The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

restored, they arrayed themselves in their finest clothes, lit lamps before their houses and went out into the streets to celebrate Aten’s victory. Members of the court, who had taken refuge in Pharaoh’s golden house, were now ferried back across the river to the city, and soon the sky over Thebes glowed red from the festival torches and lamps, and people strewed flowers in the streets and shouted and laughed and embraced one another. Horemheb could not prevent them plying the Sherdens with wine nor hinder noble ladies from embracing black men who carried the shaven heads of the priests they had slain impaled upon the points of spears. Thebes rejoiced that night in the name of Aten, and in the name of Aten all was permitted and there was no difference between an Egyptian and a black man, and in testimony of this the court ladies admitted black men to their houses, spreading open their new summer dresses, and enjoyed the virility of the black men and the sour smell of blood in their bodies. And when a wounded temple guard crawled out into the open from the shadow of the wall, calling on Amun in his delirium, they smashed his head against the stones of the street, and the noble ladies danced in jubilation round the body. All this I saw with my own eyes.

All this I saw with my own eyes, and having seen thus, clutched my head in my hands, indifferent now to all that happened, and I reflected that no god can cure man of his madness. That night, nothing mattered to me any more, and so I ran to The Crocodile’s Tail, and with Merit’s words blazing up in my heart, I called the soldiers who were still on guard there. They obeyed me, having seen me in company with Horemheb, and I led them through that jubilant, mindless night past men dancing in the streets, to the house of Nefernefernefer by the cat god’s temple. Also there were torches and lamps burning, and the noise and joy of drunken revelry rang out into the street from the house, which had suffered no pillaging. But having come thus far, my knees began to quake, and my stomach sank, and I said to the soldiers, “These are the orders of Horemheb, my friend and the royal commander. Go into the house where you will find a woman who carries her head haughtily and whose eyes are like green stones. Bring her here to me, and should she resist, smite her over the head with the butt of a spear but do her no other harm.”

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The soldiers strode in cheerfully. Soon the startled guests came reeling out, and servants called for the guards of the house. But then the soldiers returned with fruit and honey bread and jars of wine in their hands, and with them they carried Nefernefernefer for she had resisted them, and they had struck her with a spear shaft so that her smooth head was bloody and her wig had slipped off from her head. I laid my hand on her breast, and her skin was smooth as glass and warm, but to me it was as if I had laid my hand on the skin of a snake. I felt her heart beating and knew that she was unharmed, yet I wrapped her in a black cloth as corpses are wrapped and lifted her into a chair, and the guards did not interfere when they saw that I had soldiers with me. The soldiers attended me to the gateway of the House of Death, while I sat in the swaying chair with Nefernefernefer’s senseless body in my arms, and she was beautiful still but more repulsive to me than a serpent. So we were carried through the riotous night of Thebes to the House of Death, where I gave the soldiers gold and dismissed them, and I also sent away the chair. I took Nefernefernefer in my arms and carried her to the House of Death, and the corpse washers approached me, and I said to them:

“I bring you the body of a woman whom I found in the street, and I do not know her name or her family, but I fancy she is wearing jewels that will reward you for your trouble if you will preserve her body forever.”

The corpse washers swore at me, saying, “Madman, do you think we have not had enough carrion to deal with in these days? And who will reward us for our trouble?”

But when they had unwound the black cloth, they found that the body was yet warm, and when they took off the dress and the jewels, they saw that she was beautiful, more beautiful than any woman who had yet been brought to the House of Death. They said no more to me but laid their hands on her breast and felt her heart beating. Then they swiftly covered her once more in the black cloth, winking and grimacing at one another with delighted laughter and said to me, “Go your way, stranger, and blessed be this act of yours for we shall do our best to preserve her body forever, and should it depend on us alone, we will keep her with us seventy times seventy days, that her body may be preserved indeed.”

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