But Nefernefernefer said calmly, “Setne saw a dream and woke up, but many others have not woken up before they are already taken to the House of Death. Sinuhe, I have to tell you that I am also a priestess and not a contemptible woman. My name also could be Tabubue.” Moonlight was mirrored in her eyes when she looked at me, and I did not believe her. I tried to draw her into my arms, but she pushed me away, saying, “Do you not know why Bastet, the goddess of love, is portrayed as a cat?”
“I care neither for cats nor gods,” said I, reaching out to her, my eyes blurred with desire. She pushed my hands aside. “Quite soon you may touch me. You may lay your hands on my breast and my stomach if it will quiet you, but first you shall listen to me and learn why a woman is like a cat and why passion, too, is like a cat. A cat’s paws are soft, but they hide claws that rip and tear and stab mercilessly into your heart. Indeed, a woman is like a cat, for a cat also takes pleasure in tormenting its prey and torturing it without ever tiring of the game. Not until the creature is maimed will she devour it and then set forth to seek another victim. I tell you this because I would be honest with you, and I have never wished you ill. No, I have never wished you ill,” she repeated absently, taking my hand and moving it to her breast while the other she placed in her lap. I trembled, and the tears sprang from my eyes. Then she pushed me away again. “My name is Tabubue, and when you know that, leave me, never to return, and then I won’t hurt you. But if you don’t go now, you can’t blame me for anything that may happen.”
She gave me time to go, but I did not. Sighing a little then as if weary of the game, she said, “So let it be. You must have what you came for, but be gentle, for I am tired, and I fear I may fall asleep in your arms.”
She took me to her room and to her couch of ivory and ebony. There, slipping off her robe, she opened her embrace to me. It was as if my whole body and heart were being burned away to ashes by her embrace. Soon she yawned and told me, “I am indeed very sleepy, and I must believe that you have never slept with a woman before, for you go about it very clumsily and give me no pleasure. But when a youth takes
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his first woman, he gives her a priceless treasure. I will ask no other present of you. But go now and let me sleep, for you have had what you came for.” And when I sought to embrace her again, she defended herself and sent me away. I went home with my body molten and seething, knowing that never should I be able to forget her.
6
On the following day, I told my servant Kaptah to send away all my patients and bid them to seek other doctors. I sent for a barber, washed and dressed and anointed myself with sweet-smelling oils, and as I was about to step out to meet Nefernefernefer, Horemheb came to me and stopped me.
“My friend Sinuhe,” he said. “What is everything but filth.”
“I need to haste,” I said impatiently. “But go to my servant, and he will give you salted fish and cold beer from a clay jar.” I tried to leave, but Horemheb took my arm and was stronger than me, so I needed to return to the house to listen to his worries. He chewed salted fish and drank beer and said:
“That wife I left with yesterday, she was friendly to me, but I don’t know if she has anything to offer me that the cheapest slave girl could not offer a man.” He contemplated for a moment. “Although I need to admit that her body was soft and white on the surface, and it pleased me to hear her moan under my strength, but I still don’t know if it was worth all the trouble. She is also a married woman, even if her husband is on a journey; perhaps I need to kill her husband when he returns, or otherwise he shall come and kill me.”
“You do not need to fear that,” I said impatiently. “That is not the custom in Thebes. If you one day meet with her husband in her place, you can bow your head and lower your hands to your knees. After that her husband will offer you wine and get drunk, and then you can rejoice with his wife in his own bed. So it has been and will ever be, and both are content, the wife to you and the husband to the fact that she lets him get drunk without upbraiding and lecturing him like women do.”
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