I learned to read and write, and all that is usually taught to the priests' sons, but never to accommodate myself to my lot, and I never shall .-- Well, when my beard grew I succeeded in escaping and I lived for a time in the world.

I have been even to Rome, to Carthage, and in Syria; but at last I longed to drink Nile-water once more and I returned to Egypt.

Why?
Because, fool that I was, I fancied that bread and water with captivity tasted better in my own country than cakes and wine with freedom in the land of the stranger.
"In my father's house I found only my mother still living, for my father had died of grief.

Before my flight she had been a tall, fine woman, when I came home I found her faded and dying.

Anxiety for me, a miserable wretch, had consumed her, said the physician--that was the hardest thing to bear.