The Egyptian

4

On the following day Minea danced once more before the bulls, and my heart quaked for her, though she came to no harm. But a young man among her companions slipped from the forehead of his beast and fell to the ground, where the bull slit open his body and trampled him beneath its hoofs so that the spectators round the arena rose up and shrieked with horror and delight. When the bull had been driven off and the dancer’s body borne out to the stables, the women ran to look at him. They touched his bleeding limbs, their breath came quickly, and they exclaimed, “What a sight to see!” But the men said, “It is long since we beheld such excellent contests as those of today.” They settled their wagers with one another without regret, weighing out gold and silver, and they drank wine together and made merry in their houses so that the lights shone brightly until very late. Wives went astray from their husbands into strange beds, but no one frowned at this for it was their custom.

I lay alone on my mat, for that night Minea could not come. Early in the morning I hired a chair in the harbor and set forth to follow her to the god’s house. She was borne thither in a golden carriage drawn by plumed horses, and her friends attended her in chairs or on foot with much noise and laughter, throwing flowers over her and halting by the wayside to drink wine.

The way was long but all were well provisioned, and they broke off branches and fanned each other and stampeded the peasants’ sheep and indulged in many other tricks. The house of the god lay in a desert place at the foot of a mountain near the seashore, and when the party drew near to this, they lowered their voices and spoke in whispers, and the laughter ceased.

This house is difficult to describe, for it was like a low hill upon which grew grass and flowers, and it ran directly into the mountain. The entrance was barred by lofty gates of copper, and before it was a small temple where dedication took place and where the watchmen were quartered. It was dusk when the procession arrived here. Minea’s friends stepped from their chairs, threw themselves down on the grass and began eating and drinking and playing tricks on one another, having forgotten their recent solemnity-for Cretans have short memories. As darkness fell they lit torches and chased each other through the thickets until the cries of women and men’s laughter rang out in the darkness, but Minea sat alone in the temple where none might approach her.

I watched her as she sat. She was arrayed in gold like a divine image, and on her head she wore a great gilded headdress; she tried to smile at me, but the smile was joyless. When the moon rose, they took from her the jewelry and gold, dressed her in a simple robe, and bound her hair in a silver net. Then the guards drew back the bars of the copper gates, which opened with a deep, rumbling noise; ten men were needed to move each gate. Beyond, all was yawning darkness. There was a profound silence. Minotauros girded himself with a golden girdle, hung a sword at his side, and put on the golden bull’s head so that he ceased to resemble a man. A kindled torch was set in Minea’s hand; Minotauros led her into the dark house, where they disappeared, and the torchlight died away. Then the thunderous copper gates were shut again and secured with the huge bars that required many strong men to draw them, and I saw Minea no more.

I was seized with such an agony of despair that my heart felt like an open wound from which my life’s blood was ebbing away. I fell on my knees and bowed my head to the earth. In that hour I knew that never again should I see Minea, although she had promised to return and live her life with me. I knew that she would not come back. Why I should have been persuaded of this just at this moment I cannot say since hitherto I had wavered, and believed, and feared, and hoped, and sought to convince myself that the god of Crete was different from all other gods and would release Minea for the sake of the love that bound her to me. Now I hoped no longer but lay with my face to the ground, while Kaptah sat beside me wagging his head in his hands and lamenting.

The flower of Cretan youth ran past me with torches in their hands; they danced intricate dances and sang songs whose words I could not understand. Once the gates of copper had been closed, they were seized with such frenzy that they leaped and danced and ran till they were weary, and their voices rang in my ears like the squawk of crows from a city wall.

After a while Kaptah ceased lamenting and said, “If my eyes do not deceive me-and I have not yet drunk enough to see double-Hornhead has come out of the mountain. I do not know how, for no one has opened the copper gates.”

He spoke truly. Minotauros had returned, and the golden bull’s head gleamed with terrifying luster in the moonlight where with the others he danced the ceremonial dance. On seeing him, I could not control myself but sprang up and sped to him, seized him by the sleeves and asked, “Where is Minea?”

He struck away my hands and wagged his mask, but when I would not give way, he removed it and said wrathfully, “It is forbidden to disturb the sacred ritual, but being a stranger, you doubtless are ignorant of this, and I will pardon you provided you do not raise your hand to me again.”

