The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

Thus all went well with me, and I prospered, and Kaptah grew fat and dressed in expensive clothes and anointed himself with fine oils and became insolent even towards me, until I hit him with the stick. But why everything favoured me so, I cannot say. I was young and believed in my skills, and my hand did not shake when I was holding the knife and I dared a lot when I was curing the patients for I did not think I had anything to lose. I did not look down on Syrian knowledge, and whenever I found their medicines to be good, I used them. The Syrians were especially skilled in using fiery iron instead of the knife, even if that was more painful for the patient. Maybe my success was caused by the sacred scarab, whom Kaptah worshipped as a god, so I had a house made of gold and silver built for it, and every day Kaptah took fresh cow dung to it as a sacrifice so that it could roll dung balls like dung beetles do, even if I never saw it rolling anything. I have no certainty if my success was caused by the scarab, but to make sure I treated it well and let Kaptah serve it, so that he started thinking he was a priest and no more a servant.

But my success was so great because I did not envy anyone nor compete with anyone, and I readily gave presents to others and took patients whom others did not want to cure, and knowledge was more important to me than gold. After I had earned enough to live well, knowledge became more important to me than gold, and sometimes I cured the poor to learn from their ailments. Also my patients sometimes died and my skills could not cure everyone; but no one blamed me for that, even though a doctor often loses his reputation when his patient dies. Of those who died in my care, it was said, “His Baal wanted so since even Sinuhe, the Egyptian, could not cure him.” So great was my reputation in Zemar.

Nevertheless, I continued in loneliness, and life gave me no delight. I even wearied of wine, for it never cheered me but turned my face as black as soot so that when I had drunk wine, I desired only to die. Therefore, I sought ever to increase my knowledge and I learned the writing and language of Babylon, so that no moment of the day should find me idle, and at night I slept deeply. In idleness my heart swelled, and sadness over myself and my deeds consumed my heart more bitterly than lye.

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I acquainted myself with the gods of Syria to learn whether they had anything to say to me. Like all else, the gods in Zemar differ from those of Egypt. Their great god was Baal of Zemar, a cruel god whose priests were made eunuchs and who exacted human blood in return for his favours to the city. Moreover, the sea was greedy for sacrifice, and even small children Baal wanted, so that merchants and those in authority must be forever seeking new victims. No crippled slave was ever to be seen, and the poor were threatened with savage punishment for the least offence. Thus a poor man who stole a fish to feed his family was dismembered as a sacrifice on the altar of Baal. On the other hand, a man who deceived another with false scales or by mixing gold with silver was not punished but regarded as a clever salesman, and they said, “A man is made to be cheated.” Their sailors and captains stole children even from Egypt and along the coast to sacrifice them to Baal, and this was seen as great merit.

Their female divinity was Astarte, also called Ishtar, like the Ishtar of Nineveh, and she had many breasts, and she was robed every day afresh in jewels and thin garments, being served by women who, for some reason, were known as the Virgins of the Temple — though they were not virgins at all. On the contrary, they were there to be enjoyed in temple premises, a mission regarded with favour by the goddess, and the more gold and silver was offered to the temple by the client, the more favourable was the mission. These women competed in skills to please men in various ways, and from early age they were grown up to please men, so that men would sacrifice a lot of gold to Astarte. Also this was different from Egypt where it was a great sin to rejoice with a women in temple premises, and was anyone met doing so, he was sent to the mines and the temple was cleansed.

But the merchants of Zemar guarded their own women with great strictness, shutting them up at home and clothing them from head to foot in thick garments lest they tempt the stranger. The men, however, visited the temple for the sake of variety and to win divine approval.

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