The Egyptian (25 page)

I called to her in a passion, “Cease that screeching, wildcat—throw away the knife and come here that we may talk together and that I may heal you, for you are certainly mad.”

She broke off her song and answered me in imperfect Babylonian—it was even worse than mine, “Jump into the pool, baboon, and swim hither for me to let blood from your liver, for I am exceedingly angry!”

“I mean you no harm!”

“Many a man has said that to me and lied. I may not approach a man even should I so desire, for I have been dedicated to my god to dance before him. That is why I carry this knife, and I will give it my own blood to drink rather than that a man should touch me. Least of all shall that one-eyed devil come fumbling at me, for he looked more like a blown-up bag than a man.”

“Dance your fill, you maniac, but put away that knife; for you might hurt yourself, and that would be a pity since the eunuchs tell me they paid a quantity of gold for you in the slave market on behalf of the King.”

“I am no slave; I was stolen away in secret as you would see if you had eyes in your head. But can’t you speak some respectable language that these people can’t follow? The eunuchs are lurking among the pillars with ears pricked to hear what we are saying.”

“I am an Egyptian,” I answered in my own tongue, “and my name is Sinuhe, He Who Is Alone, Son of the Wild Ass. By profession I am a physician, so you need not fear me.”

She jumped into the water then and swam over to me, knife in hand. Throwing herself down before me she said, “I know that Egyptian men are weak and will not take a woman by force; therefore, I trust you and beg you to forgive me for keeping my knife since it seems likely that this very day I shall have to open my veins lest my god be defiled through me. But if you fear the gods and wish me well, then save me and take me away from this land, though I may not reward you as you would then deserve, for it is forbidden.”

“I have no mind whatever to help you escape,” I snapped at her. “That would be an injury to the King, who is my friend and who has paid a mountain of gold for you. Moreover, I can tell you that the blown-up bag who was here is but the false king who reigns for today only, and tomorrow the real king will visit you. He is still a beardless boy and agreeable in his person, and he expects to find much delight with you when he has once tamed you. I do not think the power of your god can reach you here, and you would lose nothing by submission to the inevitable. It will be best, therefore, for you to make an end of this folly and to clothe and adorn yourself for him. You look far from comely with your wet hair and with the red from your lips smeared all over your face.”

These observations had their effect, for she felt her hair and wetting her finger tip rubbed her eyebrows and lips with it. Then she smiled at me—she had a small and lovely face-and said softly, “My name is Minea, and you may call me that when you take me away and we fly together from this evil land.”

I raised my hands in exasperation and turning walked quickly away, but her face so tormented me that I retraced my step and said, “Minea, I will speak for you to the King; more I cannot do. Meanwhile dress and compose yourself. If you wish it, I will give you a sedative drug so that you no longer care what is done with you.”

“Try that if you dare! Nevertheless, since you take my part, I will give you this knife, which has protected me hitherto—for I know that once I have done this you will protect and not betray me and that you will take me out of this land.”

She smiled at me under her dripping hair until I left her, carrying her knife and suffering deep mortification. For I perceived that she was more cunning than I in that by giving me her knife she bound her destiny with mine and I could not evade her.

Burnaburiash met me on my way from the women’s house and was most curious to know what had happened.

“Your eunuchs have done a poor stroke of business,” I told him, “for Minea, the girl they bought for you, is raving and will not come near a man because her god has forbidden it. It will be best, therefore, if you leave her in peace until she changes her mind.”

But Burnaburiash only laughed happily.

“Truly I anticipate much delight with her, for I know that kind of girl; with them the stick is the best argument. I am still young, and my beard has not grown, and I am often weary in the arms of women; I find greater pleasure in looking on and listening to their cries when the eunuchs lash them with thin wands. Therefore, this stubborn girl pleases me well since she gives me occasion to have her whipped by the eunuchs, and I swear that this very night she shall be beaten until her skin swells up and prevents her lying on her back, whereby my pleasure shall be greater than before.”

He rubbed his hands as he left me and tittered like a girl. As I stood and watched him go, I knew that he was no longer my friend, nor did I wish him well. And Minea’s knife still lay in my hand.

