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[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D.W.]
By Georg Ebers
As Nemu, on his way back from his visit to Ani, approached his mistress'shouse, he was detained by a boy, who desired him to follow him to thestranger's quarter. Seeing him hesitate, the messenger showed him thering of his mother Hekt, who had come into the town on business, andwanted to speak with him.
Nemu was tired, for he was not accustomed to walking; his ass was dead,and Katuti could not afford to give him another. Half of Mena's beastshad been sold, and the remainder barely sufficed for the field-labor.
At the corners of the busiest streets, and on the market-places, stoodboys with asses which they hired out for a small sum;
[In the streets of modern Egyptian towns asses stand saddled for hire. On the monuments only foreigners are represented as riding on asses, but these beasts are mentioned in almost every list of the possessions of the nobles, even in very early times, and the number is often considerable. There is a picture extant of a rich old man who rides on a seat supported on the backs of two donkeys. Lepsius, Denkmaler, part ii. 126.]
but Nemu had parted with his last money for a garment and a new wig, sothat he might appear worthily attired before the Regent. In former timeshis pocket had never been empty, for Mena had thrown him many a ring ofsilver, or even of gold, but his restless and ambitious spirit wasted noregrets on lost luxuries. He remembered those years of superfluity withcontempt, and as he puffed and panted on his way through the dust, hefelt himself swell with satisfaction.
The Regent had admitted him to a private interview, and the little manhad soon succeeded in riveting his attention; Ani had laughed till thetears rolled down his cheeks at Nemu's description of Paaker's wildpassion, and he had proved himself in earnest over the dwarf's furthercommunications, and had met his demands half-way. Nemu felt like a duckhatched on dry land, and put for the first time into water; like a birdhatched in a cage, and that for the first time is allowed to spread itswings and fly. He would have swum or have flown willingly to death ifcircumstances had not set a limit to his zeal and energy.
Bathed in sweat and coated with dust, he at last reached the gay tent inthe stranger's quarter, where the sorceress Hekt was accustomed to alightwhen she came over to Thebes.
He was considering far-reaching projects, dreaming of possibilities,devising subtle plans—rejecting them as too subtle, and supplying theirplace with others more feasible and less dangerous; altogether the littlediplomatist had no mind for the motley tribes which here surrounded him.He had passed the temple in which the people of Kaft adored their goddessAstarte, and the sanctuary of Seth, where they sacrificed to Baal,without letting himself be disturbed by the dancing devotees or the noiseof cymbals and music which issued from their enclosures. The tents andslightly-built wooden houses of the dancing girls did not tempt him.Besides their inhabitants, who in the evening tricked themselves out intinsel finery to lure the youth of Thebes into extravagance and folly,and spent their days in sleeping till sun-down, only the ga