The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

We continued our journey and crossed the border into Naharin, with none hindering us, where we came to a river flowing upward instead of down as the Nile does. We were told that we were in the land of Mitanni, and we paid the travellers’ tax into the royal revenues. But because we were Egyptians, the people greeted us with respect, coming up to us in the street and saying, “We bid you welcome for our hearts rejoice at the sight of Egyptians. It is long since we beheld them. Our hearts also are uneasy, for your Pharaoh has sent us no soldiers, no arms and no gold, and the rumour runs that he has offered to our King some new god of whom we know nothing, though we have already Ishtar of Nineveh and a number of others who have hitherto protected us.” They invited me to their houses and gave me food and drink, and they also served Kaptah because he was an Egyptian, though only my servant, so that Kaptah said to me, “This is a good land. Let us remain here, my lord, and practice medicine, for it appears that these people are ignorant and credulous and would be easy to deceive.”

The King of Mitanni and his court had gone up into the mountains for the hot season. I had no desire to follow them there, being impatient to see the wonders of Babylon, of which I had heard so much. But I did as Horemheb had commanded me and spoke with the great ones and with the humble, and all told the same tale, and I understood that their hearts indeed were filled with uneasiness. The land of Mitanni had formerly been powerful, but now it seemed a land floating in the air, walled in by Babylon in the east and by savage tribes in the north and in the west by the Hittites, the name of whose realm was Hatti. The more I heard of the Hittites, who were greatly feared, the firmer became my resolve to journey to the land of Hatti also, but first I desired to visit Babylon.

The inhabitants of the land of Mitanni were small of stature, their women were beautiful and slender, and their children like dolls. It may be that they had been a mighty people in their time, for they said that they had once ruled over the peoples of the north and the south, the east and the west, but that is what every nation says. I did not believe that they once overcame and raided Babylon, although they so said, and if they ever had done such a thing, they had done it with the help of Pharaohs. Ever since the time of the great Pharaohs this country had been dependent upon Egypt, and for two generations the daughters of its King had dwelt as wives in Pharaoh’s golden house. The forefathers of

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Amenhoteps had driven their chariots across Naharin, and people still kept their victory tablets on display. By listening to the talk and the complaints of Mitannians, I came to understand that their country had been designed as a shield for Syria and Egypt against the might of Babylon and of the savage peoples to receive in its body the spears aimed at Egypt’s power. For this reason, and this reason alone, Pharaohs propped up the King’s tottering throne and sent him gold, arms and mercenaries. But the people did not understand this, and they were exceedingly proud of their country and its power and said, “Tadukhipa, the daughter of our King, was a great royal consort in Thebes, even if she was just a child and perished suddenly. We do not understand why Pharaoh sends us no more gold, even if, like we remember, Pharaohs have loved our Kings as brothersand sent us chariots and arms and gold and expensive gifts for the sake of this love.”

I saw that it was a weary and dying nation with the shadow of death on its temples and beautiful buildings. The people were unaware of this, and they paid more attention to their food, preparing it in many remarkable ways, and squandered their time in trying on new clothes and pointed shoes and tall hats and were particular in the choosing of jewellery. Their limbs were slender like those of the Egyptians, and their women’s complexions were so transparent that one might see the blood flowing blue in their veins. They spoke and behaved with delicacy and were taught in their childhood to walk gracefully — men as well as women. To live here was pleasant, and even in the pleasure houses there was no noise or yelling hurting the ears, but everything took place silently and discreetly so that I felt big and clumsy when I spoke to them and drank my wine with them. Yet my heart was heavy when I looked at them, for I had seen war and knew that if all that was said of the land of Hatti were true, then their country was a disappearing one.

Their medicine was also of a high standard, and their physicians were skilful men who knew their trade and also a great deal that I did not know. I obtained from them a potion for expelling worms that was far less troublesome and unpleasant than any I had met with before. They could also cure blindness with the needle, and in this also I became more proficient. But they knew nothing of skull opening and said that only the gods could cure head injuries and that even if gods cured them the patients were never the same again so that it was better for them to die.

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