“If you wish it I will read the inscription for you,” I said.
“May your body be preserved forever if you will do me this service, for I would know what is written of Anukis before I die.”
We went together to the City of the Dead, unchallenged by the guards, and wandered between the rows of tombs until we reached a large one before which meat had been set forth and many sorts of cakes, fruit, and flowers. A sealed wine jar stood there also. The noseless one ate of the offerings, giving some to me, and then bade me read what was written upon the door. And this is what I read to him:
“I Anukis sowed seed and planted fruit trees, and my crops were plentiful because I feared the gods and sacrificed to them one fifth of all my harvest. The Nile greeted me with favor, and no one upon my land went hungry at any time during my life, nor did my neighbors lack food, for I brought water to their fields and fed them with my grain in lean years. I dried the tears of the fatherless and robbed not the widows but forgave them their debts, and my name is blessed from end to end of the land. To him whose ox died, I Anukis gave a new and healthy one. I was scrupulous in removing no landmarks nor in hindering the water from flowing over my neighbor’s field. I walked in justice and piety all my days. These things did I Anukis do, that the gods might be gracious to me and lighten my journey to the Western Land.”
The noseless one listened reverently, and when I had finished, he shed bitter tears, saying, “I am a poor man and I believe all that is written. Thus I see that Anukis was a pious man, revered in death. Future generations will read the inscription on the door of his tomb and do him honor. But I am miserable and an evildoer and have neither nose nor ears so that my shame is seen of all, and when I die, my body will be cast into the river, and I shall cease to be. Is not everything in this world great vanity?”
He broke the seal of the wine jar and drank. A watchman came up and menaced him with his stick, but my companion said, “Anukis was good to me in his day, and I would honor his memory by eating and drinking at his tomb. But if you lay hands upon me or upon my friend here beside me-a learned man-know that there are many sturdy fellows among the reeds, and some of us have knives and will come upon you by night and slit your throat.”
He glared at the guard and was horrible to see. The man looked this way and that and went away. We ate and drank by the tomb of Anukis, and the roof above the offerings gave a cool shade.
He said, “I see now that it would have been better to give up my daughter willingly to Anukis. Perhaps he would have let me keep my hut and given me presents as well, for my daughter was beautiful and a virgin though now she is a worn-out pallet for his servants. I see that the rights of the rich and powerful are the only rights in this world and that the word of the poor man does not reach the ear of Pharaoh.”
Raising the jar to his lips he laughed aloud and said, “Your health, most righteous Anukis, and may your body be preserved forever! I have no wish to follow you to the Western Land, where you and your like live merrily, unvexed by the gods. Yet it appears to me but right that you should continue in your loving kindness on earth and share with me the golden goblets and the jewels in your tomb, so this next night I shall visit you when the moon is veiled in cloud.”
“What are you saying, Noseless?” I exclaimed in consternation and unthinkingly made the holy sign of Ammon. “You would not become a grave robber, for that is the vilest of all crimes in the eyes of gods and men!”
But Noseless, fired with wine, retorted, “You talk great nonsense in your learned way. Anukis is in my debt, and I, being less merciful than he, will enforce my demands. If you try to stop me, I will break your neck. If you are wise, you will help me since four eyes see better than two, and together we could bear away more from the tomb than I could manage alone. That is if there is no moon.”
“I do not wish to be hung head downward from a wall and flogged,” said I in a fright. But on reflection I knew that my shame could hardly be deeper though my friends should see me hanging thus, and death of itself held no terrors for me.
That night soldiers rowed across the river from the city to guard the tombs, but the new Pharaoh had not given them the presents that were customary after a coronation. So they murmured among themselves, and when they had drunk wine-for there was much wine among the offerings-they began to break open the tombs and despoil them. No one hindered Noseless and me when we violated the tomb of Anukis, overturned his chest, and took away as many golden cups and valuables as we could carry. At dawn a throng of Syrian merchants had gathered on the river bank to buy up the plunder and take it down the river in their ships. We sold our booty to them, receiving nearly two hundred deben in gold and silver, which we divided between us according to the weight stamped upon the metal. The price we got was but a fraction of the true value of the goods, and the gold was alloyed, but Noseless rejoiced greatly.
“I shall be a rich man, for in truth this trade is more profitable than staggering under burdens at the harbor or carrying water from irrigation ditches to the fields.”
But I said, “The pitcher goes once too often to the well.” So we parted, and I returned in a merchant’s boat to the other shore and Thebes. I bought new clothes and ate and drank at a wine shop, for the smell of the House of Death was leaving me. But all day long there came from the City of the Dead across the river the notes of horns and the clash of arms. Chariots thundered along the paths between the tombs, and Pharaoh’s bodyguard pursued the plundering soldiers and miners with spears till their death cries could be heard in Thebes. That evening the wall was lined with bodies hanging by the heels, and order was restored.
7
I slept one night at an inn, and then went to what had been my house and called for Kaptah. He came limping forth, his cheeks swollen with blows. When he saw me, he wept for joy and threw himself at my feet.
“Lord, you have come back though I believed you dead! I thought that if you were alive you would surely return for more silver and copper, for when once a man gives, he must go on giving. But you did not come though I have stolen from my new master as much as ever I did in my life, as you may see by my cheek and by my knee which he kicked yesterday. His mother, the old crocodile-may she rot?-threatens to sell me and I am in great fear. Let us leave this evil house, lord, and fly together.”
I hestitated and he misunderstood me.
“I have indeed stolen so much that I can take care of you for a time, and when it is all gone, I can work for you if you will only take me away.”
“I came but to pay my debt to you, Kaptah,” I told him, and I counted gold and silver into his hand, many times the sum he had given me. “But if you like, I will buy your freedom from your master so that you may go where you will.”
“And if you free me, where shall I go since all my life I have been a slave? Without you I am a blind kitten, a lamb forsaken by the ewe. Nor should you waste good gold upon my freedom-why pay for what is already yours?” He blinked his one eye in sly reflection. “A big ship is now fitting out for Smyrna, and we might perhaps venture to sail in her if we first make lavish sacrifice to the gods. It is only a pity that I have not found a powerful enough god since I gave up Ammon, who made such mischief for me.”