The Egyptian

3

Horemheb stayed at my house, sleepless and haggard. His eyes grew more somber every day, and he had no stomach for the food Muti repeatedly set before him. Muti, like many other women, was greatly taken with Horemheb and had more respect for him than for myself, who, learning or no learning, was nothing but a flabby- muscled man.

Horemheb said, “What do I care for either Ammon or Aton? But they have let my men run wild so that many backs must come under my lash and heads must fall before I can bring them to their senses. And this is a great pity, for they are good fighting men when disciplined.”

Kaptah grew richer every day, and his face shone with grease. He now spent his nights at the Crocodile’s Tail, for the officers and sergeants of the Shardanas paid for their drams with gold, and in the back rooms of the tavern lay ever growing heaps of stolen treasure, jewels and coffers and mats, which the customers gave in exchange for wine without asking about the price. No one attacked the house, and thieves walked wide of it, for it was guarded by Horemheb’s men.

By the third day my stock of medicines was exhausted, and it was impossible to buy more, even for gold. My arts were vain in the face of the disease that spread through the poor quarter from the corpses and foul water. I was tired, and my heart was like a wound in my breast, and my eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep. I was sickened with everything-with the poor, with wounds, with Aton-and I went to the Crocodile’s Tail where I drank mixed wine until I fell alseep.

In the morning Merit roused me; I was lying on her mat with her beside me. Deeply ashamed I said to her, “Life is like a cold night, but truly it is sweet when two lonely mortals keep one another warm, though their hands and eyes tell lies for the sake of their friendship.”

She yawned sleepily.

“How do you know that my hands and eyes are lying? I am weary of smiting soldiers over the fingers and kicking their shins; here by your side, Sinuhe, is the only safe place in the city-a place where no one will lay a hand on me. Why this should be I cannot tell, and I am a little offended, for I am said to be beautiful nor is there anything amiss with my belly, though you have not deigned to look at it.”

I drank the beer she offered me, to clear my aching head, and found nothing to say. She looked into my eyes with a smile, though in the depths of her brown ones sorrow lay still, like the dark waters at the bottom of a well.

She said, “Sinuhe, I would help you if I could, and I know that in this city there is a woman who owes you an immeasurable debt. In these days roofs are floors, and doors open outward, and payment for many old debts is demanded in the streets. Perhaps it would do you good also to go adunning and so lose the belief that every woman is a wilderness.”

I said that I had never believed this of her, but I went and her words remained with me, for I was but human. My heart was swollen with the sight of carnage, and I had tasted the frenzy of hatred so that I was afraid for myself. I remembered the temple of the cat and the house beside it though time had drifted like sand over these memories. But during the days of terror the dead rose from their graves and I remembered my father Senmut in his tenderness and my good mother Kipa; there was a taste of blood in my mouth as I thought of them. At this time no one in Thebes was too rich or too eminent to be in danger when he walked abroad, and I need only have hired a few soldiers to carry out my purpose. But as yet I did not know what my purpose was.

On the fifth day there was an uneasiness even among the officers under Pepitaton’s command, for the soldiers ceased to obey the notes of the horn and insulted their leaders in the streets, snatching the golden whips from them and snapping them across their knees. The officers went to Pepitaton who was growing weary of a warrior’s life and missed his cats, and they persuaded him to seek audience of Pharaoh, tell him the truth, and relinquish his collar of office. And so on the fifth day Pharaoh’s messengers came to my house to summon Horemheb before Pharaoh. Horemheb rose like a lion from his couch, washed and dressed, and went back with the men, growling to himself at the thought of all he would say to Pharaoh. Now even Pharaoh’s authority was tottering, and no one knew what tomorrow might bring.

When he stood before him, he said, “Akhnaton, there is not a moment to be lost, and I have no time to remind you of all I counseled you to do. If you desire all to be as it was, give me your authority for three days, and on the third day I will restore it to you. You need never know of what has passed.”

Pharaoh said to him, “Will you overthrow Ammon?”

