The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

and overturned his chest and took away as many golden cups and valuables as we could carry. At dawn, a throng of Syrian merchants had gathered on the river bank to buy up the plunder and take it down the river in their ships. We sold our booty to them, receiving nearly two hundred deben in gold and silver, which we divided between us according to the weight stamped upon the metal. The price we got was but a fraction of the true value of the goods, and the gold was alloyed, but Noseless rejoiced greatly and said:

“I shall be a rich man, for in truth this trade is more profitable than staggering under burdens at the harbour or carrying water from irrigation ditches to the fields.” But I said, “A pitcher goes to the well until it breaks.” So we parted, and I returned in a merchant’s boat to the other shore and Thebes. I bought new clothes and ate and drank at a wine tavern, for the smell of the House of Death was already leaving me. But all day long there came from the City of the Dead across the river the notes of horns and the clash of arms. Chariots thundered along the paths between the tombs, and Pharaoh’s bodyguards pursued the plundering soldiers and miners with spears till their death cries could be heard in Thebes. That evening, the wall was lined with bodies hanging by their heels, and order was restored in Thebes.

I slept one night at an inn, and then went to what had been my house and called for Kaptah. Kaptah came limping forth, his cheeks swollen with blows. When he saw me, he wept for joy and threw himself at my feet and said, “My lord, you have come back though I believed you dead. I thought that if you were alive you would surely return for more silver and copper, for when once a man gives, he must go on giving. But you did not come, though I have stolen from my new master as much as ever I did in my life, as you may see by my cheek and by my knee which he kicked yesterday. His mother, the crocodile — may she break down to dust — threatens to sell me, and I am in great fear. Let us leave this evil house, my lord, and flee together.”

I hesitated, and he must have misunderstood my hesitation for he said, “I have indeed stolen so much that I can take care of you for a time, my lord, and when it is all gone, I can work for you if you will only take me away from the hands of this mother crocodile and his son.”

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“I only came but to pay my debt to you, Kaptah,” I told him, and I counted gold and silver into his hand, many times the sum he had given me. “But if you like, I will buy your freedom from your master so that you may go where you will.”

Feeling the weight of gold and silver in his hands, Kaptah was overwhelmed by joy and started jumping, even if he was an old man, and did not remember to limp any more. But then he was ashamed and said, “Although I wept bitter tears when I gave my savings to you, do not think ill of me. If you free me, where shall I go since all my life I have been a slave. Without you I am a blind kitten or a lamb forsaken by the ewe. Nor should you waste good gold upon my freedom, because why pay for what is already yours.” He blinked his one eye in sly reflection. “While waiting for you, I have every day queried the schedules of the ships,” he said. “A big and stout ship is now fitting out for Zemar, and we might perhaps venture to sail in her if we first make lavish sacrifice to the gods. It is only a pity that I have not found a powerful enough god since I gave up Amun who made such mischief for me. I have industriously studied several gods, and I have also tried Pharaoh’s new god, whose temple has been reopened and visited by many to get in Pharaoh’s favour. But it is told that Pharaoh says his god lives from the truth, and therefore I am afraid that his god is a difficult god indeed, and little use to me.”

Remembering the scarab I had found, I gave it to Kaptah, saying, “Here is a god who is very powerful, though small. Guard him well, for I believe he will bring us luck for already I have gold in my purse. Clothe yourself as a Syrian, then, and escape if you must, but do not blame me if you are caught as a runaway slave. May the little god help you, and we will so save our money to pay our passage to Zemar. I can no longer look anyone in the face in Thebes or in the whole land of Egypt. That is why I have to leave, since I have to live somewhere, and I will never return to Thebes.”

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