Horemheb chimed in and said, “Speaking about journeys, it would be wise if Sinuhe travelled to Thebes and had a look around during his travel, for here in the city of the blind and dreamers, you would not believe if I told you what is going on and what people say to each other in Egypt. Truly, Sinuhe should indeed travel to Thebes and return to tell Pharaoh what he saw — for Pharaoh believes your words, Sinuhe, and he listens to you.”
He spat on the ground and wiped the spit with his foot and said, “This Nefertiti is hardly anyone to sleep with although she is fair to watch, since her wits are sharp as knife and her mouth full of poisonous wasps, and I don’t doubt it is only a matter of time when she starts rejoicing with other men, if I know females at all.”
These words enraged Thutmose, but I soothed him and said, “It is indeed high time for me to visit Thebes to meet with Kaptah, but my bed is comfortable here, and I am used to the meals of my cook — and my limbs have become soft, and my body does not tolerate a ship’s swinging any more. Furthermore, I am not sure at all if I can tell Pharaoh about the things I will see for he only wants to hear about fat children and smiling wives and men who even swear in the name of Aten, but your words suggest I would be telling him something that would upset him. I have also heard, Horemheb, that crocodiles prove how wise they are by following you to Memphis for your stewards and guards feed them often and regularly, although the spoils are not as abundant as once in Thebes.”
Horemheb emptied his cup, filled his cup and emptied it passionately again and said, “Truly, thinking about the future of Egypt makes me wish I was a crocodile. So be it. If even Sinuhe does not bother to help me, there hardly is anything to do but to get drunk, like every time when I think about Egypt’s future under Pharaoh Akhenaten.”
2
When Horemheb had returned to Memphis, his words remained with me, haunting me, and I blamed myself for being a bad friend to him and a bad counsellor to Pharaoh. Yet my bed was comfortable and soft
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beneath its canopy, and my cook served me little birds dressed with honey, and there was no lack of antelope roast on my table, and the water ran quickly from my clock. Furthermore, the second of Pharaoh’s daughters, Meketaten, was seized by a wasting sickness, and she got a fever and started coughing so that her little cheeks glowed with feverish spots, and she lost weight until her collarbones began to show through the skin. I sought to strengthen her with tonics, giving her a solution of gold to drink, and I bewailed my fate since that no sooner had Pharaoh’s attacks ceased, than had his daughter fallen ill so that I had no peace by night or day. Pharaoh also grew uneasy, for he loved his daughters dearly, and the two eldest, Meritaten and Meketaten, accompanied him to his balcony on audience days and threw down badges and golden chains to those whom Pharaoh desired to honour for one reason or another.
As is the way of men, due to her sickness and out of his four girls, Pharaoh grew most fond of his ailing daughter so that he gave her balls of silver and ivory and a little dog that followed her every step and protected her sleep by sleeping at the foot of her bed. Pharaoh himself lost sleep and grew thin because of his anxiety, rising several times each night to listen to the breathing of his sick daughter, and every cough of hers tore at his heart.
So strange is the way of men that this sick little girl meant more to me than my property in Thebes and Kaptah and the year of famine in Egypt and all the people then starving and dying in Syria on Aten’s account. I lavished on her my utmost knowledge and skill, neglecting my other distinguished patients, who were suffering from hardships of gluttony and boredom and above all from headaches since this was Pharaoh’s complaint. By pampering their headaches, I could have acquired much gold, but I was weary of gold and grovelling and therefore had become so curt with my patients that they said, “The rank of royal physician has gone to Sinuhe’s head, and thinking he has Pharaoh’s ear, he forgets what others say to him.”
Yet when I thought of Thebes and Kaptah and The Crocodile’s Tail , melancholy rushed into my mind, and my heart became hungry, and it was as if I was always hungry and unable to find food to make me feel full. I also noticed that I was slowly losing hair and growing bald
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