The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

time from the coming of one initiate for the god’s house to that of the next. If they marvelled at all, it was that I remained behind to await Minea as such had never happened before, but as I was a foreigner they supposed me simple and drank my wine, and when I saw that also the priest joined them, I went to Kaptah and said:

“The gods have now decreed that we must part for Minea has not returned nor do I think she will unless I fetch her. But no one who has entered that dark house has ever come out again, and therefore it is not to be expected that I shall do so. It is best that you hide yourself in the grove and if I have not returned by morning, return back to the city alone. If anyone asks anything from you, tell them I fell into the sea from a cliff and whatever you think best to say, since you are better in these things than I. But I am certain I will not return so you may go right away if you want to. I have therefore written for you a clay tablet and attested it with my Syrian seal so that you may return to Zemar and draw my money from the trading houses. You may sell my house there if you wish. When you have done this, you are free to come and go, and if you fear that in Egypt you may be seized as a runaway slave, then stay in Zemar and live in my house on my money. As matters now stand, you don’t even need to arrange for the embalming of my body for if I do not find Minea, I don’t care whether or not my body is preserved. You have been a faithful servant to me, although I have many times become weary of your nagging, and I regret that at times I have too often and too hard beaten you with my stick, but I believe that it has been for your best and I have done it with good intent — so I wish you bear no grudge to me. Go therefore, and may the good luck of the scarab go with you for you may keep the scarab since you have more faith in it than I. I do not think I shall need it on the journey I am now to take.”

Kaptah was silent for a long time and did not look at me and at length said, “My lord, I bear you no grudge if at times you have beaten me with needless severity, for you did it with good intent and according to your best judgment. But more often you have listened to my counsel and have talked to me as a friend rather than a servant and slave, so that at times I have been concerned for your dignity until your stick once more established the divinely -ordained division between us. The situation now is that this Minea is also my mistress because I have set

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her blessed little foot upon my head and am thus responsible to her as her servant. Nor can I allow you to enter that dark house alone — so that even if I cannot attend you there as your servant since you have ordered me to leave you and I must obey your orders even if they are foolish — yet as a friend I shall come with you for I cannot leave you alone, and certainly not without the scarab, although like you I believe that even the scarab can hardly help us in this matter.”

He spoke so gravely and thoughtfully that I scarcely knew him, nor did he whine as was his custom. But to my mind it was mad for two of us to seek death where one would suffice. I told him this, and again ordered him to leave me and stop saying stupid things. But he was obstinate and said:

“If you will not let me come with you, then I will follow after you and you cannot prevent me — but I would rather come with you, for I am afraid of the dark. So greatly do I fear that dark house that my bones turn to water at the thought of it, so for that reason I hope you will allow me to bring a jar of wine so that I may take a mouthful now and then upon the way to give me courage, lest I shriek out in my terror and disturb you. I will not carry a weapon because I am a man with a gentle heart and I refrain from spilling blood and always trust my feet more than weapons — so in case you plan to fight with the god, you need to do it alone, and I will spectate and encourage you with my advice. I assume all this was written in the stars already before the accursed day of my birth, like you have the habit of saying, but that does not really comfort me, and my only consolation is that I have already lived a long life for a man and drank my head full in more taverns than I know numbers, and I have taken pleasure with many enough women — last with the Cretan women who are not bad at all to soften the sleeping mat, even though Amun forbids anyone to break a jar with them. By this I do not mean our mistress Minea who was chaste to the extreme so that I could say her chastity was her biggest fault, and her fate shows how destructive too much chastity can be — even if I cannot tell that as a warning to my children, whom I have never seen, in various directions of the wind. But I can say that had this girl honestly slept with you, like a respectable girl does when she meets a man she likes, none of this would have happened and we’d already be long gone to Zemar or Egypt

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