SCARABiEIDiE — DUNG-BEETLES. 33 



T. Pthali Tore, another character of the creative power.^ 



8. Pthah-Sokari-Osiris. — Of this pigmy Deity of Mem- 

 phis, it was adopted as a distinctive mark, being pkxced on 

 his head. 2 



9. Regeneration, or reproduction, from the fact of its 

 being the first living animal observed upon the subsidence 

 of the waters of the Nile.^ 



10. Spring.^ 



11. The Egyptian month anterior to the rising of the 

 Nile, as it appears first in that month. ^ It also may have 

 been a symbol of a lunar month from an above-mentioned 

 belief, namely, that its pellets remain twenty-eight days in 

 the ground. It is sometimes found with the joints of its 

 tarsi numbering but twent3^-eight instead of thirty, hence 

 the supposition is that it was held as a symbol of a lunar, 

 as well as a solar, month. 



12. Fecundity. — Dr. Clarke informs us that these beetles 

 are even yet eaten by the women to render them prolific.*^ 



13. With the eyes pierced by a needle, of a man who 

 died from fever. ^ 



14. Surrounded by roses, of a voluptuary, because they 

 thought that the smell of that flower enervated, made 

 lethargic, and killed the beetle.^ 



15. An only son ; because, says Fosbroke, they believed 

 that every beetle was " both male and female."" Was it 

 not because they imagined these insects were all males, as 

 above stated upon the authority of Plutarch, and hence the 

 analogy in a family of an only son since it could be but of 

 the masculine gender ? 



The Scarabseus was also connected with astronomical 

 subjects, occurring in some zodiacs in the place of Cancer ; 

 and with funereal rites. ^° 



To no place in particular, as the dog at Cynopohs, the 



1 Wilkin. AncL Eg^jpt., ii. (2d S.) 256. 2 Ibid. 



3 Pettigrew, Hist, of Mum., p. 220. * Ibid. ^ Ibid. 



6 Travels, ii. 306 (?). 

 ■^ Fosbroke, Encycl. of Antiq., i. 208. 



8 Ibid. Vide Pierius' Hieroglyph., p. 76-80. Solis operum sinii- 

 litudo ; Mundus; Generatio; Vnigenitus; Deus in humano corpore; 

 Vir, paterve; Bellator strenuus ; Sol; Luna; Mercurius ; Febris 

 letlialis a sole; Virtus enervata deliciis. 



9 Fosbroke, Encycl. of Antiq., i. 208. 



10 Wilkin. Anct. Egypt., ii. (2d S.) 257. 



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