The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

Book 5: The Habirus

I speak now of Syria and of the different cities to which I came, and to this end I should explain first of all that the Red Lands differ from the Black Lands in every particular. There is, for example, no river there like ours — instead, water pours from the sky and wets the ground. Every valley has its mountain, and beyond every mountain lies another valley. In each of these dwells a distinct people governed by a prince who pays tribute to Pharaoh — or did at the time of which I write. They speak various languages and dialects, and those on the coast make their living either from the sea or trading, but those inland cultivate the land and rob each other, and the Egyptian garrisons cannot prevent that. The dress of the people is colourful and expertly woven of wool, and it covers them from head to foot, partly, I think, because it is cooler in their country than in Egypt and partly because they think it shameful to expose their bodies except when they relieve themselves in the open, which to an Egyptian is abomination. They wear their hair long and allow their beards to grow and eat always within doors, and their gods, of which each city has its own, demand human sacrifice. From all this it may readily be seen that everything in the Red Land differs from the ways of Egypt, but why is that — I cannot say, because I do not know.

It is also clear that in the Syrian cities to those distinguished Egyptians who held resident posts, supervising taxation or commanding the garrisons, their task appeared more of a punishment than an honour, and they yearned for the banks of the Nile except for a few, that is, who had become lazy and by giving in to the seduction of the new and alien had altered the style of their garments and their thoughts and made sacrifice to strange gods. Also the strange Syrian customs and endless scheming and tax avoidance and constant squabbles between rival princes embittered the lives of the Egyptian officials. Also in Zemar there was a temple of Amun, and the Egyptian colony had banquets and socialised and feasted amongst its own people without mixing with the Syrians, thus maintaining its own ways and doing what it could to pretend it was in Egypt.

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I lived in Zemar for two years during which I learned the Babylonian language, both spoken and written, for I was told that a man with this knowledge could make himself understood among educated people throughout the known world. The written characters of Babylon, as is well known, are imprinted on clay with a sharp stylus, and all correspondence between the Kings is so conducted. Why this is so, I cannot tell, unless it be that paper will burn, but a clay tablet endures forever as a testimony to the speed with which rulers forget their pacts and sacred treaties.

When I said that Syria differs from Egypt in every particular, I also mean that the physician must seek out his patients, who, instead of coming to him, trust to their gods to send just the right doctor to them. Moreover, they give their presents before and not after they have been cured. This profits the doctor, for patients tend to be forgetful of their gratefulness once they are well again. It is also a custom that the rich and mighty have their own doctors, whom they give presents as long as they remain healthy, but stop doing so when falling ill, until they are healthy again.

It was my intention to follow my calling here quite unpretentiously, but Kaptah said, “No”. He wished me to lay out all I had in fine clothes and to hire criers who would make known my fame in every public place. These were to announce also that I did not visit patients, but that they must come to me, and Kaptah forbade me to receive who did not bring at least one gold piece with them as a present. I told him this was folly in a city, where no one knew me and where the customs differed from those of the Black Land. But Kaptah stood his ground, and I could do nothing with him, for when once he got an idea into his head, he was as stubborn as a donkey.

He persuaded me also to visit those doctors who were held in the highest repute in Zemar and to say to them, “I am an Egyptian physician, Sinuhe, to whom the new Pharaoh gave the name of He Who Is Alone, and I am a man of renown in my own country. I restore the dead to life and bring back sight to the blind if my god wills it for I have a small but powerful god whom I carry with me in my traveling chest. Knowledge differs from one place to another, however, nor are diseases

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