peasants. The Herdsmen consider themselves too good to go down to their quarter, so they spare them, without meaning to, their arrogant manners and evil acts.”
The youth frowned in anger and pain and said nothing. They strode on, attracting looks with the dignity of their bearing and the magnificence of their dress. Isfmis noticed close by them a youth in his teens coming toward them carrying a basket. Around his waist he — wore a short kilt, but the rest of his body was bare. He was tall and slender and his face was handsome. Isfmis said, “Look at that boy, Latu. Wouldn't he make a good warrior in the chariot division if he — weren't so young?”
The youth was passing close by them, and, wanting to speak with him, Isfmis greeted him — with a wave and said, “Lord grant you life, young man! Could you kindly direct us to a place where we can rest?”
The youth stopped and was about to reply but, when his eyes took them in, he closed his mouth and cast at them a strange look, expressive of anger and contempt, and he turned his back on them and went on. The two men exchanged a look of astonishment and distaste and Isfmis followed the youth and said, barring his path, “Brother, what makes you deny us an answer and turn your back on us in anger?”
The youth yelled, “Get away from me, Herdsmen's slave!” and walked angrily on, lengthening his steps and leaving Isfmis astonished and perplexed. Latu caught up with him, saying, “He's mad, for sure.”
“He's not mad, Latu. But why would he call me a slave of the Herdsmen?”
“A laughable accusation, indeed!”
“Indeed! But given the behavior of the Herdsmen, from where does he get the courage to challenge us? He's a truly daring young man, Latu. His behavior with us proves that ten years of the Herdsmen's stifling rule has not been enough to root out the anger from those of noble spirit.”
They resumed their course until a loud clamor attracted their attention. Looking to the right, they saw a large building with a small entranceway and narrow openings in its upper wall, and groups of people entering and leaving. The youth asked his companion, “What is this building?”
Latu replied, “An inn.”
“Let's take a look.”
Latu smiled and said, “Let us do so.”
5
They entered the inn together and found themselves in a large space — with high — walls from — whose ceiling hung a dust-covered lamp, and in the middle of which jars had been placed surrounded by a wall two cubits tall and one thick, on which earthenware cups were arranged in rows and around which sat the drinkers. Inside the enclosure stood the innkeeper, filling cups for those around him, or sending them with a young serving boy to those sitting on the floor in the corners. Every time he raised his head from his jars, one of the drinkers would assail him with some joke or pleasantry, only to be rebuffed with coarse language, insults, and abuse. The two men looked around the place and Isfmis decided to shove his way into the crowd near the server, so he took his companion by the hand and shouldered his way toward the wall until he reached it, amidst stares of astonishment and annoyance. Feeling a little tired, he said to the tavern-keeper affably, “My good man, would you be able to provide us with a couple of chairs?”
The annoyance of those around increased at his tone and the strangeness of his request, while the tavern- keeper replied without bothering to look at them, “Sorry, prince. The patrons of my establishment are drawn exclusively from those who favor Mother Earth as a seat!”
The assembled drunks laughed at Isfmis and his companion and one of them came up to them, a short man with a coarse face and neck and a huge belly. He bowed to them mockingly and said, his speech slurred with drink, “Gentlemen, allow me to offer you my belly to sit on!”
Isfmis realized his mistake and the harm it had done him and his companion, and to make it good said, “We gratefully accept your offer, but how will you drink your vintage wine without your belly?”
The youth's reply pleased the drunks and one of them called out to the fat man, “Answer, Tuna, answer! How can you drink your cups if you give your belly away to the gentlemen?”
The man frowned in thought and scratched his head in bewilderment, his
The men laughed and Isfinis, — who liked the answer, told him soothingly, “I'll forgo the kind offer of your mighty belly, — which was created to be a wineskin, and not a seat.”
Then Isfinis looked at the tavern-keeper and said to him, “My good man, fill three cups, two for us and one for our witty friend Tuna!”
The man filled the cups and presented them to Isfinis. Tuna seized his and emptied it into his mouth at one go, unable to believe his luck. Then he wiped his mouth with his palm and said to Isfinis, “You're certainly a rich man, noble sir!”
Isfinis replied smilingly, “Praise God for his blessings!”
Tuna said, “But you're Egyptians, from the look of you!”
“You have keen eyes! Is there any contradiction between being Egyptians and being rich?”
“Certainly, unless you're in the rulers’ good graces.”
Here another interjected, “People like that imitate their masters and don't mix with the likes of us!”
Isfmis's face darkened and the image of the youth who had angrily shouted “Herdsmen's slave!” at him a while before came back to him. He said, “We are Egyptians from Nubia and have only recently arrived in Egypt.”
Silence fell, the word “Nubia” ringing strangely in the men's ears. However, they were all drunk and the wine-chatter could not get a purchase on their minds, and they were incapable of pulling their thoughts together. One of the men looked at the men's two cups, which they had not yet touched, and said with a heavy tongue, “Why don't you drink, may the Lord bless you with the wine of Paradise?”
Latu replied, “We drink rarely, and when we drink, we drink slowly.”
Tuna said, “That's the way! What's the point in running away from a happy life? Me, on the other hand, I'm fed up with my work, I'm even fed up with my family and children, and I'm sickest of all with myself, so all I want is never to take the cup away from these lips!”
A drunk clapped in pleasure at what Tuna had said and shook his head in delight, saying, “This inn is the refuge of those — who have no hope, of those — who proffer trays of food — while they are hungry, — who — weave luxurious garments while they are naked, and who play the buffoon at the celebrations of their overlords, though their hearts and spirits are broken.”
A third man said, “Listen, men of Nubia! A drinker is never happy until his legs give way, for all he wants to do is lose consciousness. Take me, for example: every night I have to be carried home to my hut!”
Isfmis recollected himself and realized that he was among the most wretched of humanity. “Are you fishermen?” heaskedthem.
Tuna replied, “All of us are fishermen.”
The innkeeper shrugged his shoulders contemptuously and said, without looking up from his work, “Not me — I'm a tavern-keeper, sir!”
Tuna guffawed, then pointed with a thick finger at a short, thin, fine-boned man with wide, bright eyes. He said, “If you want to be precise, this man's a thief.”
Isfmis looked at the man curiously and the man felt embarrassed and tried to reassure him by saying, “Don't worry, sir! I never steal anything in this quarter!”
Tuna commented, “He means that as there's nothing worth stealing in our quarter, he keeps company with us like anybody else and practices his art in the suburbs of Thebes, where there's money everywhere and everyone's well-off.”
The thief himself was drunk and said apologetically, “I'm not a thief, sir. I'm just someone who roams around, east and west, wherever his feet carry him. And if I stumble on a lost goose or chicken in my path, I guide it to a safe place, usually my hut!”
“And do you eat it?”
