CHAPTER IX
Getting into the Corner
The doctor's new official position carried with it the use of aspacious, rambling dwelling, situated just inside the gate where we hadmet Miss Blank. It was thus conveniently located for the doctor's dutiesat the observatories on the plateau. Another house would have beenassigned to me, but I preferred to live with the doctor, and I desiredto keep my eye on those enormous stone structures which our telescopehad quickly relegated to scientific uselessness.
We had established ourselves comfortably in this house, surroundedourselves with a modest retinue of servants, and were rapidly becomingacquainted with Kemish life and manners. The doctor learned the languagelaboriously from the deposed wise man, who had no means of communicatingwith him except in the tongue he was teaching. Thus it happened that thedoctor could teach me in a few hours in the evening what it had takenhim all day to learn. Naturally I picked up the most common phrases usedin receiving and handling the grain, by hearing them frequently; but Isoon learned that I must pronounce them with exactly the same intonationand emphasis, or they were not understood. Knowing but one languagethemselves, they had no facility in recognising mispronounced words, orin guessing at the meaning of incomplete phrases on which I stumbled.
The most difficult thing I encountered was their method of telling thetime. During the day it was reckoned rationally enough by the passage ofthe Sun, which was never obscured by clouds and could always be seen.Every house had a small hole in the roof, at a fixed distance from thefloor, and the daily track and varying shape of the spot of sunshinethus admitted gave names to the periods of the day. There seemed to be asettled superstition that no house was fortunate unless this spot ofsunshine entered by the door in the morning. For this reason theprincipal door in nearly every house was built in the west, so that therising Sun would cast its spot first on the porch outside and thengradually creep in through the door, across the floor, and up theopposite wall late in the afternoon. Of course there were daylightperiods in the early morning and late afternoon when the Sun was too lowto cast a spot, and these were known by terms which are best translated"before the clock" and "after the clock."
No one dared to make a social call while the Sun was still outside thedoor, but friends were best welcome when the Sun was just entering it.Moreover, whoever slept until the Sun had entered the door was lookedupon as an irredeemable sluggard. The track of the spot from thedoor-sill to the wall opposite was measured by linear distance from thecentre or noon-position of the spot. As in different houses theapertures through which the clock-light was admitted were always thesame distance from the floor, such expressions as "two feet beforenoon," or "a foot and a quarter after noon" (which I translate from theKemish) always had a definite and exact meaning. The nearer the spotdrew to noon the more exactly circular it became and the more slowly itmoved. Therefore, very fine measurements were needed in the middle ofthe day, and an inch near noon represented nearly as much time as a footin the morning or evening.
But the daylight methods were simplicity itself compared with the nightmethods, which were calculated on an entirely different system, based onthe combined movements of the two moons, neither of which agreed orcoincided with the movement of the Sun in any close degree. I urged uponthe doctor, as one of his earliest duties, the necessity of reformingtheir calendar and establishing a uniform method of denoting the time,to extend throughout the day and night. But on this point he failed toagree with me.
"What are our seconds, minutes, hours, and weeks after all?" he queried."They are only arbitrary and meaningless divisions of time, which wehave found necessary because we have a very meagre heavenly clockwork;but here they have a very elaborate one. Our day is a rational periodbased on the Sun's revolution. Here they have seen fit to give up theSun-day to simplify matters and stick to a Moon-day. Their two contrarymoons furnish a rational, if rather intricate, method of telling thetime at night. They are best understood by imagining them to representthe two hands of a clock. The smaller moon is what may be called a 'weekhand,' completing its revolution in five and a half Sun-days; which theyhave for convenience divided into six Moon-days of twenty-two hourseach. The larger moon makes two complete revolutions in a day, just asthe hour hand of a clock does; and it really makes but little differencethat it travels around the dial in an opposite direction to that of the'week hand,' or that they both gain two hours a day on the Sun. Theseare mere details, that one gets used to in the end."
