The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

Thus in Zemar there were no pleasure houses like those of Egypt. If the temple virgins were not to a man’s liking, he had to take a wife or buy himself a slave girl. Slave girls were for sale every day, for ships were continually coming into port with women and children on board of every size and colour, both plump and thin, children and girls, to suit all tastes and requirements. But the unfit slaves were purchased cheaply for sacrifice to Baal on behalf of the city council, who would then laugh and slap their chests and commend themselves for their cunning in thus deceiving their god. If the slave was very old and toothless and without legs or terminally ill, they put a blindfold on their god’s eyes so that he could not see a fault in the sacrifice and yet rejoiced when he felt in his nose the smell of blood flowing in his honour.

I, too, made sacrifice to Baal since he was the god of the city and it was best to seek his favour. Being an Egyptian, I bought no human sacrifices for him but gave him gold. Sometimes I visited Astarte’s temple, which opened in the evenings, to listen to their music and watch the temple women — whom I would not call virgins — dancing voluptuous dances to the glory of their goddess. Since it was the custom, I lay with them, and I marvelled at the practices they taught me of which I had known nothing. But my heart did not cheer with them, and I did all from curiosity. When they had taught me what they had to impart, I wearied of them and no longer visited their temple. To my mind, there were no accomplishments so monotonous as theirs.

But Kaptah shook his head in concern for me, for my face was ageing, and the furrows between my brows were deepening, and my heart was sealed. His wish was that I should have a slave girl to beguile my leisure moments, when I happened to have those, because I could not marry from an alien people, and since I had no contact with the Egyptians in the garrison, I was not able to rejoice with women whose husbands were on a journey or on a military mission inland. Since Kaptah kept house and handled my gold, he once bought a girl for me who was to his own taste. He washed and dressed and anointed her and presented her to me one evening when, tired after the day’s work, I desired only to go to bed in peace.

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This girl was from the islands in the sea, and her skin was white, her teeth faultless, and she was not thin, and her eyes were round and gentle like the eyes of a heifer. She gazed at me in veneration and showed fear of the strange city to which she had been brought. Kaptah extolled her beauty with the greatest earnestness, and to please him I tried to rejoice with her. Yet, though I did my best to escape from my loneliness, my heart was not gladdened, and I could not bring myself to call her my sister.

But in showing her kindness I erred, for it made her arrogant, and she disturbed me in my interviews with patients. She ate a great deal and grew fat and was forever demanding jewels and new clothes. Also she dogged my footsteps looking at me wistfully and was in a continual desire to take pleasure with me. It was to no purpose that I made journeys inland and to the cities along the coast for on my return home she was the first to greet me, with tears and persecution, and again followed me so that I would take pleasure with her. And it was no use to hit her with stick, for then she grew hotter than before and admired my strength, and life in my house became intolerable. At last, I wanted to give her to Kaptah, who had chosen her to his own taste, so that he could rejoice with her and I could rest again, but she bit and kicked Kaptah and cursed him both in the language of Zemar, which she had learned a few words, and the language of the islands, which neither of us understood. The more we both beat her with sticks, the more eagerly she wanted to please us.

But the scarab brought me good fortune, for one day King Aziru, the ruler of the inland province of Amurru, came to me, having heard of my reputation. I doctored his teeth, making him one tooth of ivory to replace one that had been knocked out in battle and coating other damaged ones with gold. I did this with all the skill I had. While he remained in the city, conferring with the authorities on administrative business between Amurru and Zemar, he visited me every day. Thus he met my slave girl, whom I called Keftiu after the islands in the sea, being unable to pronounce her heathenish name, and he found delight in her. This Aziru was as strong as a bull and white skinned. His beard was blue black and glossy, and his eyes held an arrogant gleam so that Keftiu began to look upon him with desire for women are ever captivated by what is alien. He especially admired how plump she was even if still of young age, and her garments, which she wore in the

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