The Egyptian

4

But I, Sinuhe, said to the people, “It may be that wrong has trampled on right during these days and that many an innocent man has suffered for the guilty. Nevertheless, Ammon is still the god of darkness and terror and rules men through their foolishness. Aton is the only god, for he dwells within us and without, and there are no others. Fight for Aton, all you poor people and slaves, you bearers and servants, for you have no more to lose, and should Ammon win you would indeed taste slavery and death. Fight for Pharaoh Akhnaton’s sake, for his like has never been seen on earth, and the god speaks through his mouth. Never has there been such an opportunity to renew the world; never will it be offered to you again!”

But the slaves and porters laughed aloud and said, “Do not prattle to us of Aton, Sinuhe, for all gods are alike and all Pharaohs are alike. But you are a good man, Sinuhe, although very simple, and you have bound our crushed arms and healed our broken knees without requiring gifts. Lay aside your club since in any case you lack the strength to swing it. You will never make a warrior, and the horns will slay you if they see the club in your hands. It matters little if we die, for we have soiled our hands with blood and lived well, sleeping beneath brilliant canopies and drinking from golden cups. Our feast is now at an end, and we mean to die with our weapons in our hands. Having tasted freedom and high living, we find slavery no longer to our liking.”

Their talk made me ashamed. I threw aside my club and went to fetch the medicine chest from my house. For three days and three nights there was fighting in Thebes; many exchanged cross for horn and many more laid down their arms and hid in houses and wine cellars, in granaries and in empty baskets in the harbor. But the slaves and porters of the harbor fought on bravely. Three days and three nights they fought; they set fire to houses and at night fought by the light of the flames. Negroes and Shardanas set buildings alight also and robbed and knocked down all the folk they met, whether cross or horn. Their commander was that same Pepitaton who had allowed the slaughter in the Avenue of Rams, but now his name was Pepitamon again. He had been chosen by Eie because of his high rank and because he was the most learned of Pharaoh’s officers.

I bound up the wounds of slaves and treated their broken heads at the Crocodile’s Tail, while Merit tore up my clothes and Kaptah’s and her own also to make bandages for them, and little Thoth carried wine to those whose pain must be soothed. On the last day the fighting was confined to the harbor and the poor quarter, where the war-skilled Negroes and Shardanas mowed down the people like standing crops, so that blood flowed along the narrow streets and over the quays into the river. Death never reaped so abundant a harvest in the land of Kem as it did on that day.

The leaders of the slaves came to the Crocodile’s Tail while the conflict was raging, to refresh themselves with wine. They were drunk already with blood and the heat of battle. Smiting me on the shoulders with their hard fists, they said, “We have prepared for you a comfortable basket in the harbor where you can hide, Sinuhe, for doubtless you have no desire to hang head downward beside us on the wall this evening? Is it not time for you to hide, Sinuhe? It is in vain you bind up wounds which are instantly open again.”

But I told them, “I am a physician to the household, and none dare raise a hand against me.”

At this they laughed, drank copiously, and returned to the fighting.

At length Kaptah came to me and said, “Your house is burning, Sinuhe, and the horns have stabbed Muti because she threatened them with her washing club. Now is the time for you to array yourself in the finest linen and assume all the emblems of your dignity. Leave these wounded slaves and robbers and follow me to an inner room, where we may prepare ourselves to receive the priests and officers.”

Merit also put her arms about my neck and implored me, saying, “Save yourself, Sinuhe; if not for your own sake, then for mine and little Thoth’s.”

But grief, and lack of sleep, and death, and the din of battle had so befuddled me that I no longer knew my own heart, and said, “What care I for my house, for myself, or for you and Thoth! The blood that flows here is the blood of my brothers in the sight of Aton, and if Aton’s kingdom fall, I have no desire to live.”

But why I spoke thus wildly I do not know; it was another speaking, and not my vacillating heart.

Nor do I know whether I should have had time to fly, for shortly afterward the Shardanas and Negroes broke open the tavern door and forced their way in, led by a priest whose head was shaven and whose face gleamed with sacred oil. They began slaughtering the wounded. The priest put out their eyes with a sacred horn while the paint-striped Negroes jumped on them with joined feet so that the blood spurted from their wounds.