Horemheb answered, “Truly you are a man possessed! Yet after what has happened Ammon must fall if Pharaoh’s majesty is to survive. Therefore, I will overthrow him-but do not ask how it will be done.”

Pharaoh said, “You shall not harm his priests, for they know not what they do.”

Horemheb answered him and said, “In truth your skull should be opened, for it is plain that nothing else will cure you. Nevertheless I will obey your command for the sake of that hour when I covered your weakness with my shoulder cloth.”

Then Pharaoh wept and handed him his whip and his crook for three days. How this matter came about I know only from what Horemheb told me, and after the manner of warriors he was given to fanciful embellishment. Be that as it may, he returned to the city in Pharaoh’s gilded carriage and drove through street after street calling the soldiers by name. He took the trustiest among them with him and caused horns to be sounded, mustering the men under their standards: their falcons and lions’ tails. The search went on all night. Yells and howls were heard from the men’s sleeping quarters, and canes by the score were worn to shreds in the hands of the castigators, whose arms grew weary and who groaned that never before had they known such toil. Horemheb sent his best men on patrol through the streets to grab every man who did not obey the horns and lead him to be flogged; many whose hands and garments were bloody had their heads cut off in the sight of their fellows. When morning dawned, the riffraff of Thebes had scuttled back to their holes like rats, for everyone caught thieving or house breaking was speared on the spot.

Horemheb also summoned together all the builders in the city and bade them tear down the houses of the wealthy and break up ships for their Umber, and he set laborers to building battering rams and siege towers, so that the noise of hammering filled the night. But above all other noises rose the yells of Nubians and Shardanas under the lash, an agreeable sound to the citizens of Thebes.

Horemheb wasted no time in vain negotiation with the priests, but as soon as it grew light he gave his officers their orders. Siege towers “were placed at five points about the temple walls while at the same time battering rams began to thunder against the gates. No one was wounded, for the soldiers made roofs of their shields. The priests and temple guards could make no stand against so determined and well concerted an attack. They dispersed their forces and ran hither and thither in panic about the walls, while from the courts below came the cries of terrified people who were sheltering there. When the chief priests saw that the gates were giving way and that Negroes were gaining the walls, they caused horns to be sounded for a truce that the lives of the people might be saved. They were of the opinion that Ammon had had sacrifice enough and they desired to spare the remainder of the faithful for service in the future. The gates were therefore opened and the soldiers allowed the packed masses to escape as Horemheb had commanded. The people fled, calling upon Ammon, and were content to hasten home, for the uproar had abated and they were weary indeed of standing so long in the courtyards beneath the burning sun.

Thus Horemheb took possession of the forecourts, stores, stables, and workshops of the temple without severe casualties. The Houses of Life and Death also were brought under his control, and he sent physicians from the House of Life into the city to heal the sick, but he did not meddle with the House of Death, for those who dwell there are apart and in sanctuary whatever may befall in the outside world. The priests and guards made a last stand in the great temple to protect the holy of holies; the priests laid spells on the guards and drugged them that they might fight to the death without feeling pain.

The battle in the great temple went on until nightfall, but by then the bewitched guards had all been slain with such priests as had made armed resistance, and there remained only the priests of the highest grade who had gathered about their god in the sanctuary. Horemheb gave order for the fighting to cease and at once sent men to gather up the dead and throw them into the river.

Then, approaching the priests of Ammon, he said, “I wage no war against Ammon, for I serve Horus, my falcon. Nevertheless I must obey the command of Pharaoh and depose your god. Would it not be more agreeable for both yourselves and me if no image were found in the holy of holies for the soldiers to desecrate? For I do not wish to commit sacrilege, though because of my oath I must serve Pharaoh. Reflect upon my words; to that end I will allow you a water measure’s time. Thereafter you may depart in peace, and none shall raise his hand against you since I do not seek your lives.”

