He said innocently, “Have I not always been a faithful horn and in secret worshiped Amun? I have also lent plenty of gold to the priests for they pay interest of one quarter and even a half, and they pawn Amun’s land for gold. In order to preserve his own life, Ay has made an agreement with the priests, and so the priests have the guards on their side. Also all the wealthy and distinguished men of Egypt have returned to Amun’s good graces, and the priests have summoned black men from the land of Kush and gathered and employed the Sherdens, who have until now been plundering the countryside. Indeed, Sinuhe, the mills will soon start turning again and grains will get crushed, but the bread which shall be baked of that flour will be Amun’s bread, not Aten’s. The gods are returning, the old order is coming back, and all will be as before, praise be to Amun for I am already weary of this confusion despite the great riches it has brought me.”

I was deeply shocked by his words, and shouted, “Pharaoh Akhenaten will never agree to this.” But Kaptah smiled slyly and rubbed his blind eye with his forefinger and said, “They won’t ask permission from Pharaoh any more. The city of Akhetaten is already cursed and all who stay there shall die the death. Once they have the power in their own hands, they will block all the roads thither and even the river so that whoever stays there must starve. They demand that Pharaoh shall return to Thebes and bow before Amun.”

Then my thoughts cleared, and I saw before me the face of Pharaoh Akhenaten and his eyes, which mirrored disillusionment, more bitter than death. Therefore I said, “This shame must never take place, Kaptah. We have walked many roads together, you and I. Let us, Kaptah, walk this way together also to the end. Poor though I now am, having given away all my grain, yet you are still rich. Buy arms, spears and arrows, and buy all the clubs you can lay your hands upon, and buy with your gold the guards into your service; and distribute the weapons amongst the slaves and porters of the harbour and make the guards defend them and Pharaoh. 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 anew. When the land has 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 calmed down. Each shall then come by his own, each work as best pleases him, and all things shall be better than before.”

589

But Kaptah started trembling and said, “My lord, I have no intention of working with my hands in my old age, and already they have set eminent men to grinding millstones, and they hit them with sticks, while their wives and daughters serve the slaves and porters in the pleasure houses — and there is nothing good in any of this but only evil. My lord Sinuhe, do not require of me to tread this path for when I think of it, I think also of that dark house I once entered in your company — though I vowed never to speak of that again but now I speak because I must. My lord, you have once again resolved to enter a dark house, ignorant of what awaits you, and if you enter it, maybe a rotting monster and stinking death wait for you there. If we are to judge by what we have seen, this god of Pharaoh Akhenaten is as terrible as that of the god of Crete, and 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 though they enter there rejoicing and jumping and trusting their skills and thinking all bliss of Western fields lays inside. No, my lord, I will not follow you a second time into the house of Minotaur.”

And he neither wept nor lamented as before but spoke to me solemnly and implored me to turn from my purpose, and 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, for once the mills of Amun begin to turn, their lives are no longer safe here.”

But my fervour had blinded me, and his warnings were to me madness, and I said to him haughtily, “Who would persecute a woman and a little boy? In my house, they dwell in safety since Aten will win, and he must win. Otherwise life is not worth living any more. The people have surely some sense, and they know that Pharaoh wishes them well. How could it be possible for them to return by their own desire to the rule of fear and darkness. Amun’s house is that dark house of which you speak, not Aten’s. It will take more than a few bribed guards and some cowardly nobles to overthrow Aten when he has the support of an entire nation.”

590

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