I yet want to tell that before I left Jerusalem I opened the skull of a soldier who had been hit in his head with a club while scuffling drunk at the temple of Aten, so that the bone of his skull had broken and he lied dying and could not speak or move his limbs. But he was not cured, and his body became hot and he was flailing with his hands and died the following day.
185
Book 6: The Day of the False King
1
Before starting on a new book, I must give glory to the days gone by when I journeyed unmolested through many lands acquiring wisdom, for such a time will hardly come again. I travelled through a world that for forty years had known no war. The guards of kings everywhere protected caravan routes and the traders who used them, while their ships and Pharaoh’s protected the river and the seas against the pirates. Frontiers were open; merchants and travellers who brought gold were welcome in every city, and there was neither bitterness nor dissension between men; they bowed to one another, stretching forth their hands at knee level, and learned each other’s ways. Many of the educated spoke several languages and wrote two kinds of script. Fields were watered and bore abundant crops, and in the Red Lands the river of the heavens did duty for our Nile and refreshed the earth. While I journeyed, the cattle roved in safety over the grazing grounds, and the herdsmen carried no spears but played on pipes and sang merry songs. Vineyards prospered, and fruit trees bowed beneath their burdens; the priests were fat and shiny with oil and balms, and the smoke from countless sacrifices rose from the forecourts of temples in every country. The gods throve also and were gracious and grew fat upon burnt offerings. The rich became richer, the mighty yet mightier, and the poor poorer, as the gods did decree, so that all were content and there was no murmuring. Such is the vision I have of this bygone time, which probably will never return, when in my young manhood my limbs were unwearied by long journeys, when my eyes were anxious and eager for new things, and when my heart, thirsting for knowledge, drank its fill.
As an example how orderly and similar were the affairs everywhere, I can describe how the trading house in Babylon did not hesitate to give me gold in return for my clay tablet, given to me by my trading house in Zemar; and it was possible to buy harbour and mountain wine in every big city, delivered from afar, so that cities in Syria considered mountain wine the best, and gold was paid for Syrian
186
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