The Egyptian (61 page)

When we came to Thebes, many parts of the city were on fire. Even from the City of the Dead flames were leaping, for the people were robbing the tombs and burning the embalmed bodies of priests. Frenzied crosses hurled horns into the water and beat them down with stakes until they drowned, from which we deduced that the old gods had already been overthrown and that Aton had conquered.

We went straight to the Crocodile’s Tail where we met Kaptah. He had put off his fine clothes, muddied his hair, and assumed the gray garment of the poor. He had also removed the gold plate from his eye and was now zealously serving drinks to ragged slaves and armed porters from the harbor.

“Rejoice, my brothers,” be said, “for this is a day of great happiness! There are now neither lords nor slaves, neither high nor low, but all are free to come and go as they will. Today drink wine at my expense. I hope you will remember my tavern should fortune favor you and enable you to come by silver and gold in the temples of the false gods or in the houses of bad masters. I am a slave like yourselves and was born so, in proof of which behold my eye, which a cruel master blinded with his stylus when angry with me for having drunk a jar of his beer and refilled it with my own water. Such wrongs will never again be wrought. No one will ever again labor with his hands or feel the rod because he is a slave; all shall be joy and jubilation, leaping and pleasure continually.”

Not until he had babbled thus far did he notice Thothmes and myself. Looking somewhat foolish, he led us to a private room.

He said, “You would be wise to dress in cheaper clothes and to soil your hands and faces, for slaves and porters roam the streets praising Aton. In Aton’s name they beat everyone who seems to them too fat and who has never labored with his hands. They have forgiven me my paunch because I was once a slave and because I have distributed grain among them and let them drink for nothing. Tell me what ill fortune brings you to Thebes just now, for in these days it is a most unhealthy place for those of high rank.”

We showed him our axes and sledge hammers and told him that we had come to overturn the images of false gods and to hew away their names from all inscriptions.

Kaptah nodded sagely and said, “Yours may be a clever plan and acceptable to the people so long as they do not learn who you are. Many changes are on the way, and the horns will be revenged for your deeds if ever they return to power. I cannot believe that this to-do will long continue, for where are the slaves to get their grain? And in their unbridled violence they have done such deeds as cause the crosses to doubt and to turn horn so as to restore order.”

“You spoke of grain, Kaptah,” I said. “Know that I have promised half our grain to Horemheb that he may wage war against the Hittites, and this you must immediately ship to Tanis. You shall have the other half milled and bake bread of the flour to be distributed to the starving people in all the cities and villages where our corn is stored. When your servants dispense this bread, they shall receive no payment but shall say, ‘This is the bread of Aton; take ye and eat of it in his name, and give praise to Pharaoh and his god.’”

When Kaptah heard this, he tore his clothes, since they were but those of a slave, and cried out bitterly, “Lord, this beggars you, and where then shall I make my profit? You have caught Pharaoh’s madness: you stand on your head and walk backward. Woe is me, poor wretch, that ever I should see this day! Not even the scarab will help us, and no one will bless you for the bread. Moreover, that damned Horemheb sends impudent answers to my demands, telling me to come myself and fetch the gold I have lent him in your name. He is worse than any robber, this friend of yours, for a robber takes what he takes, while Horemheb promises interest on what he borrows, thus tormenting his creditors with vain hopes so that in the end they burst their livers in exasperation. I see from your eyes that you are in earnest and that my lamentations are vain, and I must comply with your will although it will make you poor.”

We left Kaptah to fawn on the slaves and to haggle over the sacred vessels and other valuables that the porters had stolen from the temples. All honest people had withdrawn into their houses and barred the doors; the streets were deserted, and some of the temples in which the priests had taken refuge had been set alight and were still burning. We entered the plundered temples to cut away the names of the gods and there met other adherents of Pharaoh engaged in the same task. We swung our axes and sledges so vigorously that the sparks flew. Every day our zeal increased, and we labored in order to avert our eyes from all that went on.

The people suffered hunger and want, and when the slaves and porters had rejoiced for a time in their freedom, they formed themselves into bands, which broke into rich men’s houses to distribute their corn and oil and wealth among the poor. Kaptah hired men to grind corn and bake bread, but the people stole the bread from his servants, saying, “This bread has been filched from the poor, and it is but right that it should be shared among them.” No one praised my name although I beggared myself in a single month.

Forty days and forty nights passed in this way, with the turmoil in Thebes growing steadily worse. Men who had once weighed gold stood begging in the streets while their wives sold their jewels to slaves so as to buy bread for their children. At the end of this period Kaptali came stealing to my house in the darkness and said, “My lord, it is time for you to fly. Aton’s kingdom is soon to fall, and I believe no honest man will regret it. Law and order will be restored—but first the crocodiles must be fed, and more copiously than ever before, for the priests purpose to liberate Egypt from evil blood.”

I asked him how he knew this and he answered innocently, “Have I not always been a faithful horn, and in secret worshiped Ammon? I have lent liberally to his priests, for they pay good interest and pawn his land for gold. Eie has made an agreement with the priests in order to preserve his own life, so the priests have the guards on their side. The leading men in Egypt have once more attached themselves to Ammon; the priests have summoned Negroes from the land of Kush, and the Shardanas, who have been plundering the country districts, are now in their pay. Indeed, Sinuhe, the mills will soon be turning again, but the bread which shall be baked of that flour will be Ammon’s bread not Aton’s. The gods are returning, the old order is coming back, and all will be as before, praise be to Ammon! For I am already weary of this confusion despite the riches it has brought me.”

