This took place at the Gate of Ishtar, and the King sat upon a golden throne with the lion at his feet and with his dignitaries about him fully armed so that everything around him was like a cloud of gold and silver and purple. Below him along the broad road ran the warriors before him, the spearmen and archers sixty abreast and chariots six abreast, and their passing took the whole day until they had all been before the King. The chariot wheels were thunderous, and the thud of running feet and the clatter of accoutrements was like a tempest, and looking at it all made the eyes swim and the knees tremble.
But I said to Kaptah, “It will not suffice for us to report that the Babylonian warriors are as the sands of the sea in number. We must count their numbers.” Kaptah protested and said, “My lord, it is impossible, for there are not so many numbers in the world.” Yet I reckoned as well as I might, and the infantry were sixty times sixty times sixty men, while of chariots there were sixty times sixty; for sixty is a sacred number in Babylon, as are also five and seven and twelve, but why that is I would not know even if the priests explained it to me. I was not able to understand their explanations.
I noted also that the shields and weapons of the King’s bodyguard blazed with gold and silver, and their faces gleamed with oil, and they were so fat that running made them breathless, and they panted past the King like a herd of oxen. But they were few in number, and the troops from provinces were sunburned and dirty and smelled of urine. Many of them lacked spears, for the King’s summons had taken them by surprise, and their eyes were sore from flies, so that I reflected how soldiers in every country are alike. I also noticed that their chariots were old and squeaky and one or two of them lost a wheel as they drove by, and the scythes fixed to the chariots were green with mould.
That evening the King summoned me to his presence and said smilingly, “Did you see my might, Sinuhe?” I prostrated myself at his feet and wiped the ground with my mouth and answered, “Truly there is no mightier King than yourself, and it is not for nothing that men call you lord of the four quarters of the world. My eyes are weary, my head whirls, and my limbs tremble with fear, for the number of your warriors is as the sands of the sea or stars in the sky.” He smiled in delight and
209
said, “You have had your desire, Sinuhe, but you could have believed it easier because my counsellors are very angry about this whim, and it has cost me a year’s tax revenue from a province, for the soldiers must eat and drink, and tonight they will riot in the city and do all kinds of mischief; such is the habit of soldiers, and the roads will be restless for a month because of the soldiers, and I don’t think I will do this again. Also my behind is numb from all the sitting on a golden chair, and the eyes roll in my head too. Let us now drink wine and rejoice our livers after this tedious day, for I have much to ask you.”
I drank wine with the King, and he asked me many questions such as children and the young who have seen nothing of the world will ask. But my answers pleased him, and at last he said, “Does your Pharaoh have a daughter, because everything that you have told me about the land of Egypt has made me to request Pharaoh’s daughter as my wife. I already have four hundred wives in my women’s house and that is more than enough for me for I can only meet with one woman a day and even that would be tiresome unless they were all different. But it would increase my dignity if there was a Pharaoh’s daughter among my wives, and the people I rule would respect me even more.”
Terrified, I raised my hand and said, “Burnaburiash, you do not know what you are saying, because a Pharaoh’s daughter has never, for as long as the world has existed, been touched my a foreign man, but Pharaoh’s daughters only marry their brothers and if they have no brothers, they remain unmarried all their lives and become priestesses. Therefore your words are a disgrace to the gods of Egypt, but I forgive you because you do not know what you are talking about.”
He knit his brows and said surly, “Who are you to forgive me anything? Isn’t my blood as sacred as the blood of Pharaohs?”
“I have seen your blood bleeding, when you spat to a jar next to you,” I admitted. “I have also seen the Great Pharaoh Amenhotep bleed, and I cannot claim that there was any difference in the blood of you two. But you must also remember that my Pharaoh only married recently, and I do not know if he has any daughters yet.”
210
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384