papers were burned when the Hittites hurled their jars of fire into my room, and my memory is enfeebled through lack of sleep. I seem to remember all other things, but in the stores there should be four hundred leather cruppers for donkeys, and I can’t find them anywhere. My store scribes can’t find them either although I whip them every day. They can now neither sit nor walk but crawl about the floor on hands and knees. Horemheb, where are those four hundred cruppers, which were never needed because we long ago ate the donkeys? By Set and all devils! Have me flogged in the sight of all, for Pharaoh’s wrath fills me with dread. I shall not dare to enter his presence as my rank requires if I do not find the cruppers.”
Horemheb sought to calm him, saying that he would gladly give him four hundred of these, but the proposal threw Roju into yet greater agitation.
He said, “It is evident that you seek to lure me into deceit, for if I accept these, they will still not be those entrusted to me. You do this that you may degrade me and accuse me before Pharaoh, because you are envious and covet the post of garrison commander in Gaza! I will not consent to your deceitful proposal but I will find those four hundred cruppers if I have to tear down Gaza stone by stone to do it.”
Unknown to Horemheb, Roju ordered the execution of the store clerk who had endured all the hardships of the siege by his side and set men to tearing up the floor of his tower with pickaxes to find the lost harness. When Horemheb saw this, he ordered him to be locked in his room and watched, and then he consulted me. I visited Roju, and with the help of many strong men I bound him to his bedstead and then administered a soothing draught. But his eyes blazed like those of a wild beast; he writhed on the bed, foaming at the mouth in fury.
He said to me, “Am I not commander in Gaza, you jackal of Horemheb? I remember now that there was in the fortress dungeon a Syrian spy whom I captured before your master came. By reason of my many duties I forgot to hang him from the wall. This spy is an exceedingly cunning fellow, and I now understand that it is he who has made off with those four hundred cruppers. Bring him before me that I may squeeze them out of him and sleep in peace once more.”
He raved so long about his Syrian spy that I grew weary, and taking lighted torches I descended into the dungeon, where a number of rat- gnawed bodies sat chained to the walls. The guard was an old blind man whom I questioned as to a certain Syrian spy who had been imprisoned before the end of the siege. He vowed and declared that all the prisoners had perished long ago, having been first questioned on the rack and then left without food or water. I knew human nature, and the old man’s demeanor aroused my suspicions.
I pressed him hard and threatened him until he prostrated himself before me, saying, “Spare my life, lord, for I have faithfully served Egypt all my days and in the name of Egypt have tortured prisoners and stolen their food. But this spy is no ordinary man. His tongue is strange and whistles like a nightingale, and he has promised me great wealth if I will feed him and keep him alive until the coming of Horemheb. He has also promised to restore my sight, having been blind himself until a great physician healed his one eye. He has promised to bring me to this great physician that my sight also may be restored and that I may live in the city among my fellows and enjoy my wealth. He already owes me more than two million deben of gold for the bread and water I have given him, and I have not told him that the siege is over and that Horemheb has come to Gaza, that he may incur yet heavier debt with every passing day. He swears that Horemheb will release him and give him chains of gold, and I must believe him for the twittering of his tongue is not to be resisted. Yet I do not intend to bring him before Horemheb until he owes me three million deben of gold. That is a round sum and easy to bear in mind.”
My knees had begun to quake and my heart to melt in my breast, for I seemed to know of whom he spoke. But I controlled myself and said, “Old man, there is not so much gold in all Egypt and Syria put together. From your words I know that this man is a great deceiver and merits punishment. Bring him before me instantly, and pray to all the gods that no evil may have befallen him, for you will answer for it with your blind old head.”
Weeping bitterly and calling on Ammon to help him, the old man led me to a little cellar behind the others, the mouth of which was blocked up with stones that Roju’s men might not find it. When I shone the light of my torch into this hole I saw chained to the wall a man whose Syrian dress was tattered, whose back was raw, and whose emaciated paunch hung in folds. One eye was blind, and in the torchlight he blinked the other and turned it toward me.
