The Last Camel Died at Noon (10 page)

Imagine, then, my surprise when we were shown into the presence of a stout, hearty, red-cheeked gentleman, who rose politely from his chair to bow over my hand. He and Emerson greeted one another with the familiarity of old acquaintances, and Slatin asked how he could help us. 'We were warned of your coming, but frankly I could hardly believe - '

'Why not?' Emerson demanded. 'You ought to know that when I say I will do something, I do it. As for Mrs Emerson, she is even more bull - er... determined than I.'

'I have heard a great deal about Mrs Emerson,' Slatin said, smiling. 'And about this young man. Essalamu 'aleikum, Master Ramses."

Ramses promptly replied, 'U'aleikum es-salam warahmet Allah warabakatu. Keif balak? (And with you be peace and God's mercy and blessing. How is your health?)' and went on in equally fluent Arabic, 'But my own eyes inform me, sir, that it is excellent. I am surprised to see how very stout you are, after the privations you endured at the hands of the followers of the Mahdi.'

'Ramses,' I exclaimed.

Slatin bellowed with laughter. 'Don't scold him, Mrs Emerson; I am proud of my girth, for every pound represents a triumph of survival.'

'I would like very much to hear of your adventures,' Ramses said.

'One day, perhaps. At the moment I am fully occupied gathering reports from men who have returned from enemy territory. Intelligence,' he added, addressing Ramses, whose fixed stare he probably took for boyish admiration, 'is the nerve network of any army. Before we begin the next stage of the campaign, we must find out all we can about the strength and disposition of the Khalifa's forces.'

'If that's your excuse for going into winter quarters instead of continuing to Khartoum...' began Emerson.

'Our excuse is that we wish to save lives, Professor. I don't want to lose a single brave man through stupidity or lack of preparation.'

'Hmph,' said Emerson, who could hardly deny the sense of this. 'Well, then, to business. You are a busy man and so am I.'

Upon inquiry, Slatin told us that Mr Budge had already investigated the pyramid fields of Nuri, Kurru, Tankasi, and Zuma, and was now working at Gebel Barkal. 'There is, or was, a temple of considerable size there,' Slatin said. 'Mr Budge believes it was built by the pharaoh Piankhi - '

'Mr Budge doesn't know what he is talking about,' Emerson interrupted. He turned to me. 'Good Gad, Peabody, can you believe it? Four separate cemeteries in a few months! And now he is ransacking the temple, scooping up objects for his bloo - his precious museum. Curse it, we must go there at once! I'll run him off before he can do any more damage, or my name - '

'Now, Emerson, remember your promise,' I said in some alarm. 'You said you intended to stay away from Mr Budge.'

'But curse it, Peabody - '

'Pyramids, Emerson. You promised me pyramids.'

'So I did,' Emerson grumbled. 'Very well, Peabody. Where shall it be?'

Slatin had followed the exchange with openmouthed interest, 'You make the decisions, Mrs Emerson?"

Emerson's brow darkened. He is a trifle sensitive about being considered henpecked. Before he could comment, I said smoothly, 'My husband and I have discussed the subject at length. He is making a courteous gesture, that is all. We had agreed on Nuri, Emerson, had we not?'

In fact, the decision was not a difficult one; the only thing that could have kept me from Nuri was learning that Budge was there. Nuri had a number of advantages. In the first place, it was ten miles away from the military base. That made it inconvenient from the point of view of fetching supplies, but the distance reduced the chances of unpleasant encounters with Mr Budge and with the army. In the second place, the reports I had read, by Lepsius and others, made me suspect that the Nuri tombs were the oldest and hence the most interesting, dating, as they might, from the period of the Nubian conquest of Egypt in 730 B.C. They were also more solidly built, being of cut stone throughout instead of a mere outer layer of stone over a core of loose rubble.

'It makes no difference to me,' Emerson said moodily.

It was therefore decided that we would leave the following morning, which gave me the rest of the afternoon to shop and make arrangements for transport. Slatin informed us that the trip across the desert by camel required approximately two hours, but he recommended that we go by water instead, even though it would take longer. Camels were very hard to find, owing to the devastation wrought by the rebels and the fact that the army had first call on them.

