The Egyptian

by Mika Waltari

  Ship after ship followed, and he gathered together his master builders and architects and showed them where the main streets were to run, where his golden palace and the temple of Aton were to stand. As his followers joined him he pointed out to each the site of his house. The builders drove away the herdsmen and their sheep, tore down their reed huts, and built quays along the shore. For these builders Pharaoh allotted space for their own town outside the city where, before starting the work commanded of them, they were allowed to build mud houses for themselves. Five streets ran north and south, five east and west; the houses that lined them were all of identical height and each contained two similar rooms. The roasting pit was in the same place in every house, as was every mat and pitcher. Pharaoh bore good will to all his workmen and wished them to share the same benefits, that they might dwell happily in their own place outside Pharaoh’s city and bless the name of Aton.

  Then came winter and the season of flood. Pharaoh did not return to Thebes as was his custom but remained aboard his ship which was now the seat of government. As stone was laid upon stone and column after column was erected, he rejoiced greatly. Often he would break into malicious laughter when he beheld the beautiful, delicate timber houses rising along the streets, for the thought of Thebes corroded his mind like poison. On this city of Akhetaton he spent all the money he had won from Ammon, and he divided Ammon’s land among the very poor.

  I had much work to do, for although Pharaoh himself improved in health and spirits as he beheld his city blossom from the soil on its colored pillars, yet sickness raged among the workmen before the ground had been drained; also there were many building accidents because of the haste imposed upon the men.

  As soon as the river had fallen, Horemheb landed at Akhetaton in company with members of the court, though he did not intend to stay longer than was needful to persuade Pharaoh to change his mind about disbanding the army. Pharaoh had commanded him to release the Nubians and Shardanas from his service and send them home, but Horemheb had delayed fulfillment of the order on all manner of pretexts, having reason to fear that revolt would soon break out in Syria and being minded to lead the troops into that country.

  But Pharaoh Akhnaton was unshakable in his resolve and Horemheb but wasted his time in Akhetaton. Every day their conversations were the same.

  Horemheb said, “There is serious unrest in Syria and the Egyptian colonies there are feeble. King Aziru is fomenting hatred toward Egypt. I have no doubt that when the time is ripe he will start open revolt.”

  Pharaoh Akhnaton said, “Have you seen the floors in my palace on which artists are just now creating reed swamps and swimming ducks in the Cretan manner? As to a revolt in Syria, I think it unlikely, for I have sent to all its princes the cross of life. King Aziru in particular is my friend, having received the cross of life from me and raised a temple to Aton in the land of Amurru. No doubt you have already seen the colonnaded hall of Aton beside my palace here. It is worth seeing, although the pillars are of brick only, to save time-moreover the thought of slaves toiling in the quarries is repugnant to me. But to return to Aziru-you have no grounds to doubt his loyalty; I have received from him countless clay tablets in which he seeks eagerly to learn new things of Aton. If you wish, my scribes can show you these tablets as soon as our archives are in order.”

  Horemheb answered, “I spit on his clay tablets-they are as foul and as false as himself. But if it is your firm resolve to disband the army, let me at least reinforce the frontier troops, for already the tribes of the south are driving their herds within our boundary stones, to the grazing grounds in the land of Kush and in Syria. They are burning the villages of our black allies, which is no hard task since they are built of straw.”

  Akhnaton said, “I believe it is not ill will that drives them but poverty. Our allies must share their grazing with the southern tribes, and I will also send them the cross of life. Nor do I believe they fire the villages through set purpose. As you say, these are easily kindled, and one should not condemn whole tribes for the sake of a few villages. But if you will, then by all means strengthen the frontier guards in the land of Kush and in Syria since you are answerable for the safety of the realm-but see to it that they are guards only and not a standing army.”

  Horemheb said, “Akhnaton, my mad friend, you must let me reform the garrison troops all over the country, for the disbanded men are robbing right and left in their poverty and stealing the tribute hides of the peasants, whom they beat with sticks.”

