"The Ancient Allan"
This story is narrated by Allan Quatermain in later life, after he has settled in England following his discovery of the diamonds of "King Solomon's Mines". He briefly describes his experience with the "Ivory Child", in which Luna Holmes, later Lady Ragnall, is closely involved. She was identified by the priests of Kendah,, led by Harut, as the next priestess of the ivory child - Horus in the Isis mystery. After her return to England she and her husband take up Eygptology - but she kept her ancient robes as priestess of Isis, and a quantity of the drug Taduki, by which the priests fortold the future or read the past.
Lady Ragnall discovered that Allan Quatermain still lived, and was in England, and invited him to her home, Ragnall Castle. She tells him that her husband has died during excavations in Egypt, at a temple site between Luxor (Thebes) and assouan, which they had been investigating for five years. They found the body of a man, aparently the Pharaoh Peroa (or "Khabasha"), who ruled for a year or two after which he was defeated and killed by the Persians. The body was injured, and had been hurredly buried in the temple - which was to Isis. Lord and Lady Ragnall found the shrine, which contains an effigy of Isis, but without the figure of Horus, which it evidently formerly contained. The wall which has been holding the desert sands back from the temple now breaches, and the turn to flee. Lady Ragnall is pulled clear, but Lord Ragnall is struck by the falling Isis statue, and falls into the open grave, and is lost for ever beneath tons of sand.
She wonders whether this is indeed the revenge of the goddess, for, as Harut had told Quatermain, Lord Ragnall would die a violent death because he had married Luna Holmes, who was meant for Isis alone.
After getting rid of the awful Atterby-Smiths, Luna's cousins and heirs to her husbands and her fortune - which she ultimately leaves to Quatermain (see "Allan and the Ice Gods") - Lady Ragnall persuades Allan Quatermain to once again inhale the fumes of the Taduki. This carries Quatermain into the body of the story, which is set in the days of ancient Egypt.
Allan Quatermain, then known as Shabaka, is a Count of Egypt, and descendant of a Pharaoh Shabaka. He is cousin to Prince Peroa (Lord Ragnall), who is claimant to the throne, though Egypt is under the thralldom of the "Easterns", the King of Kings. As his vision commences Shabaka is accompanied by an Ethiopian slave, Bes, who is a dwarf (and identified by the unconscious Allan as being his Hottentot servant Hans). They are in the east, having been sent hence at the behest of the King of Kings to demonstrate the Egyptian art of lion hunting. Although a prince, Shabaka is also a note hunter, and was chosen for the job by Idernes, the statrap, Governor of Egypt, from his seat at Sais.
After a delay of three months Shabaka finally gets a chance to see the King of Kings (who is never named, and whose empire is never identified except by the broad nomenclature of the "easterns"). He is taunted by a cousin of the King of Kings to enter the reeds and stalk and kill a lion in its native abode. Despite the risk, he accepts, and together Shabaka and Bes kill a lion, and wound its mate. The King of Kings sends his cousin and six hunters, led by Bes, to recover the body. The prince is killed by the lioness, which Bes then kills. The hunters are condemned to death for failuring to protect the prince. The King of Kings asks for Bes as a present. Shabaka refuses, but accepts a wager - Bes as his slave if Shabaka can kill more lions than the King of Kings, and Bes's weight in gold, a priceless pearl necklace, and the lives of the six hunters, if Shabaka wins.
Shabaka wins - and in so doing saves the King of Kings from a lion. Unfortunately he is now condemned to death, since he shot first (which is a crime), and because he told the King of Kings that he (the King) lied. Shabaka is condemned to death by the boat, which entails being placed in a boat with another placed over him, leaving his arms, feet and head exposed. He is to be feed regularly, and his extremities bathed in milk and honey, to attract the flies. After a few hours slow torment he is released, Bes having prevailed upon the King of Kings to do so - not out of mercy (since a sentence once uttered might not be reversed), but to confirm a story Bes has told the King of Kings.
Shabaka had not enjoyed his imprisonment, but he had not been especially worried, since he had seen a vision of his great uncle Tanofir, a priest of the Apis bull at Sekera, telling him not to worry.
Bes, while trying to get the King of Kings into a good mood, has been telling him of hunting. he moved into women, and described an Egyptian woman as being far superior to the eastern women. The King of Kings wanted her name, but Bes could only say that she was a priestess of Isis, neice to Peroa, and the Royal Lady of Egypt (the senior member of the family). She was also cousin to Shabaka. Hence he is summoned to name her, which he does, not realising the danger.
