The Pursuit of
Shugat-Nergal
A story about Ancient Sumer
by James W. Bell © 2001 - 2003
1
The whole night, Denisha dreamed of nothing but Shugat-Nergal. That low life. That no good. That common thief. No, her mind subconsciously corrected her, that very uncommon thief. After all, the handsome devil had earned the title of The Thief of Uruk. Using trickery, deceit and cunning, he had pulled off some of the most spectacular thefts ever committed in Sumer. All this while Denisha served as the Karum-appointed watcher in the Uruk Marketplace. No doubt about it, Shugat-Nergal had humiliated her.
Oh, Denisha had been on the job. Once she had caught him red handed. But, for some reason, his appearance had drawn forth her sympathetic instincts and she found herself pleading with him to change and become a moral man. He assured her he would—he promised to alter his ways forever. But, two weeks later, she spotted him in the marketplace again, casing a jeweler’s table. When she confronted him, he had laughed. Then, he grabbed her, publicly kissed her on her lips and fled before she could arrest him. Humiliated again! The only thing that had saved her job was the lack of a merchandise loss.
“Damn Shugat-Nergal to Kur!” Denisha swore out loud and woke herself. She opened her eyes and saw the sky was still lit by a half moon in the west. It would soon be dawn. Dreaming about Shugat had aroused her sexually. She also felt the need to piss and reached for her privy pot before recalling she’d forgotten to bring it up to the roof.
She crossed to the parapet and looked out at Kullab, the secular quarter of Uruk. The narrow moonlit street below was deserted. For a moment, she considered sitting on the parapet and doing it over the side. At night, who would know? No, she reprimanded herself. That might be something Shugat would do. Not her. She refused to let him influence her. She returned to the sleeping mat, slipped on her sandals and went down the outside stairs to make her way along narrow streets to the Riverside Public Facility for Women.
The facility was an area surrounded by reed fencing. Inside the roofless latrine, she relieved herself over a hole. It left her feeling refreshed. When she went back outside, she caught a whiff of river air. The Euphrates was close at hand. She walked down to the riverbank, pulled off her tunic and sandals. Leaving them on the corniche and naked as the day she was born, she waded into the river’s cool, dark water.
Goose bumps popped up and Denisha shivered. How delightful it was to experience the sensation of cold during mid-summer when one could fry an egg on a city street at noon. As the sky lightened in the east, she released herself from the last of the dream’s tension. Relaxed, she returned to the corniche to pick up her things and dress before walking back to the house. Mulata would have breakfast ready.
2
Mulata looked up when she walked in. “Your hair’s wet. Where’ve you been?”
“If you must know,” Denisha answered, “bathing in the river.”
“Not in your altogether, I hope.”
“You remind me too much of my mother. You’re only my landlady.”
“Still, you should have kept your shift on. It could use a washing.”
“By the gods, Mulata, what does it matter to you?”
“It’s that thief again. He’s got you aroused. I can tell. You had another hot dream -”
“Mulata!” Denisha stamped her foot on the dirt floor.
Mulata laughed and spooned hot barley porridge out of the pot into two bowls. She brought the bowls over and set them on the wicker table. “I’m telling you, Denisha, he’s turning you into a wreck.”
Denisha tried the porridge. “I haven’t seen him for weeks and weeks.”
“I can’t tell the difference. You’re still mooning over him.”
“Mulata -”
“Don’t ‘Mulata’ me. I know you, Denisha. You sit and stare off into space. At nothing. I call that mooning.”
“I don’t moon. Besides, the word is blasphemous. What would Lord Sin think?”
Mulata swallowed a spoonful of porridge and laughed again. “Listen, where do you think the Moon God got his reputation, huh?”
“You’re speaking blasphemy, Mulata. I’m not listening to you anymore.”
She reached across the table and touched Denisha’s hand. “Has that beast done it to you?”
“Mulata! I told you, I’m not listening. Besides, what kind of question is that?”
“I mean, has he seduced you? … raped you? … you know.”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Hmm,” she spooned another sip of porridge. “You act touchy, like you might be pregnant.”
Denisha stood up. “Mulata, I’m not going to sit here any longer because you keep chattering away all the time even though you know I’m not listening.”
It’s for your own good.”
“I’m a watcher. I can watch out for myself, thank you.” Denisha turned to go.
“Wait!” Mulata called out. “You really don’t know where Shugat-Nergal is, do you?”