"Doctor, you argue like the old farmer I used to know, who stuck to theclock handed down by his grandfather, and maintained that nonew-fangled arrangement kept as good time. It was true that thestriking apparatus had long ago failed to agree with the hands; and thehands themselves, owing to the accumulated inaccuracies of years, nolonger denoted the real time; nevertheless, whenever it struck seven hecould always be sure that the hands were pointing to a quarter-pasttwelve, and it was then just twenty-two minutes to three. This wassomething he could depend upon with a certainty which quite compensatedfor the annoyance of incessant calculations and mental corrections."
"Pray leave joking aside and consider the wonderful nightly clockworkhere, which makes automatic time-keepers unnecessary. This accommodatinginner moon, within the brief space of five hours, goes through thephases of a thin crescent, first quarter, and just as it approachesfulness it submits to a total eclipse, followed by a waning quarter,then the reverse crescent of an old moon, and finally it sets where theSun must soon rise. It is a wonderful heavenly clock, which is neverobscured by clouds, and turns its face toward every one alike."
"Yes, but one must remember that this hurrying moon gains two hours aday on the Sun, and therefore goes through her performance that muchearlier each night. Besides, she is capable of rising twice in the samenight occasionally."
"Those are mere details that one learns to allow for. Moreover,consider the convenience of being able to tell the day of the week bythe smaller moon. If it is just risen, we know we are on the eve of thefirst day of the week; if it is high or eclipsed, it must be the secondday; and if it is sinking in the west, it is the third day----"
"But for the last half of the week it is not seen at all, and one isfree to guess which day it is," I interrupted. "Then no two days of theweek begin at the same hour. The first day begins with sunrise, thesecond two hours before sunrise, the third four hours before, and thefourth at midnight, and so on--two hours earlier each day till the weekends, when they throw in a whole night for good measure and begin thenext week at sunrise again!"
"Yes, that arrangement is made necessary because their Moon-day will notagree with their Sun-day in any other manner. But it is ratherremarkable that the two moons agree with each other so well, the largerone making twelve revolutions while the smaller makes one, so that atthe end of every week they both rise together, but on opposite sides ofthe horizon, which is the signal for that night to be disregarded in thecount. The next week begins on the following morning, the first risingof the larger moon being disregarded, and her second rising being theone reckoned from."
We were discussing this during our noon-day meal, and, when we hadfinished, I walked with the doctor out to the plateau, where I wassupervising some important work on the Gnomons; for I had not been tendays in Kem until I attempted to buy, with my gold coins, a large amountof wheat from the Pharaoh. Through the interference and objection ofZaphnath, however, I failed utterly in getting any. But the gold had itseffect just the same, and later the Pharaoh showed an evidentwillingness to part with anything in his possession in order to get aliberal number of the smaller coins. But I put a very high value uponthe gold, comparing closely with the worth of diamonds upon Earth, andrefused to part with any, until one day the wisdom of buying the Gnomonsoccurred to me. I considered the project carefully, and finally made himan offer of a hundred half-eagles for them. Many of the small ones hadbeen built to watch the course of the birth-stars of his variousancestors, and these were now in a sense monuments to his dynasty. Heres
erved these and a small one, built to observe his own star ofnativity, and finally sold me all the large important ones, upon thedoctor's representation that they were no longer needed for astronomicalpurposes. He specified only that they must not be torn down, but that Imight use them as I should see fit.
As I have said before, the Gnomons contained numerous large, longchambers, and it only became necessary to put a permanent bottom inthese to convert them into enormous warehouses. All the storage placesinside the city were rapidly filling with grain, which poured in atevery gate on tens of thousands of mules. The plenteous crop, alreadyripening, would have to be housed somewhere, and even if I did notsucceed in buying a large store of grain for myself, I knew how to makea storehouse eat up a large portion of the value of the grain it housed.I had seen wheat, stored year after year, finally become the property ofthe elevator owner, by virtue of his charges.