  Pharaoh Akhnaton said, as one pointing a moral, “See what came of your refusal to listen to me! Had you spoken more of Aton to these men, they would not now be acting thus, but their hearts are darkened, the scars of your whip lash burn their backs, and they know not what they do. And by the by, have you noticed that both my daughters can now walk? Meritaton takes care of the younger one, and they have an enchanting little gazelle for a playfellow. Well there is nothing to prevent your hiring the disbanded men as guards up and down the country, provided they remain guards and are not embodied into a standing army for war. And to my mind it would be well to break up all the chariots, for suspicion breeds suspicion, and we have to convince our neighbors that whatever happens Egypt will never have recourse to war.”

  “Would it not be simpler to sell the chariots to Aziru or the Hittites? They pay well for chariots and horses,” sneered Horemheb. “I can see that it would not pay you to keep a regular army when you bury all the wealth of Egypt in a swamp or make bricks of it.”

  They disputed thus day after day until by sheer tenacity Horemheb gained the position of commander-in-chief of the frontier troops and of all the garrisons. It was Pharaoh who decided how they should be armed, namely with wooden spears. Their numbers were left for Horemheb to determine. Horemheb then summoned all district commanders to Memphis because it lay in the middle of the country and on the borders of the Two Kingdoms. He was on the point of embarking for that city when a river courier arrived, with a stack of letters and clay tablets from Syria, full of alarming news. His hopes were rekindled. These communications showed beyond dispute that King Aziru, having learned of the disturbances in Thebes, considered the moment favorable for the annexation of certain cities beyond his borders. Megiddo, the key to Syria, was also in revolt, and Aziru’s forces were besieging the fortress to which the Egyptian garrison had retired and from which they were now appealing to Pharaoh for speedy help.

  But Pharaoh Akhnaton said, “I fancy King Aziru has good reason for his actions. He is a fiery man, and it may be that my envoys have offended him. I will not judge him until he has opportunity to defend himself. But one thing I can do, and it was wrong of me not to think of it before. Now that a city of Aton is rising in the Black Land I must build another in the Red Land-in Syria-and in Kush. Megiddo is a junction for the caravan routes and therefore the most suitable place, but I suspect that just now it is too disturbed to permit building.

  “But you have spoken to me of Jerusalem, where you built a temple to Aton during your campaign against the Khabiri-a campaign for which I can never forgive myself. It is not so central as Megidcfo, being farther south; nevertheless I shall take immediate steps for the building of a city of Aton in Jerusalem so that in future that shall be the center of Syria, though now it is only a tumbledown village.”

  When Horemheb heard this, he broke his whip, threw it at Pharaoh s feet, and went aboard his ship. And so he sailed to Memphis to reorganize the garrison troops throughout the country. Yet his stay in Akhetaton had had this advantage: I had been able to tell him quietly and at leisure all that I had seen and heard in Babylon, Mitanni, the land of Hatti, and in Crete. He listened in silence, nodding now and again as if what I told him were not altogether news, and he fingered the knife I had been given by the harbormaster. All that I recounted to him of roads, bridges, and rivers he caused to be set down in writing, also any names I mentioned. Finally I told him to consult Kaptah in the matter, for Kaptah was as childish as himself in his memo
ry for all manner of useless things.

  He departed from Akhetaton in anger, and Pharaoh rejoiced to see him go. The conversations with Horemheb had greatly plagued him so that even the sight of the man gave him a headache.

  To me he said musingly, “It may be the will of Aton that we lose Syria, and if so, who am I to oppose it since it must be for the good of Egypt? For the wealth of Syria has eaten at Egypt’s heart. All superfluity, all softness, vices, and evil practices have come from there. Were we to lose Syria, Egypt would return to simpler ways-to ways of truth-and that is the best thing that can befall it. The new life must start here and spread among all nations.”