Denisha shook her head. “No, I don’t. Further, I don’t care.”
“You say. But it worries you, doesn’t it? I mean, your not knowing.”
Denisha fidgeted.
“Why? What do you suspect? He’ll pop up somewhere when least expected?”
“Probably with a new trick. Ready to pull a really big heist.”
“You’re afraid you might not be prepared, aren’t you?”
“Mulata, I’m watcher at the Uruk Marketplace! It’s prestigious. If he pulls another heist there, he’ll make me look stupid all over again. It could cost me my job this time.”
Mulata cocked an eyebrow. “Could it be he’s playing with you?”
Denisha narrowed her eyes.
“That Shugat-Nergal acts like a beast. Playing with his prey. If you ask me, he needs breaking. And taming. If you lived on a farm, Denisha, you would have learned how to bring an animal like him to heel.”
Denisha sat back down. “Oh, Mulata, he’s not an animal. He’s a man, a dear, handsome man. When I arrested him, I found myself speaking to him as a friend. He swore he’d change. He looked me straight in the eye and promised. He seemed so sincere. I believed him. But, the next week … he was back in the marketplace. I saw him. He was getting ready to lift something else.”
“Denisha, you definitely need help with that creature.”
“Are you telling me I should admit to the Karum that I’m not able to keep watch over the marketplace? So they’d let me go and hire a new watcher?”
Mulata rubbed her chin. “Bless Bes, I hadn’t even considered that,” she said. “I still don’t understand. Why does the Karum hire a woman as a watcher anyway?”
“To promote peace in the marketplace. Most shoppers are women. Makes it easier to search a suspect for lifted goods. All told, I’ve done well. I’ve caught many thieves and put them away … all, that is, except Shugat-Nergal.”
“To you, I’ll bet he seems like the King of Thieves, doesn’t he?”
“I have to admit, his appearance is quite regal.”
“See! I knew you were mooning over him.”
“Mulata, I told you - ”
“Get help, Denisha. Go, get one of the gods to help you.”
“Me? I should ask the gods for help?”
Mulata nodded. “Why not? You need it. Believe me, they can take anybody down. It’s not been that long since they brought King Gilgamesh to his knees.”
“But – but, Mulata, I am a mere mortal. And, worse, a woman. Who am I to ask the gods for help? Why would they bother with me?”
“You’re a watcher, Denisha, an enforcer of the law, law that was handed down from Heaven. The gods need you to be successful. After all, it’s their laws that you’re enforcing.”
“It is, isn’t it?”
“Indeed. Shugat-Nergal must be as big an embarrassment to them as he is to you. I mean, how do you think the gods feel about him, a known thief, running around stealing everything? I feel certain they would help you.”
“But, poor Shugat, I -”
“Don’t start poor Shugatting that brute. He’s running around loose, making you and everybody else look like fools. He’s ruining your life. Eventually, he’ll have to be taken down or he’ll destroy you. Don’t you understand? Your only other choice, if you have any feeling for the creature, is for you to bring him to heel. To tame him.”
Denisha shook her head. “I don’t think I could do that.”
“Not even with the help of one of the gods?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps. I’ll have to think about it.”
3
Denisha felt better after breakfast. The discussion with Mulata cleared her mind. Dear old Mulata. Her landlady was more like a mother. She had driven home her point, Denisha was hung up on Shugat-Nergal and didn’t know what to do about it. She idly swung the copper-headed staff that was the symbol of her office as she walked to the marketplace.
As soon as she came within sight of the market, she saw a hubbub and heard shouting. She hurried to the scene. Using her staff to work her way through the onlookers, she said, “Make way. I’m the watcher. Make way.”
When she saw the yellow turban above the crowd, her heart sank. Shugat-Nergal again! She forced herself to the center where men were holding him, one on each arm and others with arms around various parts of his anatomy, including one arm around his neck.
“All right, I’m the market watcher,” Denisha told the crowd. “What’s going on?”
An old man, one of the vendors dressed in a woolen shift with many money pockets, answered. “It’s him!” He pointed a finger at Shugat-Nergal. “I caught him lifting one of my best necklaces, this one with a lapis setting.” He picked up a necklace from the cloth-covered table to show her. “See?” He turned towards Shugat. “Further, I think this is the one they call the Thief of Uruk.”
Denisha turned to Shugat. “Well, well. What have you to say for yourself?”
