Like many magical creatures, cats could bring both good fortune and misfortune. In the folklore of France, there was a creature called a Matagot. It was said to make its owner rich, though I believed the creatures at the French Ministry of Magic that bore the same name did not bring wealth to their owners, but rather guarded it—the lion-bodied, human-faced, scorpion-tailed beasts.
Nicolas Flamel wrote this in his notes.
Speaking of scorpions, I met an interesting person today. He actually claimed to be about the same age as me. I thought that if he knew how old I truly was, he would not have said such a thing. While waiting for François, I spoke with him for a while. He asked whether I had ever been to Egypt. I thought back and recalled that, a little over a hundred years ago, when my bones had not yet become so brittle, I had indeed gone out once.
When one lived too long, memories could sometimes become muddled, which was why I maintained the habit of keeping a diary. Then he asked whether I knew of a place called Bakar Hill. I honestly told him that I did not, rather than pretending to know everything like certain old men. He then told me that it was regarded as the "primeval mound of creation," the home of Thebes' Amun at the beginning of time, and that scorpions guarded the pure land around it.
This gentleman believed that scorpions did not represent evil, but abundance. Just as cobras represented holiness in Egypt, it was precisely the Scorpion King's strength that united Upper and Lower Egypt and ensured the land's harvests. The Nile River was not an obedient river. It had changed course before; sometimes it flooded, and sometimes it ran dry. During the