young and simple though you are, and what I have stolen from you, I have stolen with due regard to your advantage and means. I have run about the streets on my old legs in the midday heat, shouting out your name and healing merits, though the servants of other physicians have beaten me with sticks and cast dung upon me.”
My heart was as if filled with salt, and I had a bitter taste in my mouth as I looked at him, but I was touched, and gripping him by the shoulders, I said, “Get up, Kaptah!” That was his name on the bill of sale, although I never called him by his name so that his self-esteem would not increase nor would he start thinking himself equal to me. So I always shouted ‘slave,’ ‘dumb ass,’ ‘drifter’ or ‘thief’ when I needed him.
Hearing me use his name, he cried ever more bitterly and touched my hands with his head and then put my feet over his head until I got angry and kicked him and told him to get up. “Of what use is all this outcry,” I said. “It is not from displeasure that I dismiss you, for I have been content with your service, though you have often shown your temper in a shameless manner by slamming doors and clattering the dishes when something has vexed you. And your pilfering has not angered me, for it is a slave’s right. That’s the way things are and always will be. I have been forced to hand you over against my will, for I had nothing else to give. My house is gone, too, and all that I possess so that not so much as the clothes upon my back are my own. You lament in vain in front of me.”
Then Kaptah got up and tore his hair and groaned, “This is an evil day.” He mused heavily for a time and said, “You are a great doctor, Sinuhe, despite your youth, and the world lies before you. It will be best, therefore, if I make haste to gather up those things that are of most value, and when darkness comes, we can fly and hide in a ship whose captain is not too pernickety and sail down the river. There are many cities in the Two Kingdoms, and if the bailiffs recognise you or I am found on the list of run-away slaves, we can make our way to the Red Lands, where no one knows you, or to the islands in the sea where the wine is fresh and the women joyful. In the land of Mitanni, and also in Babylon, where the rivers flow in the wrong direction, the arts of Egyptian physicians are highly regarded so that you may grow rich and I may become the servant of a respected master. Hasten, therefore, my lord, that we may pack up your belongings before dark.” He tugged at my sleeve.
111
“Kaptah, Kaptah!” I said. “Spare me this witless chatter for my heart is grieved to death, and my body is no longer my own. I am bound with fetters that are stronger than copper chains though you do not see them. I cannot fly, for to be absent from Thebes is to be in a glowing furnace.”
My servant sat on the floor, for his feet were afflicted with painful swellings that I treated from time to time when I had leisure. He said, “It is clear that Amun has abandoned us which I cannot wonder at since you so seldom go to make sacrifice to him. Nevertheless, I have faithfully sacrificed one fifth of what I have stolen from you in thankfulness for having been given a young and simple master, but now he has abandoned me also. Well, well! We must change gods and hasten to make sacrifice to some other who will perhaps divert the evil from us and make all well again.”
“No more of this nonsense,” I said and already regretted having called him by his name, for he had become too intimate. “Your talk is like flies buzzing in my ear, and you forget we have nothing to sacrifice since all we own is now another’s.”
“Is it a man or a woman?” Kaptah asked becoming curious.
“A woman,” I said, for what need was there to conceal it. When he heard this, he burst out in fresh lamentation and tore his hair and cried, “Oh, that I had never been born into this world! Oh, that my mother had strangled me by my navel cord at birth! For there is no bitterer fate for a slave than to serve a heartless woman — and heartless must she be who has done this to you. She will have me jump and run all day from dawn till dusk with my sore feet, and she will put needles in me and beat my old back with a stick until I yell and cry. All this shall happen to me, even if I have blessed Amun for making me a servant of a young and inexperienced master.”
“She is in no way heartless,” I answered him for so foolish is man that I needed to talk of Nefernefernefer even to my slave, having no one else in whom to confide. “Naked upon her couch, she is more beautiful than the moon. Her limbs gleam with costly oils, and her eyes are green as the Nile in the heat of summer. Happy would you be and enviable, Kaptah, if you were permitted to live near her and breathe the same air as her.”
112
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