EN056.21 Tunis
Ott 2025
K. Era of Tunis
3. At Waraburg and Stavia
Tunis and Inka Depart
56.21 Here is where the history of Nef-Tunis and his kinsman Inka rightly begins.[1]
All this is recorded not only on the walls of the Waraburg, but also at the burg Stavia, which lies inland from the port of Staveren:
When Tunis wished to return home with his ships, he went first towards the Denmarks. But he was not permitted to land there; this had been signaled by the mother. [057] Also at Fleeland he was not permitted to land, nor anywhere else. He would thus have perished with his men from want and hardship. Therefore, they went plundering the lands by night and sailing by day.
Voyaging along the coast like this, they arrived at the colony of Kaedik (Gadir, Cádiz), so called because its harbor was formed by a stone pier (‘quay-dyke’). Here they purchased all manner of supplies, but Tutia the burgmaid would not allow them to settle there.
When they were ready to depart, a dispute broke out between them. Tunis wanted to enter the strait of the Middle Sea in order to go and sail in the service of the rich king of the Egyptian lands,[2] as he had done before. But Inka said he had had enough of all Finda’s folk. Inka thought that a high-lying part of Atland might possibly remain as an island, where he and his people could live in peace. Thus, as the two kinsmen could not agree, Tunis went and planted a red flag on the beach, and Inka a blue one. Then everyone was able to choose whom he wanted to follow and, amazingly, Inka — who was loath to serve the kings of Finda’s folk — was chosen by most Finns and Magyars. When they had counted the crews and divided the ships accordingly, the fleets went their separate ways.
Of Nef-Tunis, accounts would later reach us. But of Nef-Inka, nothing more was ever heard.
Notes
- ↑ ‘Nef-Tunis and his kinsman Inka’ (NÉF.TÜNIS ÀND SIN NÉF INKA) — the root ‘nef’/‘nep’ is known from several old languages to indicate family ties (e.g., still found in words like: nepotism, nephew); its use here may signify that the people considered him one of their kin or may simply denote the kinship between the two seafarers. The name Nef-Tunis seems obviously related to the sea-god Neptune, the most spectacular mosaics of whom were found in Tunisia.
- ↑ In 2000 BCE this would have been Mentuhotep III of the Eleventh dynasty.
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Chapter K: Sandbach 1876