Also called Lord of Punt, The serpent in the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor.
The tale
In a Middle Kingdom tale, a sailor is shipwrecked and washed onto an island full of figs and fish, where a gigantic serpent, thirty cubits long with golden scales and eyebrows of lapis lazuli, carries him gently in its mouth to its home. The serpent comforts the terrified man and tells him its own sorrow: it once lived there with seventy-five serpent kin, but a star fell and burned them all. It tells the sailor that if he is brave he will return home, and when a ship comes, it sends him off laden with incense, ivory and treasure. Then the island sinks beneath the waves, never to be found again.
When they are met
- when facing a frightening ordeal
- at story time
- when grieving
Staying on their good side
- gratitude
- stories told well
- incense, which he gave the sailor
Honouring them, or keeping safe
- Read the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor, one of the oldest surviving stories in the world.
- Share a story of your own hardship with someone facing theirs, as the serpent does.
- Be kind to strangers in trouble.
- Light a stick of incense in thanks after getting through something hard.
What their tales teach
- courage in fear
- bearing grief
- kindness to strangers
- the value of telling your story
Symbols
- a serpent with golden scales and lapis eyebrows
- a phantom island
- a falling star
- ship loaded with gifts
From the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor, a real papyrus of about 2000 BC now in Moscow.