These words were agreeable to the priests, who had braced themselves to die for the sake of Ammon. They remained in the sanctuary until a measure of water had run from the water clock. Then Horemheb with his own hand tore down the veil of the sanctuary and let the priests depart. When they had gone, the sanctuary was empty and no image of Ammon was to be seen. The priests had made haste to demolish it, and they bore away the pieces under their cloaks, that later they might proclaim a miracle and affirm that Ammon still lived, Horemheb caused seals to be set on all stores, and he sealed the cellars where the gold and silver was hidden with his own hand. That evening, by the light of torches, stone masons set to work to efface the name of Ammon from every statue and inscription. During the night Horemheb had the square cleared of bodies and fragments of bodies and sent men to quench the fires that still raged in some parts of the city.

When the wealthier and more aristocratic Thebans learned that Ammon had been deposed and that peace and good order had been restored, they arrayed themselves in their finest clothes, lit lamps before their houses, and went out into the streets to celebrate Aton’s victory. Members of the court, who had taken refuge in Pharaoh’s golden house, were now ferried back across the river to the city. Soon the sky over Thebes glowed red from the festival torches and lamps, and people strewed flowers in the streets and shouted and laughed and embraced one another. Horemheb could not prevent them plying the Shardanas with wine nor hinder noble ladies from embracing Nubians who carried impaled upon the points of spears the shaven heads of the priests they had slain. Thebes rejoiced that night in the name of Aton. In the name of Aton all was permitted and there was no difference between Egyptian and Negro. In testimony of this the court ladies admitted Nubians to their houses, shook out their new summer dresses, and enjoyed the virility of the black men and the sour, blood smell of their bodies. And when a wounded temple guard crawled out into the open from the shadow of the wall, calling on Ammon in his delirium, they smashed his head against the stones of the street, and the ladies danced in jubilation round the body.

These things I saw with my own eyes, and having seen them, clutched my head in my hands, indifferent now to all that happened. I reflected that no god can cure man of his madness. I ran to the Crocodile’s Tail, and with Merit’s words blazing up in my heart, I called the soldiers who were on guard there. They obeyed me, having seen me in company with Horemheb, and I led them through that night of delirium, past revelers dancing in the streets, to the house of Nefernefernefer. There also torches and lamps were burning and from the house, which had suffered no pillage, the noise of drunken revelry rang out into the street. When I had come thus far, my knees began to quake, and my stomach sank.

I said to the soldiers, “These are the orders of Horemheb, my friend and the King’s commander-in-chief. Go into the house where you will find a woman who carries her head haughtily and whose eyes are like green stones. Bring her here to me, and should she resist, smite her over the head with the butt of a spear but do her no other harm.”

The soldiers strode in cheerfully. Soon the startled guests came reeling out, and servants called for the guards. My men soon returned with fruit and honey bread and jars of wine in their hands, and with them they carried Nefernefernefer. She had struggled, and they had struck her with a spear so that her smooth head was bloody and her wig had slipped off. I laid my hand on her breast, and her skin was smooth as warm glass, but to me it was as if I had laid my hand on a snakeskin. I felt her heart beating and knew that she was unharmed, yet I wrapped her in a dark cloth as corpses are wrapped and lifted her into a chair. The watch did not interfere when they saw that I had soldiers with me. These attended me to the gateway of the House of Death, while I sat in the swaying chair with Nefernefernefer’s senseless body in my arms. She was beautiful still but more repulsive to me than a serpent. So we went on through the riotous night to the House of Death, where I gave the soldiers gold and dismissed them, and I also sent away the chair.

With Nefernefernefer in my arms I entered the House and I said to the corpse washers who met me, “I bring you the body of a woman whom I found in the street; I do not know her name or her family, but I fancy the jewels she is wearing will reward you for your trouble if you will preserve her body forever.”

The men swore at me, saying, “Madman, do you think we have not had enough carrion to deal with in these days? And who will reward us for our trouble?”

But when they had unwound the black cloth, they found that the body was yet warm, and when they took off the dress and the jewels, they saw that she was fair-fairer than any woman who had yet been brought to the House of Death. They said no more to me but laid their hands on her breast and felt her heart beating. They swiftly covered her once more in the black cloth, winking and grimacing at one another with delighted laughter.

