“Be it as you say, Kaptah,” I promised him then. “I will calm down and practice my profession, and to pass my time, I will also collect something, as you have recommended to me, but as I have no desire to mimic others, I will collect something that no one else collects, and I plan to collect all those who remember Aten.”
But Kaptah fancied that I was joking and laughed at my words like it was a good joke, for he knew as well as I how much evil Aten had brought on Egypt and on myself too. After this, we talked agreeably of many things, and Muti brought us wine, and we drank wine together until his slaves came and helped him to stand up — because his great weight made it difficult for him to get to his feet — and he soon left my house in his chair. But on the following day, he sent me munificent presents, which made my life luxurious and comfortable so that my joy lacked nothing, if only I had known how to rejoice.
6
Thus I had the physician’s sign set up above my door again and took up my work again, requiring gifts from my patients according to their means, but I required no gifts from the poor, so sick people squatted in my courtyard from morning until night, and I benefited little of my skill. While curing my patients, I asked them cautiously about Aten, being unwilling to frighten them or wanting to cause them to spread evil things about me that would have damaged my reputation — since my reputation in Thebes was already bad enough. But at last, I found that Aten had been forgotten and that no one any longer understood him; only agitators and those who had suffered injustice remembered him and remade him in their minds to match their frenzy and the injustice they had suffered, and the cross of Aten was used as an evil symbol to do men harm.
When the flood fell again, priest Ay died, and it was said that he had starved to death because his dread of poison would not allow him to eat anything, not even the bread which he himself ground from grains and baked and fried in the golden house, for he thought the grains had
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already been poisoned when they were growing in the field. Then Horemheb brought the war in Syria to an end and let the Hittites keep Kadesh, since he could not win it back from them — and he returned in triumph up the river to Thebes, celebrating all his victories. He did not regard Ay as a true Pharaoh and observed no period of mourning after his death but declared publicly that Ay had been a false Pharaoh who through his ceaseless warfare and improper taxation had brought only suffering to Egypt. By putting an end to the war and closing the gates of Sekhmet’s temple, he persuaded the people that he had never desired war but had only been forced to obey the evil Pharaoh. Therefore the people greatly rejoiced at his return and praised him and his soldiers.
But as soon as Horemheb had arrived in Thebes, he sent for me and spoke to me, saying, “Sinuhe, my friend, I am older than when we parted, and my spirit has been sorely oppressed by your words and accusations, that I am a bloodthirsty man and bring only harm to Egypt. But now I have got what I desired and I have restored the might of Egypt so that no external danger threatens Egypt any more — for I have snapped the heads of the Hittite spears and left the conquest of Kadesh to my son Ramesses, since I have had my fill of war and mean to build a strong kingdom for him. Though today Egypt is as dirty as a poor man’s stable, but soon you will see me drive the dung out of Egypt and replace wrong by right and give everyone according to his measure: to the diligent according to his diligence, to the lazy according to his laziness, to the thief according to his thievery and to wrongdoer according to the wrongdoing he has committed. Truly, my friend Sinuhe, with my coming, the old times return to Egypt, and all shall be as it was. For this reason, I intend to efface from the list of rulers the miserable names of Tutankhamun and Ay, just as Akhenaten’s name has already been removed from the list of rulers, that it may seem as if their times never were, and I shall count my own reign from the night of great Pharaoh’s death when I came to Thebes a spear in hand with a falcon flying before me.”
He became wistful and leaned his head in his hands; the war had carved lines in his face, and there was no joy in his eyes any more as he said, “The world is indeed different from what it was when we were boys and the poor had their full measure and there was no lack of oil
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