I was not only putting a bottom to the storage chambers, but convertingthe inclined slopes of the largest Gnomons into a passable mule-trail,by roughening and corrugating the surface to give the patient animals asurer foot-hold, so they might climb to the top to discharge theircargoes. This was a simple form of elevator, and I laughed to think whatsome of my former acquaintances would think of it! One of the smallerGnomons had already been completed to receive my share of the grainwhich I earned in the Pharaoh's service, and to this I was adding suchmeagre purchases as I could make from the small farmers. These, however,were not numerous, for the land was mostly in the hands of the Pharaohand of a few large owners, more or less bound to him. I was thereforenot a little surprised now upon approaching to see a long line of mulespicking their way up the inclined side of the finished Gnomon, and asthey reached the top their drivers emptied the pair of sacks they boreinto my storehouse. Including the drove of unladen animals at the bottomof the Gnomon, there must have been a hundred in all, and I was awaitedby the chief driver, who rode one sleek mule covered with a soft blanketof feather texture, and had another similarly saddled by his side. Aftera slow salute of each hand upon his cheek, he said to me,--
"My master, the glorious Hotep, sendeth to the keeper of the Pharaoh'sgrain a present of two hundred bags of wheat, and wisheth to know if itbe true that thou desirest to buy a large store of grain with gold? Forhath not Hotep the gathered harvests of two full years in his bins, andupon his fertile lands the largest crop in all Kem (save only that ofthe Pharaoh) is nodding and awaiting the warm, ripening breath of theSnowless Month! Yet Hotep hath no use for iron money, for he is weightedand fettered with it already; but if thou desirest to bargain with himfor as much yellow gold as thou hast bartered to the Pharaoh, he will bemost pleased to treat with thee, and sendeth me with this ambling muleto fetch thee. Will it please thee to come with me now to his palacewithin the city?"
"What do you think, Doctor? This Hotep must be almost a rival to thePharaoh, if he has stored so much grain and owns so many ripeningfields. He must have seen the new gold ornaments upon the Pharaoh'swomen, which have rendered him envious. If, indeed, he has such a vastquantity of grain to sell, I will deck him out with gold, such as willturn the Pharaoh green with envy! I shall lose no time in seeing him;"and so saying I mounted the mule, and assured the chief driver I wouldexpress my thanks in person to the great Hotep.
He conducted me to the opposite side of the city, and, as we crossed aheight near its centre, he pointed out to me the long fields of hismaster lining the left bank of the river. There were miles of wavinggrain just beginning to turn from a luxuriant green to the lighteryellow tints of harvest. Presently we approached a large palace, which Ihad often before seen from afar against the distant wall of the city,but had never known. Upon entering, I observed every sign of the sameidle luxury which marked the Pharaoh's dwelling, but none of that regaldisdain or imperial haughtiness which separated every one but hisfavourite women from the immediate presence of the monarch.
I was graciously received in a large, lighted chamber, where Hotepreclined lazily upon a billowy heap of downy cushions, surrounded bymany women. He only arose from his elbow to a sitting posture when Isaluted him. Without saying a word to him, I approached, and, looseningmy belt from about my waist, I unbuckled its mouth and poured out upona large cushion by his side my three hundred shining golden eagles. Theeffect was electrical, for they were twice the size and three times asmany as the coins I had given the Pharaoh. It must have seemedimpossible to him that I could possess larger coins, and more of them,than he had seen upon the monarch's favourites. He was simply delightedwith the mere view, and his women crowded around or ran out in haste tobring in their absent sisters to behold a marvel of riches such as Kemhad never seen. But though they wondered and gloated over the sight,none of them touched a coin until I spoke.
"I pray thee, most gracious Hotep, examine all these coins, and passthem among thy women to see if they be pleased with them. Observe theirregularity of form and beauty of design, and test the music they giveforth when cast upon thy floor of stone. Mayhap, thou wouldst rather ownall these than to be cumbered with so much grain."
Thereupon Hotep seized a heaping handful, which he poured jingling fromone palm to the other, and all the women delved their pretty fingersinto the shining heap and passed the coins to their admiring sisters,until not one was left upon the cushion.
"Thy Chief of Harvests hath made known to me, O Hotep, that thou stillhast the full crops of two years. Wilt thou tell me how many bags ofgrain grow upon thy fields at a single crop?"
