The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

The priest who had welcomed us came up with a triumphant smile and said, “What do you say now, royal Sinuhe?” I looked him fearlessly in the eye and said, “I perceive that the woman and the old man were under some spell that fettered their wills, and magic is cured by magic if the magician’s will be stronger than that of those bewitched. But an eruption is an eruption and is not to be cured by spells but by months of treatment and medicinal baths. Therefore I must confess that I have seen nothing to compare with this.”

His looked at me, and his eyes blazed, and he asked, “Do you then acknowledge, Sinuhe, that Amun is still the King of all gods?” But I said to him, “I wish that you would not pronounce the name of the false god aloud, for Pharaoh has forbidden it, and I am the servant of Pharaoh.”

I saw that he was incensed at my words, yet he was a priest of the highest grade, and his will conquered his heart. So he mastered his feelings and said smiling, “My name is Herihor so that you may denounce me to the guards, but I do not fear the guards of false Pharaoh, or his whip or his mines, but I heal all those who come to me in the name of Amun. Let us not dispute these matters and rather converse like civilised men. Allow me to invite you to my cell to drink some wine for you must certainly be weary after sitting for many water measures time on a hard seat.”

He led me through stone passages to his cell, and by the pressure of the air, I knew that we were underground and guessed that these were the vaults of Amun of which many tales are told but which no uninitiated is supposed to have seen. Herihor dismissed the physician from the House of Life, and he and I alone entered his cell, and his dwelling place lacked no comfort to rejoice a man’s heart. His bed was canopied, and his coffers and chests were of ivory and black wood, his mats were soft, and the whole room was fragrant with expensive balms. Courteously he poured perfumed water over my hands and bade me sit and offered me honey cakes, fruit and venerable, full-bodied wine from Amun’s vineyard, spiced with myrrh. We drank wine together, and he spoke to me and said:

“Sinuhe, we know you and have followed your steps and are aware that you bear great love toward the false Pharaoh, and his false god is less alien to you than we could wish. Yet I assure you that in his god no more is comprehended than exists already in Amun for Pharaoh’s hatred and persecution have but purified Amun and made him stronger than before.

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However, I will not allude to divine matters when talking to you but will appeal to you as a man who has cured the sick without requiring gifts and as an Egyptian who loves the Black Lands more than the Red Lands. Therefore I say to you: Pharaoh Akhenaten is a curse to the poor and a ruin to all of Egypt, and he must be overthrown before the evil he has engendered becomes so great as to be irredeemable even by bloodshed.”

I drank his wine and said, “I am indifferent to gods, and I am weary of gods, but Pharaoh Akhenaten’s god is different from all other gods that have ever been for he has no image, and all men are equal before him, and every man, whether poor, slave or even foreigner, has value in his sight. So I believe that an era is at an end and a new one beginning. At such times, even the incredible can happen as well as things against all reason of man. Never in any age has such an opportunity occurred to renew all old and to make all men brothers.”

Herihor raised his hand in protest and smiled and said, “I see, Sinuhe, that you have daydreams, although I believed you to be a man of sense. My aims are smaller. I desire only that all shall be as it was, that the poor may receive full measure and the laws be enforced. I desire only that every man be left to follow his trade in peace and in what faith he chooses. I desire everything that makes life go on be preserved: distinction between slave and his lord, between servant and his master. I desire the supremacy and honour of Egypt remain intact; I desire children be born in a land where each has his own station and his function decided beforehand until the end of his days and that no vain restlessness eats at men’s hearts. All these things do I desire, and therefore Pharaoh Akhenaten must fall.”

He touched my arm appealingly and, leaning forward, said, “You, Sinuhe, are a man of moderation and peace and wish ill to no one. But we live in a time when each of us must make his choice, and no one can avoid to make his choice. He who is not with us is against us and must one day suffer for it, and you are not so foolish as to believe that Pharaoh’s rule can long endure? It is a matter of indifference to me which gods you serve, if any at all, for Amun can survive without your faith. But it is in your power, Sinuhe, to remove the curse from Egypt. It is in your power to remove hunger and misery and unrest from the Black Land. It is in your power to restore to Egypt its former majesty.”

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