The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

In the meantime, the plump little cat, whose name was Pepitamun, was disposing his troops and chariots before the Temple. When he received word that all was ready and that every man understood his orders, he rose up in his gilded chair and cried out in a shrill voice, “Soldiers of Egypt, bold men of Kush and valiant Sherdens! Go now and overturn the image of the accursed Amun, according to Pharaoh’s command, and great shall be your reward.” Having said this, he felt that he had done all that was required of him, and he sat himself down again contentedly on the soft cushions of his chair and let his slaves fan him, for it was already very hot.

But before the Temple stood a countless throng of white-clad people, men and women, old folk and children, and they did not yield when the troops started their advance towards the Temple and the chariots drove forth. The black men pushed them out from their way with spear shafts and bruised some with their clubs, but the crowd was large and it did not yield. Suddenly, they shouted for Amun in one voice and cast themselves down before the chariots so that the horses trampled on them and the wheels rolled over their bodies. The officers saw that they could not advance without bloodshed and called on their men to retire until they had received further orders, for Pharaoh had forbidden the shedding of blood. But blood already was flowing over the stones of the square, where the injured groaned and shrieked, and there was great excitement amongst the people when they saw the soldiers draw back and believed the victory was theirs.

Meanwhile, Pepitamun remembered that in his proclamation Pharaoh had changed his name to Akhenaten and quickly resolved to change his also, to find favour with Pharaoh, so that when the officers came to take counsel with him, sweating and perplexed, and addressed him, he affected not to hear them, but opened his eyes wide and said, “I know of no Pepitamun. My name is Pepitaten, Pepi the blessed of Aten.” The officers, each of whom commanded a thousand men with a gold-braided whip, were exceedingly irritated, and the commander of the chariots said, “To the bottomless pit of the underworld with Aten,

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what is this foolery and what are your orders to do with the people to open the way to the Temple?” Then he mocked them and said, “Are you women or warriors? Disperse the people but shed no blood, for that Pharaoh has expressly forbidden.” When the officers heard this they looked at one another and spat on the ground, but returned to their men since there was nothing more they could do.

While these high councils were in progress, the people pressed forward on the retreating black men, wrenching up stones from the street and hurling them, swinging their pestles and broken boughs and shouting aloud. The crowd was very great, and men exhorted one another with yells. Many black men fell to the ground by the stones were bleeding, and the chariot horses went wild with the outcry of the people and bolted so that the charioteers struggled to hold them. When the commander of the chariots returned to his troop, he found that the best and most costly chariot horse of all had had an eye knocked out and was lame in one leg, having been struck by a street stone. This hurt him so much that he began to cry from rage and yelled, “My arrow of gold, my roebuck, my sunbeam, they have put out your eye and broken your leg, but in truth you are dearer to my heart than all these people and all gods put together. Therefore I will be revenged but let us not shed blood, for that Pharaoh has expressly forbidden.”

At the head of his chariots, he tore straight into the crowd, and every charioteer snatched up the noisiest of the shouters he saw into his chariot, while the horses trampled the aged and the children and the shouts were turned to groaning. But those people whom the soldiers caught up to in their chariots they strangled in the reins so that no blood flowed, and the soldiers wheeled and drove back with the corpses trailing behind them to strike terror into the hearts of the people. The black men unstrung their bows, charged in, and strangled their victims with the bowstrings. They also strangled children, and defended themselves against stones and blows of sticks with their shields. But every painted black man who became separated from his fellows was trampled underfoot by the crowd and torn to pieces in rage, and they succeeded in dragging down the driver from one chariot, and they smashed his head against the paving stones amidst howls of frenzy.

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