The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

All labour ceases,

When you declined in the West.

Since your creation of the world,

You have prepared it for the coming of your son, For him who was born of you,

The King who lives by the truth,

Lord of both Kingdoms, the Son of Ra, Who lives by the truth,

For the Lord of the Crowns did you create the world And for his great consort,

His beloved, Queen of the Two Kingdoms,

Nefertiti, who shall live and bloom from everlasting to everlasting.”

The soldiers listened and wiggled their toes in the sand, and when at last the song came to an end, they shouted in relief and to the honour of Pharaoh, for all that they grasped of the hymn was the intention to praise Pharaoh and hail him as the son of the god, which was right and fitting since so it had ever been and ever would be. Horemheb bid the priest leave, and the young man, delighted by the acclamation of the troops, went away to write an account of the event to Pharaoh. But I think the song and its ideas did not mean much to the soldiers, whom had wiggled their toes in the sand, and who were about to ride into battle and many a violent death.

The rearguard started marching, followed by ox sleds and pack asses. Horemheb dashed ahead in his chariot, while the senior officers proceeded in their chairs, complaining of the heat. I was content to sit on the back of a donkey like my friend the quartermaster, and I took with me my medical chest of which I expected to make good use.

The column marched until evening with only a brief rest during which the men were allowed to eat and drink. An ever increasing number grew footsore and dropped out by the roadside, unable to rise despite the kicks and whippings of the sergeants. The men swore and sang in turns. With the lengthening of the shadows came the swoosh of

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arrows from the rocks bordering the road and now and then a cry from the ranks, where a man clutched his shoulder into which an arrow was sticking, or he fell headlong upon the road. Horemheb did not stay to pick off the snipers but pressed onward until the troops were moving at a jog trot. The light chariots cleared the way ahead, and soon we saw lying along the roadside the bodies of Habirus in ragged cloaks, their mouths and eyes crawling with flies. Some of our men fell out to turn these bodies over in search of plunder, but there was nothing left to take.

The quartermaster sweated on his donkey and bade me take his last greeting to his wife and children, for he felt that this was to be his last day. He told me where in Thebes his wife was to be found and begged me to see to it that no one looted his corpse, provided the Habirus did not kill us all by evening, he added, with a gloomy shake of the head.

At last, there opened out before us the wide plain on which the Habirus were encamped. Horemheb gave order for the sounding of horns and disposed his troops for attack, spearmen in the centre and bowmen on either flank. The chariots, save for a few of the heavier ones, he dispatched to play a certain part elsewhere, and they raced off at such speed that the dust whirled up and hid them. A few heavy chariots he kept next to himself. From the faraway valleys beyond the hills rose the smoke from burning villages. The Habirus on the plain seemed numberless, and their howls and yells filled the air like the thundering of the sea as they advanced upon us, shields and spear points glinting menace in the sunlight. But Horemheb shouted with a loud voice:

“Stiffen your knees, my beloved dung snouts, for the fighters among the Habirus are few, and what you see are cattle and women and children, all to be yours before nightfall. In their cooking pots hot food awaits you, so away with you now, that we may eat before nightfall, for already I am as famished as a crocodile.”

But the frightening horde of Habirus rolled nearer, far outnumbering ours, and their spears looked sharp in the sunlight, and battle held no charms for me any more. The ranks of our spearmen wavered, and they looked behind them as I did. The sergeants slashed with their whips and swore, and doubtless the men were too tired and hungry to turn and flee, for they stiffened their ranks, and the archers twanged nervously at their bowstrings, awaiting the signal.

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