The Moses Legacy - Adam Palmer [117]
‘Not really. I mean, knowing Sheikh Ibrahim it’ll be well off the beaten track.’
‘But you don’t know where.’
‘I’m afraid not. But I can give you his mobile phone number.’
‘Oh, er… thank you.’
She hadn’t expected that. Less than a minute later she was outside trying to get a signal. She had to move a few yards away from the building, but eventually she got one. She called the number. It rang for such a long time that she expected it to cut out and transfer to voicemail. But eventually a man answered.
‘Hallo.’
The voice sounded rasping, like he was in some place where he couldn’t speak freely, like a church or a library.
‘Sheikh Ibrahim?’
‘Who is this?’
‘My name is Siobhan. You don’t know me but I’m—’
‘Help me,’ the voice croaked.
Sarit froze. The pain in the voice sounded real.
‘Help me,’ the voice said again, in a muted rasp. It sounded like he was struggling to speak.
‘Who is this?’
‘Ib… Ibrahim.’
‘Where are you?’
‘Snake Monument.’
She tried to ask him more questions, but was greeted by silence. She realized that she would have to go there, with or without a guide.
Chapter 93
Daniel had recovered his composure and was reading out loud.
I returned to the city and claimed the throne of Egypt and fought against my brother Sethi. And the Jehovah-ites helped me against the might of Egypt.
‘Jehovah-ites?’ Gabrielle repeated.
‘It says Yahowa da’im. That could be translated as the ones who knew Jehovah. But it could also be Yehudim: the Judah-ites, which in English is translated as Jews.’
‘What else does it say?’
He carried on translating.
But my brother’s army was too strong and so we fled into the desert: Israel and the Jehovah-ites.
‘So you’ve got two peoples joining forces: the Jehovah-ites or Judah-ites… and Israel.’
‘That’s what it appears to be saying.’
And we celebrated our freedom like the sed of Pharaoh.
He broke off. ‘I don’t know if I pronounced that right.’
‘You did,’ said Gabrielle. ‘The sed festival was a great feast that the pharaohs had to celebrate their thirtieth anniversary – those that had such an anniversary, that is. Then they had other sed festivals every three or four years thereafter. Ramesses the Second, who ruled for sixty-six years, had fourteen sed festivals.’
‘And what were they? I mean, how did they celebrate?’
‘The sed festivals were essentially great banquets for the royal court with sumptuous food and singing by choirs consisting of the royal wives. They also had singers from the temples and performing acrobats and the whole thing was officiated over by the daughters of Asian princes whose main job was to pour drinks for the pharaoh four times into his royal goblet… Daniel?’
He realized that the look on his face had arrested her exposition midstream. ‘Say that again.’
‘I said, the festival of sed was a—’
‘No, the bit about the drinks.’
She blinked, uncertain of what he was getting at. ‘They were poured by Asian princesses who—’
‘No, I mean how many times?’
‘What – how many times did they pour the drinks? Four, according to the descriptions in the ancient texts.’
‘Four drinks.’
‘Yes,’ Gabrielle replied, still unsure of what Daniel was getting at.
‘And it’s called the festival of sed?’
‘Yes! Look, what’s all this about? What’s so special about four drinks? As opposed to three… or any other number.’
‘The Jews celebrate the Exodus at Passover—’
‘Yes, I know that!’
‘No, what I mean is that Passover starts with a festive family dinner accompanied by a religious service at the dining table called a seider. That means order, in both biblical and modern Hebrew, because things have to be done in a particular order.’
‘Mm… I never thought of that.’
‘But there’s more. It’s a tradition at the seider service that we drink four glasses or cups of wine!’
‘Good God!’
‘That’s what I was getting at. Specifically four!’
‘And you think that this seider service could originate with the festival of sed that the Egyptian kings used to celebrate?’
‘That’s what I’m beginning to think.’
Gabrielle was unable to contain her curiosity.