Daughter of the Nile: A Novel in Ancient Egypt

Daughter of the Nile

Copyright 2012 by Rory Liam Elliott

Smashwords Edition

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Editor: Ailsa Campbell

Story by: Susan Hart

CONTENTS

Prologue (iteru -- Nile)

Chapter 1 (Memories of Childhood)

Chapter 2 (Mery)

Chapter 3 (Kemsa)

Chapter 4 (Thoth)

Chapter 5 (Quasshie)

Chapter 6 (Charuni)

Chapter 7 (Aapep)

Chapter 8 (Asim)

Chapter 9 (Kindness)

Chapter 10 (Love)

Chapter 11 (Passion)

Chapter 12 (Hatred)

Chapter 13 (Death)

Chapter 14 (Revenge)

Epilogue (Life)

Prologue

iteru (Nile)

Old Boney, a Nile crocodile almost one hundred years old, moved slowly along the riverbank at his own pace, looking for breakfast while the sun warmed up his cold reptile’s blood.

When he found a large lump of rotting carcass, he had a hard time fitting it into his mouth. The man’s torso was sinewy and Old Boney kept trying to get it down by tossing it into the air and moving it around in his long jaws. It was a difficult task so early in the morning because the Egyptian air along the Nile was cool and the reptile’s blood did not heat up very fast.

Black and white mottled Egyptian geese flew over him, winging down closer to the earth as they moved to their morning feeding grounds – their red beaks providing a stark difference in color to their bodies.

A flock of Ibis waded in the mud, stabbing at various frogs and other things they saw in the muddy water, while trying to get vegetable matter from the bottom as well as keeping a wary lookout for the crocodiles which reigned supreme in the Nile.

A hippopotamus and her baby were nearby, creating a large mud puddle as they waded along the bottom of the river. The sun was just at the horizon and as soon as it appeared, everyone and everything seemed to spring to life. Ra had risen and Egypt was once again alive and thriving.

Old Boney continued to struggle with the man’s torso, but it was not Boney’s worn teeth that had made the ragged edge hole in the chest and it was not Boney who had removed the man’s heart after his death.

After eating the torso missing its heart as his main course, Old Boney moved sluggishly along the rich soil of the river's side, swishing aside papyrus clumps with his massive and tail, and he discovered a few more remains lying close by.

There was a human leg minus a foot, and then another a few yards further along the bank.

Hidden under some bushes were two arms and hands, and buried in a shallow grave was a man's head, which the croc uncovered last by poking a long and tooth-filled snout into the mud. After making a satisfied grunting sound, he tossed the head into the air and then swallowed it whole.

Now full and satisfied with all of the dismembered body in his now swollen belly, Old Boney raised his head and looked across the expanse of mother Nile, as puffs of moisture – visible because of the cooler morning air along the river – emerged from the nostrils at the end of his gnarled, battle-scarred and elongated head.

Eyeing the competition which had smelled the croc's meal and were headed his way, the reptile slid into the warming Nile waters and swam off, weaving its enormous tail back and forth in the mud-swirled water. He would not need to eat again for weeks.

Right after the croc's departure, a few locals came down to the riverbank to wash clothes and bathe. They yawned and stretched out their arms, and spoke softly with neighbors who were also arriving at the edge of mother Nile. Far off, someone was playing a morning hymn on a lute and the soft sounds floated over the early bathers and washer women, combining with the amber dawn light to create an Old Masters’ painting.

A light mist rose from the warm waters of the Nile and this hid the surface of the water, as well as the bathers' legs. One woman waved to a passing fisherman who was pushing his boat along close to shore, looking for a few fish who liked to make their homes in the weeds close to the bank. He stopped for a few moments, cast his net, brought in three fish and held them aloft proudly.

Shading their eyes, the group looked to the Pyramids, the tombs of past Pharaohs that seemed so tall they touched the sky. As the sun rose higher, its brilliant rays hit the white limestone covering and golden cap, sending beams of light across the Red and Black Land.

I see Ra is about to Go Forth By Day, commented an old woman.

Let's do the same, daughter. They all moved on to the day's business, as life in Ancient Egypt resumed its vibrant rhythm.

Chapter 1

(Memories of Childhood)

They called me Meryneith. Even when I first came to them I knew my new father was already a great maker of mummies. He was able to teach me many things.

My new parents called me Mery, because they said I made them smile. I have loved them always, and still do now. Before them there was a dark time that I only see as though I was seeing it through an early morning Nile fog, where I dream in blackness. Father told me this was before I was four Nile floods old.

He also reminded me that such dark thoughts should remain in my past and that I had much brighter ones ahead of me.

This life before my life, came to me every now and then, usually as I was between the land of the living and the land of dreams. My memories of this infancy before my childhood are murky, like the water surrounding a crocodile close to the riverbank.

When I asked my father about these dreams and memories he told me that when I was older, I would learn everything about them, what they meant, and why I had taken a long voyage on a cold dark vessel over a very large sea. I often told him that I dreamt about the strange sea. It was odd because I had never gone more than a few miles beyond Waset, so I constantly thought about traveling down to the Nile Delta and trying to find this body of water.

Father told me that perhaps, one day, I would visit the Pharaoh down at his palace in Pi-Ramesses. That idea made me feel so good that all thoughts of the dark place vanished from my head.

