The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

I knew well enough that all slaves and convicts protest their innocence, but he was kind to me. Therefore I wished to be kind to him, and I was so lonely, I dreaded that he might go and leave me again alone with my heart. So I said, “Tell me of the injustice that was done to you, that I may grieve together with you.”

He said, “Worries were beaten from me with sticks already during the first year in the copper mine. Hate was more persistent, and it took five years when even the hate was beaten from me, and my heart became bald of all human feelings. But why not tell you everything to amuse you, while I rub your scabs and my fingers hurt your back. Know then, that I was once a free man with land to till; a hut, a wife, oxen and beer in my jar. But I had also a neighbour, an influential man named Anukis, may his body rot. No eye could measure his land, and his cattle were as countless as grains of desert sand, and their bellowing was as the ocean’s roar, but yet he coveted also my little plot of ground. He caused me all manner of vexation, and after every flood time, when the ground was measured afresh, the boundary stone was moved nearer to my hut, and I lost land. There was nothing I could do for the surveyors listened to him and not to me, because he gave them handsome presents. He also blocked my irrigation ditches and prevented water from coming to my fields, so that my oxen were thirsty and my wheat dried up and beer ran dry from my jar. But he had no ear for my complaints, not in winter when he lived in a large mansion in Thebes, nor in summertime when he came to refresh his mind at his estate; and his servants beat me with sticks and let the dogs attack me if I dared approach him.”

The noseless one sighed and rubbed more oil into my back. Then he continued, “Nevertheless, I might still be living in my hut had the gods not cursed me with a beautiful daughter. I had five sons and three daughters, for the poor breed rapidly. When they were full grown, they were a help and a joy to me, though one of the boys was stolen by a Syrian merchant when he was small. But my youngest daughter was very fair, and in my madness I was proud of her and did not make her do heavy work or carry water or tan her skin by toiling in the fields. It

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would have been wiser to cut off her hair and rub her face with soot, for my neighbour Anukis saw her and desired her, and I did not see a peaceful day again. He sued me and swore my oxen had treaded on his fields and my sons had maliciously blocked his irrigation ditches and thrown corpses in his wells. He also swore that during bad years I had borrowed wheat from him, and all this his servants swore to be true, and the judge did not listen to me. But he would have let me keep my field, if I had given him my daughter. But this I would not agree to, for I hoped that with her beauty she would get a decent man for a husband who would care for me in my old age and show me kindness. At last his servants set upon me. I had nothing but my staff, but with that I smote one of them over the head so that he died. Then they cut off my nose and ears and sent me to the mines. My wife and children were sold as slaves, but the youngest one Anukis kept for himself, and when he had enjoyed her, he gave her to his servants. Therefore, I think it was unjust to send me to the mines. When after ten years the King freed me, I hastened home, but my cabin was torn down, alien cattle grazed in my meadows, and my daughter would have nothing to do with me but threw hot water over my feet in the cowmen’s shack. I heard that Anukis was dead and that his tomb lies in the City of the Dead near Thebes and it has a long inscription on the door. So I came to Thebes to rejoice my heart with what is written there. But I cannot read, and no one has read it out to me though I found my way to the tomb by inquiry.”

“If you wish it, I will read the inscription for you,” I said, “because I can read.”

“May your body be preserved forever,” he said, “if you will do me this service. For I am a poor man and believe everything that is written. Therefore I want to know what is written of Anukis before I die.”

He anointed my body with oil and washed my loincloth in the water. We went together to the City of the Dead, unchallenged by the guards, and wandered between the rows of tombs until we reached a large one before which meat had been set forth and many sorts of cakes, fruit and flowers. A sealed wine jar stood there also. The noseless one ate of the offerings, giving some to me, and then bade me read what was written upon the door. I read to him:

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