SCARAB^ID^ — DUNG-BEETLES. 35 



Hertz has in his possession a small Scarabaeus in stone 

 with the head of a cow.^ 



The mode of representing the Scarabaei on the monu- 

 ments was frequently very arbitrary. Some are figured 

 with, and some without the scutellum ; and others are 

 I sometimes introduced with two scutella, one on either 

 clypeus. An instance of this mode of representation, of 

 which no example is to be found in nature, occurs in a large 

 i Scarabaeus in the British museum.^ 



Among the ideographics of the hieroglyphic writing, the 

 Scarabaeus is found under several forms : seated with 

 closed and spread wings upon the head of a god, it signi- 

 fies the name of a god — a Creator f and with the head and 

 legs of a man, it is emblematic of the same creative power, 

 or of Pthah. Another emblem of Pthah is supported by 

 the arms of a man kneeling on the heavens, and surmounted 

 by a winged Scarab supporting a globe or sun.* 



The Scarabaeus likewise belongs to the hieroglyphic 

 signs as a syllabic phonetic ; and with complement a 

 mouth, signifies type, form, and transformation : flying, to 

 mount — a phonetic of the later alphabet, with sound of H 

 in the name of Pthah. Another phonetic of the later alpha- 

 bet, belonging to the xxvi. dynasty, of the time of Domi- 

 tianus and Trajanus, was a Scarabaeus in repose.^ 



The Scarabaeus entered also into the royal scutcheons. 

 It first appeared in the xi. dynasty, and is found afterward 

 in the xii., xiii., xiv., xviii., xix., xx., xxi., xxii. xxiii., 

 and XXX. ^ 



The most important monuments of the great edifice of 

 Amenophis — the so-called Palace of Luxon, — in an histori- 

 cal sense, are said to be four great Scarabaei. They contain 

 statements as to the frontier of the Egyptian empire under 

 Amenophis at the time of his marriage with Taja. Rosel- 

 lini has given copies and explanations of two of them. A 

 third, now in the Louvre, states that the King, conqueror 

 of the Lybian Shepherds, husband of Taja, made the foreign 



1 Wilkin. AncL Egi/pt., ii. (2d S.) 259, note. 



2 Ibid. 



8 Bunsen, Egypt's Place, i. 504, fig. 116; i. 508, fig. 169. 

 * AVilkin. Ank. Egypt, i. (2d S.) 258, fig. 



5 Bunsen, Ibid., i. 572, fig. 12; i. 676, tig. 9; i. 582, fig. 3. 



6 Bunsen, Ibid., i. 617-632. 



