The Eloquent Peasant
The Eloquent Peasant (Egyptian, B.C. 2000 or earlier) AN INTERESTING primitive protest against injustice is the story of the Eloquent Peasant, which was one of the most popular of ancient Egyptian tales, and is found in scores of different papyri. The story narrates how a peasant named Rensi was robbed of his asses by the henchmen of a certain grand steward. In spite of all threats the peasant persisted in appealing against the robber to the grand steward himself. The scene is described in “Social Forces and Religion in Ancient Egypt,” by James Henry Breasted, as follows: 1 “It is a tableau which epitomizes ages of social history in the East: on the one hand, the brilliant group of the great man’s sleek and subservient suite, the universal type of the official class; and, on the other, the friendless and forlorn figure of the despoiled peasant, the pathetic personification of the cry for social justice. This scene is one ...