Henry Bedford-Jones

The Sphinx Emerald

Warsaw 2022

Contents

The Sphinx Emerald

The Sphinx Emerald

A strange jewel that wrought mischief and magic as it passed from hand to hand down the ages starts its strange eventful dramatic history here in Ancient Egypt...

SOME people would have said–and did say–that Nefer was a graceless scoundrel, and their say has gone unchallenged for some thirty-five hundred years. Our reply is that he was nothing of the sort. We find him in his thirties, a thorough cynic and skeptic, polished, sophisticated, extremely charming, a very able and engaging fellow indeed, not unlike many a Wall Street operator of our own day. He was notable for his warm, kindly impulses and for his defiance of accepted conventions–two highly perilous traits of character in any age, chiefly so in his own.

Nefer was the first historical person known to have been connected with that inexplicable jewel known as the Sphinx emerald. The enormous advance in the science of Egyptology made in our own time allows the origin of this famous stone to be traced and its connection with Nefer made clear, also its impact. Curious as it may seem, this emerald did have a real or fancied impact upon those in contact with it–and not always for good, either. Historic jewels are said to have a personality; perhaps they have.

One day during the festivities of the Nile flood, Nefer was exchanging jokes with the officials at the Board of Public Works in Thebes, while his scribe Ho-quac was copying certain records. Nefer spent much time here. He was a delver into the archaeology of Egypt, whose known records at this time–1510 B.C.–went back three thousand years, and more vaguely far beyond that.

Handsome, bronzed, a twinkle in his eye, Nefer capped stories with the officials over a cup of wine and kept them in a roar of laughter. Rich and great though he was, a relative of the old King Thothmes IV, and a court noble, it was not wise to be known as a friend of Nefer. Still, his charm was great. Ordinary men liked him; he had a frank, eager way with him that went to the heart. A great pity that the priests meant to destroy him.

Nefer was of the same opinion. He knew that his fate was resolved upon, and had been desperately seeking for some way of saving himself. His rank and influence had thus far kept him alive, but that rope was chafing thin; he had gone too far. Only recently his suit for the hand of Asena, daughter of the chief high priest of Amon-Ra, had been sloughed off by her father with some very hard words.

“You fellows will have a different laugh when my book is finished,” he said to the chuckling officials. “Oh, it won’t do you any harm, but it will certainly turn all the old bureaucrats upside down!”

“What’s it about?” queried one. “A story of magic or adventure?”

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