feet.
The King of the land of Mitanni, in Naharani, sent his daughter as a bride to the new Pharaoh as his father had done before him and as had been agreed with the celestial Pharaoh before his death. Tadukhipa, for such was her name, arrived in Thebes with servants and slaves and asses laden with merchandise of great value. She was a child just six years old, and the prince took her to wife, for the kingdom of Mitanni was a wall between the wealth of Syria and the lands of the north, and guarded the caravan routes all the way from the land of the twin rivers to the sea. Rejoicing ceased among the priests of Sekhmet, the celestial daughter of Ammon, and the hinges of her temple gates were rusted fast.
It was of this we spoke, Thothmes and I; we rejoiced our hearts with wine as we listened to Syrian music and watched the dancing girls. The fever of the city was in my blood; yet each morning my one-eyed servant came to my bedside deferentially and brought me bread and a salt fish and filled my beaker with ale. Then I would wash myself and sit down to await my patients, to listen to their woes and to heal them.
4
It was floodtime. The waters had risen as high as to the temple walls, and when they sank again, the land sprouted forth in tender green, birds built their nests, and lotus flowers blossomed in the pools amid the perfume of acacias. One day Horemheb came to my house and greeted me. He was dressed in royal linen with a gold chain about his neck. In his hand he carried a whip denoting that he was an officer in Pharaoh’s household. But now he held no spear.
“I come for counsel, Sinuhe the Lonely,” said he.
“What can you mean? You are as strong as a bull and as bold as a lion. There is nothing a doctor can do for you.”
“I ask you as a friend not as a physician,” he said sitting down. Kaptah poured water over his hands, and I offered him cakes my mother Kipa had sent me and wine from the harbor, for my heart rejoiced at the sight of him.
“You have been promoted then. You are now an officer of the household and no doubt the light of all women’s eyes.”
His face darkened. “And what filth it all is! The palace is full of flies that blow on me. The Theban streets are hard and hurt my feet, and my sandals chafe them sore.”
He kicked off the sandals and rubbed his toes. “I am an officer in the bodyguard, yes—but some of the officers are ten-year-olds whose side locks are still unshorn, and because of their high birth they laugh at me and mock me. Their arms have not strength to draw the bowstring, and their swords are gold and silver toys; they might cut meat with them but never strike down an enemy. The soldiers drink and lie with the household slave girls and are without discipline. In the military school they read outdated treatises—they have never seen war or known hunger and thirst or fear of the enemy.”
He rattled the chain about his neck impatiently and went on. “What are chains and honors when they are won not in battle but in prostrations before Pharaoh? The Queen Mother has tied a beard to her chin and girded herself with the tail of a lion, but how can a warrior look up to a woman as his chief? In the days of the great Pharaohs the warrior was a man not altogether despised, but now the Thebans look upon his profession as the most contemptible of all and shut their doors to him. I waste my time. The days of my youth and strength trickle away while I study the arts of war under those who would turn and fly at the mere sound of a Negro war cry. By my falcon! Soldiers are made upon the field of battle and nowhere else, and they are tried in the clash of arms. I will stay here no longer!”
He smote the table with his whip, overturning the wine cups, and my servant fled with a yelp of fear.
“Horemheb, my friend—you are ill after all. Your eyes are fevered, and you are bathed in sweat.”
“Am I not a man?” He smote his chest. “I can lift a brawny slave in either hand and
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