Moses, Man of the Mountain

by Zora Neale Hurston

  “Oh, you mustn’t let my talk drag you into something that may get you hurt. By the way, that oldest girl of mine is named Zipporah. You must excuse me for running my mouth so much that I haven’t introduced you to the family.”

  “That is the second time that you have read my mind, Jethro. You must teach me how to do that.”

  “It is a gift and not a learning, Moses. But to get back to this cattle business, I can’t thank you enough for what you did down at the well. The girls came home and told me about the high-class Egyptian sitting by the well who fought the boys with the strength of ten men.”

  “How did they know I was a high-born Egyptian? I might have been anybody at all from anywhere.”

  “Moses, I never saw anybody who looked more like what he was than you do. You are the quality, and no mistake about it. I asked the girls why they had left a stranger who had protected them so unselfishly, sitting by a well. Zipporah said that in her excitement she forgot her manners. So you must excuse her, Moses. She is very young.”

  “That is natural and neither of you need to apologize for your manners nor your hospitality.”

  The two men ate alone with the three oldest girls serving them. There was some music and laughter after supper and Moses forgot that he ever had been tired or unhappy in his life. He went to bed and slept soundly and was up with the sun and walking over the place. He hoped that Zipporah would be around early too. He felt strongly the need of the sight of her. There was no thought of the adventures of the open road in his head that morning.

  And there was the mountain to see and to feel. No, he did not desire to go away from here. His cells had the memory of this locality. It was easy for Moses to conceive that the dust that he was made from came off of that mountain there. This was the place that had called him in his unfinished dreams since childhood. He had been here often, by some mysterious forecast of dreams. Nobody here seemed strange and everything seemed familiar. He even found it natural and easy to drop into the dialect of the people with Jethro and the others whom he met. He talked it deliberately to put everybody at their ease. It was only in moments of stress in the times that were to come that he instinctively reverted to the language of the court. But here he blended into the background. This was his resting place, his eternal niche in infinity. The mountain hovered over him and called him as a mother would. He must go up and embrace his mother. He told Jethro how he felt while Jethro showed him over the place after breakfast.

  “I know it,” Jethro said, “and I beg you to stay here with me. In fact, I felt you coming somehow. I was not a bit surprised when the girls got back with the cows and told me about you. I feel a great power in you that you don’t know anything about as yet. I really hope that you will make up your mind to stay here.”

  “Oh, I like it here,” said Moses.

  “I’m glad to hear that, Moses. I hope you won’t find things too uncomfortable around here. Of course I’m a chief and a Prince in Midian, but I realize that’s not like being a Prince in Egypt. We don’t have any court life and no formality. A Prince in Midian can herd his own sheep if he has a mind to and nothing said about it.”

  “That sounds just fine. Formality can get too burdensome.”

  “Well, you see in Egypt the rulers don’t have to go near the people, but here a chief is looked on as the sort of father of his tribe. He can go without sandals and most of us just talk the language of the people. I have traveled some and that is how I learned Egyptian, but I don’t get a chance to use it much around here.”

  “I want to talk the dialect of your people. Its no use of talking unless people understand what you say.”

  “That’s right, Moses. Well, we’ll get in a lot of practice on it if you stay around here. We won’t have a chance to talk our high Egyptian except when we’re off by ourselves. And then it’s always a great advantage when you’re managing people to be able to speak their kind of language. Stiff words frighten poor folks. I hope you stay here, Moses. You will make a fine friend for a man.”

  “I thank you for your compliments, Jethro. When you don’t know anything about me or nothing. I ought to tell you about myself before I accept your home as my own.”

  “Plenty of time for the little details of your life. I know that you are brave and honest. Everything else about a person is garnishment.”

  “Thanks for your confidence. Look here, Jethro, where do those thugs hang out around here?”

  “Oh, in a big cave about two miles off. There are around a dozen or so in the bunch from what I can learn.”

  “Is that all?” Moses asked.

  “That’s about right from what I can learn. But that’s too many for us to strain with in the fix we’re in. It’s awful, the way they go around bulldozing and running over helpless people. And what makes me so mad is, some of those same men were under my shelter all their lives until they got this notion of living by grabbing.”

  Jethro looked sad and frustrated and the face of Moses hardened when he saw it. The older man tried to look away quickly, but Moses saw it and stiffened himself a little.

  “Do you reckon they have destroyed all the cattle that they have driven off your place?” Moses asked.

  “Couldn’t possibly have eaten up all those cows and things. Why, they have a big herd grazing around there that they have taken from different people. I have suffered the most since they knew that we can’t put up a fight.”

  “Oh, yes, we can and we will. Got any weapons around here?”

  “Yes, I have some good blades—spears and swords—but nobody to use them. It’s a sin and a shame too, the way those thugs take advantage of our helplessness. Why, as I said, some of those same robbers used to work for me.”

  “No later than tomorrow we are going to get back some of your stuff. We are going to attack their hide-out.”

  “We?” Jethro exclaimed in alarm. “Who do you mean by we?”

  “Me and you and that one manservant you have left and Zipporah. We will dress her up like a man.”

