her with me longer before relinquishing her to her god.
But she replied, “Who am I to meddle with your plans? I go with you willingly wherever it may be since you have promised to take me back to my country. Where you go, I go, and should death overtake us, I will mourn not for my sake but for yours.”
I therefore resolved to join the caravan as a physician and so travel under the protection of the King of Mitanni to the land of Hatti, which is also called Cheta. When Kaptah heard this, he broke out in imprecations and invoked the gods to his aid.
“Hardly are we out of the jaws of one death before my lord yearns to plunge down the gullet of another. Everyone knows that the Hittites are wild beasts and worse. By the scarab! Cursed be the day I was born into this world to suffer the whims of my lunatic master!”
I had to call him to order with a stick, after which I said, “Be it as you wish! I will send you in company with some merchants direct to Smyrna, and pay for your journey. Look after my house there until I return, for I am sick to death of your eternal lamentations.”
But Kaptah blazed up again, saying, “And where would be the sense in that? How can I allow my lord to journey alone to the land of Hatti? I might as well loose a newborn kid among hounds, and my heart would never cease to upbraid me for the crime. I ask but one question: Is the land of Hatti reached by sea?”
I told him that so far as I knew there was no sea between the lands of Hatti and Mitanni.
“Blessed be my scarab,” Kaptah replied, “for if it had been necessary to go by sea I could not have accompanied you since I have sworn to the gods never to set foot on a sea-going ship.”
He then began to gather our things together and make ready for our departure, and I left all to his care, for in these matters he was handier than myself.
3
The journey with the Mitannian envoy was uneventful, and there is little to say about it, for the Hittites escorted us the whole way in their chariots and saw to it that we had food and drink at every stopping place. The Hittites are hardy, caring for neither cold nor heat, for they live among barren hills and are trained to hardship and privation from their childhood. They are fearless and dogged in battle; they scorn the weaker nations and subdue them, while they honor the valorous and seek their friendship.
Their nation is divided into many clans and villages ruled by princes whose power over them is absolute, but who are in turn subject to the great king who dwells in his city of Hattushash, among the mountains. He is their high priest, their commander-in-chief, and their supreme judge. In him is united all the authority by which men are ruled, divine as well as temporal, and I know of no king in whom is vested equal power, absolute though all royal authority is held to be. In other countries, Egypt included, the priests and judges have more control over the king’s actions than is generally supposed.
In speaking of the great cities of the world men will mention Thebes and Babylon and sometimes Nineveh, which I have not seen. But I have never heard them speak of Hattushash, which is the great city of the Hittites and the seat of authority, set in the mountains like an eagle’s eyrie at the heart of the hunting grounds. Yet this city may well be compared with others; and when I remember that its gigantic buildings are of hewn stone and its walls impregnable and more massive than any I have seen, I must acknowledge this city to be one of the greatest. It remains a secret from the world because the King has closed it to foreigners. Only accredited envoys are admitted to have audience of the King and deliver to him their gifts, and even these men are closely watched during the time they remain in Hattushash. Therefore, the citizens do not willingly talk to strangers even if they know their language. Should one make inquiry of them, they reply, “I do not understand” or “I do not know,” and look about them uneasily lest someone should see them in converse with a stranger. They are not churlish by nature, however, but friendly, and they love to see foreign clothes, if these are handsome, and follow the wearers about the streets.
They do not hire soldiers, as do civilized peoples, but are themselves warriors, the men being divided into’ classes corresponding to their military rank. Thus the most distinguished are those who can afford to keep a chariot, and their status is determined not by their origins but by their proficiency in arms. All men of fighting age gather yearly for military exercises under the direction of their commanders. Hat- tushash is not a city of commerce like the other great cities but is full of forges and workshops from which come a steady clang of hammers, for in these workshops are forged arrowheads and spear heads and the wheels and frames of chariots.
At the time of my arrival in the land of Hatti the great King Shub- biluliuma had reigned for twenty-eight years. His name was so dreaded that people bowed and held up their hands when they heard it, crying aloud his praises, for he had brought order to the land of Hatti and subjugated many peoples. He lived in a stone palace in the middle of the city, and many stories were told of his birth and his heroic deeds, as they are told of all great rulers. I never saw him though; not even the envoys from Mitanni saw him. They had to leave their gifts on the floor of the reception hall, amid the jeers of the soldiers.
At first there seemed little for a physician to do in Hattushash, for as I understood it, the Hittites were ashamed of illness and concealed it as long as they could. Puny and deformed children were killed at birth, and ailing slaves were also put to death. For this reason their doctors had little skill and were ignorant, illiterate men, though they treated wounds and contusions well enough and had effective remedies also for the ailments peculiar to mountain districts, remedies that rapidly diminished the heat of the body and of which I was glad to learn. But if any man found himself afflicted with a disease that threatened to be fatal, he chose death rather than a cure, lest he should be maimed or feeble for the rest of his life. For the Hittites had no fear of death as civilized people have, but they held debility in great dread.
Yet in the main all great cities are alike, and the eminent and wealthy of every country are alike. When my fame spread among the people, a number of them came to my inn seeking cures; their maladies were known to me and I could treat them. But they preferred to come to me disguised, secretly and under cover of darkness, that their dignity might not be diminished. For this reason also they gave me munificent presents, and in the end I acquired much gold and silver in Hattushash, though at first I had feared to leave it as a beggar.
The Hittites were strict in their behavior, and men of the better class could not appear drunk in the streets without loss of dignity, but as in all other great cities, they did drink a great quantity of wine and also pernicious mixed wines. I treated the cramps resulting from this and stilled their trembling hands when they were to appear before the King. I let Minea dance for their entertainment; they admired her greatly and gave her rich presents without desiring more of her-for the Hittites were generous when anything pleased them. Having won their good will in this way I ventured to ask them about many things I could not openly have inquired into. I learned most from the King’s Keeper of the Archives, who spoke and wrote many languages, dealt with the King’s foreign correspondence, and was not bound by custom. I let him believe that I had been banished from Egypt never to return, and that I had no other object in traveling abroad than to acquire wealth and learning. He trusted. me and was willing to answer my questions in return for good wine and Minea’s dancing.
“Why is Hattushash closed to foreigners?” I asked him. “And why must caravans and merchants keep to certain roads, although your country is rich and your city vies with any other in marvels? Would it not be better for others to learn of your might and sing your praises among themselves as your land well merits?”
He tasted his wine and said, as his eyes strayed greedily to Minea’s slender limbs, “Shubbiluliuma, our great king, said when he ascended the throne, ‘Give me thirty years and I will make the land of Hatti the most powerful realm the world has ever seen.’ Those thirty years will soon have expired, and I think that before long the world will hear more about the land of Hatti than it cares to know.”
“But in Babylon I saw sixty times sixty times sixty men march past their king, and the sound of their feet was as the roar of the sea. Here perhaps I have seen as many as ten times ten men at once, and I cannot understand what you do with all the chariots that are being built in the city workshops. Of what use are chariots in mountain country? They are intended for fighting in the plains.”
He laughed.
“For a physician you are very inquisitive, Sinuhe the Egyptian! Perhaps we earn our little crust of bread by selling chariots to the kings of the flat countries.” He narrowed his eyes knowingly.
“That I do not believe!” I said boldly. “As readily would a wolf lend his fangs to a hare.”
