Free Moses, Man of the Mountain by Zora Neale Hurston Page B

nothing anyway, but the dressing for what goes on behind the scenes. Make me know.”
    Some of them thought that Moses took seriously the things that meant so much to them, but he didn’t. He learned all of their tricks as he went along, but only to sift them through his mind to see if any of them led towards real knowledge, or the book in the river. At last he knew all that there was to be known and still he found no doors that either hinged on hell nor heaven. He called the names a thousand times, but saw no faces of gods. But he learned many things to distract the minds of unthinking people from their real troubles, and to taint men with the fear of life. In this he saw a certain mastery over people if one cared to use it or needed to use it.
    Then his mother died and he missed her very much. The Ethiopian Princess who had been brought to the palace as his wife as a sign of peace between Egypt and Ethiopia, meant nothing to him. Perhaps that was because he meant nothingto her other than what had been arranged for in the treaty. He looked at her face that seemed to come to a point at her nose like a fox and wondered if he would have loved her if he had been allowed to win her as lesser men won their wives. But it wasn’t worth thinking about too much, and so he didn’t think.
    But he knew it was not because he did not feel. Long ago before he was twenty, he had found out that he was two beings. In short, he was everybody boiled down to a drop. Everybody is two beings: one lives and flourishes in the daylight and stands guard. The other being walks and howls at night. He could be a lot of things to some woman when he found the right one. But the eye-looks of this treaty-wife in the palace was as impersonal as his own. She did not awaken the urge in him to give her the pain and tenderness that make up a marriage. He was always polite and kind. Whatever secrets her body held were no concern of his. And she was happy at being part of the court life. Some day, sometime, he would find a woman and crush from her body that essence that made men live. He would rouse her tears and her tenderness and he would give her something that she could not live without, of which his property and position was only a sign of his inward giving.
    In the meanwhile, he had a great struggle on his hands. As the actual chief of the army he was demanding that Hebrews be included in the forces of Egypt. But he was being strenuously opposed by most of the court and a large part of the officers. They argued that they were not citizens of Egypt, but enemy-prisoners, and as such, it would be rash to put arms into their hands again. Who knew when they might rise up against their conquerors and turn the tables? Moses argued that they were enemies certainly, because they were treated as such. More than a generation of years had passed since the revolution and it was time that these people either be restored to citizenship or sent out of Egypt. It was a weak spot in any nation to have a large body of disaffected people within its confines. And then again, civilization and decency demandedless harsh treatment for human beings. If they could not vote and bear arms at once, then shorten their hours of work and repeal the law that said their boy babies must be killed. It was not being obeyed anyway, and since it put Egypt in a bad light before other nations, why not strike it from the books? The anti-Hebrew party led by Ta-Phar shouted “No” to all of these proposals. If the Hebrews were sent out, wouldn’t they go and join themselves with some enemies of Egypt and return as invaders? They knew all of the back roads and the weak spots of the country. They would know when and where to strike. No, not one Hebrew was going to escape from Egypt. Pharaoh receded from his former position a little. He took off two hours from their working day and rescinded the order on boy babies. Moses took this as a hopeful sign and waited for a chance to demand other changes in