in gods, even if they still worship them, because it is the custom and certainty is best. All this I know well for ever since childhood I have grown up in the stables of god and have been initiated into His secret ritual so that no power or witchcraft can separate me from my god. If you also had danced before bulls and in the dance swung yourself between sharp horns and tickled a bellowing muzzle in play with your foot, you would know a little about what I say. But I believe you have never seen youths and girls dancing before bulls.”
“I have heard of it,” I said. “I also know they have played these games in the Lower Kingdom, and I have thought it was only to entertain people even though I could have guessed the gods had their part in it, like in everything that exists and takes place. But if so, in Egypt we also worship a bull who has the god’s signs on him and is born only once in a generation, but I have not heard anyone jumping on his back for that would have been a sacrilege and hurt his dignity. This bull can see the future. But if you want to tell me that you must spare your virginity for the benefit of bulls, I find your talk unheard of though I have heard that in Syria the priests who perform the secret ritual of the Earth Mother sacrifice maidens to he-goats, and these maidens are chosen from amongst the people.”
She smote me hard on both cheeks, and her eyes burned as the eyes of a wildcat burn in the dark as she cried in a fury, “I find there is no difference between a man and a he-goat, for your thoughts turn to bodily things only so that a goat would answer your lusts as well as a woman. You may go to hell for what I care and leave me in peace and plague me no more with your jealousy, for you talk about things you know as much about as a pig knows of silver.”
Her speech was mean and her blows burned my cheeks so that I cooled down and left her and went to the aft of the boat. To pass the time, I opened my medicine chest and began to clean my instruments and weigh medications. She sat in the bow and drummed her heels on the bottom of the boat in exasperation, but after a while she threw off her clothes in a passion and rubbed her body with oil and began so wild and violent a dance that the boat rocked. I could not resist a sideways glance, for her performance was masterly beyond belief. She could bend backward without effort till she rested on her hands, arching her body
243
like a bow, then raise herself from that position standing on her arms. All the muscles of her body quivered beneath the skin gleaming from oil, and she grew breathless, and her hair billowed about her head, for the dance demanded such a degree of skill as I have never seen equalled though I have watched dancing girls in the pleasure houses of many lands.
As I watched her, anger melted away from my heart, and I brooded no longer upon what I had lost through stealing this capricious and ungrateful girl from the women’s house of the King of Babylon. I remembered also that she had been ready to stab herself to death in defence of her virginity and knew that I had behaved ill in demanding of her what she could not give. When she had danced so long that the sweat ran down her body and every muscle quivered with exhaustion, she wiped her body and washed her limbs in the river. Then she covered herself, head and all, with a garment, and I heard her weeping. Then I forgot my drugs and instruments and hastened to her, touched her shoulder gently and asked, “Are you ill?” She made no answer, but pushed my hand away and wept the more.
I sat down beside her and said my heart full of grief, “Minea, my sister, do not weep, at least not because of me, for truly I never mean to touch you, never; even if you were to ask me I would save you all pain and sorrow and would have you stay always as you are.”
She raised her head and wiped away her tears in a gesture of annoyance and snapped, “I fear neither pain nor sorrow, if that is what you think, you fool. And I do not weep because of you but because of my fate, which has separated me from my god and made me as weak as a wet rag so that a glance from a stupid man makes my knees soft as dough.” Saying this, she did not look at me, but stared persistently away from me and blinked her teary eyes.
I held her hands, and she did not withdraw them but turned to me at length, to say, “Sinuhe, the Egyptian, in your eyes I must appear ungrateful and annoying, but I can’t help it, for I don’t know myself any more. I would gladly tell you of my god so that you might understand me better but to speak of him to the uninitiated is forbidden. I can tell you only that he is the god of the sea and lives in a dark house inside a mountain, and no one who has entered that house has ever returned but
244
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