“Chief steward, my lord, you are greatest of the great, you are guide of all that which is not and which is. After some time of silence, the peasant decided to speak up for himself: Meuitensi and his officials reviewed the case, with the peasant Hunanup in their presence. He managed to get a message through to him recounting the whole ordeal. Angered by this, Dehuti-nekht took the donkeys and beat Hunanup until he wept.Īfter four days of crying and pleading with Dehuti-nekht to give him back his donkeys and goods, Hunanup decided to seek out the chief steward Meuitensi. Hunanup understood what Dehuti-nekht was trying to do, and objected by saying that the chief steward Meruitensi punishes all thieves – implying that Dehuti-nekht is trying to rob him. Then Dehuti-nekht said “See, I will take away your donkey because it has eaten my grain.” On his journey, he crossed the path of a man named Dehuti-nekht, a serf of the chief steward Meruitensi.ĭehuti-nekht, seeing the donkeys loaded with these goods, felt the temptation to rob the peasant Hunanup.ĭehuti-nekht’s house was nearby, and the narrow path the peasant had to cross had water to one side and the estate’s grain crops on the other side.ĭehuti-nekht shouted to one of his servants to get him a shawl, which he spread on the middle of the road, from the edge of the water up until the pile of grain, blocking the way.Īs the peasant came up close to it, Dehuti-nekht said to him “Look out, peasant, do not trample on my clothes!” The peasant Hunanup steered away from the shawl and found himself on top of the grain crops, where his donkey ate a mouthful of it. He loaded up his donkeys and left his town to go to Herakleopolis. ![]() He asked his wife to divide up the grain, keeping some for her and the children and preparing the rest as beer and bread to sustain Hunanup on his travels. ![]() The peasant Hunanup decided to go down to Egypt to bring back bread for his children. Tale of the Eloquent Peasant Papyrus from the British Museum Website Tale of the Eloquent Peasant
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