After I had appealed to him as a gentleman and a scholar, he promised to do all he could to help us. Men are very susceptible to flattery, especially when it is accompanied by simpers and fluttering lashes. Fortunately Emerson was still brooding on the sins of Mr Budge and did not interfere.

In fact, it was after noon the next day before we got under way. Washing the camels took longer than I had anticipated. Where Yussuf had found them I did not ask, but they were a sorry-looking group of animals, which had obviously never been under the care of the officer in charge of the military camels. I had had a most interesting chat with this gentleman; he operated a kind of hospital for ailing camels outside the camp, and I was pleased to find that his views on the care of animals agreed with mine. I had had the same problem with donkeys while in Egypt. The poor beasts were shamefully overloaded and neglected, so I had made it a policy to wash the donkeys and their filthy saddlecloths as soon as they came under my care. Captain Griffith was good enough to give me some of the lotions and medicines he used, and most efficacious they proved. However, camels - like other animals, including human beings - are not always aware of what is good for them, and the ones Yussuf supplied did not take kindly to being washed. I had become fairly expert at dealing with donkeys, but washing a camel is a much more complicated procedure, owing in part to the greater size of the latter animal and in part to its extremely irascible disposition. After some futile experiments, which left everyone except the camel quite wet, I finally worked out a relatively effective procedure. I stood upon a temporary platform of heaped-up sand and stone blocks, with my bucket of water and lye soap and my long-handled brush, while six of the men endeavoured to restrain the camel by means of ropes attached to its limbs and neck. It would have been hard to say which made the most racket, the camel or the men holding it, for despite my best endeavours some of the soapy water splashed onto them. However, this was all to the good, for some of them needed washing too. (I must add that the procedure would have gone more smoothly had Emerson condescended to help me instead of collapsing in helpless mirth.)

The pyramids of Nuri stand on a plateau a mile and a half from the riverbank. The sun was sinking westward when we came within sight of them, and their shadows formed grotesque outlines across the barren ground.

My heart sank with the sun. I had studied the work of Lepsius, and I ought to have been prepared for the dismal reality, but hope will ever triumph over fact in my imagination. Some of the pyramids still stood relatively intact, but they were pathetic substitutes for the great stone tombs of Giza and Dahshur. Most were only tumbled piles of stone, with no sign of a pyramid shape. The whole area was strewn with fallen blocks and heaps of debris. It would take weeks, perhaps months, of arduous labour to make sense of the plan, even if we had had the necessary number of workers.

I had hoped to find a tomb chapel or other structure that could be converted into a residence, but my sand-and sun-strained eyes searched in vain for any such convenience. The temperature was approximately one hundred degrees Fahrenheit, the camel's jolting gait had reduced my muscles to jelly, and blowing sand had scoured the skin from my face and seeped into every crevice of my clothing. I turned a look of bitter reproach (for my throat was too parched for speech) on my husband, who had ignored the sensible advice of the military authorities and insisted on travelling by camel instead of waiting until we could hire a boat.

Impervious to my distress, Emerson urged his camel to kneel. Dismounting with the agility of a boy half his age, his face beaming, he hastened to me and addressed the animal upon which I perched 'Adar ya-yan! Come along now, you heard me - adar ya-yan, I say.' The cursed camel, which had grumbled and protested every order I had given it, promptly obeyed Emerson. Those among my Readers who are acquainted with the habits of camels know that they lower the front end first. Since they have extraordinarily long limbs, this procedure tilts their bodies to a considerable degree. Stiff and exhausted, caught unawares by the quickness of Emerson and the camel, I slid down the slope and fell to the ground.

Emerson picked me up and dusted me off. 'Quite all right, are you, Peabody?' he asked cheerfully. 'We'll pitch our tents there, between those two southernmost pyramids, don't you think? Quite. Come along, Peabody, don't dawdle, it will be dark soon. Mohammed - Ahmet - Ramses - '

Spurred by his enthusiasm and his friendly curses - and no doubt by the desire for food, rest, and water- the men began to unload the camels. I leaned against mine, which had lowered its back section and lay upon the sand. It turned its head to look at me. I cleared my throat. 'Don't even think of it,' I said hoarsely. The camel coughed, in the irritating way they have, and looked away.

