The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

I could not believe that he had not feared for his life riding as the first one against the spears. So I said persistently, “You have a warm skin and blood runs under it, like all other men. Are you protected by some powerful magic, so that you cannot be wounded, or how comes it that you feel no fear?”

He said, “I have heard of such sorcery, and many soldiers carry about their necks magic pockets that should protect them, but after this battle many such pockets have been collected from the necks of the dead, so I do not believe in such sorcery; but of course it is useful as it makes an unlearned man who cannot read or write, rely on themselves and be brave in a battle. Truth be told, all that is but filth, Sinuhe. But when it comes to me, things are different, for I know I am destined to great deeds, though how I know this, I cannot tell you. A warrior either has good fortune on his side or he has none, and I have had it since the falcon led me to Pharaoh. It is true that my falcon did not love the palace and flew away never to return. But as we were marching across the desert of Sinai, enduring great hunger and even greater thirst — for I suffered with my men to learn what they were feeling and thus gain command over them — I saw in some valley a burning bush. It was of living fire shaped like some big bush or a tree, and it was not consumed but burned night and day. The earth round about it had a smell that went to my head and inspired me with courage. I saw it as I was driving ahead of my troops to hunt the wild beasts of the desert, and it was seen by no other save my charioteer, who can bear witness to the apparition. But from that moment I have known that no spear or arrow or war club can touch me before my appointed time. But how I know this, I cannot say, for such things are hidden.”

I believed his account and was filled with awe, for Horemheb had no reason to invent such a tale for my amusement. Indeed, I hardly think he could have done so, being a man who believed and knew only in what he saw and could touch with his hands.

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He let his troops stay in the Habirus’ camp to eat and drink and shoot targets and practice javelin — and as targets they used those Habirus who were too severely wounded to be slaves or who were too mettlesome. This way, the men did not whine about the practise, but gladly shot arrows and threw their spears. But on the third day, the smell of corpses left on the battlefield became terrifying, and ravens and jackals who came from the desert in barking hordes made such noise in the nighttime that no one could sleep. Many Habiru women strangled themselves in their own hair which they kept long, so that there was not much joy from them any more either. They were bony, dirty women, and their eyes were wild like the desert, although the soldiers bragged about them and thought they were beautiful, for they had not been with women for a long time. Seeing all this, I became weary of war, and all the misery that people brought on each other made my heart heavy. Looking at the bodies that were pecked by ravens and whose bones were gnawed by jackals and hyenas, I said to my friend the quartermaster:

“Soon their skulls will be bare and no one can tell who was Egyptian and who was Habiru — and I don’t believe even gods can tell whose heart was pure, and who fought for the right cause and who for the wrong.”

But my friend the quartermaster was doing fine writing down all the wheat robbed by the Habirus and counting cattle and said, “We have a great and wise chief whose yell in battle is more valiant than a lion’s roar. The barking of jackals and hyenas is sweeter in my ears than the war cries of the Habirus, and I would rather smell the corpses than feel spearheads piercing my flesh. But what you say about the skulls and gods is something to think about, for even if I know that an Egyptian, who dies in battle in the name of Amun and firmly trusting Osiris, goes straight to the Western Land, even if his body was not preserved — I am glad that I did not die in the battle. The gods will have such trouble telling the righteous from the wicked in this battlefield. The reason, why I did not die, was that in my fear I cried so loud that the Habirus, who tried to reach me with their spears, started shaking and dropped their spears and prostrated in front of me.”

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