house. Pichi,—you know, that impudent
fellow from the temple of Neith,—pushed
me back, barred the door inside and told the police
to put me in fetters if I refused to obey him.
Of course I got angry and did not use very civil
words to them—you know that’s my way
when I’m put out—and what does that
bit of a fellow do—by our god Thoth, the
protector of knowledge who must know all, I’m
speaking the truth—but order them to bind
my hands, forbid me—me, old Hib—to
speak, and then tell me that he had been told by the
high-priest to order me five-and-twenty strokes, if
I refused to do his bidding. He showed me the
high-priest’s ring, and so I knew there was nothing
for it but to obey the villain, whether I would or
no. And what was his modest demand? Why,
nothing less than to give him all the written papers
you had left behind. But old Hib is not quite
so stupid as to let himself be caught in that way,
though some people, who ought to know better, do fancy
he can be bribed and is no better than the son of
an ass. What did I do then? I pretended
to be quite crushed into submission by the sight of
the signet-ring, begged Pichi as politely as I could
to unfasten my hands, and told him I would fetch the
keys. They loosened the cords, I flew up the
stairs five steps at a time, burst open the door of
your sleeping-room, pushed my little grandson, who
was standing by it, into the room and barred it within.
Thanks to my long legs, the others were so far behind
that I had time to get hold of the black box which
you had told me to take so much care of, put it into
the child’s arms, lift him through the window
on to the balcony which runs round the house towards
the inner court, and tell him to put it at once into
the pigeon-house. Then I opened the door as if
nothing had happened, told Pichi the child had had
a knife in his mouth, and that that was the reason
I had run upstairs in such a hurry, and had put him
out on the balcony to punish him. That brother
of a hippopotamus was easily taken in, and then he
made me show him over the house. First they found
the great sycamore-chest which you had told me to
take great care of too, then the papyrus-rolls on
your writing-table, and so by degrees every written
paper in the house. They made no distinction,
but put all together into the great chest and carried
it downstairs; the little black box, however, lay safe
enough in the pigeon-house. My grandchild is
the sharpest boy in all Sais!
“When I saw them really carrying the chest downstairs, all the anger I’d been trying so hard to keep down burst out again. I told the impudent fellows I would accuse them before the magistrates, nay, even before the king if necessary, and if those confounded Persians, who were having the city shown them, had not come up just then and made everybody stare at them, I could have roused the crowd to take my side. The same evening I went to my son-in-law-he is employed in the temple of Neith too, you know,—and