Read Online Moses, Man of the Mountain by Zora Neale Hurston - Free Book Online Page A

You must be crazy in the head. That was strategy.Why, man alive, you were privileged to look on the world’s finest cavalry and infantry forces. I have merely been keeping it under cover. It’s something new in tactics. The newest development in warfare will always arise in Egypt. Rabble indeed! Don’t get silly in your old age.”
    Back in his pavilion Prince Ta-Phar, unaware of his father’s sentiments, was beating his attendants and swearing. “Treason! Treachery! and all of you knew of this heathenish trick that was to be played on the army of Egypt and kept a vile silence.”
    “But the blues are part of the army, too. It was just one side against the other,” one young officer tried to explain while dodging cuffs and blows. “Everybody knew the riding practices were going on. You said—”
    “Shut up! You bitch’s baby you! When I reveal to Pharaoh the intrigue and treachery in his own army, everyone even suspected of guilty knowledge shall be whipped like slaves. Camels! Half-naked soldiers on horseback! What kind of an army is this? That Moses! When the time comes he is going to feel the weight of my hand. Nothing different! But what can you expect of a Suten-Rech who takes sides with Hebrews and hangs around the stables with grooms?”
    As Moses entered his pavilion he saw a figure squatting in the far corner with a court wig lopsided over one eye and a hit-or-miss collection of garments on. A general’s tunic, a shenti of a priest, the headdress of a high state official. It was not until Moses’ eyes traveled to the worn-out sandals that he received a clue to the puzzle. Then he looked up at the face in the midst of this costume mixture and burst out laughing.
    “Mentu!”
    “I—I know I have no business on the parade grounds. I am little better than a Hebrew or a swineherd in Pharaoh’s eyes, but—”
    “Shut up! You old monkey you! Where on earth did you get those clothes?”
    “Oh, a piece here and a piece there. Everybody, even the servants, were gone to the maneuvers and so it was easy.”
    They fell upon each other laughing. Moses straightened up the wig and the headdress and held the old man off at arm’s length to survey him.
    “Not so bad,” he laughed. “If they don’t get too close. It got you inside anyway. Why didn’t you ask me for a pass?”
    “It seemed too much for a stableman to ask. And I wanted to see you ride.”
    “Did I do all right?”
    “It could not have been better. Your seat, your knees, your hands, all perfect. You were a horse and the horse was a prince. Did Pharaoh approve?”
    “I don’t know yet. I’ll find that out tomorrow at breakfast. Tonight is the great banquet. No personal matters taken up then.”
    “Well, anyhow, the Prince and those old-time army men have found out that they over-sported themselves with their war chariots just like I told you.”
    “My Mentu, if ever I become King you shall be Grand Advisor to the throne with eating privileges at my table.”
    “May you soon be Pharaoh! But long before that time I will have gone to join the monkeys or the snakes, if I learn more than I do now.”
    “Snakes?”
    “Didn’t you know that wise men do not die? When they have attained a certain stage of wisdom they enter the serpents.”
    “I did not know that. The priests never told me.”
    “They tell nothing that doesn’t pay. Their business is like the cemetery. They take in but they never put out.”
    “Some day I shall look into their business and find out why they control rulers.”
    “Oh, they bite the rulers and everybody else with the tiny teeth of fear. Then rub ointment on the sore. Now, I had better go before I am seen.”
    “Take my own horse and ride him to the stables, Mentu, and may the forty-two gods in the hall of the double Maati find you just.”
    “May the deathless serpent that guards the book of Thoth whisper in your ears, my Suten-Rech. You are a man conferring with destiny.”
    Moses rushed to the door of the