Metufer anointed him and laughingly rubbed holy oil into the priest’s oily face and his own. Lastly, the statue was undressed to be washed and wiped as if it had befouled itself, and then his phallus was oiled, followed by a red pleated skirt and apron fastened around, a cloth hung across its shoulders and its arms thrust into sleeves.

When all this had been done, the priest collected the cast-off garments and took charge of the washing water and the towels for all this was to be divided up and sold in the forecourt to wealthy travellers, the water being dispensed as a remedy for skin diseases. Then we were free to go out into the sunshine of the court, where I vomited.

My heart and head were as empty as my belly, for I no longer believed in the gods. But when the week had passed, my head was anointed with oil, and I was initiated as the priest of Amun, I swore the priestly oath, and I was given a certificate thereof. On this document was the great seal of the Temple of Amun as well as my name, and it entitled me to enter the House of Life.

So Mose, Bek and I now entered the House of Life. Its gate was opened to us, and my name was inscribed in the Book of Life as my father Senmut’s name had been inscribed before me and his father’s name before him. But I was happy no longer.

4

In the House of Life, which was part of the great Temple of Amun, the teaching was supervised nominally by the royal physicians, each in his own branch. We saw them but seldom, however, for their practices were large where they received costly presents from the wealthy and lived in spacious houses outside the city. But, when any patient came to the House of Life whose sickness puzzled the ordinary doctors, or if these would not venture to undertake the cure, a royal physician would come to treat him and to demonstrate his proficiency before students who were specialising in his branch. Thus even the poorest sufferer might have the benefit of a royal physician’s care, to the glory of Amun.

53

The patients of the House of Life needed to give gifts according to their wealth, and even though many carried a certificate from a city physician which explained that no ordinary doctor could cure their disease, even the poorest came straight to the House of Life and no gift was asked from them. All this was beautiful and right, but I would still have hesitated to be sick if I was poor, as the poor were treated by the untalented, and students could learn by treating them. Pain relieving drugs were not wasted on them, but they had to suffer through the pliers and knife and fire without anaesthesia. So the forecourts of the House of Life, where the poorest were received, were often filled with moaning and wailing.

The learning and training period was a long one even for those with talent. We had to learn the drugs and know the herbs and the seasons and hours at which they must be gathered, and also how to dry them and make extracts from them, for a physician must be able to prepare his own remedies at need. I and many others grumbled at this, not seeing the use of it, since by merely writing a prescription one could obtain from the House of Life all the known remedies correctly mixed and measured. Later, however, this knowledge was to stand me in good stead, as I shall show.

We had to learn the names of the different parts of the body, also the functions and purpose of every human organ. We learned to handle scalpel and forceps, but above all we had to accustom our hands to recognise disease both through the natural orifices of the body and through the skin, and also from the eyes we had to detect the nature of a disorder. We had to be able to deliver a woman in childbirth when the midwives help was of no avail. We had to be able to stimulate and alleviate pain as occasion required and learn to distinguish between trifling complaints and severe ones, between ailments of mental and physical origin. We had to know truth from falsehood in the patients’ talk and make all necessary questions in order to gain a clear picture of the complaint.

It is understandable that the further I got in my studies, the deeper I felt how little I knew. It may be that a physician is ready only when he humbly admits to himself that he doesn’t know anything. But that cannot be told to a layman as it is of utmost importance that a patient trusts the doctor and relies on his skills. That is the foundation of all healing skills, and one must build on it. Therefore a doctor can never make a mistake, for a fallible doctor loses his reputation and reduces the

54

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384