The Egyptian

2

Nevertheless, I continued in loneliness, and life gave me no delight. I even wearied of wine, for it never cheered me but turned my face as black as soot so that when I had drunk I desired only to die. Therefore, I sought ever to increase my knowledge that no moment of the day should find me idle-for in idleness I fretted over myself and my deeds-and at night I slept like the dead.

I acquainted myself with the gods of Smyrna to learn whether they might hold some hidden truth for me. Like all else, these gods differ from those of Egypt. Their great god was Baal, a cruel god who exacted human blood in return for his favor and whose priests were made eunuchs. He also required children. Moreover, the sea was greedy for sacrifice so that merchants and those in authority must be forever seeking new victims. No crippled slave was ever to be seen, and the poor were threatened with savage punishment for the least offense. Thus a poor man who stole a fish to feed his family was dismembered as a sacrifice on the altar of Baal.

Their female divinity was Astarte, also called Ishtar, like the Ishtar of Nineveh. She had many breasts and was robed every day afresh in jewels and thin garments, being served by women who for some reason were known as the virgins of the temple, though that they were not. On the contrary, they were there to be enjoyed-a mission regarded with favor by the goddess-and the more exquisite the enjoyment, the more gold and silver was offered to the temple by the client.

But the merchants of Smyrna guarded their own women with great strictness, shutting them up at home and clothing them from head to foot in thick garments lest they tempt the stranger. The men, however, visited the temple for the sake of variety and to win divine approval. Thus in Smyrna there were no pleasure houses like those of Egypt. If the temple girls were not to a man’s liking, he had to take a wife or buy himself a slave girl. Slave girls were for sale every day, for ships were continually coming into port with women and children on board of every size and color, both plump and thin, to suit all tastes. But the crippled and unfit were purchased cheaply for sacrifice to Baal on behalf of the city council, who would then laugh and slap their chests and commend themselves for their cunning in thus deceiving their god.

I, too, made sacrifice to Baal since he was the god of the city and it was prudent to seek his favor. Being an Egyptian, I bought no human sacrifices for him; I gave him gold. Sometimes I visited Astarte’s temple, which opened in the evenings, to listen to music and watch the temple women-whom I will not call maidens-dancing voluptuous dances to the glory of their goddess. Since it was the custom I lay with them, and I marveled at the practices they taught me of which I had known nothing. But I was not cheered and did all from curiosity. When they had taught me what they had to impart, I wearied of them and no longer visited their temple. To my mind there were no accomplishments so monotonous as theirs.

But Kaptah shook his head in concern for me, for my face was aging, the furrows between my brows were deepening, and my heart was sealed. His wish was that I should have a slave girl to beguile my leisure moments. Since he kept house and handled my money, he bought a girl for me who was to his own taste. He washed, dressed, and anointed her, and presented her to me one evening when, tired after the day’s work, I desired only to go to bed in peace.

This girl was from the islands in the sea; she was plump, her skin white, her teeth faultless, and her eyes were round and gentle like the eyes of a heifer. She gazed at me in veneration and showed fear of the strange city to which she had been brought. Kaptah extolled her charms with the greatest earnestness, and to please him I took her. Yet, though I did my best to escape from my loneliness, my heart was not gladdened, and I could not bring myself to call her my sister.

In showing her kindness I erred, for it made her arrogant, and she disturbed me in my interviews with patients. She ate a great deal and grew fat and was forever demanding jewels and new clothes. Also she dogged my footsteps in a continual desire to take pleasure with me.

It was to no purpose that I made journeys inland and to the cities along the coast. On my return she waa the first to greet me, with tears and persecution. I beat her, but in vain; then she grew hotter than before, and life in my house became intolerable.

But the scarab brought me good fortune, for one day King Aziru, the ruler of the inland province of Amurru, came to me. I doctored his teeth, making him one tooth of ivory to replace one that had been Knocked out in battle and coating other damaged ones with gold. While he remained in the city, conferring with the authorities on administrative business, he visited me every day. He met my slave girl, whom I called Keftiu after the islands in the sea, being unable to pronounce her heathenish name, and he found delight in her. This Aziru was white skinned and as strong as a bull. His beard was blue black and glossy, and his eyes held a bold gleam so that Keftiu began to look upon him with desire-for women are ever captivated by what is new. He admired her plumpness above all, and her garments, which she wore in the Greek manner, greatly inflamed him. Though they covered her throat, they left her breast bare, and he was accustomed to seeing women veiled from head to foot.