  “But, Moses, she is nothing but a woman. She wouldn’t be a bit of service in a fight.”

  “Yes, she will, too. All I want her to do when the fight gets hot is to stand at my back with an extra spear and sword in her hands. Then they can’t surprise me from the rear and I will have plenty tools to fight with. You and the servant must drive off the herds while I fight and keep them from stopping you. Once we get them back they would not dare to come here to start anything. They must be badly armed else they would have attacked your camp before now. As you said, they are a bunch of run-off servants who have neither the guts nor the steel to make a bold strike. Besides, they don’t know how to fight. Let’s see after our weapons today and take the brigands an hour before dawn tomorrow. They won’t be able to see us too clearly and they will think that we are a big fighting force. Are you for it?”

  “I’ll have to be. I can’t let you be more willing to fight for my stuff than I am myself. But it’s mighty risky, Moses.”

  “Oh, not so risky as you think. We will have the advantage of surprise and the half darkness. Besides we have right on our side. If I don’t teach those cur dogs something about shoving girls around and stealing their cows, I hope I don’t sleep another night. Tomorrow before dawn then?”

  “You are the soldier man so you must know what you are talking about. We are going to do like you say, that is on condition that you promise to stay here with us.”

  “I promise since you ask me the third time as I know you mean it. You are my father from now on.”

  “Thank you. It’s grand to have a son even though my wife didn’t bear you. Now let’s go get out those fighting tools and clean ’em up. I am beginning to get sort of bloodthirsty myself. Those skunks have run me ragged in the last six months. I am good to my servants, too, and that is what makes it so bad, what they have done to us. And that puts me in mind of my manservant. He is a dead shot with a bow and arrow.”

  “That’s fine then. So then we can ta
ke your wife and that second biggest girl along.”

  “What for? My wife can’t fight and she makes a poor out running. She’s fat right where a cow is—under her tail.”

  “She’ll do for what I want,” Moses said, confidently; “You just tell her to mind me. We are going to carry some firewood up there and sneak up near the mouth of the cave and light a fire of fat pine wood that will burn fast and bright.”

  “What for?”

  “When the noise of the cattle being driven off wakes up those in the cave they will rush out to protect what they have stolen. Then you and I and your man will drive them back with a shower of arrows. If any of them break out anywhere we will fight it out with spears first and if that does not stop them, it will have to be swords.”

  “So you mean for the women to drive off the cattle ahead of the fight?”

  “That’s it. They must wait until they see the fire start before they stampede the herd. But they must not walk those cows off. They must run them off in a hurry or else they will get mixed up in the fight and we will have to leave our posts and rescue them. This is one time your wife has got to keep up with those who can run.”

  “But, Moses, the question that is sticking in my craw is, who is going to make that fire?”

  “I’m going to do it myself. Your shooting man is going to cover me while I get it done. Now, get it straight. The whole idea is to bottle those skunks up in that cave. Put the fear of force into them so that all we don’t kill and maim will be glad to leave the neighborhood.”

  “Moses, you got leader-blood in you. Just full of that old monarch stuff. You got me so I’m ready to tackle a den of lions. Let me go stir my wife and children up.”

  That night Moses took the servant and scouted the vicinity of the cave. They found vantage points in absolute silence and watched the camp in the cave put out their fire and go into the black hole of the cave to sleep. Then the two wrapped themselves in their blankets and went to sleep also. Moses woke first and saw the light of the false dawn in the sky and made ready. He knew that Jethro and the women would be there soon. Presently he saw them moving towards him like shadows, so silently they moved. So Moses sent everybody to their posts and crept up to start his fire. He soon had the kindling crackling. Then he fled back to his vantage point and the cattle began to jump up from where they were lying and thunder off before the women’s blows and cries.

  A face with a questioning voice appeared at the door of the cave and got an arrow in his chest. Another and another arrow sped into the mouth of the cave from the bows of the three men. Several men approached the door of the cave with various weapons in their hands. A shower of arrows drove them back with loud shouts and screams and excited jibbering talk. Nobody ventured to show themselves for a long while.

  “This is the time for us to make our get-away,” Moses counselled. “The firelight makes them a good target and hides us where we are. But daylight will change it around. And that is what they are waiting for. We got somebody in there. Maybe two or three. Let’s go while the going is good.”

  They melted into the grayness and went on home. As they entered the compound, some tired gray clouds were resting on the ground but the sun came up and drove them off. The household all went to work penning up the big new herd before they thought about breakfast.

  “Honey,” Jethro’s wife said as they looked over the herd, “looks like we’ve got a few cows here that we didn’t have before. Them speckled cows, for instance. I disremember us having any cows like that.”

  “Well, I am not going to tote a casket in my pocket about it,” Jethro said with a cheerful tone of voice. “I don’t expect to take to bed sick over it for even one day. It just makes me and my son Moses hungry for our breakfast. You women get to doing around.”

  CHAPTER 13

  That evening it was Moses and Jethro, armed to the teeth, who drove the cattle to water. No troublesome ruffians appeared, however. The next morning Moses, instead of the girls, took over the task of herding the cattle to grazing ground, but he was not challenged. They heard nothing at all from the cave of the robbers. But the second morning, two dirty ragged men came shuffling up to the tent of Jethro and asked to see him.