Now, it’s harder to remember those dark days from the past because of the glorious ones in Egypt. Our weather is perfect, Mother Nile is our provider, and our people are blessed by the gods.

Life is so wonderful. I will never leave this place because it’s my entire world.

I always wanted to learn everything I could about what father did. One day, I wanted to perform the same rituals that he performed – enabling our citizens to enter the afterlife and let Anubis weigh their hearts against a feather lighter than a desert breeze. I wanted to become a doctor, too, and help the sick – especially the children.

I’ve always loved little children.

But part of me also wanted to find out why things happen, to work out who stole the treasure from a tomb, to trace the straying donkey by the marks he left on the ground, to find who stole our neighbor’s chickens, to discover who wrote the rude graffiti on the walls or burnt down my uncle’s grain store in a fit of malice.

I wanted to work out the signs and find the evidence to answer all these questions. And, I thought, it would be useful for a mummy-maker to be able to diagnose why people have died.

When I was eight Nile floods old, father told me it would take a good while longer to learn everything about preparing my people for the afterlife. He also told me that there had never been a woman mummy maker before.

When the time comes, I told him fiercely – stomping my foot and trying to make myself look much older – I’ll write to the government department in charge of mummy makers and get my permit. You'll see.

Father smiled and patted my short, black hair.

Mother fixed my hair every morning after we bathed and she brushed it and brushed it, before carefully fastening a decoration into it. It always felt so good when mother brushed my hair because I loved the feel of the brush against my skin and the way that my hair looked afterwards.

My favorite hair decoration was the little gold-colored Ibis bird which father bought me one day while we were at the market. I remember that day vividly because there were rare storm clouds off in the distance and I kept looking at them. When it first rained, and the thunder and lightning came rolling across Thebes, I thought the sky was falling and I ran screaming into our house.

But the long nights when the sky was dark and the moon shone brightly filled me with peace. Thoth, the moon god, the god of wisdom, was always my favorite god and we kept several statues of him in our home. I know that Thoth invented god's words, mdwt ntr, which is the name of our hieroglyphics and the way in which we write things down.

Father was always telling me, Yes, yes, daughter. When the time comes we shall apply for the permit so you can perform the rituals, because I kept asking and asking him when I could start to prepare citizens for their afterlife.

I know you can do anything your little heart wishes, he told me. You were always that way, and so may you remain in the gods' favor for your entire life. As well as getting the permit you need, I've no doubt you'll tell those old blowhards in the government just how much you need that permit and where to go to get it, as well.

When father told me that, I laughed. I thought about everything that surrounded me and about wanting to do so many things that sometimes I couldn’t fall asleep at night.

I thought about when I would grow up and who I would marry and who my friends would be, and a lot about our country of Egypt, and what it would be like in the future.

The annual inundation, a gift from Mother Nile, is at the core of every citizen's life and I had a hard time imagining what it would be like without it.

All of this thinking often kept me awake and mother had to come and sing to me to get me to stop thinking so I could get some sleep. She covered me with a light blanket when the nights grew colder, and kissed my forehead.

She said that if I never slept my heart would be so full that I wouldn’t be able to cram any more things in there and that it could burst. I had seen a heart in my father’s workshop and I certainly didn’t want mine to break because I was thinking too hard and doing so much.

My great uncle, the great tax scribe Suten Anu, taught me how to read and write almost as soon as I could hold the stylus and knew what writing was. I cried when I learned that girls weren't taught how to read or write most of the time, but great uncle promised me that he would show me how to make the hieroglyphics and what they meant, so that I could read as well as write.

I thought that the little pictures in the writing were so expressive, and I often drew them for hours on end so I could write perfectly. I wrote my name then drew a cartouche around it, just like the Pharaoh had ordered with names. I heard that he had once said, speaking from his temple, So shall it be written. So shall it be done.’’

When I went around our house practicing those words, mother used to laugh because I looked and sounded so grown up. Sometimes, when I was feeling particularly energetic I even frightened the cat by shouting the phrase with all of the pomposity of the Pharaoh that I could muster.

Great uncle was an important man who took care of taxes for one of the biggest prefectures in Thebes. Without these learned men – these scribes – our people couldn’t conduct business or sell their wares in the marketplace, or do most other things that make life so wonderful in our land of Egypt. I even thought about becoming a scribe before I decided to become a mummy maker.

Without my great uncle I wouldn't have the knowledge to write down all of my father's teachings and would soon forget them. I will remember him always for that gift.

We often sat in great uncle's garden and as he spoke the words, he would guide my hand so that I could learn how to put the word on paper. He told me that making the hieroglyphics correctly was important so that I could read them later and understand what I had written. If I was not able to read it, and couldn’t remember what on earth it was, that would be a big waste of time.

One time a bird landed in the fountain and took a bath. Great uncle snatched away the parchment quickly because he told me that you couldn't write on wet parchment. That made me think a lot about parchment and perhaps, how to make it easier to write on.

Great uncle said that those who came after us could learn from our mistakes, but unless we were able to let them know how we came to do what we did, our great Egyptian civilization would come to an end.

I cried when I first heard this but he told me quickly, Not right away, my child. It won't happen immediately.

Great uncle's cat, Isis, would brush by my hand as I stretched out, trying to rid myself of the cramping caused by clutching my stylus so hard. I’ve always loved animals and knew that when I grew up, I would have many cats and two white horses. Nothing else would do, I often