The Egyptian

5

Horemheb returned to Jerusalem, which was thronged with refugees from the border country, and he sold back to them their grain and cooking pots. At this they tore their clothes and cried, “These robbers are worse than the Khabiri!” But they suffered no hardship, for they were able to borrow money from their temples, from the merchants, and from the tax gatherers, who had streamed into Jerusalem from all over Syria. Thus Horemheb converted the spoils into gold and silver, which he distributed among his soldiers. I understood now why most of the wounded had died despite my care. There remained so much more booty for their comrades, who had also stolen the clothes and weapons and treasure of the sick and given them neither water nor food so that they perished. What wonder that unskilled surgeons were ever eager to follow the troops into battle or that, despite their incompetence, they returned so wealthy!

Jerusalem was full of noise and clamor and the din of Syrian instruments. The soldiers squandered the gold and silver on beer and girls till the traders, having thus regained their money, went away. Horemheb levied a tax upon the merchants both when they came and when they left and was thus a rich man though he had abstained from his share of the spoils.

He felt no elation, and when I went to take leave of him before setting forth for Smyrna, he said, “This campaign was over before it began, and in his letter to me Pharaoh upbraids me for shedding blood against his commands. I must go back to Egypt with my rats, to disband them and deliver their standards into the keeping of the temple. But what will be the outcome I know not, for these are the only trained troops in Egypt, and the rest are fit for nothing but dirtying walls and pinching women’s rumps in the market place. By Ammon, it is easy enough in Pharaoh’s golden palace to write songs in honor of one’s god and to believe that all nations may be governed by love! Could he but hear the screams of mutilated men and the wailing of women in the burning villages when the enemy crosses the borders, he might think otherwise.”

“Egypt has no enemies; she is too rich and too powerful,” I said. “Also your fame has gone out over Syria, and the Khabiri will not remove the landmarks a second time. Why then should you not disband the troops, for in truth they rage in their cups like wild beasts, their sleeping dens stink, and they are verminous.”

“You know not what you say,” he retorted, staring before him and scratching at his armpits-for even the commander’s hut was full of lice. “Egypt is self-sufficient and is therein mistaken. The world is large and in the hidden places seed is being sown from which fire and destruction will be harvested. I have heard, for example, that the King of the Amorites is diligently amassing horses and chariots, whereas it would be more becoming in him to pay his tribute to Pharaoh with greater punctuality. At his banquets his high officials talk only of how the Amorites once ruled the whole world-which is in a sense true, as the last of the Hyksos dwell in the land of Amurru.”

“That Aziru is my friend and a vain man, for I gilded his teeth. And I think he has other things on his mind, for I have heard that he has taken a wife who draws the strength from his loins.”

“You know many things,” remarked Horemheb, looking at me attentively. “You are a free man, an independent man; you travel from city to city hearing much that is hidden from others. If I were in your place and free, I should journey into every country seeking knowledge. I should go to the land of Mitanni, and also Babylon, and learn what manner of war chariots the Hittites now use and how they exercise their troops. I should visit the islands in the sea to note how big the ships there are, of which there is so much talk. But my name is known throughout all Syria, and perhaps I should not hear so very much. But you, Sinuhe, are clad in Syrian clothes and speak a language known to the educated of all nations. You. are also a physician, and no one would imagine that you understand anything outside your profession. Moreover, your talk is simple and to my ears often childish, and you have a wide-eyed look. Yet I know that your heart is locked and what you carry within you is known to none. Isn’t this true?”

“Perhaps. But what is it you want of me?”

“What would you say if I were to furnish you with a good supply of gold and send you to the lands I spoke of to practice your craft and spread the fame of both Egyptian medicine and your own healing powers? The rich and influential-even kings, perhaps-would summon you, and you would look into their hearts. While you followed your calling, you would let your eyes be mine and your ears mine so that when you returned to Egypt you might render me account of all you have seen and heard.”

“I do not intend ever to return-and besides there is danger in what you propose. I have no desire to hang head downward from the wall of a foreign city.”

“No one knows what tomorrow may bring. I think you will come back to Egypt, for he who has once drunk of Nile waters cannot quench his thirst elsewhere. Even the swallows and the cranes return each winter. Gold is but dust to me, and I would rather exchange it for knowledge. As for hanging, your talk is like the buzz of flies in my ear. I don’t ask you to do ill or to break the laws of any place. Don’t all great cities lure the traveler to visit their temples-do they not prepare all manner of banquets and diversions to attract him and his gold? You are welcome everywhere if you bring gold.

“Your arts also are welcome in lands where they slay the aged with an ax and expose the sick in the desert to die, as you know is done. Kings are proud and love to parade their soldiers to impress the stranger. You do no evil in noting how the men march and in what manner they are armed, in counting chariots and bearing in mind whether they are large and heavy or small and light and whether they carry two or three men-for I have heard that some employ a shield bearer as well as a charioteer. It is also important to note whether the troops are well fed and gleaming with oil or gaunt and verminous, with diseased eyes, like my own rats. There is a rumor that the Hittites have discovered some new metal and that weapons made of this can chip the edges of the finest copper ax. Whether this is true I don’t know; it is possible that they have discovered some new way of hardening copper. However it may be, I should like to know more. But above all I would learn the hearts of the rulers and of the counselors. Look at me!”

I looked at him, and he appeared to grow before my eyes. He was godlike, and his look was a burning coal so that my heart quailed and I bowed before him.

He said, “Do you believe now that I am a man of authority?”

“My heart tells me that you can command me, but I do not know why this should be,” I faltered, and my tongue was thick in my mouth. “Doubtless it is true that you are destined to hold command over many, as you said. I go, therefore, and my eyes shall be your eyes and my ears your ears. I don’t know whether you will gain by what I see and hear, for in the matters you would learn of I am a dunce. Yet I will do it as well as I may and not for gold but because you are my friend and because plainly the gods have so willed it-if indeed there be any gods.”

He said, “I don’t think you will repent of being my friend. I will give you gold for your journey, nevertheless, for if I know anything of men, you will have need of it. You do not ask why this knowledge is more precious to me than gold, but this I can tell you: The great Pharaohs sent clever men to foreign courts, but the envoys of this Pharaoh are muttonheads who know no more than how to pleat their robes and wear their honors and in what order they must stand on the right or left hand of Pharaoh. So pay no heed to them if you should meet with any, but let their talk be as the buzz of flies in your ear.”

When we parted, he laid aside his dignity, stroked my cheek, and touched my shoulders with his face, saying, “My heart is heavy because of your going, Sinuhe, for if you are alone, why, so am I. No man knows the secrets of my heart.”

I believe that as he said this his thoughts were with the Princess Baketamon whose beauty had bewitched him.

He gave me much gold, more than I could have imagined-I believe he gave me all the gold he had won in the Syrian campaign-and he furnished me with an escort as far as the coast so that I could travel without fear of robbers. As soon as I arrived there, I placed the gold with a large trading company, exchanging it for clay tablets, which were safer to carry, being useless to thieves, after which I boarded a ship for Smyrna.