Shall I begin at the beginning?
Well--I seldom am in the mood for it now-a-days.

Fifty years ago I sang a song with this voice of mine; an old crow like me?
sing! But so it was.

My father was a man of rank, the governor of Abydos; when the first Rameses took possession of the throne my father was faithful to the house of thy fathers, so the new king sent us all to the gold mines, and there they all died--my parents, brothers, and sisters.

I only survived by some miracle.

As I was handsome and sang well, a music master took me into his band, brought me to Thebes, and wherever there was a feast given in any great house, Beki was in request.