After this I could not join in the general merrymaking, although the palace and its forecourts swarmed with people who drank wine and beer and wildly applauded Kaptah’s clowning—for he had already forgotten the awkwardness in the women’s house. His black eye had been treated with slabs of fresh raw meat so that it was no longer painful though richly colored. But what was amiss with me I do not know.

I reflected that I still had much to learn in Babylon since my studies relating to the livers of sheep were not yet completed, and I still could not pour oil into water as proficiently as the priests. Moreover, Burnaburiash was much in my debt both for my professional skill and for my friendship, and I knew that by remaining his friend I should receive lavish presents at my departure. Yet the more I pondered over this, the more persistently was I haunted by Minea’s face. I thought also of Kaptah, who was to die that evening for a stupid whim of the King’s, altogether without my consent, although he was my servant.

The upshot of it was that I hardened my heart against the King, who, by offending me thus, convinced me of my right to offend against him—though my heart told me that the mere thought was a breach of all the laws of friendship. But I was a solitary foreigner, unbound by local custom. That afternoon, therefore, I went down to the river bank and hired a ten-oared boat, and I told the oarsmen:

“Today is the Day of the False King, and I know that you are drunk with joy and beer and will not willingly go rowing. But I will give you double the customary reward, for my wealthy uncle has died, and I must take his body to lay it among his forefathers-and do it swiftly before his children or my brother begin to dispute the inheritance and leave me penniless. Therefore, I will pay you lavishly, if you row with speed despite the length of the journey—for my forefathers are gathered at our old home on the borders of Mitanni.”

The boatmen grumbled, but I bought them two jars of beer and told them they might drink till sundown as long as they held themselves in readiness to start as soon as it was dark. At this they made violent protest.

“In no circumstances will we set forth after dark, for the night is full of many devils both large and small, also evil spirits that utter ghastly cries and will perhaps capsize our boat or slay us.”

But I answered, “I go to make offering in the temple that no harm may come to us in the course of our journey, and the jingling of all the silver I will give you when we arrive will drown the howls of devils.”

I went to the tower and sacrificed a sheep in the forecourt; not many people were about, for most of the citizens had assembled at the palace to celebrate the feast of the False King. I contemplated the liver of the sheep, but my thoughts were in such a turmoil that it told me little enough. I noticed merely that it was darker than usual and had an evil smell so that I was filled with misgivings. I collected the blood of the sheep in a leather bag, which I carried under my arm to the palace. When I stepped into the women’s house, a swallow flew past my head, which warmed my heart and made my body valiant, for it was a bird from my homeland, and I took it as a good omen.

In the women’s house I said to the eunuchs, “Leave me alone with this mad woman that I may drive the devil out of her.”

They obeyed and took me to a small room where I explained to Minea what she was to do, and I gave her the knife and the bag of blood. She promised to follow my directions and I left her, shutting the door after me and telling the eunuchs that no one must disturb her, as I had given her a medicine to drive the devil out of her—a devil who might take possession of the first one who opened the door without my permission. They needed no further admonition.

By now the setting sun was filling the palace rooms with ruddy light. Kaptah was eating and drinking again while Burnaburiash waited upon him, laughing and tittering like a girl. All over the floor drink-sodden men were slumbering in pools of wine. I said to Burnaburiash, “I wish to convince myself that Kaptah will have a painless death, for he is my servant, and I owe it to him to be so assured.”

“Hurry, then,” he said, “for the old man is already mixing the poison with the wine and your servant must die at sunset as custom demands.”

I found the old man, the King’s physician. When I told him that the King had sent me, he believed me and said, “Mix the poison yourself, for my hands are shaky with wine drinking, and my eyes are so blurred that I can see nothing, so heartily have I laughed today at your servant’s frolics.”

I threw away his mixture and poured poppy juice into the wine, though not enough to cause death. Then, carrying the goblet to Kaptah, I said, “Kaptah, it may be that we shall never meet again, for your dignities have gone to your head and by tomorrow you will not deign to know me. Drink, therefore, from the cup I now offer you, so that upon my return to Egypt I shall be able to say that the lord of the four quarters of the world was my friend. When you have drunk, you will know that I mean you nothing but good, whatever may befall. Remember also our scarab!”

