“I know that I am destined to perform great deeds, though how I know this I cannot tell you. A warrior either has good fortune on his side or he has not, and I have had it since the falcon led me to Pharaoh. It is true that my falcon did not love the palace and flew away never to return. But as we were marching across the desert of Sinai, enduring great hunger and greater thirst-for I suffered with my men to learn what they were feeling and so have command over them-I saw in some valley a burning bush. It was of living fire shaped like some big bush or tree, and it was not consumed but burned night and day. The earth round about it had a smell that went to my head and inspired me with courage. I saw it as I was driving ahead of my troops to hunt the wild beasts of the desert, and it was seen by no other save my charioteer, who can bear witness to the apparition. But from that moment I have known that no spear or arrow or war club can touch me before my appointed time.”
I believed his account and was filled with awe, for he had no reason to invent such a tale for my amusement. Indeed, I hardly think he could have done so, being a man who believed only in what he could touch with his hands.
On the third day Horemheb divided his troops, sending some back to Jerusalem with the plunder-for not many traders came to the battlefield itself after our slaves, cooking pots, and grain-and another party he sent to herd the grazing cattle. I had set up a camp for the wounded, which was guarded by a special platoon, but the greater number of the sick men died. Horemheb himself set off with his chariots in pursuit of the Khabiri, for by questioning the prisoners he had learned that the fugitives had contrived to rescue and carry away their god.
He took me with him against my will, and I stood behind him in the chariot, clutching him round the waist and wishing I had never been born. He drove like a maniac, and I thought every instant we should overturn and I should be flung out headfirst among the stones. But he only scoffed and told me he would give me a taste of war since I had come to find out what it had to say to me.
He gave me a taste of it: I saw the chariots sweep like a storm over the Khabiri-the happily singing, palm-waving Khabiri-as they drove their stolen cattle to their hiding place in the wilderness. His horses trampled down women and children and the aged; he was wreathed in the smoke of burning tents; and in blood and tears the Khabiri learned that it was better to live in poverty in the desert and starve to death in their dens than to raid wealthy, fertile Syria, that they might smear their sun-dried skins with oil and stuff themselves with stolen grain. Thus I tasted war-which was war no longer but persecution and murder-till Horemheb himself had had enough and turning, ordered the setting up of the boundary stones that the Khabiri had thrown down.
He had caught up with the Khabiri god, however, and swooped upon it like a hawk, scattering the bearers who dropped it and fled. The image was later chopped up into firewood and burned before Sekhmet. The warriors smote their chests saying, “See how we burn the god of the Khabiri!” The name of this god was Jehou or Jahveh; it was the only one the raiders possessed, and they had to return bereft to the wilderness. They were thus poorer, for all their erstwhile palm waving and songs of joy, than when they had set out.
5
Horemheb returned to Jerusalem, which was thronged with refugees from the border country, and he sold back to them their grain and cooking pots. At this they tore their clothes and cried, “These robbers are worse than the Khabiri!” But they suffered no hardship, for they were able to borrow money from their temples, from the merchants, and from the tax gatherers, who had streamed into Jerusalem from all over Syria. Thus Horemheb converted the spoils into gold and silver, which he distributed among his soldiers. I understood now why most of the wounded had died despite my care. There remained so much more booty for their comrades, who had also stolen the clothes and weapons and treasure of the sick and given them neither water nor food so that they perished. What wonder that unskilled surgeons were ever eager to follow the troops into battle or that, despite their incompetence, they returned so wealthy!
Jerusalem was full of noise and clamor and the din of Syrian instruments. The soldiers squandered the gold and silver on beer and girls till the traders, having thus regained their money, went away. Horemheb levied a tax upon the merchants both when they came and when they left and was thus a rich man though he had abstained from his share of the spoils.
He felt no elation, and when I went to take leave of him before setting forth for Smyrna, he said, “This campaign was over before it began, and in his letter to me Pharaoh upbraids me for shedding blood against his commands. I must go back to Egypt with my rats, to disband them and deliver their standards into the keeping of the temple. But what will be the outcome I know not, for these are the only trained troops in Egypt, and the rest are fit for nothing but dirtying walls and pinching women’s rumps in the market place. By Ammon, it is easy enough in Pharaoh’s golden palace to write songs in honor of one’s god and to believe that all nations may be governed by love! Could he but hear the screams of mutilated men and the wailing of women in the burning villages when the enemy crosses the borders, he might think otherwise.”
“Egypt has no enemies; she is too rich and too powerful,” I said. “Also your fame has gone out over Syria, and the Khabiri will not remove the landmarks a second time. Why then should you not disband the troops, for in truth they rage in their cups like wild beasts, their sleeping dens stink, and they are verminous.”
“You know not what you say,” he retorted, staring before him and scratching at his armpits-for even the commander’s hut was full of lice. “Egypt is self-sufficient and is therein mistaken. The world is large and in the hidden places seed is being sown from which fire and destruction will be harvested. I have heard, for example, that the King of the Amorites is diligently amassing horses and chariots, whereas it would be more becoming in him to pay his tribute to Pharaoh with greater punctuality. At his banquets his high officials talk only of how the Amorites once ruled the whole world-which is in a sense true, as the last of the Hyksos dwell in the land of Amurru.”
“That Aziru is my friend and a vain man, for I gilded his teeth. And I think he has other things on his mind, for I have heard that he has taken a wife who draws the strength from his loins.”
“You know many things,” remarked Horemheb, looking at me attentively. “You are a free man, an independent man; you travel from city to city hearing much that is hidden from others. If I were in your place and free, I should journey into every country seeking knowledge. I should go to the land of Mitanni, and also Babylon, and learn what manner of war chariots the Hittites now use and how they exercise their troops. I should visit the islands in the sea to note how big the ships there are, of which there is so much talk. But my name is known throughout all Syria, and perhaps I should not hear so very much. But you, Sinuhe, are clad in Syrian clothes and speak a language known to the educated of all nations. You. are also a physician, and no one would imagine that you understand anything outside your profession. Moreover, your talk is simple and to my ears often childish, and you have a wide-eyed look. Yet I know that your heart is locked and what you carry within you is known to none. Isn’t this true?”
“Perhaps. But what is it you want of me?”
“What would you say if I were to furnish you with a good supply of gold and send you to the lands I spoke of to practice your craft and spread the fame of both Egyptian medicine and your own healing powers? The rich and influential-even kings, perhaps-would summon you, and you would look into their hearts. While you followed your calling, you would let your eyes be mine and your ears mine so that when you returned to Egypt you might render me account of all you have seen and heard.”