The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

On her return from the field, she was loudly applauded, and garlands were set upon her head and about her neck, and the other young people presented her with a wonderful bowl on which bulls were painted in red and black. All exclaimed, “We have seen nothing like it.” and the sea captains who had been to Crete said, as they blew wine fumes through their nostrils, “Even in Crete there is hardly such another bull dancer to be seen.” But she came to me and leaned against me, and her thin dress was wet with sweat. She leaned against me, and every muscle in her strong, slender body was quivering with weariness and pride, and I said to her, “I have never seen anyone like you.” My heart was weighed down with grief, for now that I had seen her dance before the bulls, I knew that they had come between us like some evil sorcery.

Soon after this, a ship from Crete pulled into the harbour, and she was neither too small nor too large, and the captain’s eyes were not evil, and he spoke Minea’s own language. So she said to me, “This ship will take me safely home to my god in my mother country, so now you must be eager to leave me, and your heart is greatly gladdened to see me go, because I have caused you much harm and trouble.” But I said, “You know very well, Minea, that I am coming to Crete with you.” She looked at me with eyes like the sea in moonlight, and she had coloured her lips, and her eyebrows were thin black lines over her eyes when she said, “I do not know why you would come with me, Sinuhe, since the ship will take me safely straight home to my mother country, and no further evil can befall me.” I said, “You know as well as I do, Minea.”

She laid her long, strong fingers in mine and sighed and said, “We have gone through much together, Sinuhe, and I have seen so many people that my mother country has grown dim in my memory like some fair dream, and I do not yearn after my god as I did formerly. Therefore, I have put off this voyage with empty excuses as you well know but when I danced once more before the bulls, I knew that I must die if you were to touch me.” I said to her, “Yes, yes, I know. We have been through this all before, and I have no wish to touch you, for I doubt it would be worth to anger your god and any slave girl can give me what you refuse, and there is no difference there, as Kaptah says.”

Then her eyes glistened green as a wild cat’s eyes in the dark, and she drove her nails into my hand and snapped, “Make haste then and find your slave girl, for the sight of you revolts me. Run away now to the grimy girls in the harbour whom you so desire, but know that

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thereafter I shall not recognise you and will perhaps even shed your blood with your own knife. What I can forgo, you also can forgo.” I smiled at her and said, “No god has forbidden me this thing.” But she said, “I forbid it, and dare you to come to me afterward.” I said to her, “Be easy, Minea, for really I am weary of the matter that you are talking about. There is nothing more monotonous than taking pleasure with a woman, and having tried it, I feel no desire to repeat the experience.” But she flared up again and said, “Your talk wounds the woman in me, and I am certain you would not be tired of me if it were so.” I found I could say nothing to please her, though I did my best, and that night she did not lie beside me as usual but took her mat into another room and covered her head to sleep.

Then I called to her and shouted, “Minea, why don’t you warm my side as usual for you are younger than I am, and the nights are cold, and I shiver on my mat.” She said, “That is not true, for my body burns as if I were in a fever, and I cannot breathe in this stifling heat. I would rather sleep alone, but if you are cold, have a brazier brought to your room, or take a cat to lie beside you, and trouble me no more.” I went and felt her, and her body was hot and shivery under the blanket, so that I said, “You are ill, perhaps. Let me cure you.” She kicked her cover and pushed me away, saying angrily, “Be off with you now for I do not doubt that my god will heal this sickness.” But after a little while she said, “Give me something, Sinuhe, or my heart will break, and I will cry.” I gave her a soothing medicine, and at last she slept, but I watched her until the harbour dogs began barking in the light of dawn that was grey as death.

Then came the day of departure, and I said to Kaptah, “Pack up our belongings, for we are going aboard a ship bound for the island of Keftiu, which is Minea’s mother country.” But Kaptah said, “I guessed this, but I did not tear my clothes, for then I should have had to mend them again, and it is not worth strewing ashes in my hair for such a deceitful dealer as you are — since didn’t you swear when we left Mitanni that we need not put to sea. I guessed this when I saw you sneaking in the harbour like a thief and hearing you whisper secretly with this accursed Minea who finally leads us to our doom like I guessed when I first laid my eyes upon her when she made my nose

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