The Egyptian

by Mika Waltari

I have sent the cross of life to King Shubbiluliuma also, and-at his own request-gold, so that he can erect a life-size figure of me in his temple. He will not disturb the peace of Egypt since he may have gold of me whenever he asks it.”

This miserable Eie, then, who has no more virility in him than a cow’s teat, brought Aton from Heliopolis and stuffed the boy’s head with him.

“The great Queen Taia was clever at tying reeds, was she not? Did she not fashion little boats of them and send them down the river by night?”

It was Eie who taught her how to administer poison, so that Princess Tadukhipa of Mitanni died while she was yet weeping and calling for her son and would have fled from the palace to seek him.”

The Princess of Mitanni bore no son. If she did, then when did the birth occur?”

Taia bade them administer a narcotic and gave it out that Tadukhipa had lost her reason because her child was stillborn. After the manner of men, Pharaoh believed Taia rather than Tadukhipa. Thenceforth Tadukhipa began to pine away, and at last she died.

I was Pharaoh Akhnaton’s half-brother and might have been Pharaoh before him had not the guile of Taia overcome my dead mother’s love.

The days slipped by: swiftly as breaths they passed and were gone. I will speak no more of them because their memory catches at my throat like chaff, and dew from my eyes blurs the script.

Man ought not to be too happy, for nothing is more fleeting and elusive than happiness.

Ankhsenaton broke the jar with a ten-year-old boy named Tut,

So much is man the slave of his heart that he will shut his eyes to what does not please him and believe all that he hopes.

Thoth was your son, conceived when first you lay with Merit.

Horemheb, by all the gods of Egypt, that on the day when I set the red and white crown on my head I will with my own hand break the jar between you and the Princess. More I cannot do for you, and even thus I deliver myself into your hands.”

You too understand that it is high time for Pharaoh to die. As his physician you shall open his skull this very day and see to it that your knife goes deep enough for him to depart in the decent and traditional manner.”

So passed Pharaoh Akhnaton; I gave him death to drink, and he drank it from my hand.

He and Horemheb next went to young Tut, who was playing on the floor in his room.

Tutankhaton is not a suitable name to bear before the priests of Ammon; from this day forward, therefore, let your name be Tutankhamon.”

“I have been sufficiently dragged through the mire in this accursed city and am unwilling to defile myself still further with you, fair Nefertiti. I have letters to dictate concerning the war and lack the time to disport myself with you.”

From that day forward Nefertiti hated Horemheb with a bitter hatred and did all she could to injure him and blacken his reputation.

I reflected also that nothing in the world is more terrible than the dreams of the Pharaohs, because the seed they sow is blood and death.

Akhnaton’s god had robbed me of my hope and my joy, and I knew that all gods dwelt in dark houses whence there is no return.

I reflected that it would be better if I never returned since I brought only sorrow and misfortune upon those who loved me-better to live and die alone, as I had come down the river on the night of my birth.

It has given me great satisfaction to hear you speak your minds boldly-to acknowledge that war demands sacrifices from everyone, for which reason you have curtailed the grain measure of your slaves and laborers and raised the price of goods all over Egypt. I perceive from your words and deeds that you also are prepared to make great sacrifices.

But with one voice the Cretans declared that all calamities had come about because their god was dead.

His men, wearied and fevered with the fury of battle, with their wounds, and with the reek of blood, were aghast at the spectacle of their own losses. The Egyptian dead in the valley far outnumbered those of the enemy.

“Kaptah, Kaptah!” I cried, falling on my knees and throwing my arms about his rat-bitten shoulders. “You are incorrigible! They told me in Thebes that you were dead, but I would not believe it, for I think you can never die.

My heart was hardened at the sight of man’s iniquity. All that had happened in Thebes on Aton’s account was trivial beside what was done in Joppa because of Horemheb.

I say only that at the time of Horemheb’s attack there were in the city, besides Aziru’s garrison and the Hittite soldiery, nearly twenty thousand inhabitants. When he departed there were not three hundred left alive.

The cities of Syria were laid in ruins, and men hid themselves like wild beasts in the recesses of the hills. The whole region was laid waste, and ravaging hordes trampled the crops and broke down the fruit trees, that the enemy might not live off the land he claimed.

If I had won, all the evil that has come about would have been laid at Egypt’s door, and my name would be praised. Because I lost, the blame is cast on me, and my name is anathema throughout Syria.”

Tutankhamon reigned in Egypt during these years, though he was but a stripling and took interest in nothing but the building of his own tomb. The people blamed him for all the loss and misery resulting from the war.

It was said that Tutankhamon had had a severe attack on the day that tidings reached Thebes of the fall of Megiddo and the conclusion of peace. The nature of the fatal disorder was the subject of dispute among the physicians of the House of Life.

In a further letter Baketamon repeated her offer, with the assurance that both the Egyptian nobles and the priests of Ammon were on her side. At this Shubbiluliuma was persuaded of her sincerity and had hastened to make peace with Horemheb and was even now preparing to send his son Shubattu to Egypt.

At that moment I saw them both for what they were: robbers despoiling the dying body of Egypt, children playing with crowns and emblems of power, so chained and fettered by their desires that happiness could never be theirs.

Thus I saved Egypt from the power of the Hittites, and I ought to have rejoiced.

Nevertheless, this desert sickness is only too familiar, and I know that my brother Akhnaton, whom I loved with a sister’s love, died of the same.

“Have I then committed all these crimes in vain? Was it in vain that I sowed death about me all my days? No, no-assuredly you are wrong, Sinuhe. The priests will save me from the abyss of death and will preserve my body to all eternity. My body must be immortal since I am Pharaoh, and for the same reason I cannot be held guilty for my deeds.”

Many tales were afterward told of this child, such as that he had been born with the head of a lion or with a helmet. I can bear witness that there was nothing abnormal about the boy, who was healthy and robust. Horemheb gave him the name of Rameses.

“I have heard evil of you in Thebes, my lord Sinuhe, where it is said that you have been stirring up the people against Horemheb and that judges and other eminent men are incensed against you because you have accused them of many injustices.

When the waters fell, Eie the priest died. It was said that he had starved to death because his dread of poison would not allow him to eat.

I am older than when we parted, and my spirit has been sorely oppressed by your words, with which you accused me of being a bloodthirsty man who brought only harm to Egypt.

I bring back the old ways, for men are never satisfied with the present: in their eyes only the past is good, and the future.

Your own thoughts are those of a feeble man, and the weak have no right to live in the world but are made to be trampled underfoot by the strong. So is it also with nations; so it has ever been and ever will he.”

He grew suspicious and trusted no one, believing that all derided him behind his back because of Baketamon. Thus he always had a thorn in his flesh, and his heart knew no peace.

In justice I must speak also of Horemheb’s virtues, for the people praised his name and held him to be a good ruler. After only a few years of reign he was numbered among the great Pharaohs of Egypt.

Kaptah invited me often to his house, which with its gardens formed a whole district in itself so that he had no neighbors to disturb his peace.

I spoke malignantly of Horemheb also, and all his deeds were evil in my eyes. Most of all I spoke ill of his “scum,”

I must banish you from Egypt, Sinuhe, and never again shall you see the land of Kem. If I allowed you to remain, the day would come when I should have to put you to death, and that I do not wish to do because you were once my friend. Your extravagant words might be the spark to kindle the dry reeds. When once dry reeds have caught, they blaze away to ashes.

But I rebuked her, saying that she ought never to have left Thebes, for she had now no hope of return. By her coming she had bound her life to the life of a banished man.

Every year when the ships sailed to Punt, Kaptah sent us many donkey loads of goods from Thebes.