The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

Then I exclaimed wrathfully, “Aziru, Aziru! Was it for this your wild horses dragged hither the most skilled physician in Syria, for without praising myself I can say having learned a lot in many countries. Nothing ails your child but he is merely as impatient and irritable as his father, and it may be he has had a little fever, but that has now abated, and if he vomited, it was because he had the good sense to save his own life, for you have overstuffed him with rich milk. It is time that Keftiu weaned him and accustomed him to proper food, or he will soon bite off his mother’s nipple which probably would not please you as I think you still plan to take pleasure with your wife. You must know that your son wept in petulance at the cutting of his first tooth, and if you do not believe me, see for yourself.”

I opened the child’s mouth and showed the tooth to Aziru who broke out in wild jubilation, clapped his hands and danced about the room till the floor shook beneath him. I showed the tooth also to Keftiu who said she had never seen so fair a tooth in the mouth of any child. When she would have swathed the boy in the woollen things again, I forbade her and wrapped him in a cool linen cloth not to catch cold by the evening air.

Aziru continued to stamp his feet and dance and sing in his raucous voice and was not at all abashed at having dragged me from so great a distance for nothing but insisted upon displaying his son’s tooth to the members of his court and to his officers and called in the guards from the walls to behold it so that they pressed about the boy’s cradle amid a clanking of spears and shields and admired him and tried to poke their dirty thumbs into his mouth to see the tooth, until I drove them all from the room, bidding Aziru take thought for his dignity and come to his senses.

Aziru looked foolish and said, “Truly I may have forgotten myself and hasted too much after spending many nights awake by his cradle with a sick heart, but you must understand that he is my son and my first -born, my prince, the apple of my eye, my crown jewel, my little lion who one day will wear the crown of Amurru and rule over many peoples. For truly I mean to make this land a great one, so that he has something worthwhile to inherit and he would praise his father’s name. Sinuhe, Sinuhe, you don’t know how grateful I am to you for lifting this

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stone from my heart for you must acknowledge that you have never seen so fine a man-child, even if you have travelled in many countries. Look at his hair, at the swarthy lion’s mane, and tell me whether you have ever before seen such hair on a child of that age. You saw yourself that his tooth is like a pearl, bright and faultless, and look at his limbs and his belly which is like a small barrel.”

I grew so weary of his prattle that I bade him and his child take themselves to the pits of the underworld and said my limbs were crippled and sore from that hideous drive so that even now I hardly knew whether I stood on my head or my heels. But he appeased me and putting his arm about my shoulders, offered me many kinds of food on silver dishes, roast mutton and rice cooked in fat and wine from a golden goblet until I was refreshed and forgave him.

I remained as his guest for some days, and he gave me lavish presents and much gold and silver for his wealth had greatly increased since last we met, but in what manner his poor country had grown rich he would not tell me but smiled behind his curly beard and said that the wife I had given him had brought him good fortune. Keftiu was cordial to me also and showed me marked respect, no doubt recalling the stick with which I had so often tested the toughness of her skin, and followed me about, swaying and jingling in all her opulence, looking at me fondly and smiling at me. The whiteness of her flesh had also dazzled all Aziru’s officers for Syrians prefer fat women unlike Egyptians, whose customs differ from theirs in all things. The poets of Amurru had made poems in her honour and sang them in tedious voice, repeating the same words, and even the guards on the wall sang her praise, so that Aziru was very proud of her and bore so burning a love toward her that he seldom visited his other wives and then did so from courtesy only — for they were the daughters of tribal chieftains of Amurru thus binding them to his kingship.

I had travelled so widely and seen so many countries that he felt impelled to boast of his might and told me many things — that later he may have regretted mentioning. Thus I learned that the men who had attacked me in Zemar and would have cast me, an Egyptian as I was, into the harbour were agitators whom he had sent forth, and it was they who reported to him that I was once more in Zemar. He greatly deplored

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