The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

“This man has well earned the trashing for disturbing me with his case. But ever more he deserves to be trashed for the sake of his stupidity for has anyone heard of a man who neglects his field and then comes forth complaining when someone else seeds it for him out of good will and leaves the crops for him to harvest. It is not the woman’s fault that she turned to another man but it is the fault of the man who did not give her what she wants, and for this he also needs to be trashed.”

Hearing this, the crowd started shouting and laughing and greatly praised the wisdom of its King. Then stepped forward a stern, old man and said before the King, “In front of the stone column that has the law written on it and in front of the King, I seek justice, and this is my case: I had a house built for me on a road, but the builder deceived me so that the house collapsed and while it collapsed, a random passer-by got killed. Now the family of this passer-by accuses me and asks for retribution. What should I do?”

Kaptah contemplated and then said, “This is a complicated matter and requires careful consideration, and I think this is more a matter of gods than of men, but what does the law say about this?”

The jurists stepped forth and read the law from the stone column and explained, “If a house collapses due to the carelessness of the builder and while it collapses kills the owner of the house, also the builder must be killed. But if the house while it collapses kills the son of the owner, must the son of the builder be killed. The law does not say anything else, but we interpret the law so that whatever the house destroys while it collapses, must the respective part of the builder’s property be destroyed. That is all we can say.”

Kaptah said, “I did not know such deceitful builders dwell here, and in the future I will be careful with the builders. But the law makes this matter simple: let the family of the killed passer-by go to the house of the builder and stalk there and kill the first passer-by whom they meet, and so is the law fulfilled. But if they do so, it is on their own responsibility, if the family of the passer-by accuses them of murder, for truly this is more a matter of gods than of men. In my opinion, most at fault was the passer-by who walked under a collapsing house for no wise man does such thing, unless so decided by gods. Therefore I release the builder from all responsibility and declare that this man who seeks justice from me is a fool for not supervising the builder so that he would do proper work, and the builder did no ill deceiving him for fools must be deceived so that they learn. So it has ever been and will ever be.”

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Again the crowd greatly praised the King’s wisdom, and the one, who had complained, went away embarrassed. Then a fat merchant, clad in an expensive garment, stepped forward before the King. He presented his case and said, “Three days ago I went to the Gate of Ishtar, and the poor girls of the city had gathered there for the spring festival night to sacrifice their virginity to the goddess, as has been prescribed, and thus collect some dowry for themselves. There was a girl among them who pleased me greatly so that after bargaining with her for a while, I gave her a great deal of silver, and we came to an agreement. But when I wanted what I had come for, I got serious gripes, so that I had to depart to relieve myself. By the time I returned, the girl had come to an agreement with another man and got silver also from him and done with him what I had come for to the Gate. Although she agreed to take pleasure also with me, I turned her down, because she was not a virgin any more, and demanded my silver back, but she refused to give my silver back. Therefore I seek justice from the King, for didn’t I suffer a great wrongdoing when I lost my silver without anything in return? For if I buy a jar, isn’t the jar mine until I break it myself, and the seller has no right to break it and offer me the shards.”

But hearing this, Kaptah became angered and got up on the throne of justice and lashed with his whip and yelled, “Truly, I have never met such foolishness as in this city, and all I can understand is that this old goat is mocking me. There was nothing wrong when the girl went to another man, when this fool could not take what he had come for. The girl also behaved nicely and well when she offered this man compensation, which he did not deserve. This man should have been grateful to the girl and to the other man when they had — to his pleasure — together removed an obstacle that only brings troubles and worries in these matters. But he comes to complain and babbles about jars. If he ever again mistakes jars for young girls, I sentence him to rejoice only with jars and never touch girls.”

When Kaptah had pronounced this judgment, he grew weary of the business and stretched his seated body and said, “Today I have eaten and drunk and, as I think, toiled and dispensed justice and racked my brain enough. May the judges continue my work if there are more who

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