The King of Kings sets his heart on getting the princess - named Amada - and adding her to his harem of 300. Shabaka and Bes are appointed envoys to bring her back to the east, and sent off. However, not trusting the intent of the King of Kings, Bes manages to steal the ancient royal seal, which will open any door, from the eunuch Houman.
Bes tells Shabaka that he is not the petty chieftain he pretended to be when Shabaka captured him, but is in fact the rightful King of Ethiopia. He had voluntarily set aside the throne because the woman he wanted to marry refused him because of his physical deformity, and the king had to marry within a year of succeeding. He had been travelling the world with a band of male followers when he fell in with the Egyptian army.
The saw the princess Amada in Memphis, and Shabaka went to his mother's home. The Lady Tiu welcomed Bes as a friend, once their exploits were explained - and indeed Shabaka had promised to free Bes the moment they entered Egypt (this before he knew Bes's history), and gave him half the gold. They report to the prince Peroa, telling him of the demand of the King of Kings that Amada be handed over. The court - or what remains of it is defeated Egypt - is called together. They resolve to defy the easterns, aided by Shabaka's new-found gold, and the seal. In return Peroa promises to consent to a marriage between Shabaka and Amada, provided she renounces her vows, and will have him. She can renounce her temporary vows - but only once may she do so.
At Sekera, in the underground burial place of the Apis bulls, Shabaka and Bes meet Tanofir, and Karema, his "cup". As he is blind he must use her to see visions. In a trance she sees a war, involving the Egyptians, the King of Kings, and the Ethiopians - and herself married to Bes.
Bes meets with an embassy from Ethiopia, and tells them that he will soon be returning home, married. He sets out to woo Karema.
Amada is released from her vows to Isis. However Idernes, the statrep, tells the Egyptian court that Shabaka praised Amada before the King of Kings, and promised to hand her over to him. The court defy the easterns, and Shabaka, at the head of a division, kills him in single combat. All six hunters whose lives he had saved were killed, but the Egyptians managed to defeat the easterns. Peroa is crowned Pharoah, with Shabaka as general of the armies. But Amada, offended at Shabaka's apparent conduct in the east, has returned to Isis - whence she cannot be released. Shabaka and Bes leave Egypt, with the Lady Tiu (Shabaka's mother) and Karema, now Bes's wife. When they arrive in Ethiopia Bes is saved from a crocodile by Shabaka, and this reinforces Shabaka's reputation.
Karema has several sons - all black and well-formed - but she is not really accepted by the Ethiopians (she is too pale skinned). Tiu dies in Ethiopia, as she expected. Bes and Shabaka await the call they expect, to return to Egypt's aid. Eventually it comes. Peroa (and Amada) is besieged by the King of Kings himself at Memphis, where the 18-20,000 men left of the Egyptian army is based. Although Bes has an army of 75,000 men trained and led by Shabaka, the easterns have 200,000 men or more. They arrive in the nick of time. Tanofir mysteriously arrives in the army's tent - none know how he passed the sentries - and using Karema again as his "cup&qquot; outline a plan of attack. This involves burning the eastern fleet, attacking the flanks of the army in a narrow defile, and relieving the garrison. Tanofir produces four guides, silent men who entered the tent unnoticed as him, for the parts of the army.
The plan works - the guides or spirits disappear - but the Pharoah is killed. The King of Kings himself is killed by an arrow fired by Shabaka. Amada promises to marry Shabaka, despite her vow. The vision ends at this point - at least it does for Allan Quatermain, though Lady Ragnall seems to have seen more (which she won't reveal). There is a hint that Shabaka doesn't live long, having deprived Isis of her votary.
This story is grounded in Haggards interest in all things Egyptian. It includes the almost obligatory strong woman - Luna Ragnall is one of the strongest (and as we see in "Allan and the Ice Gods", one who is likely to get her way even after death. The plot device of having the major characters all reincarnated - Prince Peroa (Lord Ragnall), Count Shabaka (Quatermain), Bes (Hans), and the Princess Amada (Lady Ragnall) - is clumsy, and causes some amusing comparisons. The notion of Lord Ragnall as having once been a Prince of Egypt is unsurprising. Quatermain could well be a descendant of a Pharaoh, and Lady Ragnall, a Princess of Egypt and Priestess of Isis - indeed this is the most probably of the three. But the Hottentot Hans could scarcely be imagined as a King of Ethiopia, even in disguise. Be that as it may Bes reflects the same tenacious loyalty as his successor, and the same ingenuity. The idea of Quatermain winning a priestess of Isis is an interesting one - and this raises questions about their eventual fate which parallel those of Ayesha and Kallikrates in another series of stories (see "She", "Ayesha, the Return of She", and "Wisdom's Daughter"). The Easterns remain stereotypical villains throughout.