He said, “Is it you, my lord Sinuhe? Blessed be the day that brings you to me, but let the smiths make speed to free me from these fetters. Bring me a jar of wine that I may forget my sufferings, and let slaves wash me and anoint me with the finest ointments, for I am accustomed to comfort and a life of abundance, and these sharp stones have rubbed the skin from my backside. Nor have I anything against a soft couch and a few of Ishtar’s virgins for company, seeing that my belly no longer hampers me in the delights of love. Yet-believe it or not-within a few days I have eaten more than two million deben worth of bread.”
“Kaptah, Kaptah!” I cried, falling on my knees and throwing my arms about his rat-bitten shoulders. “You are incorrigible! They told me in Thebes that you were dead, but I would not believe it, for I think you can never die. My best proof of that is to find you here in the cellar of the dead, living and in good health among the corpses, notwithstanding that those who have perished in their chains all about you were more respectable men and more pleasing to their gods than you. It rejoices me indeed to find you alive.”
Kaptah said, “You are still the same vain prattler, my lord Sinuhe. Talk not to me of gods, for in my distress I have called on all the gods I know-even those of Babylon and of the Hittites-and not one of them has helped me. I have eaten myself into beggary because of this rapacious guard. The scarab alone has helped by leading you to me, for the commander of this fortress is a madman and believes no sensible words. He allowed his men to plunder me and to rack me in a very terrible manner, so that I bellowed like a bull on their wheel. But the scarab I kept, to my good fortune, for when I saw what was to come I concealed it in a part of my body that it is an indignity for a god to inhabit but that may have been agreeable to the scarab since it led you to me. Only to that can such a remarkable meeting be attributed.”
He showed me the scarab, which was still foul from its unpleasing hiding place. I ordered the smiths to release him from his chains and then led him up into my rooms in the fortress, for he was weak and his eye was unaccustomed to the light. At my order, slaves washed and anointed him and clothed him in the finest linen, and I lent him a gold chain and bracelets and other ornaments that he might make an appearance befitting his dignity. He was shaved also and his hair curled. Meanwhile he ate meat and drank wine and belched in contentment. But the prison guard wept and lamented behind the door, shouting that Kaptah owed him two million three hundred and sixty- five deben of gold for the preservation of his life and for his food in the dungeon. Nor would he abate one single deben from this sum, saying that he had risked his own life in preserving Kaptah’s and in stealing food for him.
I wearied of the outcry and said to Kaptah, “Horemheb has been in Gaza for more than a week and the old man has cheated you. You owe him nothing. I will order soldiers to flog him, and if need be they can cut off his head, for he is a deceitful fellow and the cause of many deaths.”
But Kaptah was shocked at my words, and said, “I am a man of honor! A merchant must hold to his engagements if he is to preserve his good name. Had I guessed that I should survive, I should of course have bargained with him. When I smelled the bread in his hand I promised him what he asked.”
I stared at him in consternation.
“Can this be Kaptah? No, I can’t believe it. Some curse lurks in the stones of this fortress so that all who remain within it go mad. You also are mad! Do you mean to pay him all you owe? And with what will you pay it? Since the kingdom of Aton fell, I fancy you are as poor as myself.”
But Kaptah was now drunk, and he said, “I am a pious man. I honor the gods and keep my word. I intend to discharge my debt to the last deben, although of course he must allow me time. In his simplicity he would doubtless be content if I weighed out a couple of deben to him, for never in his life has he squeezed soft gold between his fingers. He would be beside himself with joy to receive only one deben, but this does not release me from my bond. I don’t know where I can find so much, for I lost a very great deal in the Theban riots, having been compelled to fly thence in an ignominious manner, leaving everything behind me. The slaves were persuaded that I had betrayed them to Ammon and sought my life. After that I did great service to Horemheb in Memphis until the hatred of the slaves pursued me even there. I then did him even greater service in Syria, for I lived here as a merchant and sold grain and forage to the Hittites. I estimate therefore that Horemheb already owes me half a million deben of gold- and more, because I was forced to make my escape to Gaza in peril of my life on the sea in a very small boat. The Hittites, you understand, were enraged because their horses fell sick of the forage I had supplied. In Gaza I ran an even greater risk. The mad commander imprisoned me as a Syrian spy and tortured me on the wheel, and assuredly my hide would now be hanging from the wall had not this crazy old man hidden me and vowed that I had perished
