The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

was miserable to hear their cries, and there is no sight as terrifying than a flailing and yelling man crosswise between large crocodile’s jaws, right before the crocodile dives to the hollows of the water and takes him to rot in its nest. But Pharaoh was so full of his own truth that he had no time to see any of this, and boatmen hired crocodile hunters from the Lower Kingdom with their copper, and eventually the river was empty of crocodiles. Many claimed that the crocodiles had followed Pharaoh’s ship all the way from Thebes to Akhetaten, but I cannot say anything about this, though a crocodile is a frighteningly wise and sly fish. It is hard to believe that crocodiles could have connected the King’s ship to carcasses floating in the river, but if they did so, then a crocodile is a clever animal indeed. However, their wits were no use against the boatmen’s copper and the traps of the hunters from the Lower Kingdom, so they decided to leave Akhetaten’s shores in peace, yet another sign of the great wisdom of this strange and terrifying fish. Instead, they descended in patient flocks down the river to Memphis, for that was the city Horemheb had picked as his seat of administration.

I must tell how, as soon as the river had fallen, Horemheb landed at Akhetaten in company with members of the court, though he did not intend to stay longer than was needful to persuade Pharaoh to change his mind about disbanding the army. Pharaoh had commanded him to release the black men and Sherdens from his service and send them to their home countries, but Horemheb had delayed fulfilment of the order and dragged his feet on all manner of pretexts, having reason to fear that revolt would soon break out in Syria and minded to lead the troops into that country. Following the riots in Thebes, black men and Sherdens were so bitterly hated in all of Egypt that everyone spat on the ground and wiped the spit in dust with their feet when they laid eyes on a black man or a Sherden.

But Pharaoh Akhenaten was unshakable in his resolve, and Horemheb but wasted his time in Akhetaten. Every day their conversations were the same, and I can repeat their conversations. Horemheb said:

“There is serious unrest in Syria and the Egyptian colonies there are feeble. Perhaps Aziru is fomenting hatred toward Egypt, and I have no doubt that when the time is ripe, he will start open revolt.”

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Pharaoh Akhenaten said, “Have you seen the floors in my palace on which artists are just now creating reed swamps and flying ducks in the Cretan manner. As to a revolt in Syria, I think it unlikely, for I have sent to all its Kings the cross of life. King Aziru in particular is my friend, having received the cross of life from me and raised a temple to Aten in the land of Amurru. No doubt you have already seen the colonnaded hall of Aten beside my palace here for it is worth seeing, although the pillars are of brick only to save time. Moreover, the thought of slaves toiling in the quarries for the sake of Aten is repugnant to me. But to return to Aziru, you have no grounds to doubt his loyalty for I have received from him countless clay tablets in which he seeks eagerly to learn new things of Aten, and if you wish, my scribes can show you these tablets as soon as our archives are in order.”

Horemheb said, “I throw my water on his clay tablets for they are as filthy and as deceitful as he himself. But if it is your firm resolve to disband the army, let me at least reinforce the frontier troops, for already the southern tribes are driving their herds within our boundary stones to the grazing grounds in the land of Kush and they burn the villages of our black allies, which is no hard task since they are built of straw.”

Akhenaten said, “I believe they have no ill will if poverty drives them to our grazing grounds. Therefore our allies must share their grazing with the southern tribes, and I will also send them the cross of life. Nor do I believe they set the villages on fire through set purpose since, as you say, these are made of straw and easily kindled, and one should not condemn whole tribes for the sake of a few fires. But if you will, then by all means strengthen the frontier guards in the land of Kush and in Syria since you are answerable for the safety of the realm, but see to it that they are guards only and not a standing army.”

Horemheb said, “In any case, my mad friend Akhenaten, you must let me reform the garrison troops all over the country, for the disbanded men are robbing houses in their poverty and stealing the tax hides of the peasants and beating them with sticks.”

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