The Eloquent Peasant[597]
There was a man, Hunanup by name, a peasant of Sechet-hemat, and he had a wife, .......... by name. Then said this peasant to his wife: “Behold, I am going down to Egypt to bring back bread for my children. Go in and measure the corn that we still have in our storehouse, ........ bushel.” Then he measured for her 8 (?) bushels of corn. Then this peasant said to his wife: “Behold, 2 bushels of corn shall be left for bread for thee and the children. But make for me the 6 bushels into bread and beer for each of the days [that I shall be on the road].” Then this peasant went down to Egypt after he had loaded his asses with all the good products[598] of Sechet-hemat.
This peasant set out and journeyed southward to Ehnas. He came to a point opposite Per-fefi, north of Medenit, and found there a man standing on the bank, Dehuti-necht by name, who was the son of a man named Iseri, who was one of the serfs of the chief steward, Meruitensi.
Then said this Dehuti-necht, when he saw the asses of this peasant which appealed to his covetousness: “Oh that some good god would help me to rob this peasant of his goods!”
The house of Dehuti-necht stood close to the side of the path, which was narrow, not wide. It was about the width of a ......-cloth, and upon one side of it was the water and upon the other side was growing grain. Then said Dehuti-necht to his servant: “Hasten and bring me a shawl from the house!” And it was brought at once. Then he spread this shawl upon the middle of the road, and it extended, one edge to the water, and the other to the corn.
The peasant came along the path which was the common highway. Then said Dehuti-necht: “Look out, peasant, do not trample on my clothes!” The peasant answered: “I will do as thou wishest; I will go in the right way!” As he was turning to the upper side, Dehuti-necht said: “Does my corn serve you as a road?” Then said the peasant: “I am going in the right way. The bank is steep and the path lies near the corn and you have stopped up the road ahead with your clothes. Will you, then, not let me go by?”
Upon that one of the asses took a mouthful of corn. Then said Dehuti-necht: “See, I will take away thy ass because it has eaten my corn ..........”
Then the peasant said: “I am going in the right way. As one side was made impassable I have led my ass along the other, and will you seize it because it has taken a mouthful of corn? But I know the lord of this property; it belongs to the chief steward, Meruitensi. It is he who punishes every robber in this whole land. Shall I, then, be robbed in his domain?”
Then said Dehuti-necht: “Is it not a proverb which the people employ: ‘The name of the poor is only known on account of his lord?’ It is I who speak to you, but the chief steward of whom you think.”[599] Then he took a rod from a green tamarisk and beat all his limbs with it, and seized his asses and drove them into his compound.
Thereupon the peasant wept loudly on account of the pain of what had been done to him. Dehuti-necht said to him: “Don’t cry so loud, peasant, or thou shalt go to the city of the Silence-maker” (a name of the god of the underworld). The peasant said: “Thou beatest me and stealest my goods, and wilt thou also take the wail away from my mouth? O Silence-maker! give me my goods again! May I never cease to cry out, if thou fearest!”