The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

I reassured them and said, “Go quickly and exchange your gold and silver for beer if such are your misgivings. But have no fear, neither my gold nor my silver is accursed since you may see from the stamp on it that it is the old, real gold and silver, unalloyed by the copper of Akhetaten. But I have to say that you are foolish men and ignorant of what is good for you if you fear Aten since there is nothing to fear in him.” They replied and said, “We have no fear of Aten for who would fear an impotent god — but you know well enough whom we fear, our lord, although because of Pharaoh we may not speak his name aloud.”

Exasperation simmered in my heart, and I would dispute no longer with them. So I dismissed them, and they left for the harbour, leaping, laughing and singing their oarsmen’s songs. I too felt like leaping, laughing and singing, but leaping would have been inconsistent with my dignity and songs would have been husky in my throat. Therefore I made my way directly to The Crocodile’s Tail without even waiting for a carrying chair. After long separation, I saw Merit again, and seeing her did not fail my longing for she was lovelier to me than ever before. Yet I must acknowledge that love, like all passions, colours man’s vision, and Merit was no longer very young, but in the full ripeness of her summer, she was my friend, and no one in the world was nearer to me in the same way as was she. When she saw me, she bowed deeply and raised her hands, after which she came forward to me and touched my shoulders and my cheeks and she smiled, saying, “Sinuhe, Sinuhe, what has happened to you since your eyes are so clear and you have dropped your belly on the road?”

I replied to her and said, “Merit, my darling, my eyes are bright from longing, and my eyes are bright from the fever of love; and my belly melted away from yearning, and my belly dropped on the roadside as I hastened to you, my sister.” Wiping her eyes, she said, “Oh, Sinuhe, how far does a lie surpass the truth in sweetness when one is alone and her Spring has flowered in vain. But when you come, Spring is with me once more, and I believe in the stories, my friend.”

I shall say no more of this meeting with Merit, for I must speak also of Kaptah. His belly had certainly not melted away but he was more corpulent than ever, and ever more jewels and rings jangled about his neck and wrists and ankles, while the disk of gold that hid his empty eye socket was now set with precious stones. On seeing me, he wept and shouted for joy and said, “Blessed be the day that brings my lord home.” He led me to a private room and bade me sit on soft mats, while

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Merit served us with the best The Crocodile’s Tail had to offer, and we rejoiced together. Kaptah rendered me an account of my wealth and said:

“My lord Sinuhe, you are wiser than all men for you are more crafty than the grain dealers, and few have ever deceived them until now, but last spring you deceived them with your guile though the scarab might have had some share in this. You will remember that you bade me distribute all your corn amongst the settlers for seed, requiring of them measure for measure only, for which reason I called you mad, and by the gauge of common sense it was indeed the act of a madman. Know then that thanks to this cunning you are wealthier than before, and even twice as wealthy as before so that I can no longer carry the sum of your estate in my head, and I am exceedingly vexed by Pharaoh’s tax gatherers, whose greed and impudence are more boundless than ever. As soon as the merchants heard that the settlers were to have seed, the price of grain fell immediately and fell still further when the news of peace came since everyone then sold to be free of their commitments — by which the merchants suffered great losses and many of them became impoverished. But as the grain got cheaper, I bought more grain for storage and I bought more grains than ever at a low price, even if the harvest hadn’t been ripened nor reaped. In the autumn, I gathered the grains that I had distributed in measure for measure as you had commanded, so that by this means I regained also my former stocks, and in all confidence I may tell you, my lord, that it is a lie when they say that the settlers’ grain is spotty for it is as clear as anyone’s and harms no one. Therefore I believe that the priests and their followers have secretly splashed blood on the corn in the bins so that it became speckled and started to smell. This is however dangerous talk, and I would prefer you to not tell it to any one — and no one would believe you anyway for everyone is firm in their belief that the settlers’ grain is accursed grain and their bread is accursed bread. It is also in your interest that people believe so. With the coming of winter and because the peace was made, the price of grain rose again; Ay in Pharaoh’s name started shipping grain to Syria, in order to compete the Babylonian grain out of the Syrian markets. Therefore the price of grain has risen ever higher, and grain has never been as expensive as at

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