FELINE ONLINE AND THE MAZE OF THE MINOTAUR
CHAPTER TWELVE
THE PAST IS REVEALED!
Emily, Mike and Amanda filled their tea cups in Amanda’s dining room as they waited for Professor Robert to share his news.
Wadjet and Foo Foo, while basking in the late afternoon sun on their favorite window seat, observed the humans at the table. Their tall ears twitched with nervous energy.
“Watch the cats,” Mike whispered to Emily.
“I know, Mike. I have an email message to share with you later,” she whispered back.
Robert reached into his briefcase and pulled out a a faded brown book.
“Well, friends, it is time to share what we know about the tunnel digging, the tomb room that stands nearly underneath our feet, the behavior of these cats, the events that Emily and Mike have experienced. There are many questions to be resolved. I have finally received Sir David’s diary from a friend of mine I shared it with. He has had a chance to decode some of the messages, many of the hieroglyphics within the text, even the almost illegible cursive writing of Sir David. Much of his story seems disorganized, almost hastily written at times. I will share portions with you now, if you are ready.”
Emily watched Wadjet as the Siamese cat switched her tail.
“Here is the book, Amanda. It is yours, after all. I have typed my notes out for today’s meeting.”
Professor Robert handed Amanda the thin brown book, which looked as if it were about to crumble.
“It’s been buried for over a hundred years,” he said. “You might want to keep it under glass.”
Amanda nodded.
“Thank you so much, Robert. I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts on these many events, the mysteries the children have uncovered, my cat, Wadjet, using the computer being the strangest, the cat mummy below us, goodness knows what else!”
“Very well,” Robert answered. “Here goes.”
He adjusted his glasses and stroked his white beard for a moment, then began reading his notes.
May this story of my life find you all in good health. I do not know when you will uncover my little book. May it explain the wonders I have myself experienced when I first began my boyhood explorations.
I was born in a small village along the Nile River Delta. In Egypt. My mother’s stories of her Egyptian ancestors ran back for centuries to before Roman times. My father was a British archaeologist. He met my mother on an expedition during a time when many curious Europeans came to our country to learn about our past. Unfortunately, they also often brought conflicts. Thievery of our treasures was rampant.
My birth name was Duau. When my parents moved from Egypt to England, I was renamed David. They never told me why. I learned later that Duau was the name of an ancient Egyptian moon god.
I, too, studied history and became an archaeologist, like my father. I returned to my homeland as a young man.
I spent months looking for my home, finding only ruins of a small village. The mudbrick homes had been abandoned. The desert sand had blown into dunes so that it was difficult even to walk along the ancient roads. I never found my boyhood home.
However, I did discover a great treasure further north along the Nile Delta: an entire city, now in ruins.: the city of Bubastis, built entirely for the worship of cats!
Robert looked around the table, then continued reading.
I have loved cats since I was a boy, loved and cherished them. I studied some of the historic records and realized I might find the actual temple where cats had enjoyed a royal life, served by maidens who pampered them with fresh fish and bowls of milk, with wooden pillars to climb and cushions to sleep on in the sun.
”The first cat trees!” Mike spoke up.
Robert smiled.
“Indeed, the first of many rewards for cats. You know, of course, that hurting or killing a cat would be punishable by death.”
Robert studied his notes.
“I’m going to skip some parts here,” he said.
“Sir David earned honors from Queen Victoria for his discoveries. That’s why he is a “Sir” in the British society.
“He also found an amazing treasure within the sand dunes of Bubastis. A mummy of a cat that looked like the wind had flung it into an opening, perhaps into a stone flowerpot. Anyway, the mummy had lain there for centuries, completely safe from thieves. A scarab beetle necklace adorned the mummy, some of her linen wraps were edged with gold. She was obviously an important, or had been, an important cat in life.”
Emily and Mike exchanged glances.
“We need to talk.” She mouthed the words to Mike.
Amanda followed the children’s silent communications as Robert continued reading.
It was wrong, but I hid this cat’s mummy as I made a plan. I decided to rebuild her tomb as a sacred place for her to rest for eternity, but in a new spot on Earth. Away from thieves and smugglers, away from the men who had sold animal mummies by the millions to their monied friends in England, to be ground up and used as fertilizer.
“But how does David’s story relate to this house? After all, that stone tunnel, that creepy tomb room are underground. When would this have happened?” Amanda asked.
“Yes, well, here is where it gets really interesting. David’s writing starts to become blurry, very difficult to read, even in English. Many of his characters are Egyptian hieroglyphics, sometimes Greek. He writes less often and forgets to date his notes. My translator had quite a challenge.
“It seems Sir David found this property while searching for a building site. This would have been around 1850 - 1860. This area was all farmland and scattered woods. It reminded him of the green hills and hedgerows of England, but it was also very open, like the desert he remembered as a boy, as he lay on the sands, studying the endless skies of day and night.
“He had paid to leave his cargo in a warehouse where the ship docked. The tradesmen who unloaded boxes and crates of stone were quite vocal in their complaints. But Sir David paid them well. He wanted no statue, no stone, no brick damaged. He probably had them all numbered when the temple ruin was disassembled in Egypt.”