“Where is Minea?” I asked him again.

“I left Minea in the darkness of the god’s house as is ordained and returned to dance the ceremonial dance in honor of the god. What more do you want of Minea since you have been rewarded already for bringing her back?”

“How could you return when she did not?” I demanded, pressing forward to him, but he thrust me aside, and the dancers came between us. Kaptah seized my arm and dragged me away. It was well he did, or who knows what might have happened?

He said to me, “You are foolish to attract so much attention; it would be better to dance with the rest and laugh and sing as they do, or else it may go ill with you. I know now that Minotauros came out through a little door beside the copper gates. I went to look at it and saw a watchman lock it and take away the key. But now drink wine, lord, and compose yourself. Your face is distorted like that of one possessed, and you roll your eyes like an owl.”

He gave me wine to drink, and I slumbered there on the grass in the moonlight, while the glare of torches flickered before my eyes. He had deceitfully mixed poppy juice with the wine. So he was avenged for what I had done to him in Babylon to save his life, but he put me into no jar. He spread a blanket over me and prevented the dancers from trampling. me underfoot. In his turn he may have saved my life, for in despair I might have run my blade into Minotauros and slain him. He sat beside me all night through until the wine jar was empty, then fell asleep and blew wine fumes into my ear.

I awoke late the next day. So powerful had been the drug that at first I wondered where I was. When I remembered, I was calm and clear headed and thanks to the dose I raved no longer. Many of those who took part in the procession had returned to the city, but some still slept among the bushes, men and women together, their bodies shamelessly uncovered, for they had drunk and danced till morning. When they awoke, they donned fresh clothes, and the women put up their hair again, discontented because they could not bathe; the streams were too cold for such as were accustomed to hot water from silver taps.

But they rinsed their mouths and rubbed ointment into their faces, painted lips and eyebrows, and said yawningly to one another, “Who stays to await Minea, and who goes back to the city?”

Most of them were now weary of the revelry and returned to the city in the course of the day. Only the youngest and most insatiable remained to divert themselves further, on the pretext of awaiting Minea’s return, the true reason being an encounter during the night with one or other in whom they had found pleasure. The wives took this opportunity of sending their husbands back to the city to be rid of them. Now I understood why there was not a single pleasure house in the city but only in the harbor. Having beheld their play during this night and the day following, I reflected that girls who made it their profession would have been hard put to rival the women of Crete.

Before Minotauros left I said to him, “Have I leave to await Minea’s return in company with her friends, foreigner though I am?”

He surveyed me malevolently and answered, “There is nothing to prevent you. But I fancy that there is just now a ship lying in the harbor that will take you back to Egypt-for you wait in vain. No one who has been dedicated to the god has ever returned.”

But I persisted coaxingly, with the air of a simpleton: “It is true that I was somewhat taken with Minea, though it was tedious to be denied her for the sake of her god. But to speak truly I do not expect her to return; like the others I give that as my reason for remaining here, for there are many enchanting girls-and wives also-who like to look into my eyes and lay their breasts seductively between my hands, and that is a thing I have never before experienced. Minea was in fact a damnably jealous and quarrelsome girl who interfered with my pleasures though she could offer me none herself. Furthermore, I must ask your forgiveness if I was so drunk last night as unwittingly to offend you. I cannot quite call to mind the matter, being still a little fuddled.”

I thickened my speech in saying this and blinked and moaned about jny headache until he smiled, taking me for an idiot, and replied, “If that is how the matter stands I shall not hinder your enjoyment, for jn Crete we are not narrow in our views. Stay, therefore, and await fylinea as long as you wish, but take care to get no one with child, for that-as you are a foreigner-would be unsuitable. Let not this counsel wound you; I offer it as one man to another that you may understand our customs.”

I assured him that I would be careful and babbled of my alleged experiences with the temple maidens of Syria and Babylon until he thought me a bigger fool than before and very tedious. He patted me on the shoulder and turned away to start upon the journey to the city. Nevertheless, I believe he adjured the watchman to keep an eye on me, and I believe also that he bade the Cretans to entertain me, for soon after he had gone a flock of women came to me. They hung garlands about my neck and looked into my eyes and leaned upon me until their naked breasts pressed against my arm. They took me with them in among the laurel bushes to eat and drink. Thus it was I saw their wantonness, and they were not shy of me. I drank heavily and feigned intoxication so that they had no joy of me but grew weary and smote me, calling me swine and barbarian.

