Along the Nile by Thyme Lauren O

Along the Nile by Thyme Lauren O

Author:Thyme, Lauren O. [Thyme, Lauren O.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lauren O. Thyme Publishing
Published: 2017-03-29T00:00:00+00:00


CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The Baby Catfish; Heb returns to Enet-ta-Neter

M y simple life in the house of Muttuy and Udimu was pleasant and the days passed peacefully. My food was cooked and my clothes were washed by Muttuy and the girls. The family seemed to adopt me as one of their own and they even began to introduce me as their cousin. After a while it seemed I had never lived anywhere else. I helped to care for my new family with delight and a growing sense of loving reverence for them and for nature all around us.

Every day I went out to fish with Udimu, sailing out in his tiny felluca, catching fish for the family table with fishhooks, harpoons, traps, and nets. Although the nobles of Waset avoided eating fish, a creature of Setekh, we poor families needed flesh to nourish our bodies. The river provided for us abundantly.

I helped sow seeds in a plot in their tiny backyard, a first for me. I never ceased to be amazed at the miracle of the seed’s emergence. A tiny seed, containing the life energy of that particular food, astonishingly grew into a vegetable or grain, feeding and nurturing us. Muttuy’s two daughters were amazingly adept at coaxing food to grow. We had delicious vegetables, onions, garlic and sometimes melons for our table. Gardening was not an easy task in our dry land. We had to carry the precious water from Mother Nile through the town in heavy goat-stomach pouches to irrigate our al- ways-thirsty plants. The townspeople only used the wells in emergencies. The rest of the time every one of us dipped our containers into the life-giving river.

I also continued my “studies” with Het-Heru on the banks of that river every evening.

Once, Muttuy took me to the marketplace, to shop for things we couldn’t grow, raise, or catch ourselves. She had Catfish firmly strapped to her back. “I won’t let this child out of my sight!” she declared.

I had never gone to a town market before arriving in Waset, but she went often, sometimes every day. As we approached the bazaar, I could hear the cacophony of many voices, mingled with the sounds of animals, birds and children. I looked around, unable to take in the whole setting in a single glance. Everywhere was talking, mingled with shouts and laughter. Naked children ran rowdily through the marketplace, knocking over merchandise, bumping into people, to the chagrin of their mothers. Vendors haggled with customers, hoping to get the best prices. Frenzied trading and heated arguments could be heard from time to time.

Although Waset wasn’t a large town, the items for sale were varied and numerous, some brought from far away. Everything one could want or need, provided one had to means to purchase it. Customers wandered among the colorful booths, pausing to bargain or trade, sometimes hoping to sample the wares. Vendors waved flies away with small palm fronds. The rekkit, common people, mixed with nobility, all shopping in the hot dusty day.



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