much as they can and hits and pokes at everyone he sees. If the enemy flees, the commander receives great honours, and his skills are praised, and Pharaoh throws him a golden chain from his balcony. But if we flee, everyone thanks his luck to have saved his life, and various papers get written, and survivors get flogged, and the commander is hung on the wall head downward. However, if the commander is a distinguished man, he might still be thrown a golden chain by Pharaoh from the balcony, regardless of the defeat, and his defeat is declared as victory and carved in stone to endure forever. This is how war is, royal Sinuhe, so that do not moan for your troubles but thank your luck for not having to wage war yourself.”
This was his way to comfort me until I slept, but in the middle of the night I woke up in terrible cries and to the sound of tramping hoofs and crashing chariots. After we had lit torches, we saw that both night guards were lying down, throats cut and bleeding heavily. A chariot and its horses were stolen, and the remaining chariots and horses were in a big wild mess with shafts, reins and wheels all mixed up. After clearing everything up, we continued the journey even if it was dark, and no more I complained about the hardships of the journey for the nightly attackers must have been on their way to get reinforcements so that they could attack us again and take over our horses and chariots and water. Juju said that horses and chariots and water were more valuable to voluntary troops than gold. So the voluntary troops attacked also Egyptians to steal horses and chariots.
So the day dawned, and the sunshine made my head hurt, and sand stung in my eyes, and my tongue was glued to my palate. The burning wind of the desert brought the smell of smoke and blood to our nostrils, and the horses started snorting, and the drivers attached scythes to their chariots. Going about some red hills, we saw an oasis and the burning huts around it and bodies stripped naked, bleeding to sand and having their eyes pecked by ravens. We were approached my some spearmen, and a few arrows were fired against us, but the voluntary troops who had fought here — whether with Aziru’s men or with shepherds or with some other voluntary troops, I never learned that — realised it was better to make way for us, having compared their numbers with our numbers and chariots. They settled with shouting at us various slurs and threats from a distance and poked the air with their spears, but we ignored them and continued on our journey even if Juju’s men would have liked to drive them down with their chariots for the sake of practise.
515
The following night, we saw camp fires or burning houses shimmering in the horizon. Juju said we were approaching the Syrian edge of the desert, and after feeding the horses, we continued the journey cautiously in the moonlight, until I fell asleep, dead tired, on the forage sacks in the chariot. At dawn, I was roused by Juju rolling me roughly out of the chariot onto the sand. He threw out my clay tablets and traveling chest after me and turned his horses commending me to the protection of the gods of Egypt and shouting encouraging words to me. He tore off at full gallop, wheels striking sparks from the stones, and the rest of the chariots followed him.
When I had rubbed the sand from my eyes, I saw a group of Syrian chariots with their pennants advancing toward me from between the mountains and fanning out in battle order. I rose and reminded myself of my rank and waved a green palm branch above my head with both hands in token of peace, although the branch had withered and shrivelled in the course of my journey. But the chariots whirled by unheeding so that only a single arrow sang past my ear like an angry wasp and plunged into the sand behind me. The chariots tore after Juju’s chariots, but I saw Juju and his men throw away forage sacks from their chariots, and even the water bags were thrown away to make their chariots lighter. In this manner, I saw them make their escape, and only one chariot was left behind after its horses stumbled in stones, and the attackers ran the chariot down, felling the horses and killing the men while flying past them at full speed.
Finding that pursuit was vain, Aziru’s chariots returned to me, and the drivers stepped down from their chariots. I shouted them explaining my rank and showed them Pharaoh’s clay tablets in my hands. But they took no heed of my shouting but approached me indifferently, and some had hands hanging on their belts, still dripping blood. They robbed me and opened my traveling chest and took my gold and then stripped the clothes off me and bound me by the wrists to the tail of a chariot, so that I had to run behind their chariots, and when they drove off, I thought I would swelter, and sand scraped the skin from my knees, and they did not care about my shouts even if I threatened them with Aziru’s anger. All this I had to suffer for the sake of Pharaoh Akhenaten.
516
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384