The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

I borrowed fire from the temple of Amun, then purified myself and the distinguished man, who was my patient, and I purified everything that was in the room. When the noon light was brightest, I began my work and slit up the scalp and stanched the copious bleeding with red-hot irons, though I was uneasy at the agony this caused him. But he told me that the pain was nothing to that which he suffered every day. I had given him plentiful draughts of wine in which narcotics were dissolved so that his eyes protruded like those of a dead fish and he was cheerfully disposed. Next, I opened the bone as carefully as I could with the instruments I had at my disposal, and he never even fainted but drew a deep breath and told me it already eased him when I removed the piece of bone. Now my heart rejoiced, for just where I had opened his head either the devil or the spirit of disease had laid its egg, as Ptahor had taught me. It was red and hideous and the size of a swallow’s egg. With the utmost care I removed it, burning away all that held it to the brain, and showed it to the doctors, who laughed no longer. I closed the skull with a silver plate and stitched the scalp over it, and the patient never lost consciousness at any time. When I had finished, he rose and walked about and thanked me with all his heart, for he no longer heard the terrible roar in his ears, and the pains had also ceased.

This achievement brought me fame in the land of Mitanni, and my fame went before me into Babylon. Although my patient began to drink wine and enjoy himself, his body grew hot and he raved. On the third day, he left his bed in his delirium, fell from the wall and broke his neck and died. But all declared the fault was not mine and praised my skills greatly.

Kaptah and I then hired a boat with oarsmen and journeyed down the river to Babylon.

The land under the sway of Babylon is called by many names, and it is known as ‘Chaldea’ and also the ‘Land of the Kassites’ after the people who live there. But I will call it Babylon, for everyone knows what land

195

that is. It is a fertile country whose fields are threaded with irrigation ditches, and it is flat as far as the eye can see, differing from Egypt in this as in everything else. Thus, tor example, while Egyptian women grind their corn in a kneeling position and turning a round stone, the women of Babylon sit and grind two stones together, which is of course more toilsome.

There are so few trees in this country that to fell one is regarded as an offence against gods and men and is punishable by law. But whoever plants a tree thereby wins the favour of the gods. The inhabitants of Babylon are fatter and oilier than other people and like all fat folk are given to laughter. They eat heavy, floury food, and I saw a bird there they called a ‘hen,’ which could not fly but lived amongst the people and laid an egg as large as a crocodile’s egg for them every day, though no one hearing this would believe it. I was offered some of these eggs to eat, for the Babylonians regard them as a great delicacy, but I never ventured to try them since certainty is best and contented myself with dishes familiar to me or of which I knew the ingredients.

The people of the country told me that Babylon was the greatest and most ancient of all the cities in the world, though I did not believe them, knowing that Thebes is both the greatest and the oldest. There is no city in the world like Thebes, though I will admit that Babylon astonished me with its size and wealth for its very walls were as high as mountains and formidable, and the Tower they had built to their gods soared all the way to the sky. The houses of the town were four and five stories high so that people lived their lives above and below each other, and nowhere, not even in Thebes, have I seen such magnificent shops and such a wealth of merchandise as in the trading houses of the Temple.

Their god was Marduk, and to the honour of Ishtar, a gateway had been built that was loftier than the pylon of Amun’s Temple. It was covered with many-coloured glazed tiles fitted together into pictures that dazzled the eyes in sunlight. From this gateway, a broad road ran to Marduk’s Tower, up which a spiral way led to the summit, so smooth and wide was this road that a number of chariots might have been driven up it abreast. At the top of this Tower dwelt the astrologers, who knew all the heavenly bodies, calculated their paths and proclaimed

196