I was deeply agitated by his words, and said, “Pharaoh Akhnaton will never agree to this.”

But Kaptah smiled slyly, rubbed his blind eye with his forefinger, and said, “He will not be asked! The city of Akhetaton is already doomed and all who stay there shall die the death. Once the rebels have the power in their own hands, they will block all the roads thither so that the inhabitants must starve. They demand that Pharaoh shall return to Thebes and prostrate himself before Ammon.”

Then my thoughts cleared, and I saw before me the face of Pharaoh, and those eyes, which mirrored a disillusionment more bitter than death.

I said, “Kaptah, this iniquity must never be! We have walked many roads together, you and I. Let us walk this way together also, to the end. Poor though I now am, yet you are still rich. Buy arms; buy spears and arrows; buy all the clubs you can lay hands upon. With your gold buy the guards into your service. Distribute the weapons among the slaves and porters of the harbors. I do not know what will come of it, Kaptah, but the world has never yet seen such an opportunity as this to make all things new. When the land and the wealthy estates have been shared out, when the houses of the affluent are inhabited by the poor and their gardens are made playgrounds for the children of slaves, then assuredly the people will be pacified. Each shall then come by his own, each work as best pleases him, and all things shall be better than before.”

But Kaptah trembled and said, “Lord, I have no intention of working with my hands in my old age. Already they have set eminent men to turning millstones, while their wives and daughters serve the slaves and porters in the pleasure houses. There is nothing good in any of this but only evil. My lord Sinuhe, do not require of me to tread this path. When I think of it, I think also of that dark house I once entered in your company. I vowed never to speak of that again, but now I speak because I must. Lord, you have once again resolved to enter a dark house, ignorant of what awaits you—and it may be that a rotting monster and a stinking death await you. If we are to judge by what we have seen, we may suppose that Pharaoh Akhnaton’s god is as terrible as that of Crete, that he forces the best and most gifted men of Egypt to dance before bulls and leads them into a dark house whence there is no return. No, lord! I do not follow you a second time into the house of Minotauros.”

And he neither wept nor protested as before but spoke to me solemnly, imploring me to turn from my purpose. At last he said, “If you will consider neither yourself nor me, think at least of Merit and of little Thoth, who love you. Take them away from here and hide them in a safe place. Once the mills of Ammon begin to turn, the life of no one here will be safe.”

But my fervor had blinded me, and his warnings were to me foolish ness. I said to him stiffly, “Who would persecute a woman and a little boy? In my house they dwell in safety. Aton conquers and must conquer, or life is not worth living. The people have sense, and they know that Pharaoh wishes them well. How could it be possible for them to return by their own desire to the tyranny of darkness and fear? Ammon’s house is the dark house of which you speak, not Aton’s. It will take more than a few bribed guards and scared nobles to overthrow him when he has the whole people behind him.”

Kaptah rejoined, “I have said what I had to say and shall not repeat it. I burn to tell you a little secret, but as it is not mine I don’t dare, and perhaps it would have no effect on you, obsessed as you now are. Don’t blame me hereafter, lord, if later you gash your face and knees upon the stones in your despair. Don’t blame me if the monster devours you. It is all one to me, being but a onetime slave with no children to bewail my death. Therefore, lord, I will follow you along this uttermost road, though I know it to be in vain. Let us enter the dark house together, lord, as before. If you will allow it, I will take a wine jar with me this time also.”

On that same day Kaptah began to drink, and he drank from morning till night. Yet in his drunkenness he obeyed my commands and distributed arms in the harbor, and calling the officers of the guard secretly to the Crocodile’s Tail, he bribed them to take the part of the poor against the rich.

Hunger and riot prevailed in Thebes with this coming of Aton’s kingdom on earth, and delirium seized the people’s minds so that they were drunk without drinking. There was no longer any difference between those who bore the cross and those who did not, and the only things that counted were a weapon, a hard fist, and a loud voice. If anyone in the street saw a loaf in the hand of another he snatched it, saying, “Give me the loaf, for are we not all brothers in the sight of Aton?” And if he met another arrayed in fine linen, he said, “Give me your garment, for we are brothers in the name of Aton, and no man should be better dressed than his brother.” If the horn was spied at a man’s neck or on his clothes he was put to turning millstones or pulling down burned-out houses—that is, if he were not beaten to death and thrown to the crocodiles that lay in wait by the landing stages. Anarchy prevailed, and deeds of violence were daily multiplied.

Twice thirty days went by; no longer than this did Aton’s kingdom on earth endure before it crumbled. For the black troops shipped from the land of Kush and the Shardanas hired by Eie encircled the city so that none might make his escape. The horn faction rallied in every quarter and were furnished by the priests with arms from the vaults of Ammon. Those who had no weapons hardened the ends of their sticks by fire, bound their pestles with copper and fashioned arrowheads from the ornaments of their women.

The horns rallied, and with them all who desired the good of Egypt. The quiet, patient, peaceful people also said, “We desire the return of the old order, for we have had more than our bellyful of the new, and Aton has plundered us enough.”

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.