Charles Aldarondo, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading
Team
BRICKS WITHOUT STRAW
A Novel
BY
ALBION W. TOURGEE, LL.D.,
LATE JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT OF NORTH CAROLINA
THIS VOLUME I GRATEFULLY DEDICATE TO
My Wife;
TO WHOSE UNFLINCHING COURAGE, UNFALTERING FAITH, UNFAILING CHEER,AND STEADFAST LOVE, I OWE MORE THAN MANY VOLUMES MIGHT DECLARE.
TRANSLATION:
[From an ancient Egyptian Papyrus-Roll, recently discovered.]
It came to pass that when Pharaoh had made an end of givingcommandment that the children of Israel should deliver the dailytale of bricks, but should not be furnished with any straw wherewithto make them, but should instead go into the fields and gathersuch stubble as might be left therein, that Neoncapos, the king'sjester, laughed.
And when he was asked whereat he laughed, he answered, At the king'sorder.
And thereupon he laughed the more.
Then was Pharaoh, the king, exceeding wroth, and he gave commandmentthat an owl be given to Neoncapos, the king's jester, and that hebe set forth without the gate of the king's palace, and that he beforbidden to return, or to speak to any in all the land, save onlyunto the owl which had been given him, until such time as the birdshould answer and tell him what he should say.
Then they that stood about the king, and all who saw Neoncapos,cried out, What a fool's errand is this! So that the saying remainseven unto this day.
Nevertheless, upon the next day came Neoncapos again into thepresence of Pharaoh, the king.
Then was Pharaoh greatly astonished, and he said, How is this? Haththe bird spoken?
And Neoncapos, the king's jester, bowed himself unto the earth,and said, He hath, my lord.
Then was Pharaoh, the king, filled with amazement, and said, Tellme what he hath said unto thee.
And Neoncapos raised himself before the king, and answered him,and said:
As I went out upon the errand whereunto thou hadst sent me forth,I remembered thy commandment to obey it. And I spake only untothe bird which thou gavest me, and said unto him:
There was a certain great king which held a people in bondage, andset over them task-masters, and required of them all the bricksthat they could make, man for man, and day by day;
For the king was in great haste seeking to build a palace whichshould be greater and nobler than any in the world, and shouldremain to himself and his children a testimony of his glory forever.
And it came to pass, at length, that the king gave commandment thatno more straw should be given unto them that made the bricks, butthat they should still deliver the tale which had been aforetimerequired of them.
And thereupon the king's jester laughed.
Because he said to himself, If the laborers have not straw wherewithto attemper the clay, but only stubble and chaff gathered fromthe fields, will not the bricks be ill-made and lack strength andsymmetry of form, so that the wall made thereof will not be trueand strong, or fitly joined together? For the lack of a littlestraw it may be that the palace of the great king will fall uponhim and all his people that dwell therein. Thereupon the king waswroth with his fool, and his coun