majestic countenance of the Pharaoh
Meneptah, for then it was, as you may recall, that you said you thought
the plan of this book probable and that it commended itself to your
knowledge of those dim days.

With gratitude for your help and kindness and the sincerest homage to
your accumulated lore concerning the most mysterious of all the perished
peoples of the earth,

Believe me to remain

Your true admirer,

H. Rider Haggard.

MOON OF ISRAEL

CHAPTER I

SCRIBE ANA COMES TO TANIS

This is the story of me, Ana the scribe, son of Meri, and of certain of
the days that I have spent upon the earth. These things I have written
down now that I am very old in the reign of Rameses, the third of that
name, when Egypt is once more strong and as she was in the ancient time.
I have written them before death takes me, that they may be buried with
me in death, for as my spirit shall arise in the hour of resurrection,
so also these my words may arise in their hour and tell to those who
shall come after me upon the earth of what I knew upon the earth. Let it
be as Those in heaven shall decree. At least I write and what I write is
true.

I tell of his divine Majesty whom I loved and love as my own soul, Seti
Meneptah the second, whose day of birth was my day of birth, the Hawk
who has flown to heaven before me; of Userti the Proud, his queen, she
who afterwards married his divine Majesty, Saptah, whom I saw laid in
her tomb at Thebes. I tell of Merapi, who was named Moon of Israel, and
of her people, the Hebrews, who dwelt for long in Egypt and departed
thence, having paid us back in loss and shame for all the good and ill
we gave them. I tell of the war between the gods of Egypt and the god of
Israel, and of much that befell therein.

Also I, the King's Companion, the great scribe, the beloved of the
Pharaohs who have lived beneath the sun with me, tell of other men and
matters. Behold! is it not written in this roll? Read, ye who shall find
in the days unborn, if your gods have given you skill. Read, O children
of the future, and learn the secrets of that past which to you is so far
away and yet in truth so near.

As it chanced, although the Prince Seti and I were born upon the same
day and therefore, like the other mothers of gentle rank whose children
saw the light upon that day, my mother received Pharaoh's gift and I
received the title of Royal Twin in Ra, never did I set eyes upon the
divine Prince S