CHAPTER X
Humanity on Ptah
The magnificent abundance of the seventh great harvest, which ripenedlate in the year of our arrival, attracted a multitude of both men andanimals from all the out-lying countries into Kem to assist in gatheringit, and many of them remained to spend their gains in the luxuries ofthe great city. It was an unparalleled period of prosperity and plenty;and though the rich wasted everything with a careless hand, the poorwere better provided for than they had ever been.
Like an endless caravan Hotep's mules trailed across the city day byday, and emptied their cargoes into the bottomless pits of the Gnomons.And Hotep's thousand cattle tramped his threshing-floors during the longwinter, and until the later nightly snows signalled the coming of atardy spring; and yet the patient mules streamed through the city, andwore deeper paths into the sides of the Gnomons, until one by one thegreat chambers were filled and sealed.
Late in the spring the toiling cattle left the threshing-floors, andtraversed the fields in long procession, two and two, lashed together bya bar across the horns instead of a yoke, and dragging heavy stoneploughs slowly after them to prepare the soil for a new planting. Butwhile the whole left bank of the Nasr-Nil swarmed with Hotep's patientteams and their busy drivers, the right bank was deserted, idle, andlifeless. Every one wondered why the Pharaoh's planting was beingdelayed; no one knew why the Pharaoh's men and cattle were idle; and theold men shook their heads and muttered that the river would overflow itsbanks long before the Pharaoh's seed was in. After a while Zaphnath sentfor me, and when I came before him he said,--
"The Pharaoh is sick with the plenty of the land, weary of the sight ofgrain-laden mules and ploughing cattle, and so cumbered about withmountains of wheat that he desireth not to plant his fields. Thou artnot one to see his lands lie idle. If thou hast aught with which totempt him, I can persuade him to let unto thee all his land and to hireunto thee all his men and mules and cattle. For hath he not acquired allhis riches in seven years' harvests? and in another seven thou mayest beas rich as he."
"Mayhap, O Zaphnath, the coming seven years may not be as plenteous asthe last seven have been; but, in any case, I have no more gold withwhich to tempt the Pharaoh, having parted with all of it in a badbargain with Hotep, whom thou knowest, for half of his coming crops."
Thereupon he bade me remain, and sent for Hotep, and said to him,--
"Behold, have not the harvests of seven years made Pharaoh the richestman upon Ptah, so that he covets no more grain, but only things of rarebeauty? And are not thy harvests reduced by half through thy compactwith him from the Blue Star? Now, if thou likest to tempt the Pharaohwith an hundred of thy golden coins, and one-and-twenty of themoon-sized discs of gold such as thou wearest there, thou mayest hirehis land for the next seven years, and all his men and animals for alike time, if thou wilt feed and nourish them; and then shall not bothbanks of the great river bring forth riches, and be burdened with theplenteous harvests of Hotep?"
"Is the Pharaoh indeed weary of rich harvests, or doth he rather itchfor my gold? Yet, had I the seed to plant all his fields, I mightconsider the undertaking thou shewest me."
"Let not that delay thee," answered Zaphnath, "for I am sure he willgladly lend to such a man as Hotep the seed thou needest until thy nextharvest be gathered."
So the matter was thus finally concluded, and I was a witness to thecompact.
Then Hotep's Chief of Harvests worked early and late to finish plantingbefore the Month of Midnight Snows, when the Nasr-Nil usually overflowsits banks and waters the harvest. But, as if to oblige a man soindustrious in preparing the way for it, the great river did not rise atits customary time, and Hotep was able to finish his seeding on bothbanks.
The black loam along the shores parched and crumbled, and borrowed thelook of the great desert; the feathers of darkness fell later and later,until they began to appear with the dawn, and yet the river failed torise; the priests went through their perfunctory rites to placate thegod of the Overflow, and made their impotent sacrifices to tempt him tobless the harvest; but Hotep saw the Snowless Month, which should haveripened his grain, dawn upon fields that were dried to seas of driftingdust and void of all vegetation. His army of men, augmented by thePharaoh's thousands, and his ten thousand cattle and mules, all ate andwaited and waited and ate, and yet there was no work for them. Thefollowing spring there was no need to plough the fields, and no seed toplant them.