Kaptah said, “The talk of this Egyptian would be like the buzz of flies in my ears if my ears were not already so full of the buzz of wine that I cannot hear what he says. But the cup I have never spurned as all here know and as I have striven to prove today to all my subjects, with whom I am greatly pleased. Therefore, I will drain the cup you offer me though I know that I shall feel wild asses kicking in my head tomorrow.”

He emptied the goblet, and at that moment the sun went down. Torches were brought in and lamps lighted. All rose and stood in silence so that quietness reigned throughout the palace. Kaptah put off the Babylonian diadem, saying, “This accursed crown weighs down my head, and I am weary of it. Also my legs are numb and my eyelids like lead. I had better go to bed.”

So saying he dragged a heavy tablecloth over himself and lay down to sleep upon the floor. With the cloth, jars and wine cups came tumbling down on him so that he bathed in wine to his neck, even as he had promised to do in the morning. The King’s servants undressed him and put the wine-drenched robe on Burnaburiash, set the royal diadem on his head and the symbols of majesty in his hands, and led him to take his place upon the throne.

“This has been a tiring day,” he said. “Yet in the course of it I have not failed to note one and another of you who have shown me insufficient respect during the revels, no doubt in the hope that I should choke myself and never regain my throne. Drive those sleepers out with whips, chase the rabble from the courtyards, and put this fool into the jar of eternity if he is dead, for I am weary of him.”

Kaptah was rolled on to his back, and the physician, having examined him with shaking hands and dim eyes, declared, “He is as dead as a dung beetle.”

Servants bore in a great earthenware urn such as Babylonians use for the entombing of their dead, and into this Kaptah was put, the top being then sealed with clay. The King gave orders that the jar was to be carried down to the vaults beneath the palace and placed among those of previous false kings.

At this point I intervened, saying, “This man is an Egyptian and circumcised like myself. Therefore, I must embalm his boiy after the Egyptian custom, and for his journey to the Western Land I must furnish him with all necessary things so that he may eat and drink and take his pleasure after death without the necessity of toil. This may take thirty days or it may take seventy days, according to the rank the dead man has held during his lifetime. With Kaptah I think it will take but thirty days, as he was my servant. After that time I will bring him back to his place among his predecessors, the other false kings, in the vaults beneath your house.”

Burnaburiash listened curiously and said, “So be it. Do with him as you will since it is the custom of your land; I shall not quarrel over customs, for I also pray to gods I do not know to propitiate them for sins I may unknowingly have committed. Prudence is a virtue.”

I bade the servants carry Kaptah out in his jar and put him in a carrying chair that stood waiting by the palace wall. Before leaving I said to the King, “For thirty days you will not see me, for during the period of embalming I cannot show myself among men, lest I transmit to them the devils that swarm about the corpse.”

On reaching the carrying chair I pierced a hole in the clay that sealed the jar, to give Kaptah air to breathe, and then returned secretly to the palace and the women’s house. The eunuchs rejoiced to see me, for they feared that at any moment the King might come.

But when I had opened the door of the room in which I had left Minea, I returned at once, tearing my hair and lamenting. “Come and see what has happened, for there she lies dead in her blood with the bloodstained knife beside her, and her hair also is bloody!”

The eunuchs came and were aghast—for eunuchs have a great horror of blood—and they dared not touch her but began weeping and crying out in terror of the King’s wrath.

I said to them, “We are involved in the same misfortune, you and I. Quickly bring a mat in which I may roll the body; then wash the blood from the floor, that none may know what has occurred. For the King anticipated much pleasure from this girl, and his wrath will be terrible if he learns that you and I in our blundering have let her die as her god required. Make speed, therefore, to put another girl in her place—one from a foreign land for choice, who does not speak your tongue. Dress her and adorn her for the King, and if she resists, beat her with sticks before his eyes, for this is especially pleasing to the King, and he will reward you richly.”