"Are not the number of my mules a thousand and one, and bear they nottwo bags each? To gather a single harvest, each faithful animal mustmake five trips each day for the period of an hundred days."
I had often estimated an average mule-load at five bushels, upon whichbasis each crop would aggregate two and a half million bushels. Thisseemed impossible for a single farmer, but his fields wearied the sightto follow down the left bank of the Nasr-Nil.
"If thou wilt leave all this gold with me, I will deliver by my mules tothy storehouses upon the plateau all the grain of my past two crops withwhich my whole palace here is cumbered."
"I fear thou holdest thy grain too dearly, and that thou knowest not thevalue of this gold. What is more plenteous in Kem than wheat? There bemore bags of it than the stars in heaven. But this gold I bring is morethan all the store of it upon Ptah before I came. Pray give it backagain," I said, gathering up the few pieces which had been returned tothe cushion, and glancing about among the women as if searching for therest. They returned them slowly, but Hotep still held his handful. Aftera brief pause, I continued,--
"Hast thou not a fair crop growing which thou mightest also give me, sothat no other than Hotep shall receive any of these coins?"
"In truth, I have never ridden as far as my waving fields stretch downthe Nasr-Nil; but one cannot sell what hath not fully ripened, for whoknoweth what it may turn out to be?"
"Then I must beg thee to return my coins," I answered slowly; but,unbuckling the other end of my belt, I poured out upon another cushionthe hundred magnificent double eagles which I was holding in reserve.Then, taking a particularly bright one of these, I continued,--
"But as thou hast been generous and thoughtful enough to send me apresent, O Hotep, I desire to return one to thee, such as no man in Kemever possessed before. Will it please thee to accept this disc of goldas large as the lesser moon that creeps across the sky? And with it gomy wishes that Hotep's crops may always be great and plentiful."
Slowly and unwillingly the women returned the eagles to the cushion,while they stared in wonder at the heap of larger coins. Hotep filteredthe handful through his fingers to the cushion, and accepted the doubleeagle with gladness. With his eyes fixed on the second heap he seemed tobe thinking deeply and making calculations.
"The people are wont to call thee Iron Man, but I believe thou artgolden!" he ruminated, and then suddenly, "For these heaps of riches,large and small, what desirest thou of all my possessions? Wilt thouhave all my grain and half my land
? Shall I give to thee all my fieldswhich cannot be seen from the palace here?"
"Why should I wish thy land when I have no cattle to till it, nor mulesto gather the harvest? In lieu of the land, give me only a share of whatit should produce for a few years. Now give heed to the bargain I willmake with thee. If thou wilt deliver to my storehouses, upon theplateau, all the gathered grain of thy past two crops, and all the grainthou shalt gather from this growing crop (save only what thou needestfor seed), and half of each of the crops of the three succeedingyears,--provided, however, that you assure me each year as much as thythousand mules can carry in an hundred journeys;--then thou mayest keepall this store of gold, which is, indeed, all that both of us from theBlue Star possess."
He seemed to be revolving these terms slowly in his mind to be sure ofthem, and then called out to his servants,--
"Bring in spiced wine, and bid my Chief of Harvests enter! He shall bewitness that Hotep agrees to this compact, and, should I die before itis fulfilled, he shall see that it is carried out to the last year. Butwilt thou leave all this gold with me now, or must I wait until theharvests are delivered?"
"What Hotep promiseth me I believe, as certainly as if it were donealready. I will leave the gold with thee, knowing thou wilt perform thecontract in every item; but if thou failest in any year, thou shaltreturn to me one small gold-piece for each trip that thy thousand mulesfall short of an hundred."
He agreed, and arose and recited the terms of the compact to his Chiefof Harvests, charging him to carry it out, and to cause to be engraved asmall stone cylinder as a permanent record of its provisions, as it wastheir custom to do in such cases. Then filling three goblets with richspiced wine, he exclaimed,--
"For thy sake, O most generous youth, may the Nasr-Nil fondly nurseevery harvest, and may the gentle Snowless Month ripen them in suchabundance as they have never shown before! And may Hotep's mules growold and weary bearing the plenty to thy storehouses!"
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