The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

I answered in spite of myself, “You know well enough what it is I want, Nefernefernefer.”

“Your face is flushed, and I can see the blood pulsing at your temples,” she said. “Would it not be well to lay aside your robe and step down into the pool here with me to cool yourself this hot day? None can see us here, so do not hesitate.”

I stripped and stepped down into the pool, and my side touched hers. But when I would have held her, she evaded me, laughing and splashing water into my face. “I understand what you want, Sinuhe,” she said, “though I am too bashful to look at you. But first you must give me a present, for you know that I am not a woman to be despised.”

I shouted in my wrath, “You are mad, Nefernefernefer, for you know you have robbed me of everything. I am ashamed and dare never again look my parents in the face. But I am still a physician, and my name is written in the Book of Life. Perhaps I may yet earn enough to give you a present worthy of you. Have pity on me now, for even in the water I burn as if in fire and bite my hand till the blood flows when I look at you.”

She stretched herself out on the water, her breasts rising above the surface like two rosy flowers. “A physician practises his profession with his hands and eyes, isn’t that true, Sinuhe?” she said. “Without hands and eyes you would not be a doctor any more, even if your name was a thousand times written in the Book of Life. Maybe I would eat and drink and rejoice with you today, if you had your eyes pierced and your arms cut, so that I could hang them as trophies to the lintel of my room, so that my guests would honour me and know that I am not a contemptible woman.”

She looked at me from under her green-painted eyelids and said indifferently, “No, I would not care for that, for I have no use for your eyes, and your arms would start smelling and bring flies to my room. Can we really think of nothing for you to give me? For I weaken, Sinuhe; it is troubling to me to see you naked in my pool. You are clumsy and without experience, yet I think that one day I could teach you much that you do not yet know, because I know tricks to sharpen a man’s pleasure and a woman’s also. Consider this for a while, Sinuhe.”

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When I snatched at her, she stepped swiftly up out of the pool and standing behind a tree shook the water from her arms. “I am but a weak woman, and men are deceitful and treacherous,” she said. “So are you, too, Sinuhe, when you still lie to me. My heart is heavy at the thought of it and the tears very near my eyes for it is clear that you are tired of me. Were this not so, you would never have kept from me that your parent’s have furnished a fine tomb for themselves in the City of the Dead and have paid to the Temple the sum needful for the embalming of their bodies against death and for the things necessary for their journey to the Western Land.”

When I heard this, I tore at my breast with my hands till the blood came, and I shouted, “You certainly are called Tabubue, I believe it now!”

But she said regretfully, “You cannot blame me for not being a contemptible woman. I have not asked you to come for me, but you came on your own. But so be it. Now I know that you do not love me, but you only came to mock me, because this matter still separates us.”

The tears were rolling down my cheeks, and I was panting from sorrow, but I went up to her, and she gently touched my body with hers. “Even the idea is sinful and godless,” I said. “Shall I rob my parents of immortality and let their bodies dissolve into nothingness like the bodies of beggars and slaves and those who are cast into the river for their crimes. You cannot demand such a thing of me.”

She pressed her nakedness against me, saying, “Give me your parent’s tomb, and I will whisper, ‘my brother,’ in your ear and be to you a fire of delight and teach you a thousand things unknown to you that bring joy to men.”

I had no mastery of myself but wept and said, “Be it as you wish, and may my name be accursed to all eternity, but I cannot withstand you, so powerful is the spell by which you hold me.”

But she said, “Speak not of sorcery, for that offends me, because I am not a contemptible woman, and I live in my own house and guard my reputation. As you are tedious and out of humour, I will send a servant for the legal scribe while we eat and drink to gladden our hearts that we may enjoy one another when the papers are in order.” And with a joyous laugh, she ran into the house.

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