SCARAB^^ID^ — DUNG-BEETLES. 29 



power, or All-father. On the introduction of Christianity, 

 the priests strove to terrify the people from the worship of 

 their old divinities, pronouncing both them and their adhe- 

 rents to be evil spirits, and belonging to hell. On the poor 

 Thorbagge the name was now bestowed of Thordjefvul or 

 Thordyfvel — Thor-devil, by which it is still known in Sweden 

 Proper. No one now thinks of Thor, when he finds the help- 

 less creature lying on its back, but the good-natured coun- 

 tryman seldom passes it without setting it on its feet, and 

 thinking of his sin's atonement."^ 



A common symbol of the Creator among the Hindoos 

 (from whom it passed into Egypt, and thence into Scandi- 

 navia, says Bjornstjerna) was the Scarabaeus (Ateuchus) 

 sacer, commonly called the Sacred-beetle of the Egyptians.^ 

 Of this insect we next treat at length. 



Of the many animals worshiped by the ancient Egyptians, 

 one of the most celebrated, perhaps, is the insect commonly 

 known as the Sacred-scarab — Scarabaeus sacer. This name 

 was given it by Linnaeus, but later writers know it as the 

 Ateuchus sacer.^ The insect is found throughout all Egypt, 

 in the southern part of Europe,* in China, the East Indies, 

 in Barbary, and at the Cape of Good Hope.^ 



The Ateuchus sacer, however, is not the only insect that 

 was regarded as an object of veneration by the Egyptians ; 

 but another species of the same genus, lately discovered in 

 the Sennari by M. Caillaud de Nantes, appears to have first 

 fixed the attention of this people, in consequence of its more 

 brilliant colors, and of the country in which it was found, 

 which, it is supposed, was their first sojourn.^ This species, 

 which Cuvier has named Ateuchus ^gyptorum, is green, 

 with a golden tint, while the first is black.'' The Buprestis 

 and Gantharus, or Copris, were also held in high repute by 

 the Egyptians, and used as synonymous emblems of the 

 same deities as the Scarabaeus. This is further confirmed 

 by the fact of S. Passalacqua having found a species of 



1 Northern Mythol., ii 53. 



' Bjornstj. Theog. of Hindoos, p. 108. 



5 Oliv. Col. I. 3, viii. 59. Cuvier, An. King. — Ins., i. 452. 



4 Cuvier, qua supra. 



5 Donovan's Ins. of China, p. 4, 



6 Cuvier, qua supra. 



"^ De Pauw's Sacred-beetle of the Egyptians was "the great golden 

 Scarabee, called by some the Cantharides." — ii. 104. 



4 