Then they said to me, “Go your way, stranger, and blessed be this act of yours. We shall do our best to preserve her body forever, and should it depend on us alone, we will keep her with us seventy times seventy days, that her body may be preserved indeed.”

Thus did I exact payment from Nefernefernefer for the debt in which she stood to me on my parents’ account. I wondered how she would feel when she awoke in the recesses of the House of Death, robbed of her wealth and in the power of corpse washers and em- balmers. If I knew anything of them, they would never let her return to the light of day. This was my revenge, for it was through her that I ever came to know the House of Death. But my revenge was childish, as I was later to discover.

At the Crocodile’s Tail I saw Merit and said to her, “I have enforced my demands, and in a more terrible manner than anyone has ever done. But my revenge gives me no relief, my heart is yet emptier than before, and despite the warmth of the night my limbs are cold.”

I drank wine, and it was as dust in my mouth. I said, “May my body perish if ever I lay my hand upon a woman again, for the more I think of woman the more do I fear her; her body is a wilderness and her heart a mortal snare.”

She stroked my hands, and her brown eyes looked into mine as she said, “Sinuhe, you have never known a woman who wished you well.”

And I answered, “May all the gods of Egypt save me from a woman who wishes me well. Pharaoh also wishes only well, and the river is full of bobbing corpses because of his well wishing.”

I drank wine, and I wept, saying, “Merit, your cheeks are smooth as glass and your hands are warm. Let me touch your cheeks with my hps this night and put my cold hands into your warm ones so that I may sleep without dreaming, and I will give you whatever you desire.”

She smiled sadly and said, “The crocodile’s tail speaks through your mouth, but I am accustomed to that and I take no offense. Know therefore, Sinuhe, that I require nothing of you and never in my life have required anything of a man; from none have I taken a gift of any value. What I give I give from my heart, and to you also I give what you ask, for I am as lonely as you.”

She took the wine cup from my trembling hand, and having spread her mat for me, she lay down beside me, warming my hands in hers. I brushed her smooth cheeks with my lips and breathed in the fragrance of cedar from her skin, and I took pleasure with her. She was to me as my father and my mother-she was as a brazier on a winter’s night and a beacon on the shore that guides the seaman home through a night of tempest. When I fell asleep, she was to me Minea-Minea whom I had lost forever-and I lay against her as if on the floor of the sea with Minea. I saw no evil dreams but slept soundly, while she whispered in my ear such words as mothers whisper whose children fear the dark. From that night she was my friend, for in her arms I could believe once more that there was something greater than myself beyond my understanding, for which it was worth while to live.

Next morning I said to her, “Merit, I have broken a jar with a woman who is now dead, and I still have the silver ribbon with which I bound her long hair. Yet for the sake of our friendship, Merit, I am ready to break the jar with you if you wish it.”

Yawning she held the back of her hand across her mouth and said, “You must drink no more crocodiles’ tails, Sinuhe, since they make you talk so foolishly next day. Remember that I grew up in a tavern and am no longer an innocent girl who might take you at your word-and be sorely disappointed!”

“When I look into your eyes, Merit, I can believe that there are good women in the world,” I said, and I brushed her smooth cheeks with my mouth. “That was why I said it, that you might know how much you are to me.”

She smiled.

“You note that I forbade you to drink crocodiles’ tails, for a woman first shows her fondness for a man by forbidding him something, to feel her own power. Let us not talk of jars, Sinuhe. You know that my mat is yours whenever you are thus lonely and sorrowful. But be not offended if you find that there are others lonely and sorrowful besides yourself, for as a human being I too am free to choose my company, and I hold you in no way bound. And so, in spite of all, I will give you a crocodile’s tail with my own hand.”

So strange is the mind of man and so little does he know his own heart that my soul at this moment was as free and light as a bird, and I recalled nothing of the evil which had come to pass during those days. I was content and tasted no more crocodiles’ tails that day.