The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

live idle lives — and I myself too during the past years — were no more than parasites, and we lived as parasites on people’s shoulders like fleas live in a dog’s fur. The flea may fancy that he is the ultimate purpose and the dog exists solely to keep him fat. Maybe Pharaoh and his Aten are only fleas in a dog’s fur, giving much vexation and doing no good whatsoever since dogs are all the better for being free of fleas.

Thus my heart awoke again like from a long sleep, and it spurned the city of Akhetaten, and I looked about me with fresh eyes, and nothing that I saw was good. But maybe all this was because Amun’s witchcraft ruled all of Egypt in hidden ways, and his curse turned my eyes inside out, and the City of the Heavens was the only place in the land over which he had no control. Where truth lay, I cannot say, for although there are those who think always in the same manner and draw their heads inward like tortoises at the hint of anything new, yet my thoughts have ever been renewed by what I have seen and heard, and many things that I have seen or heard have influenced my thinking even when I have not understood them.

I saw once more the three mountains on the horizon, the eternal guardians of Thebes; and the roof of the Temple and its walls rose before my eyes, but the tips of the obelisks no longer gleamed in the sunshine, for their gilding had not been renewed. Yet the sight of them was refreshment to my heart, and I poured wine from my cup into the waters of the Nile as seamen do who return after a long voyage — though their libation is of beer, not wine, for their copper is not enough for wine and they prefer to drink their wine themselves if they get any upon return home after a long journey. I saw again the great stone wharves of Thebes and caught the smell of Thebes’s harbour, the smell of rotting grain and foul water, of spices and herbs and pitch, and it was sweet in my heart.

But when in the poor quarter I beheld the old copper founder’s house, it appeared to me exceedingly cramped and narrow, and the alley before it filthy, full of flies and stench. Nor did the sycamore in the court delight me although I had planted it myself and it had grown tall in my absence. The wealth and abundance of Akhetaten had spoiled me, and I felt ashamed, and my heart became sorrowful because I could not rejoice over my home any more.

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Kaptah was not in my house, but only my cook Muti, who exclaimed bitterly, “Blessed be the day that brings my master home, but the rooms are not cleaned, and the linen is in the wash, and your arrival causes me much trouble and vexation, although I expect but little happiness from life in general. Yet I am not at all astonished at your sudden coming, for that is the way of men, and nothing good has ever come from men.”

I pacified her, telling her that I would sleep on board the ship that night, and asked for Kaptah, but she only huffed out loud to the stairs and the bushes in the court, and to the roasting pit — and she was greatly displeased about my arrival for I brought him additional troubles, and she was already old. Therefore I left her and had myself carried to The Crocodile’s Tail, and Merit met me at the door and apparently did not recognise me because of my fine clothes and my chair, but asked, “Have you reserved your place here for this evening for if not, I cannot allow you to enter.”

She had grown somewhat plumper, and her cheekbones were less sharp, but when I looked her in the eyes, they were the same save for a few more fine lines about them. My heart was warmed, and laying my hand on her loins I said, “I can understand that you have forgotten me, for many must be the lonely, sorrowful men you have warmed on your mat, but nevertheless, I fancied I might find a seat in your house and a cup of chilled wine, even if I do not dare think of your mat.”

She cried out in astonishment and said, “Sinuhe, is it you?” And then she said, “Blessed be the day that brings my lord home.” She laid her strong, lovely hands on my shoulders and, scanning my face narrowly, and said, “Sinuhe, what have you been doing to yourself for if your solitude was once that of a lion, it is now that of a fat lapdog, and there is a leash about your neck.” She took off my wig, stroked the bald top of my head kindly, and said, “Sit then, Sinuhe, and I will bring you chilled wine for you are sweating and out of breath from your wearisome journey.” But I quickly warned her and said, “On no account bring me a crocodile’s tail, for my stomach can hardly tolerate it, and my head may become sore.”

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