Some water from the small canteen attached to my belt restored me to my usual self, and I hastened to assist Emerson. After I had pointed out that he had picked the wrong place for the camp, and found a better one, matters went smoothly. By the time the sun had sunk below the western hills I was able to retire to the privacy of a tent and remove my sandy, perspiration-soaked garments. The relief was indescribable. When I emerged I found Emerson and Ramses sitting cross-legged on a bit of carpet. A small fire crackled merrily; some distance away was the fiery glow of a larger fire, and I could hear the cheerful voices of the men and smell dinner cooking. Emerson quickly jumped up and led me to a chair, placing a glass in my hand.

The cool night breeze stirred the damp tendrils of my hair. The vault of heaven blazed with stars that cast a mystical glow along the sides of the pyramid. Feeling like a queen enthroned, surrounded by kneeling courtiers, I sipped my whiskey and opened my senses to the allure of the desert wastes. And when Emerson sighed deeply and remarked, 'Ah, my dear Peabody; life cannot hold any greater charm than this,' I was forced to agree that he was right.

We began next morning to make key plans of the pyramids. A certain amount of excavation was necessary to establish, as far as was possible, the original dimensions, but our main focus, as Emerson insisted, was that of recording. Since my dear Emerson's real passion is digging things up, this was a sign of his genuine concern for scholarship over treasure-hunting. After comparing the plans of Lepsius, drawn in 1845, with what remained, I was shocked to find how much the monuments had deteriorated in half a century. Finding traces of recent and hasty, excavation at the base of the best preserved of the pyramids, Emerson blamed all of the depredation on Budge, but as I pointed out, even Budge could not have done so much damage in a few hours. Time, and the treasure-hunting instincts of the local villagers, must be partially responsible.

From these villages, scattered along the riverbank, we procured our workers, and being old hands at organising excavations, we soon had a routine worked out. The men were divided into three groups, under the command of Emerson, myself, and Ramses. I must admit that Ramses was a great help, though I soon got tired of hearing Emerson congratulate himself on insisting the boy come with us. Ramses, of course, was in his element, and it was rather amusing to hear his shrill voice shouting out orders in his extremely colloquial Arabic and increasingly fluent Nubian. His linguistic abilities impressed the men, who had been inclined at first to treat him with the same amused tolerance they showed their own progeny.

By the end of the work week we had a pretty fair idea of the general plan of the site. A pyramid of considerable size must once have dominated the area; it had completely collapsed, and additional work would be necessary to determine its original dimensions. In front of it, in a rough semicircle, were four smaller pyramids, with another row of ten pyramids to the southeast. Lepsius's original plan showed a number of smaller, shapeless masses of stone clustered west and north of the great(!) pyramid and scattered at random among the others. We found ten such mounds not shown on his map. At that point we were forced to break off work for the inevitable day of rest. Our men were Moslems, most of the Hanafi sect; their holy day was, of course, Friday. Emerson was all for continuing the work without them, pointing out, with perfect truth, that the surveying itself required no more than three people. However, I persuaded him that we also deserved, if not a day of rest, at least a brief period spent at the camp and the nearby market. We needed supplies, more camels, and, if possible, more workers.

We had offered to let our men leave on the Thursday evening, but they refused with thanks and with a great shuffling of feet and sidelong glances. They were afraid of jinn and ghosts, which as all men knew came out in the dusk. So the following morning they all scattered to their villages and we set out for the camp. In the relative cool of the morning the ride was pleasant enough, and as we drew near Sanam Abu Dom, the view of the great mountain across the river became increasingly impressive. I was particularly struck by several oddly shaped rock formations that resembled the great statues of Ramses II at Abu Simbel. Emerson, who had been staring at the mountain with greed writ clearly across his handsome countenance, muttered, 'That is the greatest temple of Nubia, Peabody. Excavation there would undoubtedly produce invaluable historical material. Since we are at loose ends today - '

'We are not at loose ends; I have a great deal to do,' I said firmly. 'Furthermore, Mr Budge is working at Gebel Barkal, and you swore to me you would stay away from him.'