  “Oh, so you come back to steal more cattle, do you?” Jethro snarled at them when he saw them. “Look, Moses, these men are two of my servants who ran off and turned bandit. Now they say they want to come back to work. What must we do with them?”

  “Oh, no, we didn’t run off, boss. We was carried off by them robbers and we couldn’t get loose from them until the leader and three more got shot the other night in a raid. Them others that didn’t get killed that was holding us run off and so we had our chance to come on home and that’s what we did.”

  Jethro looked at the raggedy men before him and over his shoulder at Moses. “What must we do with ’em, son? I know they are lying about being carried off by force, but they might behave decently if we gave them another chance. What do you say?”

  “Give them the old army discipline and put them to work. I’ll be seeing them if they start any more cattle stealing around here.”

  So every morning Moses drove out the flocks to graze and brought them home in the evening. There was no more trouble at the well nor anywhere else. The women went to work on suitable clothes for Moses, and he put his jewelry away until the family should need it. He and Jethro spent hours together talking over symbols and meanings and Jethro was the teacher. Moses told him about what he had learned among the priests in Egypt. He had met the bull of the sacred marks and the unknown history* and Jethro was eager to hear all he had to say. But in nearly every case he had knowledge and methods far beyond anything that Moses had seen in Egypt. He forbade Moses to go up on the mountain until he gave him permission, and that made Moses a little unhappy. But he reasoned that the time would come when Jethro would take him to the mountain and so he was patient. In the meanwhile he was mastering the language of the Midianites as if he had been born to it. After all, he found it was close to the Egyptian so it made few difficulties for him.

  He was glad one day when Jethro told him, “Moses, tomorrow night there is going to be a big clothes-putting-on and eating down the road a piece here and these two biggest girls have been harassing me and their mama to go. Reckon you better come go along. I’m not so much at these shindigs these days.”

  “I’d love to go,” Moses said and looked across at Zipporah.

  “That’s mighty nice because you can go along with my wife and the girls. I’ll stay home with the little children. I don’t like to leave them by themselves.”

  “I’ll do the best I can to look after them.”

  “Oh, I have every faith in you. Let’s eat. Herding sheep and cattle is a mighty hungry job to my experience.”

  Moses went to bed rather surprised at how often he was thinking about Zipporah. He felt rather inadequate in dealing with her. She was no woman to be ordered into his tent at his pleasure and ordered out again at his will. He was not a military officer on a campaign to acquire his women by a nod. He had affairs around the court, of course, but not love affairs. He did not want any more treaty wives by arrangement. He wanted to win a woman and hold her by love. The matter was smooth and round like a ball. There was his heart’s desire inside the sphere but the outside presented no place of entry, and Moses yearned for some progress in the matter with all his heart.

  The next night, mounted on camels, they set out for the celebration. The two girls rode on the same camel. Their mother said she would feel better with Moses driving her than one of the girls. Her bones were too old to be falling off of camels. So they set out in the dark. The girls began a repetitious little folk tune and after a while Moses could join in the refrain. It was too early for the moon and the darkness seemed to snuggle them all together in a sweet world all to themselves until they rode into the light of the celebration.

  Moses was never to forget that party as long as he lived. There was feasting, music and games where every
body took part. But Moses felt lonesome and out of things. People treated him like he was some great lord. They were too deferential and impressed. Nobody ran up and grabbed him and pulled him into a game. They served him before anyone else was given a mouthful. And a barrel-shaped man kept choosing Zipporah for a partner in the games. Moses never realized that fat-faced men looked so much like fiends before. He caught himself feeling for his sword before he realized what he was doing. He was almost sorry that he had ceased to wear it with his new clothes. And Zipporah, the little devil, looked him right in the eye and kept on laughing happily and encouraging that fat-faced fool. He was glum all the way home, but the girls kept up their chatter and singing. He felt like slapping their faces, especially Zipporah’s and he wanted to scold the moon for shining and somehow adding to his misery.

  When they rode into the yard a servant came out with a light to help them dismount. As Moses walked towards the other camel to help the girls to dismount Zipporah feinted at him with her eyes and jumped down and started off. Her sister romped after her and her mother waddled behind them towards the big tent. Moses stood for a moment like a blazing tree on the plains, burning fiercely with the pitch from his own heart. Then for some reason Zipporah turned back from the door of the tent and came back in the moonlight towards the grunting camels.

  “Come here, Zipporah!” Moses said tensely but in a low voice.

  She looked up as if she was surprised to find him there. “What do you want with me?” she asked casually.

  “Come here to me, woman. I know exactly what to do with you.”

  “Oh, you do, do you?”

  “I certainly do. Come here.”

  “No.”

  “Yes! I want you.”

  “I don’t come running like that. Even a hen must be sought after, Mister Moses, and I won’t be less than a chicken.”

  “Oh, you are going to be run after, young lady. Don’t be so hard to get. Come farther away from that door before I come after you.”