walk

would fail to be here today, and the first impression of many a

baby in arms would be of the hot sunshine and the tight-pressed
crowd waiting to greet the resistance leader fresh from his

assumption of divinity.

The new king was already within the temple, had been
there since early morning, and his chariot, with its two mag­

nificently plumed horses, stood in the shade of the pylons, with

the grooms at the horses’ heads and a detachment of tall Suda­
nese auxiliaries standing guard around, men of the same regi­

ment as, stationed at intervals of three paces, kept clear the plat­

form before the temple upon which the king would appear, lhe
pennons on their lances, and on the flagstaffs before e temp e,

drooped in the still air.
As they waited, many in the crowd dxscussed, unemo
tionally as befits experienced campaigners, the c ances
coming struggle and the events which had led up to todays

Cere ThTnorth had been long under foreign occupation, so long