Week 6 Story: Crocodile Trial

Once upon a time there was a Pharaoh with many attendants and advisers. Of the pharaoh’s many advisers one, a youth, he trusted most of all, much to the chagrin of the elder advisers. Many thought it wrong for the youth to be trusted more than his elders, and no one grew angrier over the matter than the eldest adviser. It was known that the eldest adviser disdained the youth, as he was keeping the elder from his rightful place, and would have done something to remove him, but none, not even the eldest, would think to move against someone so favored by the Pharaoh. So, the elder advisers tolerated the youth.

One day, as the eldest adviser was walking in the temple of Phta when a man approached him. The man, a magician, told the eldest that he two thought it was wrong for the youth to have the pharaoh’s ear, and that if the eldest would help him they could remove the youth without the Pharaoh suspecting a thing. The elder, quickly agreed and the magician brought out a small wooden box. Inside the box was a small wax figure of a crocodile. The eldest adviser, thinking he had been tricked, scoffed at the magician, and asked how such a figure could do anything. The magician only smiled and told the eldest that all he must do is toss the figure in water near the youth, and everything would be resolved. The eldest took the figure in his hand and eyed it suspiciously before slipping it into his pocket. Before the eldest could ask any more questions, the magician slipped out of the temple.

Many days later, all the advisers were gathered with the Pharaoh discussing plans for a new path across the Nile. All the elder advisers were in agreement about where it should be placed, but the youth dissented, so the Pharaoh would not agree. Seeing hi opportunity, the eldest adviser offered to walk the youth along the river and explain their choice for placement. The youth agreed, and they set out to talk together along the Nile. Once they had traveled a while. The eldest stopped, as though to rest, and told the youth he would only be a moment. The youth, enjoying the walk stood and studied the river and his surroundings. While the youth was engaged the eldest tossed the wax figure into the water, and watched it silently melt into a terribly large crocodile that floated with just its snout breaking the surface. The eldest, got up and prompted the youth to keep moving. As they walked on, the eldest slowly trailed further behind until there was a good distance between the two. As this happened the Crocodile, now made flesh, lunged from the water and seized the youth.

Thinking he had finally succeeded in removing the youth’s influence on the Pharaoh, the eldest returned to the gathering of advisers to report the youth’s death and claim his position next to the Pharaoh. Upon returning to the gathering however, the eldest was shocked to find the youth standing next to the Pharaoh unharmed. Seeing the eldest enter, the Pharaoh had him seized. The Pharaoh explained that the youth was actually a very old and very wise magician, the same magician that had given the figure to the eldest as a test of trust. The eldest, having proved his lack of trust and intent to harm, was banished. The Pharaoh warned that the eldest that if he ever returned the crocodile, that he had sent after the youth, would devour him.

Author’s Note:

This story was inspired by “The Wax Crocodile” which is a story from Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie. In the original story, a scribe’s wife is cheating on him with a young man. The scribe finds out and is given a magical wax crocodile to toss in the water behind the young man. When he does, the crocodile caries off the young man, and later brings him back when called which impresses both the scribe and the Pharaoh. After marveling for a while they have the crocodile kill the young man, and they burn the scribe’s wife to death. I thought that the idea of a magic wax crocodile was very interesting, but I wasn’t so thrilled about another story of infidelity and violence. So, I wrote this story, getting rid of the infidelity, and instead replacing it with a test of trust and loyalty, but no death. Because I didn’t want it to be possible that the villain was falsely accused I made the youth and the magician that enchants the wax crocodile the same person, so he could serve as a “witness” of sorts. Then at the end, I thought it was just a good bit of poetic justice for the eldest to be threatened with the same fate he wished upon the youth/magician.

Bibliography

"Egyptian Myth and Legend" by Donald Mackenzie, 1907

Photo Credit
By Steve Slater (Nile Crocodile basking) [CC BY 2.0  (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons