The Scarab Beetle

By Aarav Jha, age 11

Long before the compass was invented, the people of the ancient world used their sheer will and the help of their gods to discover new places. Egypt had the best explorers as their gods were considered to be more powerful and more engaged in human affairs than the other gods. The Egyptians became proud and always told the people of the other countries, “ Your country should not bother discovering new things! They do not have proper Egyptian talent!” Those people frowned at that but said nothing for, deep down, they knew it was true. But this story is not about the places that Egyptians have discovered, it is about the one place they have not discovered. You see the Egyptian gods did not want the country or the rest of the world from discovering their favorite city – Atlantis. This city was by the ancient harbor of Egypt. In those days the Egyptians prayed to their gods for water and the gods simply took water from the harbor of Atlantis and gave it to them. In Atlantis, there was a young man who was beloved by the gods so he always had good luck. The young man prayed most to one forgotten Egyptian god – Caspunin – the god of choices. One day Caspunin asked Rames – the young man,” I am very pleased with you today for your devotion to me has not wavered for a respectable amount of time, I am here to give you a gift for that.” Rames  said, “ My lord, I do not deserve any gift from you.” Caspunin smiled “That humility is exactly why it belongs to you.” He removed a thick black casket from his robes and gave it to Rames. “Open it,” said Caspunin. Rames opened the box and gasped! It was a big stone beetle with rusted features and ancient runes on its face. “This is the Scarab Beetle. It has the power to bend fate itself for you to make it your own. You will have the power to control destiny for all your wishes. I must leave now but I hope you enjoy my gift.” And with that Caspunin left. Rames stared in wonder at the beetle. When he picked it up, it was surprisingly smooth, and took it home. On his way home he saw an old man carrying a sack full of chopped wood. He wanted to help him so he said “Can I help you carry those sacks?” The old man replied “No, young man. Everyday I have to carry these sacks from the forest to the landlord’s house. You cannot possibly help me everyday.” Rames said “I do not need to. I can help you carry those sacks without touching them.” The old man was surprized “How?” Rames removed the beetle and ordered it to make his sacks have wings so they can fly everyday from the forest to the landlords house. And ,miraculasly, it happened! Everyone in the marketplace were amazed and they cheered for Rames. Even the gods looked down from the heavens in approval. But another now forgotten god sniffed in disaprooval. It was Indiania, the spirit of the Indian ocean. Since Atlantis was on the edge of the Indian Ocean, naturally, she noticed Atlantis and the Egyptian gods had to make her swear not to tell the other gods or people that it existed. She did not like Atlantis very much and thought that the people there were showing fake respect to the gods to attract their attention. So she thought that Rames was doing that as well and decided to switch his beetle with hers. Her beetle could bend fate to make the opposite of what the person wanted. She switched the beetles while he was not looking and made sure all the other gods could not see. Then when Rames reached home he saw that his house was in a very bad shape and its walls had cracks on them so he wished that his house would become new again and would look as clean as the walls of Sets palace. At that moment a huge wave came from the harbor and destroyed his house. He wept and decided that the beetle’s magic had stopped working. So he kept it in his pocket and decided not to use it again. When Caspunin found out what had happened he was furious! He went to her palace and demanded her to give him the real beetle. If Indiania had done that she would not have made her mistake. Instead of giving it to him, she gave it to his disrespecting neighbor who hated Atlantis as well. Caspunin saw what she had done and went down to Atlantis to get it back. But he was too late. The neighbor had already wished for Atlantis to drown in a tidal wave. No sooner did he say that a huge tsunami came from the depths of the ocean and took Atlantis under the sea with it. When the other Egyptian gods had seen what had happened they told Caspunin and Indiania they would rip away their immortality and kill them in mortal form. That was the worst punishment for a god so Caspunin and Indiania turned Atlantis into an underwater kingdom and all the people into mermaids. Yet the gods decided to exile them never to set foot in the Egyptian country ever again. This is how they were forgotten and this is how the legend of Atlantis came into being. This is also how the Scarab Beetle came into existence in the Egyptian world.