The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

land of Kush and fled to the jungles beyond the boundary stones of Egypt to the land of elephants and giraffes so that the land of Kush remained deserted for years to come. This did not cause much harm to Egypt, for since Akhenaten’s days, the land of Kush had not paid tax to Egypt though it had been the best source of Egypt’s wealth during the times of great Pharaohs and richer than Syria.

After two years of war in the land of Kush, Horemheb returned to Thebes, bringing with him much loot, distributing gifts to the people of Thebes and holding victory celebrations for ten days and ten nights so that all work stopped in Thebes; drunken soldiers crawled about the streets baaing like goats, and the women of Thebes later gave birth to dark-skinned children. Horemheb held his son in his arms and taught him to walk, and he said to me proudly, “See, Sinuhe, a new house of Kings has sprung from my loins, and in the veins of my son runs the sacred blood although I was born with dung between the toes.”

He also went to Ay, but Ay shut his door against him and barricaded the door with seats and beds in his fear and cried in a shrill old man’s voice, “Begone from me, Horemheb, for I am Pharaoh, and I know well that you have come to slay me to set the crowns on your head.” But Horemheb laughed at him heartily, kicked open his door, overturned his bed and shook him between his arms, saying, “I do not mean to kill you, my old fox; I will not kill you, my old pimp, for you are more to me than a father-in-law, and your life is precious to me. It is true that your lungs already whistle, and you drool from your mouth, and your knees are wobbling, but you must hold out, Ay. You must survive yet one more war that Egypt may have a Pharaoh over whom to pour out its wrath while I am away.” Ay did not believe his words but wept bitterly and embraced his knees with shaking hands and begged for his life. Then Horemheb felt pity for him and left him alone but from then on kept a watch on him and placed his own trusted men in high offices to see that Ay did not do anything foolish while he was away. Ay’s time had passed, and he was only a mindless, grey-haired old man, who struggled during festivities to keep the crowns on his head, shaking from fear before the crowd.

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Horemheb brought great gifts to his consort Beketamun — gold dust in plaited baskets, skins of lions he had killed with a bow, ostrich feathers and live monkeys, but she would not even look at his presents. And Beketamun said to him, “In the sight of men, I may be your wife, and I have borne you a son. Be content with that, and know that if ever you lay a hand on me again, I shall spit on your bed and deceive you as no wife has yet deceived her husband. To bring shame on you, I will take pleasure with slaves and porters and will lie with donkey drivers in the public places of Thebes, and there won’t be a man too low that I would not rejoice with to bring shame upon you, if you dare touch me one more time. In my eyes, there is no man lower than you in the land of Egypt, and your hands smell of blood, and your whole body smells of blood, so that I am sickened when you come near me.”

But her opposition inflamed Horemheb’s desire for her even more, and looking at her narrow cheeks, her narrow hips and mocking mouth, he started breathing heavily and could barely control his hands. Thus he came to me and complained bitterly and said, “Sinuhe, why is this and what evil have I done that my wife avoids my bed. You know well how much I have been through to win her over and gain fame to be worthy of her, and you know that I have not often touched beautiful women that my men brought to my tent as loot but gave them to my dung snouts to rejoice with. Truly, I can count with my fingers and toes the women that I have rejoiced with during these years, and they were not much comfort to me — but when I embraced them, I only thought of her, Beketamun, and Beketamun was magical like the moon to me. What is this sorcery then that makes my flesh acrid and hurts my mind like snake poison?”

I said to him, “Don’t care about that crazy woman for she suffers more than you for her pride. Thebes is full of beautiful women, and even the least of slave girls can give you the same as her.” But Horemheb said, “You speak against your own heart, Sinuhe, for you know well that love takes no orders.” I warned him and said, “Do not then try to order her love, since only evil will come out of that.” But Horemheb did not believe me, and he said, “Sinuhe, give me a medicine that I can have her drink to make her sleep so that at least I may go to her in her sleep and have my joy with her, for indeed this woman owes me a lot of joy.”

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