Mike nodded.
“I have read about such operations,” he said.
“It must have cost him an enormous amount of money!” Amanda added.
Emily looked at Wadjet as the Siamese cat continued to stare at the humans and continued to switch her tail. She remembered learning about the behavior of Amanda’s cats in the greenhouse weeks earlier. Was Bastet then telling them something?
Robert turned and looked out of Amanda’s dining room window.
“I see your cat, Bes, is watching us, too,” Robert observed. “She wants you to come home, Emily,” he said with a chuckle.
“I’m nearly finished sharing the highlights of this history. It’s quite unbelievable, actually.
“Remember, Emily, when you said that maybe the tunnel and tomb were possibly never built underground, were never meant to be covered by layers of dirt?”
Emily nodded.
“Well, for an eleven-year-old, I think that was quite an astute observation! Sir David’s writing becomes so muddled, it looks like he was scribbling something in a great hurry. Words like trembling, beautiful temple, nearly finished, as a place for people to visit in this country, an authentic replica, cat worship, and so on.
“But there the writing stops. Completely. I looked up some old news articles, some local history in the city hall. Turns out there was a small earthquake right here, or near here. That‘s why there is a crack in the tomb walls. The ground settled several feet, taking the tomb and tunnel with it. Over the years, it was covered by layers of dirt from the house and greenhouse that Sir David was having built. He died soon after, of a broken heart, I suppose. Unable to save his beloved cat temple.”
Robert put his notes on the dining room tablecloth and sipped his tea.
“That’s why the carved arms of the guard fell across the stone door!” Mike said.
“And maybe Sir David fled with the wooden sarcophagus and his diary when the ground shook,” Emily offered. “After he had placed Bastet’s mummy on the stone platform with her name carved on the cartouche! He knew someday someone would read her name and know the mummy on the platform is Bastet, buried thousands of years ago!”
Emily jumped out of her chair with excitement.
“Now it all makes sense!” she cried, pulling Mike up and dancing around the table.
“Oh, Professor Robert! You have helped us solve the mystery. You have brought this story to light after all theses years!” Amanda said as she clapped her hands.
The grownups stood up and stretched.
Mike looked out the dining window at Bes, who continued to stare across Amanda’s garden at Wadjet and Foo Foo.
“Something still doesn’t add up,” Mike said, his twelve-year-old thoughts often sounding wiser than his years.
“A very small, very isolated earthquake is extremely rare, especially in this part of the country. Did Sir David make any other reference to the moment when he felt the shaking and escaped from the tunnel?” Mike asked.
“How frightening for him,” Emily added.
Robert picked up his notes.
“Yes, there is mention of this in blurry cursive writing. Just before the earth trembled he described a blackening sky. The sun disappeared as enormous reddish billowing clouds spread over the grounds. Thunder shook the ground as tree branches fell across the garden, even breaking through some of the tunnel ceiling. The storm was over in minutes, but Sir David also described the sound of a roaring train rumbling past, like the sound of a steam locomotive.”
“Let’s go warm up our tea, Robert,” she said, as she went into her kitchen. “This is an awful lot of information to think about!”
Robert left his notes on the table and followed Amanda.
Emily and Mike exchanged glances.
“You must share your email message with me as soon as possible,” Mike whispered to his friend. “Or tell me what it said. We may yet be in danger. Sekhmet is ever vigilant and prepared to cause great mischief.”
Emily stared at her friend. Her gaze moved to Amanda’s two cats and to her pet cat, Bes, still switching her tail from her own window across the garden.
“And tonight there will be a full moon,” Emily whispered.
**************************************************
THANK YOU to all of my new and current readers! A special thank you to my educator and student readers from around the world!
FELINE ONLINE AND THE MAZE OF THE MINOTAUR continues with Chapter Thirteen, scheduled for Friday, May 23. What mischief might Sekhmet have planned? Will Wadjet and Foo Foo find a way into Bastet’s temple room before it’s too late?
All of my cat lore posts and all book chapters of FELINE ONLINE AND THE CATS OF ANCIENT EGYPT and FELINE ONLINE AND THE RULE OF CATS are FREE to both free and paid subscribers. Chapters of Book 3: FELINE ONLINE AND THE MAZE OF THE MINOTAUR are free.
The Substack APP is free if you prefer to read these posts on the app. You may enjoy finding our many other fine Substack writers and artists as well!
CREDITS: Cover Illustration for above titles: Tamara Clark
Book chapter illustrations: Tamara Clark and Rosetta Clark-Smith
Drawings of Sekhmet, Bastet’s tomb, three cats in the greenhouse, cartouche, and cat eyes: Tamara Clark
Drawing of wooden cat sarcophagus: Rosetta Clark-Smith
Scarab beetle; Commons.wikimedia.org
See my posts on this site, More Cats, Please!, about ancient Egyptian burial practices:
Cat Mummies of Ancient Egypt: December 13, 2024
Cat Mummies: After the After Life: December 30, 2024