They said that Zemar was once a free city, paying tax to none, and that they no longer wished their children to be born the slaves of Pharaoh. Other Syrian cities were once free also, and therefore the skulls of all Egyptians should be broken and then driven away from the cities of Syria, and that was the duty of every man who loves freedom and is weary of being Pharaoh’s slave. Such was their nonsense, although everyone knows that Egypt’s protection is for Syria’s benefit rather than its own, and Egypt only selflessly protects the Syrians from themselves for if left to their own vices, the cities of Syria would be like wildcats in a sack and quarrel and wage wars against each other and tear at each other, to the great detriment of animal husbandry and farming and commerce. Every Egyptian knows this who has learned it at school, although I have not been at school and only waited at the gate of one school for a previous master’s evil son who endlessly kicked my legs and poked me in tender places with his writing sticks. However, that was not my story but I only repeat what I heard in the tavern. These Syrians boasted of their power and spoke of some alliance between all Syrian cities, until I as an Egyptian became so sickened with their talk that when the landlord turned his back, I went away without paying and snapped my drinking-reed.”
I did not have to walk far in the city before observing the truth of Kaptah’s words. No one molested me, for I had learned to wear Syrian clothes, but those who had known me before now turned away when we met, while other Egyptians in the city went guarded. Even so, men mocked them and pelted them with rotten fruit and dead fish. I felt no concern, however, for doubtless the people of Zemar were incensed over the new taxes, and tumult such as this was apt to subside quickly since Syria had as much profit from Egypt as Egypt from Syria — and I did not believe that the cities of the coast could long maintain themselves without Egyptian grain.
Therefore I had my house set in order, received patients and treated them as before, and just as before they came, for discomfort, disease and pain do not inquire after a man’s nationality but only after his skill. Yet they would argue with me, saying, “Tell us, you Egyptian, is it not unjust that Egypt should extort taxes from us and exploit us and get fat on our poverty like a blood-sucking leech? The Egyptian garrison in our
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city is nothing but an affront to us for we can maintain order in our own in our city and defend ourselves against our enemies, if we are only given the chance. It is unjust also that we may not repair our walls and towers if we so desire and are willing to bear the cost of it ourselves. Our own councillors are competent to govern us well and fairly without Egyptian interference in the coronation of our princes or in the administration of our justice. By Baal, if it were not for the Egyptians, we should flourish and prosper, for they are upon us like locusts, and your Pharaoh is forcing a new god upon us so that we lose the favour of our own.”
I did not desire to argue with them, but I said this, “Against whom would you build your walls and towers if not against Egypt? It is doubtless true that your city was free within its own walls in the days of your great-grandfathers, but you shed blood and impoverished yourselves in countless wars with neighbours whom you still hate, while your princes were despots under whom neither rich nor poor knew security. Now you are protected from your enemies by the shields and spears of Egypt, and Egypt’s laws secure the rights of rich and poor alike.”
But this incensed them, and their eyes reddened and their nostrils quivered as they said, “Egypt’s laws are filth to us and its gods are an abomination. What if our princes were despots and unjust — which we do not believe because it is only an Egyptian lie to make us forget our freedom — they were still our own princes, and our hearts tell us that injustice in a free land is better than justice in a land enslaved.”
I said to them, “I see amongst you no signs of slavery, but rather you grow fat and boast of wealth gained at the expense of Egyptian stupidity. If you were free, you would plunder one another’s ships and cut down one another’s fruit trees, and on your journeys inland your lives would no longer be secure.”
But they would not listen, but flung down their gifts and left, saying, “You are an Egyptian in your heart though you wear Syrian clothes. Every Egyptian is an oppressor and an evildoer, and the only good Egyptian is a dead one.”
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