The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

At this, Kaptah calmed down and became resigned to his fate, and we made ready to depart. Since he had sworn never again to set foot on a ship’s deck, we joined a caravan that was on its way to northern Syria, for I desired to see the cedars of Lebanon, whence came the timber for the palaces and for the sacred boat of Amun. Of the journey there was little to say for it was uneventful and no robbers attacked us. The inns were good, and we ate and drank well, and at one or two of the stopping places sick people came to us, whom I tended. I journeyed in a chair for I had had enough of donkeys. Neither did Kaptah fancy donkeys, but I would not let him on my chair for he was a servant and I did not want to lose my dignity in the eyes of fellow travellers. Therefore he lamented greatly and wished he was dead. I reminded him how much faster and more comfortably we could have travelled by boat, but that did not console him. Though the dry wind parched my face so that I must be forever rubbing in oil and though the dust choked me and the sand fleas tormented me, yet these seemed but petty trials, and my eyes rejoiced at all they saw.

I saw forests of cedar and trees that were so huge that no Egyptian would believe me if I were to describe them — so I won’t describe them. The fragrance of these woods was most marvellous, and the streams were clear, and it seemed to me that no one who lived in so beautiful a country could be altogether unhappy. But that was before I saw the slaves who felled and stripped the timber to send it down the hillside to the seashore. The misery of these slaves was terrible to witness, and their arms and legs were covered with festering sores torn by the bark and by their tools, and on their backs the weals cut by the scourge were alive with flies, so that after seeing them I no longer thought as I had before.

Kaptah amused himself by counting how rich he would be if he had all these trees in Egypt, loaded from a ship to the pier of Thebes. He estimated that the price of one tree was enough for a modest man to support his family his entire lifetime and have his sons educated as scribes and his daughters married off to wealthy families. He started counting the trees, but they were without end, and his head got dizzy and he restarted the counting, until he started lamenting and said, “It hurts my heart to see all this immense wealth swaying in the wind for nothing.” He covered his head to avoid seeing the trees. Listening to the noble sighs of the trees, I thought that that was already enough reason for a long journey.

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At last, we came to the city of Kadesh, where there was a fortress and a large Egyptian garrison. But the walls of the fortress were unguarded, the dikes were overgrown, and both officers and men lived together in the city with their families, remembering that they were warriors only on the days when grain and onions and beer were distributed from Pharaoh’s stores. We lingered in the city long enough for the riding sores on Kaptah’s backside to heal. I cured many sick people, for the Egyptian physicians in this place were incompetent, and their names must long have been erased from the Book of Life, if indeed they had ever been inscribed there. The sick had themselves carried to the neighbouring land of Mitanni, if they had enough gold, and once there let Babylonian-trained physicians treat them. In this city, I saw the memorials that were erected by the great Pharaohs and read their writings that told about their victories, vanquished enemies and elephant hunting. In this city, I also had a seal cut for me in a rare stone, as befitted my dignity, for seals also differ from those in Egypt, being worn not in a ring but hung about the neck in the form of cylinders with a hole in the middle so that, when rolled over the clay tablet, leave their impression in the clay. But the poor and illiterate merely press their thumbs upon the clay if they had occasion to deal with the clay tablets.

But Kadesh was so without joy and so sad, so burnt by the heat of the day and so full of sin, that also Kaptah wanted to continue the journey, even if he was terrified of the donkey. The only variation was brought by the caravans from various countries, as it lay in a crossing of the caravan routes. But such are all border towns, whichever King they obeyed, and officers and soldiers regarded them as punishments, whether from the armies of Egypt or Mitanni, Babylon or the land of Hatti, so that I never heard soldiers and officers in these border towns do anything else but curse being born in this world, gamble and fight each other, drink cheap beer and rejoice with women, who brought more sorrow than happiness.

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