The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

there was a profound silence. Minotaur girded himself with a golden girdle, hung a sword at his side and put on the golden bull’s head so that he ceased to resemble a man. A kindled torch was set in Minea’s hand, and Minotaur led her into the dark house, where they disappeared, and the torchlight died away. Then the thunderous copper gates were shut again and secured with the huge bars that required many strong men to draw them, and I saw Minea no more.

I was seized with such an agony of despair that my heart felt like an open wound from which all blood was ebbing away, and my strength left me so that I fell on my knees and hid my face in the earth. In that hour, I knew for sure that never again should I see Minea, although she had promised to return from god’s house and live her life with me. I knew that she would not come back, but why I should have been persuaded of this just at this moment, I cannot say, since hitherto I had wavered and believed and feared and hoped and sought to convince myself that the god of Crete was different from all other gods and would release Minea for the sake of the love that bound her to me. But now I hoped no longer and lay with my face to the ground, while Kaptah sat beside me wagging his head in his hands and lamenting. The eminent and wealthy of Crete lit torches and ran past me holding them in their hands and danced intricate dances and sang songs whose words I could not understand. Once the gates of copper had been closed, the people were seized with such frenzy that they leaped and danced and ran till they were weary, and their voices rang in my ears like the squawk of crows from a city wall.

After a while, Kaptah ceased lamenting and said, “What has happened we can do nothing about, and nobody knows tomorrow beforehand. Therefore, my lord, let us drink and eat and gather strength for I have brought with me wine and all kinds of good food upon hearing that is the custom during events like this. I can also tell you that tears do not fill the stomach and a thin man has bad thoughts, but a man with full stomach is at peace with the whole world. Therefore grief makes me quite hungry after I have been mourning for a while, and if you allow me, I plan to eat and drink.”

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He wiped his tears and ate and drank a lot, but I could not touch food, and wine was like mud in my throat. I continued to lay down on my mouth until I suddenly raised my head, for Kaptah said, “If my eyes do not deceive me — and I have not yet drunk half before I see double — the one with the horn head has come out of the mountain, but I do not know how, for no one has opened the copper gates.”

He spoke truly, for Minotaur had returned, and the golden bull’s head gleamed with a terrifying glow in the moonlight where he danced with the others the ceremonial dance, treading the ground with one foot at a time. On seeing him, I could not control myself but sprang up and sped to him, seized him by the arm and asked, “Where is Minea?” He struck away my hand and wagged his mask, but when I would not give way, he removed it and said wrathfully, “It is forbidden to disturb the sacred ritual, but being a stranger, you doubtless are ignorant of this, and I will pardon you provided you do not raise your hand to me again.”

“Where is Minea?” I asked him again, until he finally replied to me and said, “I left Minea in the darkness of the god’s house as is ordained and returned to dance the ceremonial dance in honour of the god. What more do you want of Minea since you have been rewarded already for bringing her back?”

“How could you return when she did not?” I asked, pressing forward to him, but he thrust me aside, and the dancers came between us. Kaptah seized my arm and dragged me away, and it was well he did, for who knows what might have happened. Kaptah said to me, “You are a dumb fool to attract so much attention, and it would be better to dance with the rest and laugh and sing as they do, or else it may go ill with you. I know now that Minotaur came out through a little door beside the copper gates. I went to look at it, and there is nothing wondrous about it, and I saw a watchman lock it and take away the key. But I prefer if you drank some wine, my lord, so that you may calm down, for your face is distorted as if you had rabies, and you roll your eyes like an owl.”

He gave me wine to drink, and I slumbered there on the grass in the moonlight, while the glare of torches flickered before my eyes for he had deceitfully mixed poppy juice with the wine. So he was avenged for what I had done to him in Babylon to save his life, but he put me into no jar but spread a blanket over me and prevented the dancers from trampling me underfoot. In his turn, he may have saved my life, for in despair I might have run my blade into Minotaur and slain him. He sat beside me all night through until the wine jar was empty, then he fell asleep and blew wine fumes into my ear.

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