Kaptah came and dragged me away by the arms, insulting me loudly because of my drunkenness, and he offered to take my place with them for their enjoyment. They tittered at the sight of him, and the youths mocked him, pointing at his great belly and his bald head. But he was a foreigner, and women everywhere are attracted by what is foreign. When they had done laughing, they let him join their company, giving him wine and stuffing his mouth with fruit, leaning against him and calling him their he-goat and being outraged at the smell of him-until his smell also began to seem alluring.

So that day passed until I was sickened by their gaiety and wantonness and could fancy no more tedious life than theirs, for lawless caprice is in the end more wearisome than a life of purpose. They whiled away the night as before, and my anguished dreams were broken by the cries of women, pretending to flee from pursuing youths who snatched at their clothes to pull them off. But in the morning they were weary and cloyed and longed to bathe, and the greater number returned that day to the city. Only the youngest and most indefatigable lingered by the copper gates.

On the third day these also went, and I let them take my chair, which had awaited me. Those who had come on foot were unfit to walk and staggered as they went from immoderate lechery and want of sleep; moreover it suited my purpose that none should wait f0r me. Every day I had given the guards wine, and when I brought them a jar at dusk, they were not surprised but received it joyfully. They had few pleasures in their loneliness, which lasted a month at a time from the coming of one initiate to that of the next. If they marveled at all it was that I remained behind to await Minea, but as I vvas a foreigner they supposed me simple and drank my wine.

When I saw that the resident priest was of their opinion, I said to Kaptah, “The gods have now decreed that we must part. Minea has not returned, nor do I think she will unless I fetch her. But no one who has entered that dark house has ever come out again, and it is not to be expected that I shall do so. I have therefore written for you a clay tablet and attested it with my Syrian seal so that you may return to Syria and draw my money from the merchants’ houses. You may sell my house if you wish. When you have done this, you are free to come and go. If you fear that in Egypt you may be seized as a runaway slave, then stay in Smyrna and live in my house on my money. As matters now stand, you have not even to arrange for the embalming of my body. If I do not find Minea, I don’t care whether or not my body is preserved. Go therefore, and may the good luck of the scarab go with you-for you may keep the scarab since you have more faith in it than I. I do not think I shall need it on the journey I am now to take.”

Kaptah was silent for a long time and he did not look at me. At length he said, “Lord, I bear you no grudge if at times you have beaten me with needless severity, for you did it with good intent. But more often you have listened to my counsel and have talked to me as a friend rather than as to a servant, so that at times I have been concerned for your dignity until your stick once more established the divinely ordained division between us. The situation now is that I have set Minea’s little foot upon my head and am thus responsible to her as her servant. Nor can I allow you to enter that dark house alone, so that even if I cannot attend you thither as your servant-since you have ordered me to leave you, and I must obey your orders even if they are foolish-yet as a friend I shall come with you. For I cannot leave you alone and certainly not without the scarab-although like you I believe that even the scarab can hardly help us in this matter.”

He spoke so gravely and thoughtfully that I scarcely knew, him, nor did he whine as was his custom. But to my mind it was mad for two of us to seek death where one would suffice. I told him this, and again ordered him to leave me.

But he was obstinate and said, “If you will not let me come with you, then I will follow after you. But I would rather come with you, for so greatly do I fear that dark house that my body turns to water at the thought of it. For that reason I hope you will allow me to bring a jar of wine so that I may take a mouthful now and then upon the way to give me courage, lest I shriek out in my terror and disturb you.”

I finished off the discussion, saying, “Cease this chattering and bring the wine if you wish, but let us start now for I believe the guards are asleep and overcome by the drink I mixed for them.”

The guards were sleeping soundly, and the priest also, so I was able to remove the key without difficulty from the place in the priest’s house where I had observed it. We also took with us a dish of embers and some torches, though we did not light them then, for the moon was bright and the little door was easy to unlock. We stepped into the house of the god and shut the door behind us. In the darkness I heard Kaptah’s teeth rattle against the rim of the wine jar.