FICTION

The

Physician

by Nancy

To the teachers and students of the medical academy from your head master and physician of the royal court. This is my last message to you; it is the story of my life.

I was born among the tent people; who dwell on the outskirts of our land. We herded and hunted and supplied most of the warriors for we were more rugged and igno- rant than the people of the cities.

When I was fourteen years old I told our local head- man that I did not want to take the rite of manhood. Our headman was a kindly person and he talked this over with me. He was not opposed to my decision but because he knew that my father would be against it he agreed to speak to him for me. My mother, who was a third wife and therefore had no authority, also pleaded my cause and in the end my father decided to apprentice me to the temple that taught physicians.

I was given a letter, in the form of a scroll, for the tutors of the temple. I was also, for the first time, lawfully allowed to dress as a woman, although my mother had often dressed me thus in secret. I was to study in the temple until my twentieth year when I would be gra- duated as a doctor. My father agreed to pay so much gold per year for my keep which, though he did not speak to me directly, I was told I should repay when I began practice. So began my life as a scholar and a young woman.

In the Temple of Physicians there were a few young men, about thirty when I arrived, that chose to live as

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