When Zaphnath learned that Hotep must deliver a hundred thousandmule-cargoes of wheat to me, or forfeit a hundred gold pieces, he sentfor him, and sold to him for the hundred pieces enough of the Pharaoh'sgrain already on the plateau to pay me, and lent him the seed to plantall the land again. But aside from this, the Pharaoh sold not a bag ofwheat, and during the first year all the small stores of grainthroughout Kem were consumed, and the price rose to three times itsformer value. Therefore, Hotep consoled himself with the thought that hecould make more out of one crop after a failure than he could have madeout of two crops without it, and he happily sowed his fields anew.
Before the river was due to rise the second time, the poor began tosuffer from the famine. There was no employment for the thousands whohad been attracted to Kem to gather the previous large harvests. Onlythose fortunate enough to be slaves enjoyed an assured living, and thisentire class was now dependent upon Hotep, for Pharaoh supported onlyhis women and his personal servants. Many people desired to deliverthemselves into slavery, but Pharaoh would not accept any, and Hotepalready had more than he could feed. During the Month of Midnight Snowsthe entire population of the city watched the river with apprehension,noting its slightest fluctuation. But day after day the people saw nochange, and idleness fostered grumbling and discontent among them.Zaphnath and the Pharaoh were privately criticised because they did notattend or contribute to the sacrifices made to the god of Overflow;because they hoarded so much grain, and did nothing to alleviate thedistress of the people. And there were many who attributed the unusualaction of the river to the presence upon Ptah of two strangers from theBlue Star.
When two fruitless months had passed without any rising of the waters,Hotep lost courage, and was obliged to proclaim that all his men andbeasts must exist upon half-rations. It was then that public sufferingbecame general. About this time I consulted with the doctor whether topress Hotep for the second delivery of a hundred thousand cargoes ofwheat.
"Certainly; demand it from him," he answered, greatly to my surprise,"especially so long as it amounts to squeezing the wheat out of thePharaoh. It is certain he will furnish the wheat in exchange for Hotep'sgold, and a few coins are really nothing to him or to you either. Aslong as the Pharaoh covets them, make him pay well for them."
"But I expected you would advise leniency, as you have never sympathizedwith my wheat speculation in the least," I replied.
"I do not share your idle dream of riches, but nevertheless I want toget as much wheat into our hands as possible, especially if it comesfrom the Pharaoh. You do not seem to appreciate the real reason, butblindly chase after the bauble of fortune. It was the same when I firstsaw you in Chicago, and now you are just as impulsive and thoughtless. Ihave no doubt but you have already computed a hundred times how richyou are in Earthly terms and figures."
"The time for a big value has not quite come yet, but I confess I haveestimated that it will run into many millions of dollars."
"Rubbish! What is the use of such childish nonsense? Even if we had ourprojectile to return with, you could never take any of your riches backto Earth with you!"
"And why not?" I demanded in astonishment.
"What is your fortune? It now exists in grain at an inflated faminevalue. You couldn't transport the grain back to Earth, and if you could,it would shrink in value and fail to pay the freight. What can youexchange it for here? For lands, for women, for slaves, none of whichhave any commercial value on Earth."
"But I can sell it for money!" I put in.
"Yes, for iron money wo
rth a few dollars a ton on Earth! Why, not evenyour entire fortune will buy enough iron to build a new projectile toenable us to return. You parted with the only valuable and portable formof property when you exchanged your gold. Now that is rapidly going intothe Pharaoh's hands, to remain there, and you can never return to Earthas rich as you left it, though you be worth all the money and propertyin the land of Kem!"
"Well, it does look a little as if I had been scheming for riches here,without knowing just why I want them."
"Yes, you have formed that habit on Earth. Only they carry it furtherthere--swindle their brothers, deceive their parents, oppress the weak,extort from the poor; work, toil, plot, cheat, rob, yes, even _kill!_ inorder to lay up a store of something they can never take away with them,and which renders them unhappy oftener than happy while they remain toguard it."
"I have heard that sort of talk often before, Doctor, but I never sawthe truth of it quite so plainly as now. I have outwitted and squeezedHotep, the man on whom the whole city now depends for existence."
"They think they depend upon him, but you know as well as I do that hewill be powerless; that he must see them starve by thousands, and partwith the last bit of his cherished riches to save his own life. No,Isidor, your business sagacity has not been in vain, for this entirepeople depend not on Hotep, but on _you_! You alone have the food topreserve many of them alive through a famine and a pestilence whosehorrors are just beginning. Pharaoh and Zaphnath will squeeze and pinchthem, and see them die, and turn it all to their own profit; but let usconstitute ourselves a relief committee, you and I. Let us set theseKemish rulers an example of humanity, as we know it on Earth."