The Egyptian

BOOK 4
Nefernefernefer
1

Early in the morning I went to Nefernefernefer’s house, but she was still sleeping. When I roused her servants, they swore and threw slops over me, so I sat in the doorway like a beggar until I heard movement and talk in the house and then tried once more to enter.

Nefernefernefer lay upon her bed. Her face looked small and white, and her green eyes were dark from wine drinking.

“You bore me,” she said. “What is it you want?”

“To eat and drink and take pleasure with you,” I replied heavily, “for so you promised.”

“That was yesterday. Today is a new day.”

A slave girl drew off Nefer’s rumpled dress and oiled and rubbed her limbs. Nefer regarded herself in the mirror, painted her face, put on her wig, and taking up the new ornament of pearls and precious stones set in antique gold, she placed it on her forehead.

“It is beautiful,” she said, “and worth the price, though I am as weary as if I had been wrestling all night.”

“So you lied to me yesterday, and there was nothing to hinder us,” I said, though in my heart I had known it.

“I was mistaken-but my time should have come, and I fear you have got me with child, Sinuhe, for I was limp in your arms, and you were violent.” But she smiled mockingly.

“So your jewel comes from a royal tomb in Syria-wasn’t that what you told me yesterday?”

“Ah,” she said softly. “It was found beneath the pillow of a Syrian merchant-but do not let that vex you. He was a paunchy man, as fat as a pig, and he smelled of onions. I have what I sought and do not mean to see him again.”

She took off wig and ornament and dropped them carelessly on the floor beside the bed. Her bare skull was smooth and comely as she stretched herself out again and pillowed her head on her clasped hands.

“I am weary, Sinuhe, and you abuse my weariness by thus devouring me with your eyes when I have not strength to prevent you. You should remember that though I live alone I am not a woman to be despised.”

“You know very well that I have no more to give you, for you already possess all that was mine.”

I bowed my head down to the edge of the bed and caught the perfume of her ointments and of her body. She put out her hand to touch my hair, then withdrew it quickly, laughing and shaking her head.

“What deceivers men are! You lie to me, too, Sinuhe. I cannot help my fondness for you-I am weak.”

But when I would have taken her in my arms, she pushed me away and sat up, saying in a voice of bitter resentment, “Weak, lonely though I may be, I will have no dealings with cheats and swindlers. You never told me that your father Senmut has a house in the poor quarter near the harbor. The house is worth little, but the ground it stands on lies near the quays, and his furniture might fetch something at the market. I might eat and drink and take pleasure with you today if you were to give me this property of yours-for no one knows what tomorrow may bring, and I must guard my reputation.”

“My father’s property is not mine,” I said aghast. “You must not ask of me what is not mine to give, Nefernefernefer.”

She tilted her head sideways, watching me with her green eyes.

“Your father’s property is your lawful inheritance, Sinuhe, as well you know. And further, you never told me that he is blind and that he has entrusted you with the stewardship of his possessions so that you can dispose of them as if they were your own.”

This was true, for when my father’s sight had grown dim, he had given me his seal and asked me to look after his property as he could no longer see to sign his name. Kipa and he had often said that the house would fetch a good price and enable them to buy a little homestead outside the city and to live there until the time came for them to take possession of their tomb and start on the journey to immortality.

I could not speak, so overwhelmed was I with horror at the thought of deceiving the mother and father who trusted me. But Nefernefernefer half closed her eyes and murmured, “Take my head between your hands-touch my breast with your lips-for there is something about you that makes me weak, Sinuhe, so that I forget my own advantage where you are concerned. All day I will take my pleasure with you if you will make over your father’s property to me, however little it may be worth.”

I took her head between my hands, and it was smooth and small, filling me with fever unspeakable.

“So be it,” I said, and my voice grated on my own ears.

But when I would have approached her, she said, “You shall enter into the realm that is already yours-but first seek out a law scribe to prepare the appointed documents, for I do not trust men’s promises, and I must guard my reputation.”

I left her to send for a scribe, and each step away from her was torment. I urged him to hasten, and when all was done, I pressed my father’s seal on the paper and signed it with his name. But when I returned, the servants told me that Nefernefernefer was sleeping, and I had to wait until late evening for her to wake. At last she received me, took the scribe’s receipt, and slipped it carelessly into the black casket.

“You are obstinate, Sinuhe, but I am a woman of honor and always keep my promises. Take what you have come for.”

She lay upon the bed and opened her embrace, but took no pleasure in me. She turned her head aside to look at herself in the mirror, yawning behind her hands, so that the delight I sought was turned to ashes.

When I arose from her couch, she said, “You have had what you wanted, Sinuhe; now go, for you are very wearisome. Another day you may return, but you have no doubt had all you want.”

I was like the shell of a blown egg as I staggered home. I desired to be at peace in a dark room, to bury my head in my hands and give vent to my misery in weeping. But on the veranda sat a stranger wearing a braided wig and a Syrian robe of many colors. He greeted me haughtily and said he had come to consult me as a physician.

“I do not receive patients any more,” I told him, “for the house is no longer mine.”

“I have evil swellings on my feet,” he said, and he mixed Syrian words with his speech. “Your intelligent slave Kaptah recommended your skill in treating such swellings. Relieve me from my torment and you shall not regret it.”

So stubborn was he that at length I led him into, my room and called to Kaptah for hot water to wash my hands. There was no reply, but not until I examined the feet of the Syrian, did I recognize Kaptah’s own gnarled and spavined joints. My slave plucked off his wig and burst into roars of laughter.

“What mummery is this?” I exclaimed, and I thrashed him till his laughter turned to howls. When I had thrown the stick aside, he said, “Since I am no longer your slave but the slave of another, I may safely tell you that I think of making my escape and therefore wished to discover whether you would know me in this dress.”

I reminded him of the punishments that threaten runaway slaves and told him that he was certain to be recaptured sooner or later, for what had he to live on? But he replied, “Last night, having drunk much beer, I had a dream. You, lord, lay in a burning furnace, but I came to you with stern words and lifting you by the scruff of the neck plunged you into flowing water that carried you away. I have since been to the market to ask an interpreter of dreams what this means. He said that my master is in danger and has a long journey before him and that I for my boldness should come by many blows. This dream is true, for one need but see your face, lord, to know that you stand in great peril. The blows I have had already-therefore the end of the dream also must be true. For this reason I have disguised myself, for I am resolved to go with you upon your journey.”

“Your loyalty moves me, Kaptah,” I said and strove to sound mocking. “It may well be that a long journey lies before me, but if so it is to the House of Death, where you will scarcely follow me.”

“Tomorrow is hidden,” was Kaptah’s pert retort. “You are young and green as an unlicked calf, and I dare not let you set forth alone upon the troubled journey to the House of Death and the Western Land. Like enough I shall come with you to help you with my experience, for my heart is bound to you despite your foolishness. Though doubtless I have begotten many children in my time, yet I have never seen any of them and so have a whim to think of you as my son. By this I mean no offense; I seek merely to express my affection for you.”

This was carrying insolence too far, but I had not heart enough to thrash him, and he was no longer my slave. I shut myself into my room and covered my head and slept like the dead until morning, for there is no narcotic like shame and remorse if they be deep enough. Yet when at last I awoke, the first things I remembered were the eyes of Nefernefernefer and her body, and I seemed to hold her smooth head in my hands and feel her bosom against mine. I washed, dressed, and anointed my face to go to her.