The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

“Greetings to Sinuhe the physician from his heart’s sister Mehunefer, Keeper of the Needle Case in Pharaoh’s golden house. My little bull, my sweet he-dove, Sinuhe. I woke alone on my mat with an aching head but with an even more aching heart, for my mat was deserted and you were gone and only the scent of your ointments clung to my hands. Oh, that I might be the cloth about your loins or the essence in your hair or the wine in your mouth, Sinuhe. I will have myself carried from house to house seeking you, and I will not cease this labour until I find you, for my body is full of ants at the thought of you, and your eyes are sweet in my eyes. And there is no need to be too shy to visit me, even if you are shy, since everyone in the golden house knows my secret already, and the servants will overlook you. Hasten to me when you receive this, hasten on the wings of a bird, my beloved, for my heart longs for you. If you do not hasten to me, I will fly to you more swiftly than any bird. Mehunefer, the sister of your heart, greets you.”

I read this terrible effusion several times without daring to look at Merit, until at last she snatched the letter from my hand and broke the stick on which it was rolled and tore up the paper and treaded it with her feet and said furiously, “I could have understood you, Sinuhe, if she were young and fair, but she is old and wrinkled and ugly as a sack though she paints her face like a mud wall. I cannot imagine what you are thinking of, Sinuhe, or has the glimmer of the golden house so enchanted your eyes that you see everything upside down. Your behaviour makes you a laughing stock all over Thebes, and you make me also look ridiculous.”

I rent my clothes and clawed at my breast and cried and said, “Merit, I have committed an appalling blunder, but I had my reasons and never dreamed that I should be visited with so terrible a retribution. Truly, Merit, send for my oarsmen and gather them for I must flee. Otherwise this abominable hag will come and lie with me by force, and I am powerless to keep her at a distance since she writes that she will fly to me more swiftly than a bird, and so I believe she may.”

Merit saw my fear and my anguish and seemed at last to understand that I had nothing going on with Mehunefer, for she broke into such helpless laughter that she shouted aloud, and her beautiful body bent down at her knees when she laughed, and finally she said, still panting from laughter, “This will teach you to be more careful where women are concerned, Sinuhe, or so I hope, for we women are

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fragile vessels, and I know myself what a charmer you are, Sinuhe, my beloved.” Her mocking was merciless, and she said with feigned humility, “Doubtless this fine lady is more delightful on her mat to you than I can be, and at least she has had twice as many years as me in which to perfect herself in the arts of love so that I cannot presume to compete with her and fear that for her sake you will cruelly cast me off.”

So acute was my distress that I took Merit with me to the old copper founder’s house and told her everything. I told her the secret of my birth and all that I had wheedled out of Mehunefer, and I told her also why I wanted to believe that my birth had nothing to do with the golden house or the princess of Mitanni. As she listened, she fell silent and laughed no more. She stared past me into the distance, and the sorrow in her eyes darkened, and at last she touched my shoulder with her hand and said, “Now I understand much, Sinuhe, and I understand something in you that I never understood before, and I understand why your solitude cried out to me, voiceless, when you first saw me, and why I became weak when you looked at me. I too have a secret, and of late I have been sorely tempted to impart it to you, but now I rejoice and thank the gods that I didn’t share it with you for secrets are heavy to bear and dangerous too, and it is better to keep them to oneself than to share with anyone. Yet I am glad you have told me everything. As you say, it is better not to fret yourself with vain brooding over what may never have happened, but to forget it as if it were a dream — and I also shall forget.”

I was curious to know her secret, but she would not speak of it, only touched my cheek with her mouth, put her arm about my neck and wept a little. At length, she said, “If you stay in Thebes, you will have trouble with that woman, and Mehunefer will persecute you daily with her passion until your life is made intolerable for I have seen such women and know how terrible they can be. The fault is partly yours in that you made her believe all manner of nonsense and did it too cleverly. It seems wisest for you to return to Akhetaten for you have performed your required trepanning, and there is nothing essential left here to be done. But to be sure, first write to her and conjure her to leave you in peace, or she will come after you and break the jar with you since you don’t know how to defend yourself, and that is a fate I would not wish for you.”

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