Free Moses, Man of the Mountain by Zora Neale Hurston

Moses begged that the honor be given to somebody else, somebody more worthy than he was. He gave as a reason, in addition to his unworthiness, that he wanted to go traveling into foreign countries and see how they lived and made war there. But Pharaoh was not interested in the ways of other peoples. He was not interested in their wars and warfare unless they were the enemies of Egypt or Egypt’s allies. All that could wait. He was interested in winning wars at home and abroad. It would be time enough to consider how the people in those far-off countries lived after he had conquered them. Moses felt twisted and torn by his elevation. He had workedhard for more than three years to earn it, and now he didn’t want it. He couldn’t say to Pharaoh, “You are breaking into my arrangements with your old decorations.” He had to pretend he liked it.
    His Uncle Ta-Phar hated it too, but his personal feelings could not stand in the face of the enthusiasm of the military bloc and the intensified nationalism which had been whipped up for a generation by his father. Egypt was spreading by conquest and alliances based on force. If they didn’t keep on getting more they would begin to look weak. So Ta-Phar had to swallow the elevation of Moses and make out he liked it. But after all, he was the heir to the throne and when the armies went out, he could always ride in front, if he wanted to. And then again, the time would come when he would be Pharaoh himself and then other arrangements could be made. The old folks had a saying that the belt that went over the devil’s back had to buckle under his belly. He could wait old Moses out and when his time came, that upstart was going to catch it. “Your hands must knead everybody’s dough, and every shirt is too tight for you,” he said to Moses time and again when they quarreled. “You are my father’s first grandson, and so he dotes on you; and you are my sister’s only child and so she spoils you. Just wait until they are gone and see what I do for you. I mean to make you catch me a natural hurry, and don’t you forget it.”
    So this was the way he spoke to Moses in the corridor of the palace after the announcements were over, and Moses laughed in his face.
    “I wouldn’t let on if I were you, Ta-Phar. Somebody might hear you and laugh at you. Then you will have to get a law passed that people can’t laugh at Princes.”
    “Another bit of impudence out of you and I’ll whip you.”
    “No, you won’t whip me, Uncle Ta-Phar, but there might be a fight. But there would have to be some good running done before that fight comes off.”
    “And why?”
    “Because in the language of the soldiers’ camps, I’d have torun you down and hem you up before I could get a fight out of you. You don’t want no parts of me, and I know it; and you know it, and you know that I know you know it.”
    Moses strolled on off and joined his military escort and left Ta-Phar standing where he was. So Moses forgot all about him in a few minutes because his heart in all its height was far from the palace and armies and honors and hopes of honors. He was in his private suite with Mentu who was in the new clothes of his new job as personal attendant to the new commander of the Egyptian armies. But, they were not talking about troops and munitions and strategy. They were deep in the mysteries of life and magic. Moses had decided to go to Koptos at the first opportunity.
    But years and wars and years of wars stood between him and his journey. The might of Egypt was stretching across the world. Ethiopia was conquered; Assyria kept in fear, Babylonia was terrorized. All tributes flowed towards Rameses and Memphis. No one knew how the Egyptian armies would strike nor when. The men were permanently in barracks. Once war was decided upon, Moses was on the march and they did not know whom they marched against until they were past the boundaries of Egypt. Against some nations they fought in formal battle