The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

“Sinuhe, Sinuhe, my dear friend, I am but a weak woman and you should not have left me alone. I don’t know how you can understand me, being so loyal and shy, but I hope you understand. Know then that while you were away, another man looked at me lustfully, and I lapsed.” She weeped sorely and patted my cheeks with her hands to comfort me and continued, “As a matter of fact, he is not a bad man at all, and I have taken a liking to him though he is not like you but strong like an ox, and he hits me and pulls me by the ear. Therefore I beg you, Sinuhe, go away so that he would not see you in my company for then he would hit me worse, and I wouldn’t want it though sometimes the pain he makes me feel is quite sweet. Forgive me, Sinuhe, if I this way break your heart, but I can no longer stay in your company.”

She looked at me fearfully as if she expected me to hit her too. My relief was however so great that I’d rather have laughed and leaped from joy, but I pretended to be sad and said to her, “Fair Mehunefer, I grant you your happiness for your happiness is my happiness. Know however, that your image will always stay in my heart, and I will never forget you.”

This was true for I knew I could never get that horrible woman off my mind, but she was moved and patted my cheeks with her wrinkled hands, and I think she would have touched my mouth with her mouth had she not been afraid to be seen by her lover. At last she said, “Sinuhe, being so emotional from wine and grief, I might have said to you silly things during the night the great Queen Mother died, and I do not even remember everything that I said and wish that you don’t either. But if you do remember, know that everything I said was nothing but lies, and it was wine and not me talking through my mouth. The great Queen Mother was a good and respectable woman, and we make sacrifice to her memory every day and say only good things about her, especially since her Ka started appearing in the garden and occasionally sitting on the King’s seat in the throne room with a royal beard on her chin.”

This made everything even more confusing in my mind for it indeed was possible that Mehunefer had lied to me and made everything up to boast in her drunkenness. But our conversation was interrupted by Mehunefer’s scream, and suddenly she jumped away from me and ran insincerely with all expressions of joy towards a Sherden sergeant who approached us along the corridor. The sergeant was a large and fat man,

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and his eyes were red from beer and rolling in his head like those of an ox, and his hands were like shovels. He slapped Mehunefer’s back with his copper ferule-decorated whip and shook her from the neck and said, “By Seth and all devils, are you again snooping around after other men, you old cow stack.” I guessed that the sergeant was Mehunefer’s lover that she had mentioned about, and I quickly sneaked out, for he truly was a big and frightening man.

I also went to women’s house to greet the princess of Babylon who had broken a jar with Pharaoh Akhenaten, for Queen Nefertiti had speedily sent her from Akhetaten to Thebes where Pharaoh’s other wives dwelled. She was a beautiful, young woman. She spoke favourably to me since I knew her language, and she had already studied Egyptian and spoke it in a funny and charming way. Although she was unsatisfied by the fact that Pharaoh had not yet fulfilled his duties to her, she enjoyed her stay in Thebes and liked Egypt better than being locked up in the women’s house of Babylon. She marvelled and admired the life of Thebes and said to me:

“I had no idea that a woman can be as free as in Egypt. I don’t need to cover my face in the presence of men, and I can speak to whomever I want, and I only need to give an order and I will be rowed to Thebes — and I am welcome to all the feasts of eminent men, and no one thinks ill if I let beautiful men put their arms on my neck and touch my cheek with their mouths. I’d rather prefer, though, that Pharaoh fulfilled his duties to me so that I could be even more free and rejoice with whomever I want to, since — if I have understood things correctly — it is the custom of Egypt that everyone rejoices with anyone they want to as long as he does it so that others won’t find out. Do you think that Pharaoh will soon summon me to fulfil my duties to him because while the others rejoice around me and tell me all kind of silly stories, it has started to greatly bother me that I am still untouched — though a jar has been broken before me already some time ago.”

She was quite beautiful, and her complexion was whiter and her eyes more fierce than those of the Egyptian women so that I well understood men’s desire to put their arms on her neck. There indeed were a number of mischievous twinkles sparkling in her eyes when she looked at me so that her words greatly embarrassed me, and I could not reply to her. She opened her dress somewhat and said:

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