Three Novels of Ancient Egypt

The pygmy's large head shook as though he were trembling, then he uttered strange words in a voice that was more like the lowing of cattle and the princess could not suppress a sweet laugh. She said, “Truly, he is strange. But he is ugly; it would give me no pleasure to acquire him.”

The youth looked crestfallen and said, with the glibness of the cunning merchant, “Zolo, my lady, is not the best thing in my convoy. I have treasures to captivate the soul and steal the heart!”

She turned contemptuously from Zolo to the boastful salesman and for the first time cast him a scrutinizing glance. Finding before her his towering height and youthful bloom, she was amazed that a common trader should appear thus. She asked him, “Do you really have something likely to please me?”

“Indeed, my lady.”

“Then show me a specimen… some examples of your wares.”

Isfmis clapped his hands and a slave came to him and he directed a few words to him in a low voice. The man absented himself for a while, then returned carrying, with the help of another, an ivory box. This they placed in front of the princess and opened. Then they moved aside. The princess looked inside the box, while the slave girls craned their necks, and saw a dazzling array of gleaming pearls, earrings, and bracelets. She examined these with a practiced eye, then stretched out her soft, supple hand to take a necklace of incomparable simplicity and perfection: an emerald heart on a chain of pure gold. She took the heart in her fingers and murmured, “Where did you get this gem? There is nothing like it in Egypt!”

The youth said proudly, “It is the greatest of Nubia's treasures!”

She murmured, “Nubia… Zolo's country. How beautiful it is!”

Isfmis smiled and looking attentively at her fingers he said, “Now that it has attracted your highness's admiration, it would not do for it to be returned to its box.”

Without embarrassment she replied, “Indeed. But I do not have the money to pay for it with me. Are you going to Thebes?”

He said, “Yes, my lady.”

She said, “You will have to come to the palace and take the money.”

The youth bowed respectfully and the princess cast a farewell look at Zolo, then turned away, moving past with her supple, slender form, followed by the slave girls. The youth's eyes hung on her until the ship's side hid her. Then he recalled himself and returned to his ship where Latu awaited him impatiently, asking him before the youth could say anything, “What news?”

He gave him a summary of what the princess had said, then asked smilingly, “Do you think she's really the daughter of Apophis?”

Latu replied angrily, “She is a devil, daughter of a devil!”

Latu's rough words and angry looks awakened the youth from his reverie. It came to him that the person who had aroused his admiration was the daughter of the humiliator of his people, and his grandfather's killer, and that he had not felt in her presence the resentment and hatred that he should. He was angry with himself, fearing that the tone in which he had related her words might have had its source in an admiration that would hurt the honest old man. He said to himself, “I must be worthy of the duty that I came here to perform!” So it was that he did not look after the princess's boat but instead stared long at the horizon and tried to feel hatred for her, sensing that she was a power that must be resisted in every way. She had passed out of his life forever, but… dear God, her beauty had enchanted him, and no one who had the misfortune to see her could close his eyes to the power of its light.

At that moment he thought of his young wife Nefertari, with her straight body, golden-brown face, and enchanting black eyes, and all he could do was to stammer, “How different from each other these two lovely images are!”

4

Thebes’ southern wall with its splendid gates appeared, the temples and obelisks rising up behind, magnificence incarnate and terrifying to behold. The two men stared at the city, their eyes filled with tenderness and sorrow.

Latu said, “The Lord grant you life, glorious Thebes!”

And Isfinis responded, “At last, Thebes, after long years of exile!”

The ship turned toward the shore, the others of the convoy following in its wake, sails furled and oars raised. It made its way among a great number of fishing boats full of fish, some still pulsing — with life, the sailors standing in the waists of the vessels with their naked, copper bodies and muscle-bound arms. An intoxicating joy diffused throughout Isfmis's body as he looked at them and he said to his companion, “Let's hurry! I'm longing to talk to any Egyptian!”