She smiled and said, “It would be better if you did not go, for flowers and myrrh I have already. It would be better if you did not go, for you are drunk with wine and you will run astray amongst strange women. That I will not allow.”
Her words filled me with joy. I tried to seize her, but she resisted me, saying, “Stop! My servants can see us. Though I live alone, I am no contemptible woman. But because you are honest with me, so I want to be honest with you. We are not going to do what you have come for, but come with me to the garden so that I can tell you a story.”
She led me out into her garden, which lay in moonlight and was filled with the scent of myrtle and acacia. The lotus flowers in the pool had closed their chalices for the night, and I saw that the edge of the pool was inlaid with coloured stones. Servants poured water over our hands and brought us roast goose and fruits steeped in honey, and Nefernefernefer said, “Eat and enjoy yourself here with me, Sinuhe.” But my throat was roughened by desire, and I could not swallow. She gave me a mocking look and ate greedily. Each time she glanced at me the moonlight was mirrored in her eyes. After eating she said, “I promised to tell you a story and I will tell it now, because there is still time before the morning and I do not feel tired. This story is about Setne Khemvese and Tabubue, the priestess of Bastet.”
“I have heard that story,” I said unable to control my impatience. “I have heard it many times, my sister. Come with me, so that I can embrace you on the bed and have you sleep in my arms. Come my sister, for my body is sick with longing, and if you won’t come, I will hurt my face with stones and cry of lust.”
“Be still, be still, Sinuhe,” she said and touched me with her hand. “You are too rough and you scare me. I tell you the story to calm you down. So, there was one Setne, the son of Khemvese, who, while looking for a sealed book of Thoth, saw Tabubue, the priestess of Bastet, in a temple. So was he overwhelmed by what he saw that he sent his servant to offer her ten deben of gold if she agreed to spend an hour with him and rejoice with him. But Tabubue said, ‘I am a priestess and
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not a contemptible woman. If your master really wants what he says, may he come himself to my house, where no one can see us, so that I do not need to act like a harlot.’ This delighted Setne, and he quickly went to the house, where Tabubue welcomed him and offered him wine. Having made his heart happy with wine, Setne wanted to do what he had come for, but Tabubue said, ‘You may enter your house and you are already there, but I am a priestess and not a contemptible woman. If you really want what you say, you need to give me all your assets and wealth — your house and farm and everything that you own.’ Setne looked at her and sent for a law scribe and wrote a contract that gave everything he owned to Tabubue. Then Tabubue stood up and dressed in royal linen, and her limbs could be seen through like the limbs of a goddess, and she radiated in every way. But when Setne wanted to do what he had come for, Tabubue rejected him and said, ‘Very soon you can enter your house where you already are. But I am a priestess and not a contemptible woman, and therefore you must banish your wife away from you, so that I don’t need to suspect your heart turning to her.’ Setne looked at her and sent his servant to banish his wife. Then Tabubue said, ‘Come to my room and lay on my bed, and you will have your reward.’ Rejoicing, Setne entered her room and laid on the bed to receive his reward, but then the servant came and said, ‘Your children are here, wailing by the gate and crying for their mother.’ But Setne heard none of it and wanted to do what he had come for. Then Tabubue said, ‘I am a priestess and not a contemptible woman. It came to my mind that your children might argue about the inheritance with my children. That cannot happen, and therefore you need to let me kill your children.’ Setne let her kill his children in his presence and throw them out of the window to the yard for cats and dogs to eat. Drinking wine with Tabubue, he could hear the dogs and cats fighting for the children’s meat.”
Then I interrupted her, and my heart twitched in my chest like it did when I heard the story as a child, and I said, “And it was all but a dream. For lying down on Tabubue’s bed, Setne heard her scream and woke up. And he felt like he had been in a fiery furnace without even a shred of clothes on him. But it had all been just a dream, and the dream was brought about by the mischievous Neneferkaptah, and there is another story about her.”
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