The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

crying aloud his praises, for he had brought order to the land of Hatti and subjugated many peoples. He lived in a stone palace in the middle of the city, and many stories were told of his birth and of his heroic deeds, as they are told of all great Kings; but I never saw him, and not even the envoys from Mitanni saw him, and they had to leave their gifts on the floor of the reception hall, amid the laughter and mocking of the soldiers.

At first, there seemed little for a physician to do in Hattusa, for as I understood it, the Hittites were ashamed of illness and concealed it as long as they could, and the deformed and weak children were killed at birth, and ailing slaves were also put to death. For this reason, their doctors had little skill and were ignorant, illiterate men, though they treated wounds and contusions well enough and had effective remedies that rapidly diminished the heat of the body, caused by the ailments peculiar to mountain districts. This I learned from them. But if any man found himself afflicted with a disease that threatened to be fatal, he chose death rather than a cure, lest he should be maimed or feeble for the rest of his life. For the Hittites had no fear of death as civilised people have, but they held debility in greater dread than death.

Yet, in the main, all great cities are alike, and the rich and powerful of every country are alike. When my fame spread amongst the people, a number of Hittites came to my inn seeking cures, and their maladies were known to me and I could treat them, even if they preferred to come to me disguised, secretly and under cover of darkness that their dignity might not be diminished. For this reason, they also gave me munificent presents, and in the end I acquired much gold and silver in Hattusa, though at first I had feared to leave it as a beggar. Kaptah had great merit in this for he spent his time in taverns and shops and wherever people met, and bragged about and praised my reputation and skills in loud voice and in all languages he knew so that the servants told their masters about me.

The Hittites were strict in their behaviour, and men of the better class could not appear drunk in the streets without loss of dignity, but as in all other great cities, they did drink a great quantity of wine as well as dangerous mixed wines. I treated the cramps resulting from wine and stilled the trembling of their hands when they were to appear before the

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King, and some I helped with baths and sedatives when they thought mice were nibbling their bodies. I let Minea dance for their entertainment, and they admired her greatly and gave her rich presents without desiring more of her for the Hittites were generous when anything pleased them. Having this way won their friendship, I ventured to ask them about many things about which I could not openly have inquired. I learned most from the King’s Keeper of the Archives, who spoke and wrote many languages, dealt with the King’s foreign correspondence and was not bound by custom. I let him believe that I had been banished from Egypt never to return and that I had no other object in traveling abroad than to acquire gold and learning and had no other purpose. He trusted me and was willing to answer my questions in return for good wine and Minea’s dancing. So I queried him and said:

“Why is Hattusa closed to foreigners and why must caravans and merchants keep to certain roads, although your country is rich and your city vies with any other in its marvels? Would it not be better for others to learn of your might and sing your praises amongst themselves as your land well merits?”

He tasted his wine and said, as his eyes strayed greedily to Minea’s slender limbs, “Suppiluliuma, our great King, said when he ascended the throne, ‘Give me thirty years and I will make the land of Hatti the most powerful realm the world has ever seen’. Those thirty years will soon have expired, and I think that before long the world will hear more about the land of Hatti than it cares to know.”

“But,” I said, “in Babylon I saw sixty times sixty times sixty men march past their King, and the sound of their feet was as the roar of the sea. Here perhaps I have seen as many as ten times ten men at once, and I cannot understand what you do with all the chariots that are being built in the city workshops. Of what use are chariots in mountain country for they are intended for fighting in the plains.”

He laughed and said, “For a physician you are very inquisitive, Sinuhe, the Egyptian, but perhaps we earn our little crust of bread by selling chariots to the Kings of the flat countries.” He narrowed his eyes knowingly.

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