The priest cried, “This is the den of Aton; let us purify it with fire!” Before my very face they smashed in the head of little Thoth and slew Merit with a spear as she sought to protect him. I could not prevent it, for the priest struck me on the head with his horn, and my cry was stifled in my throat, after which I knew no more.

I came to myself in the alley outside the Crocodile’s Tail, and at first I did not know where I was, fancying that I had been dreaming or that I was now dead. The priest had gone and the soldiers had laid aside their spears and were drinking the wine Kaptah set before them, while their officers urged them with their silver-braided whips to continue the struggle. The Crocodile’s Tail was ablaze, for it was paneled with wood and burned like dry reeds on the shore. Then I remembered everything and tried to stand, but my strength failed me. I began to crawl on hands and knees toward the burning door and into the fire, to find Merit and Thoth. My hair was singed off and my clothes caught fire, but Kaptah hastened to me crying out and lamenting. He dragged me from the flames and rolled me in the dust until the fire in my clothes was put out.

At this spectacle the soldiers laughed aloud, and Kaptah said to them, “Truly he is a little mad, for the priest hit him on the head with his horn and will no doubt receive punishment in due course. This is Pharaoh’s physician, and it is not well for anyone to raise a hand against him. He is a priest of the first grade although he has been compelled to don shabby clothes and hide the symbols of his dignity so as to escape the fury of the people.”

But I sat in the dust of the street, holding my head in my burned hands. The tears poured from my scorched eyes as I mourned and wept, “Merit, Merit! My Merit!”

But Kaptah nudged me wrathfully, saying, “Silence, you fool! Have you not brought enough misfortune on us by your idiocy?”

When I was quiet, he brought his face close to mine and said bitterly, “May this bring you to your senses, lord, for now indeed you have had full measure, and fuller than you know. I tell you, though it is now too late, that Thoth was your son, conceived when first you lay with Merit. I tell you this that you may gather your wits about you. She would not tell you because she was proud and lonely and because you put her aside for the sake of Pharaoh and Akhetaton. He was of your blood, that little Thoth, and had you not been raving mad you must have seen your eyes in his eyes and known again that line of lip. I would have given my life to save him, but I could not because of your madness, and Merit would not leave you. By reason of your madness they died. I hope that you will now come to your senses, lord.”

I stared at him thunderstruck.

“Is this thing true?”

But I needed no reply. I sat on in the dust of the street, dry eyed, feeling no pain from my wound. All within me was cold and tight, and my heart closed up so that I was indifferent to all that went on about me.

The Crocodile’s Tail stood in flames and with it burned Thoth’s little body, and Merit’s in its loveliness. Their bodies burned among those of butchered slaves so that I could not even preserve them to eternal life. Thoth was my son, and if what I believed was true, the holy blood of the Pharaohs had run in his veins as it ran in mine. If

I had known this, everything would have been different since a man may do for his son what he would not do for himself alone. But now it was too late. I sat in the dust of the street amid the smoke and flying sparks, and the flames from their bodies scorched my face.

Kaptah carried me to Eie and Pepitamon, for the fighting was over. The poor quarter was still in flames, but they sat in judgment on golden thrones on the stone quay, while soldiers and horns led forward prisoners for trial. Everyone caught with a weapon in his hand was hung head downward from the wall, and everyone caught with stolen goods on him was cast into the river to feed the crocodiles. Everyone found wearing the cross of Aton was flogged and sent to forced labor. The women were handed over for the pleasure of the soldiers, and the children were given to Ammon to be brought up in the temples. So death raged by the waterside in Thebes, and Eie showed no mercy for he desired to win the favor of the priests. He said, “I cleanse the evil blood from the land of Egypt!”

Pepitamon was exceedingly wroth because slaves had plundered his house and opened the doors of the cats’ cages. They had taken the cats’ milk and cream home to their children so that the beasts had starved and run wild. He also was merciless, and within two days the walls of the city were crammed with the bodies of men hung by the heels.

In jubilation the priests re-erected the image of Ammon in his temple and made very great sacrifice to him.

Eie appointed Pepitamon governor of Thebes and hastened to Akhetaton to compel Pharaoh Akhnaton to abdicate. He said to me, “Come with me, Sinuhe, for I may need the help of a physician to bow Pharaoh to my will.”

And I answered, “Certainly I will come, Eie, for I desire my pleasure to be full.”

But he did not understand what I meant.