  My heart rose up against his talk and I said, “The commander of the Smyrna garrison has a son named Rameses-a lively boy with big brown eyes who loves to play with pretty stones. I treated him once for chickenpox. And in Megiddo there dwells an Egyptian woman who, having heard o? my skill, once visited me in Smyrna. Her belly was swollen; I opened it with my knife and she lived. Her skin was soft as wool, and she walked beautifully like all Egyptian women, even though her belly was swollen and here eyes were bright with fever.”

  “I do not understand why you tell me of these things,” said Akhnaton, and he began to make a sketch of a temple he beheld in his mind’s eye. He constantly vexed his architects and master builders with drawings and explanations though they understood their business better than he.

  “I mean that I can see that little Rameses with his mouth cut and bruised and the locks at his temple clotted with blood. I see the woman from Megiddo lying naked and bleeding in the courtyard of the fortress while men from Amurru violate her. Yet I acknowledge that my thoughts are trivial compared with yours and that a ruler cannot remember every Rameses and every soft-skinned woman among his subjects.”

  Pharaoh clenched his fists, and his eyes darkened as he cried, “Sinuhe, can you not understand that if I must choose death rather than life, then I will choose the death of a hundred Egyptians rather than that of a thousand Syrians? Were I to give battle in Syria so as to liberate every Egyptian there, then many-both Syrians and Egyptians-would lose their lives in the war. Were I to meet evil with evil, only evil could result. But if I meet evil with good, the resulting evil is less. I will not choose death rather than life, and so I stop my ears to your talk. Speak to me no more of Syria if you love me and if my life is dear to you. When I think of that, my heart feels all the suffering those who die for my will’s sake must undergo-and a man cannot long endure the sufferings of many. Give me peace for the sake of Aton and of my truth.”

  He bowed his head, and his eyes were swollen and bloodshot in his grief, and his thick lips trembled. I left him in peace, but in my own ears I heard the thunder of battering rams against the Megiddo walls and the cries of outraged women in the woolen tents of the Amorites. I hardened my heart against these sounds for I loved him, for all his madness, and perhaps I loved him the more because of it, for his madness was more beautiful than the wisdom of other men.

  5

  The founding of the new city brought division into the royal family, for the Queen Mother refused to follow her son into the desert. Thebes was her city, and the golden house of Pharaoh, glowing hazy blue and russet among its walls and gardens by the river, had been built by Pharaoh Amenhotep for his beloved. Taia, the Queen Mother, had begun life as a poor fowler girl in the reed swamps of the Lower Kingdom. She would not leave Thebes, and Princess Baketamon stayed with. her. Eie the priest, bearer of the crook on the right hand of the King, ruled and sat in judgment there on the King’s throne with the leather scrolls before him. Life in Thebes went on as before; only the false Pharaoh was absent-and unregretted.

  Queen Nefertiti returned to Thebes for the birth of her next child, for she dared not be brought to bed without the help of the physicians and the Negro sorcerers of Thebes. Here she bore her third daughter, whose name was Ankhsenaton and who would in time be queen. To ease the birth, the sorcerers narrowed and lengthened the child’s head as they had done with the other princesses. When the girl grew up, all the court ladies, and others who wished to be in the fashion and to imitate the styles of the court, took to wearing false backs to their heads. But the princesses themselves kept their heads close shaven to show off the fine shape of their skulls. Artists also admired it, and they carved and drew and painted numerous portraits of them without suspecting that this distinctive feature was but a result of the magicians’ arts.

  When Nefertiti had born her child she returned to Akhetaton and took up her residence in the palace, which in the meantime had been set in habitable order. She left the other women behind in Thebes, being vexed at having given birth to three daughters and unwilling to let Pharaoh waste his virility on the couches of others. Akhnaton was content to have it so, for he was weary of fulfilling his duty in the women’s house and wanted no one but Nefertiti, as all who beheld her beauty could well understand. Not even her third confinement had dimmed her loveliness. She seemed younger and more radiant than before, but whether this change in her was due to the city of Akhetaton or to the black men’s witchcraft I cannot say.