At length he was unable to restrain his desire, and sighing deeply, he said to me, “Truly you are my friend, Sinuhe the Egyptian, and you have mended my teeth and caused my mouth to glisten with gold whenever I open it, which will greatly enhance my dignity in the land of Amurru. For this I will make you such gifts as shall cause you to raise your hands in wonder. Nevertheless, I am forced to pain you against my will.

“Ever since I laid eyes upon the woman in your house, she has pleased me, and I can no longer withstand my desire for her; it tears at me like a wildcat and not all your arts can heal that sickness. I have never seen her like and can well fancy your fondness for her when she warms your bed at night.

“Yet I desire her of you, that I may make her my wife among my other wives and release her from slavery. I tell you this openly, for you are a just man, and I will pay you whatever you ask. But I tell you openly also that if you will not give her up of your free will, I will come and take her by force and carry her off to my country, where you could never find her even if you dared to seek.”

At these words of his I raised my hands in delight, but Kaptah who had overheard tore his hair and lamented, “Evil is the day, and better were it that my master had never been born than that you should now take from him the only woman in whom he has found pleasure. Nor can her loss be made good, for to my lord she is dearer than all the gold in the world-all the jewels, all the incense-and she is fairer than the full moon, and her belly is round and white as a heap of wheat-though you have not yet seen it-and her breasts are like melons, which your own eyes can tell you.”

Thus he babbled on, for since coming to Smyrna, he had learned the ways of merchants and hoped for a good price though both he and I desired nothing so much as to be rid of the girl. When Keftiu heard him, she wept also, saying that she would never forsake me-but as she wept she peeped admiringly between her fingers at the prince and his curly beard.

I raised my hands, and having quieted them, I assumed a grave expression.

“Aziru, King of Amurru and my friend! Truly this woman is dear to my heart, and I call her my sister, but your friendship is dearer to me than anything else. In token of this friendship I will give her to you without payment, and I beg you to accept of her and do with her all that the wildcat within you desires-for if I do not deceive myself, her heart is inclined toward you, and she will be content, for in her body also lurk many wildcats.”

Aziru cried aloud for joy.

“Ah, Sinuhe, Egyptian though you be-and all evil comes out of Egypt-from this day you are my brother and my friend; throughout the land of Amurru your name shall be blessed; as my guest you shall sit at my right hand above all others, though they be kings. This I swear!”

He laughed so that his teeth flashed. Then as he looked at Keftiu, who had ceased weeping, his face changed. With glowing eyes he gazed at her, seized her by the arms so that the melons swayed, and swung her into his carrying chair without noticing her weight. So he departed, and neither I nor anyone else in Smyrna saw him for a while, for he shut himself up in his lodgings for three days and three- nights. Kaptah and I rejoiced at having rid ourselves of the baggage, though he rebuked me for demanding nothing in exchange when Aziru would have given me whatever I asked.

But I replied, “By giving him this girl, I have secured his friendship. No one knows what tomorrow may bring. Though the land of Amurru is small and insignificant-being no more than grazing land for asses and sheep-yet a king’s friendship is the friendship of a king, and its worth may prove more than gold.”

Kaptah shook his head, but he smeared the scarab with myrrh and placed fresh dung before it in thanksgiving for being quit of Keftiu.

Before Aziru returned to his own country he called on me, and bowing to the ground he said, “I offer you nothing, Sinuhe, for you have given me that which cannot be requited with gifts. The girl is even more entrancing than I could have believed; her eyes are like bottomless wells, and I do not weary of her though she has pressed out my seed as oil is pressed from olives. To be frank with you, my country is not a wealthy one, and I can acquire gold in no other way than by taxing the merchants who travel through it or by making war on my neighbors-and then the Egyptians are over me like horseflies and often I lose more than I gain. So I cannot make you such gifts as your action merits. But I promise that whenever you come to me and whatever you ask of me I will give it you if it be in my power to do so-as long as you do not ask me either for this woman or for horses, for I have few of them and need them for my chariots. And if any man offend you, send word to me and my men shall slay him, wherever he may be. No one shall come to hear of it, and your name will not be mentioned in the affair. So great is my friendship for you.”

Then he embraced me in the Syrian manner. I saw that he honored and admired me, for he took the gold chain from his neck and hung it about mine though his deep sigh as he did so told me how great was this sacrifice. Therefore, I took from my own neck a gold chain I had been given by the richest shipowner in Smyrna for saving his wife’s life during a difficult labor, and I hung it about his neck. He lost nothing by the exchange, and this greatly pleased him. And so we parted.