Shugat looked at her with those dark, piercing eyes that could see right through her. “I … hardly … talk,” he gasped, motioning with his head at the arm around his neck. “Can’t … breathe.”
“Release him!” Denisha ordered the men holding him.
They let go of Shugat but remained close by. Shugat shook himself as if to insure they had not made off with some part of him. “A thousand thank yous,” he told Denisha.
“I asked you a question,” Denisha reminded him. “I’m waiting.”
“You asked me a question?” Shugat’s face assumed the look of sublime innocence.
“I did!” Denisha said and thumped the pavement of the marketplace floor with her staff. “I asked, what about the necklace this vendor said you were lifting?”
Enlightenment brightened Shugat’s handsome face. “Ah, yes, you mean before I was so rudely accosted by these gentlemen?” He waved his hand at the men still gathered around him.
Denisha thumped the pavement again. “I’m not going to stand here and bandy words with you.”
Shugat-Nergal smiled his special smile at her like he’d done before. “Of course. I was examining the beautiful necklaces that this master craftsman had so generously displayed for my edification. I had selected this one – indeed, the very one he exhibited to you – and picked it up to admire its exquisite artistry close at hand.” He sighed and showed her his special smile again.
“Liar!” the vendor cried and lunged. He would have physically attacked Shugat if Denisha had not stopped him with her staff. “He lies!” the vendor shouted. “He wasn’t examining it. He was stuffing it up his sleeve! That one.” He pointed. “The left one.”
Denisha forced the vendor back and calmed him before returning to Shugat. She now became aware of the brightly dyed robe he was wearing, one with long sleeves, much like the desert Amurru wear. “This man says you were putting the necklace up your left sleeve.”
Shugat smiled again, held up his right arm and shook it. “See? Nothing.”
“He said your left sleeve,” Denisha said. “This one.” She motioned at it.
“Oh,” Shugat said, “sorry, I didn’t catch it. My hearing isn’t as good as it used to be. Back last winter,” he started to explain, “when the river -”
“Your left sleeve!” Denisha repeated and grabbed at it. Several necklaces tumbled out and clattered to the pavement.
Shugat-Nergal flashed a grin and said, “Uh, oh,” he said and suddenly backflipped. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared under the cloth-covered vendor’s table behind him.
“You bastard!” Denisha shouted at the table. “Come out from under there!”
Silence. There was no answer. Several men crawled under the table after him while others spread out to guard the perimeter of adjacent tables. “He’s not here!” a voice came from under the vendor’s table.
“Where is he?” a voice from beneath another table asked.
“I can’t find him,” a voice from the other side answered. “I think he’s given us the slip.”
From the vendor’s table, the search spread rapidly across the marketplace. Vendors and customers alike joined in to hunt for the slippery miscreant. They discovered his yellow turban and colorful robe tossed behind a table near the park entrance at Gilgamesh Point. But they didn’t find him. Shugat-Nergal seemed to have vanished.
The aggrieved vendor who had followed Denisha growled at her, “It was your fault he escaped. I shall report you!”
“I recovered your necklaces, sir, including several you apparently weren’t aware had been snitched.”
“Luck,” the vendor snapped. “Pure luck. That man was the Thief of Uruk. I recognized him. I told you so. We had him in our hands but you told us to let go. We did … and he went. You …” he shook his finger at her, “… you are the cause of his escape.”
“My job as marketplace watcher is to prevent thievery. That, sir, is what you saw me do. Nothing has been taken. You have lost nothing.”
“Hah!” the vendor scoffed. “Luck. That thief outfoxed you! I saw him. He had you glassy-eyed. I saw you. I’m going to complain to the Karum about you.”
“I’m sorry you feel like that, sir, but you’re free to do as you please. I will continue to protect the marketplace as long as I’m on the job.”
“Not for long I hope,” the vendor said and tromped off.
Denisha forced herself to turn away and walk to one of the gates of the marketplace. Now that the excitement was over, the normal chatter of buying and selling had resumed. As much as she hated to admit it, Shugat-Nergal had publicly humiliated her again. Damn him! She gritted her teeth. Mulata’s right, I’m going to have to bring that son-of-a-bitch to heel. Then, thinking it over, she added, even if I have to get the gods to help me, and felt a tremendous release of tension.
Denisha pictured Shugat down on his knees in front of her. She envisioned his hands humbly clasped, his eyes pleading with her. The vision caused her to chuckle. Yes, she thought, it’s time I went to see the gods.
To Chapter 4
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