The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

Kaptah. He assured me that his one eye was my good fortune, for now he could tell my would-be patients in the waiting room that he had been stone blind when I had bought him and that I had given him his one eye back. So I bought him. I had pictures painted on the walls of the waiting room. In one of these, Imhotep the Wise, the god of doctors, was shown giving me instruction. I was painted small before him, as the custom is, but below the picture was an inscription that ran thus: ”Wisest and most skilful of your disciples is Sinuhe, Son of Senmut, He Who Is Alone.” Another picture showed me making sacrifice to Amun so that I would give to Amun what belonged to Amun and win the confidence of my patients. But in a third, the great Pharaoh looked down upon me from the heavens in the shape of a bird, while his servants weighed out gold for me and clothed me in new robes. I commissioned Thutmose to do these paintings for me although he was not an authorised artist and his name did not appear in the book in the Temple of Ptah. But he was my friend, and so I let him make the pictures. Honouring our friendship, he painted them in the traditional style, and his work was overwhelmingly skilled so that the paintings glowed in red and yellow, which are the cheapest of the colours; and because of his work those who looked upon the pictures for the first time raised their hands in astonishment, saying, “In truth, he inspires faith, this Sinuhe, son of Senmut, He Who Is Alone, and will surely cure all his patients by his skill.”

When all was ready, I sat down to await the patients and the sick to heal them. I sat for a long time, but none came. In the evening, I went to a wine tavern, having still a little gold and silver left from Pharaoh’s gifts. I was young and fancied myself a clever doctor and had no misgivings about the future. So, together with Thutmose we made good cheer over my wine and in loud voices discussed the affairs of the Two Kingdoms, for everywhere — in the market, before the merchants’ houses, in the taverns and pleasure houses — the affairs of the Two Kingdoms were vigorously debated by all at this time.

It had come to pass as the old Keeper of the Seal had foretold: how the body of the great Pharaoh had made proof against Death and attended to its resting place in the Valley of the Kings; where the doors of the tomb had been sealed with the royal seal; how the great Queen Mother ascended the throne, bearing in her hands the scourge and the

crook, the royal beard on her chin, and the lion’s tail about her waist. The heir was not yet crowned Pharaoh, and it was said that he desired to purify himself and perform his devotions to the gods before he assumed power. But when the great Queen Mother dismissed the old Keeper of the Seal and raised Ay, the unknown priest, to honour at her right hand so that he surpassed in rank all the illustrious men of Egypt and he sat in the House of Justice with forty leather law scrolls in front of him and gave orders to tax gatherers and royal builders. Then the Temple of Amun hummed like a beehive; there were ill omens, and misfortune attended the royal sacrifices. The priests interpreted many strange dreams that men had had. Winds veered from their usual sector against all the laws of nature, and there was rain for two days running in the land of Egypt; merchandise standing at the wharves suffered damage, and grain rotted. Certain pools on the outskirts of Thebes were turned to blood, and many went to see them. But the people were not yet afraid, for such things had happened in every age when the priests were angered.

Though there was unrest and much empty talk, the mercenaries at the soldiers’ barracks — the Egyptians, Syrians, black men and Sherdens — were given lavish gifts by the Queen Mother, and golden chains and badges were shared from the palace balcony, and good order was maintained. The might of Egypt was undisputed for also in Syria the order was maintained by the garrisons, and the princes of Byblos, Zemar, Sidon, and Gaza who in their childhood had dwelt at Pharaoh’s feet and grown up in the golden house, mourned his death as if he had been their father, and wrote letters to the Queen Mother in which they declared themselves dust beneath her feet. But in the land of Kush, around the borders of Nubia and Sudan, it was always the custom to wage war when Pharaoh passed away, as if the black men wanted to test the patience of the new Pharaoh. So the vice-king of the southern lands, the son of god in the garrisons of the south, mobilised his troops as soon as he heard of Pharaoh’s death, and his troops crossed the border and burned many villages and brought back a lot of cattle, slaves, lion tails and ostrich feathers as spoils. So were the roads to the land of Kush safe again, and all bandit tribes much bemoaned Pharaoh’s death seeing their leaders’ heads hanging downward on border fortifications.