She would not even look at them and said to him, “In the sight of men I am your wife, and I have borne you a son. Be content with that, and know that if ever you lay hand on me again I shall spit on your couch and deceive you as no wife has yet deceived her husband. To bring shame on you I will take pleasure with slaves and porters and will lie with donkey drivers in the public places of Thebes. Your hands and body smell of blood, and they sicken me.”
Her opposition inflamed Horemheb’s desire for her; he came to me complaining bitterly and said, “Sinuhe, mix me a draught which I may give her to make her sleep so that at least I may go to her then and have my way with her.”
I refused, but he sought out other physicians who gave him dangerous drugs. He administered these to her secretly. When he rose from her embrace, she hated him more bitterly than before and said, “Remember what I told you-remember my warning!”
Soon Horemheb departed for Syria to prepare his campaign against the Hittites, for as he said, “The great Pharaohs set up their boundary stones in Kadesh, and not until my chariots have entered Kadesh once more will I be content.”
When Princess Baketamon perceived that once more a seed quickened within her, she shut herself into her room in the desire to be alone with her degradation. Servants were obliged to leave food for her outside her door, and when her time drew near, the physicians had her secretly watched. They feared lest she bring forth the child alone and send him down the river in a reed boat, as those mothers did who incurred shame by giving birth. She did not do this: when her time came she summoned her physicians. The pains of her labor brought a smile to her lips, and she brought forth a son to whom, without consulting Horemheb, she gave the name of Setos. So bitterly did she hate this child that she called him He who was born of Set.
When she recovered from her lying in, she bade her slaves anoint her and array her in royal linen. Having been ferried over to the other shore, she went alone to the fish market in Thebes. There she spoke with donkey men and water carriers and gutters of fish.
She said to them, “I am Princess Baketamon, the consort of Egypt’s great general, Horemheb. Two sons have I borne him, but he is a dull and slothful man and smells of blood. I have no pleasure in him. Come and take pleasure with me that I may enjoy you, for your scarred hands and your wholesome smell of dung please me, and I also like the smell of fish.”
The men of the fish market marveled at her words. They were frightened and sought to evade her, but she followed them with persistence, and baring her beauty to them she said, “Am I not fair? Why do you hesitate? Know that even should you consider me old and ugly, yet I desire from each of you no other gift than a stone-and let the stone correspond in size to the pleasure I give you.”
Such a thing had never before happened to the men of the fish market. Their eyes brightened at her beauty. The royal linen of her dress lured them, and the perfume of her salves mounted to their heads.
They said one to another, “Truly she must be a goddess who reveals herself to us because we have found favor with her. We should do wrong to oppose her will, and the pleasure she offers us must be divine.”
Others said, “At least our pleasure will cost us little, for even Negro women demand at least one copper piece. No doubt she is a priestess who is collecting stones with which to build a new temple to Bast, and we shall perform a deed acceptable to the gods if we do as she bids us.”
They followed her to the reed swamps by the riverbank, where she led them to be out of the sight of men. And there all day Baketamon gave pleasure to the men from the fish market, cheating them of none of their delight but greatly favoring them. Many brought her large stones such as are bought of quarrymen at a high price, so highly did they rate the pleasure she gave them.
They said one to another, “Truly we have never met such a woman.
Her mouth is melted honey and her breasts ripe apples, and her embrace is as hot as the charcoal bed on which fish are grilled.”
They begged her to return soon to the fish market and promised to gather many large stones for her. She smiled at them modestly, thanking them for their kindness and for the great joy they had given her. When in the evening she returned to the golden house, she was obliged to hire a sturdier craft to ferry across all the stones she had collected in the course of the day.
Next morning, she took a heavier boat, and when the slave women had rowed her over to Thebes, she left them to await her on the quay and made her way to the vegetable market. There she spoke to the farmers who came into the city at dawn with the oxen and asses, men whose hands were hardened by the soil, whose skin was rough and weather-beaten. She also spoke to the street sweepers, the emptiers of latrines, and the Negro guards, luring them and baring her beauty to them so that they abandoned their loads of farm produce, their oxen and their donkeys. They left the streets unswept and followed her to the reed swamps, saying, “Such a delicacy does not come the way of the poor every day. Her skin is not like that of our wives, and the scent of her is like the scent of the nobles. We should be mad not to take the pleasure she offers us.”
They took pleasure with her and brought her stones. The farmers brought doorsteps from the taverns, and the guards pilfered stones from Pharaoh’s buildings. In the evening Princess Baketamon offered modest thanks to all the men from the vegetable market for their kindness to her and for the joy they had given her. They helped her to load the boat with stones until it was so deeply laden that it was near sinking, and the slave women had much ado to row it across the river to the quay by the golden house.
That same evening it was known to all Thebes that the catheaded goddess had revealed herself to the people and taken pleasure with them. The strangest rumors ran rife about the city, for those who no longer believed in the gods found other explanations.
The following day, Princess Baketamon went among the men of the charcoal market, and that evening the reed swamps by the river were sooty and trampled. The priests in many small temples complained bitterly, for the charcoal sellers were godless men who thought nothing of tearing stones from the temple walls with which to pay for their pleasure. They licked their lips and boasted among themselves, saying, “Truly we have tasted paradise. Her lips melted in our mouths, her breasts were like glowing brands in our hands, and we did not know that such delights existed in the world.”
When it became known in Thebes that the goddess had appeared to the people for the third time, the city was filled with a great unrest. Even respectable men left their wives and went to the taverns, and at night they took stones from Pharaoh’s buildings so that next morning every man in Thebes went from market to market with a stone under his arm, impatiently awaiting the appearance of the catheaded one. The priests were perturbed and sent forth their guards to arrest the woman who was the source of this outrage and scandal.
That day Princess Baketamon lay in the golden house, resting after her exertions. She smiled at all who addressed her and behaved in a notably agreeable manner. The court were much astonished at her demeanor, and no one dreamed as yet that she was the mysterious woman who had appeared to the people of Thebes and taken pleasure with charcoal burners and cleaners of fish.
Princess Baketamon, having surveyed the stones of varying size and color that she had collected, summoned into her garden the builder of the royal cattlesheds and said to him, “I have gathered these stones by the riverbank, and they are sacred to me. Each one is linked with a joyous memory; the bigger the stone, the more joyous the memory. Build me a pavilion with these stones that I may have a roof over my head, for my consort neglects me, as you have doubtless heard. Let this pavilion be spacious and its walls high, and I will collect more stones as you need them.”
The master builder was a simple man and he said humbly, “High Princess Baketamon, I fear that my arts may not suffice to build a pavilion worthy of your rank. These stones are of different sizes and colors so that the fitting of them together will be a matter of great difficulty. Lay this task rather on some temple builder or artist, for I fear that my lack of skill may spoil the beauty of your thought.”
But Princess Baketamon touched his bony shoulder shyly and said, “I am but a poor woman whose husband is neglectful, and I cannot afford to call eminent master builders to my service. Nor can I offer you a worthy present for the work, as I should wish to do. When the pavilion is completed, I will inspect it with you, and if I find it well done, I will take pleasure with you there; this I promise! I have nothing to give you but a little joy.”
The master builder was greatly inflamed by her words, and surveying her beauty, he remembered the tales in which princesses fell in love with humble men and took pleasure with them. His fear of
Horemheb was great, but his desire greater, and the word? of Baketamon flattered him exceedingly. Swiftly, he began to build the pavilion, exercising all his arts in the work and dreaming as he built. He built his dreams into
