Rahab the Harlot--Wattys Awards

Chapter Five

"Wake up, servants of Pharaoh, who is a god on earth!" said Thoth, Captain of his Hundred new warriors.

Salmon rose at once from his bed of tightly woven ropes. He put on his lenin breech cloth and his Sphinx-like headdress with cobra decoration.  For training purposes he wore a wooden knife in a leather belt.  By his bed was a wooden spear.  Salmon was allowed to sleep under his large, shepherd's robe. A small bag opposite his training knife contained the money he was allowed to keep. He was permitted to keep his clothes folded in a neat bundle along with a few personal items and stored under his bunk. His sandals had been replaced with woven reeds dried hard and attached to leather soles.  His club and shepherd's staff stood alone by his rope bed.

During that first week, Thoth had inventoried all personal property of his new soldiers. One soldier was found with goods stolen from another during the second night. Thoth bound up the guilty man early the next morning.

Thoth lined up all soldiers in a square by a sandy pit. Beside Thoth stood the thief with hands and feet bound up with leather straps. The unfortunate man was able to take but short steps as he stood looking down next to Thoth.

"We soldiers can prevail against the enemies of the God-King Pharaoh only by trust in each other. One thief among us is as bad as a hundred armed enemies meeting us in battle." With the thief looking down, Thoth drew his shining bronze sword from his scabbard. "Now I will remove distrust from our ranks!" The raised sword almost blinded Salmon and the other soldiers. Sunlight from its blade reflected off the thatched-roofed,  barracks walls.

In one swift stroke, Thoth's sword swung parallel to the ground.  Salmon and his fellow soldiers heard a dull sound, something like a Thwak.

With the headless thief still standing erect, his head fell into the sandy pit with a hollow thud. Thoth placed his foot on the lifeless body. He looked into the pit and back to Salmon and the others.

"This same fate awaits anyone and everyone who decides what's mine or yours is his instead!"

Thoth then kicked the thief's body into the pit and bade all his new soldiers use their bare hands to bury the hapless thief's body. That way, Thoth said, they would remember what happens to thieves.

Rahab knew better than announce her real feelings. To say that she no longer believed in Moloch and his consort, the goddess Asherah, meant certain death for her and her family. Her father Yassib brought word that the priests of Moloch would also kill Salmon if she did not fulfill her role as a temple prostitute.

Rahab stood to lose not only her own life but also the lives of everyone she had ever loved.

In the Temple of Asherah men of all social-economic strata came there to reenact the sexual union between Moloch and Asherah.  As Moloch planted his seed in Asherah, so men would have sexual intercourse with the future priestess Rahab.  Since the intention was not to impregnate the priestess Rahab herself, men were not allowed to share their own seed with Rahab. Every man who violated their temple ordinance had his name recorded. A second violation came at a huge price: half of his wealth. A third "mistake" would cost his life.

The temple kept a strong solution for a priestess to use following a careless male "worshipper."

Rahab so wanted to give herself to Salmon for her very first time she engaged in the Fertility Rite. What better way to give up her virginity? Give it to the young man Salmon with whom she shared mutual love.

But that privilege would go to a priest of Moloch. He himself was allowed to plant his seed in her without penalty. Temple rules would allow that priest to lie only once with Rahab but no other priestess.

Salmon practiced the art of war long and hard. He became skilled with the use of the spear in the attack. How to both protect himself with his shield, which was made of interlaced reeds from the Nile River, and use it to knock down an enemy. It was covered with heavy white canvas. Sometimes made from old boat sails but still quite strong. Although Salmon's shield would not stop an arrow fired from close range, it would slow it enough to prevent a fatal wound.

Although Salmon would not carry a bow, every soldier was ordered to practice with one.

Thoth had become so impressed with Salmon's fighting skills as a shepherd that he adopted the use of the shepherd's sling. This gave Thoth's soldiers another means to inflict casualties on their enemies.

Thoth's soldiers could take their slings made of tightly woven reeds, hurl stones the size of a fist at an approaching enemy, followed by throwing copper-tipped spears as they came closer.

Then they would engage their enemies hand-to-hand with their remaining spears.

Rahab sat in the special place where she and Salmon would share mutual affection.  To her delight she saw her favorite soldier approaching. Salmon was wearing his lenin waist cloth, Sphinx headdress, and copper breast plate given to soldiers who completed training.

How intense Rahab's longing to give her body to Salmon grew when she beheld his muscular body. A body hardened but smooth by months of training and one foray South to put down a rebellion.

Here was her young man whom she loved.

But three days later she was to become a priestess who would first give her body to a priest of Moloch.

At last they held each other tight and shared a long kiss.