  Thus Akhetaton rose from the wilderness in a single year; palm trees waved proudly along its splendid streets, pomegranates ripened and reddened in the gardens, and in the fish pools floated the rosy flowers of the lotus. The whole city was a blossoming garden, for the houses were of wood, airy and fragile as pavilions, and their columns of palm and reed were light and brightly colored. The gardens entered the very houses, for the paintings on the walls were of palms and sycamores swayed by the breezes of eternal spring. On the floors were beds of reeds and multicolored swimming fish, and ducks with brilliant wings rose in flight. In this city nothing was lacking to rejoice the heart of man. Tame gazelles wandered in the gardens, while in the streets the lightest of carriages were drawn by fiery horses adorned with ostrich plumes. The kitchens were fragrant with keen spices brought from every part of the world.

  Thus the City of the Heavens was completed, and when autumn returned and swallows emerged from the mud to dart in restless flocks above the rising waters, Pharaoh Akhnaton consecrated the city and the land to Aton. He consecrated the boundary stones north, south, east, and west, and on each of these stones was the representation of Aton shedding the benediction of his rays on Pharaoh and the house of Pharaoh. Inscriptions on the stones recorded Pharaoh’s vows never again to set foot beyond these boundaries. For this ceremony the workmen laid stone-paved roads to the four quarters of the land so that Pharaoh might drive to the borders in his golden carriage attended by his family in their carriages and chairs and by the members of his court, who strewed flowers as they went, while flutes and stringed instruments sounded in praise of Aton.

  Not even in death did Pharaoh intend to leave the city of Aton. When the building of it was finished, he sent his workmen to the eastern hills within the consecrated land, to hew out eternal resting places. They found work enough to last their whole lives through and were never able to return to their birthplace. They did not greatly desire to do so but accustomed themselves to dwelling in their own town and in Pharaoh’s shadow, for grain was measured to them abundantly, their oil jars were never empty, and their wives bore them healthy children.

  When Pharaoh had decided to build tombs for himself and his nobles and to present one to each of his distinguished followers who would live in the City of the Heavens with him and who believed in Aton, he built also a House of Death outside the city so that the bodies of those who died in Akhetaton should be preserved forever. To this end he summoned from Thebes those embalmers and washers who held the foremost place in their craft. They came down the river in a black ship, and their smell was borne before them on the wind so that the people hid in their houses with bowed heads, reciting prayers to Aton. Many also prayed to the old gods and made the holy sign of Ammon, for when they smelled the body washers’ smell Aton seemed far away and their thoughts turned to their earlier dieties.

  The embalmers stepp
ed ashore from the vessel with all their materials, blinking with eyes that were accustomed to the dark and swearing bitterly at the light, which hurt them. They entered swiftly into the new House of Death, taking their smell with them so that the place became a home for them, which they never left again. Among them was old Ramose, the expert of the pincers, whose task was to extract the brain. I met him in the House of Death, for the priests of Aton held the House of Death in horror, and Pharaoh had placed it under my charge. When he had gazed at me for some time he knew me again, and marveled. I made myself known to him to gain his confidence, for uncertainty gnawed like a worm at my heart and I desired to know how my revenge had prospered at the House of Death in Thebes.

  When we had spoken a little of his work, I asked, “Ramose my friend, did you ever have under your hands a beautiful woman who was brought to the House of Death during the Terror and whose name I believe was Nefernefernefer?”

  He regarded me, bent backed and blinking like a tortoise, and said, “In truth, Sinuhe, you are the first distinguished man who has ever called a corpse washer his friend. My heart is greatly moved, and the information you require is doubtless of great import since you so address me. Surely it was not you who brought her one dark night, swathed in the black robe of death? For if you were that man you are the friend of no corpse washer, and if they come to hear of it, they will stab you with poisoned knives and so inflict upon you a most hideous death.”