Kaptah vomited and sank down upon the deck, and his face turned green, and he never uttered another word. Then I became alarmed, and when I saw that many other passengers were vomiting and moaning that they would perish and that they were strangely altered in the face, I hastened to the captain and told him that it was clear that the gods had put a curse on his vessel, as a terrible sickness had broken out on board despite my skill. I begged him to put back to land while he could still find any, or as a doctor I could not answer for the consequences. I also said that the storm raging around us, swaying the ship so that its joints creaked, was terrifying, but I did not want to interfere in matters of his profession.
But the captain reassured me and comforted me that we had a fair wind, which would bring us smartly along on our course, and that I should not mock the gods by talking about a storm. The sickness that had broken out amongst the passengers was only due to the fact that the passengers had paid for their meals during the journey and eaten too much, causing damage to the Syrian trading house, who owned the ship. The trading house back in Zemar must have sacrificed to the appropriate sea gods that the passengers could not hold their meals and thus become unable to empty the ship’s modest food supplies like wild beasts.
His explanation did not comfort me, and I dared to ask if he could find the shore soon again as it was dark soon. He assured that there were in his captain’s cabin several gods who would help him to find the right direction whether day or night, if only the stars were visible during the night and the sun during the day. But this must have been a lie, because there are no such gods.
Therefore I mocked him and asked, why I was not sick like other passengers. He said it was only natural, because I had to provide my own meals and did not bring any damage to the ship owner. About Kaptah he said that servants were their own breed; sometimes they got sick, sometimes not. He swore by his beard that every passenger would be as spry as a young goat the moment he set foot on dry land and that I need not fear for my dignity as a physician. Yet, when I observed the misery of these travellers, I found it hard to believe him.
Why I myself did not fall so gravely ill, I cannot say — unless it was that immediately after my birth I had been put to rock on the Nile in a reed boat. That is the only explanation I could come up with.
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I sought to tend to Kaptah and the others, but when I would have touched the passengers, they cursed me. When I offered Kaptah some strengthening food, he turned away his face and snapped his jaws noisily like a hippopotamus, to empty his belly though there was no more in it. But Kaptah had never before turned from food, and I began to think he really would die. I was greatly cast down for I had begun to grow used to his foolish talk.
Night fell, and at last I slept, fearful though I was of the rolling of the ship, the terrifying smack of the sails and the thunder of the seas against the hull. Days passed, but none of the passengers died, but some indeed recovered enough to eat and walk about the deck. Only Kaptah lay still and touched no food yet showed some sign of life in that he began once more to pray to the scarab, from which I concluded that he had regained hope of reaching land alive. On the seventh day a coast line appeared, and the captain told me that we had sailed past Joppa and Tyre and would be able to make Zemar direct, thanks to the favourable winds. How he knew all this, even now I cannot make out. On the following day, we sighted Zemar, and the captain made lavish sacrifice in his cabin to the sea gods and others. The sails were lowered, the oarsmen manned their oars and rowed us into the port of Zemar.
When we had entered smooth water, Kaptah stood up and swore by his scarab that never again would he set foot on ship’s deck.
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