The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

“Do not heed these women. Their task is but to entertain the false king, and they have drunk their livers full of wine while waiting for him. But truly we need a physician, as the girl who was brought here yesterday has gone mad, and she is stronger than we are and kicks us very severely, and we do not know what will come of this, for she has a knife, and she rages like a beast.”

They took me to the women’s court that gleamed in the sunlight full of all colours of the glazed tiles. In the middle of this was a round pool in which stood water animals spouting water from their jaws. The raging woman had climbed up on these, and her clothes had been torn by the eunuchs as they had tried to catch her, and she was drenched from having swum across the pool and from the many jets of water that spurted about her. With one hand she clung to the mouth of a spouting porpoise and in the other she held a flashing knife. With the rushing of the water and the commotion and screams of the eunuchs around me, I could not hear a word the girl said. Despite her torn dress and wet hair, she apparently was a beautiful girl for I became confused and said wrathfully to the eunuchs, “Go away and let me speak with her and calm her — and shut off the water that I may hear what she says, for you surely see she is shouting all the time.”

They said in a fright, “Don’t go near her, for the knife is very sharp like we sadly have already witnessed.” But they could stop the water from flowing, and the water beasts did not spout water from their mouths any more, and the sprays of water around the girl fell silent and revealed her so that I could clearly lay my eyes on her. She was a well-built and beautiful girl, but I did not dwell on that then. When the rushing of the water was stilled, I heard that she was not shouting but singing. I could not understand the words of the song, for they were in a language I did not know. She sang her head high, and her eyes glowed green as a cat’s, and her cheeks were red with excitement so that I called to her angrily and said, “Cease that screeching, you mother cat, and throw away the knife and come here that we may talk together and that I may heal you, for you are certainly mad.”

She broke off her song and answered me in imperfect Babylonian which was even worse than mine, “Jump into the pool, baboon, and swim hither for me to let blood from your liver, for I am exceedingly angry.” I shouted at her, “I mean you no harm!” She shouted back, “Many a man has said that to me when they mean me harm, but I may not approach a man even should I so desire. For I have been dedicated to my god to dance before him. That is why I carry this knife, and I will give it my own blood to drink rather than a man should touch me — least of all that one-eyed devil, for he looked more like a blown-up leather bag than a man when he tried to grope me.”

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“It was you who hit the King?” I asked. She replied, “I hit him in the eye and lost my towel when I smacked blood flowing from his nose, and my deed brings me great joy, whether he was the King or not, for not even the King can touch me, unless I want so myself, and my god has forbidden me to touch anyone for I am brought up to be the god’s dancer.”

“Dance your fill, you crazy girl,” I said. “I have nothing to say about that, but put away that knife for you might hurt yourself, and that would be a pity since the eunuchs tell me they paid a quantity of gold for you in the slave market on behalf of the King.”

She replied, “I am no slave, but I was treacherously stolen away as you would see from me if you had eyes in your head. But can’t you speak some respectable language that these people can’t follow for I can see the eunuchs lurking among the pillars with ears pricked to hear what we are saying.”

“I am an Egyptian,” I answered in my mother tongue, “and my name is Sinuhe, He Who Is Alone, Son of the Wild Ass. By profession I am a physician, so you need not fear me.” Then she jumped into the water and swam over to me, knife in hand, and threw herself down before me and said, “I know that Egyptian men are weak and do not do bad things to a woman unless she desires it herself. Therefore I trust you and beg you to forgive me for keeping my knife since it seems likely that this very day I shall have to open my veins, lest my god be defiled through me. But if you fear the gods and wish me well, then save me and take me away from this land, though I may not reward you as you would then deserve, for I truly cannot touch a man.”

“I don’t have the least desire to touch you,” I said. “You can rest assured. But your madness is great indeed, for you try to leave the women’s house of the King. Here you can eat good food and drink wine and get clothes and jewels and whatever your heart desires.”

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