INTRODUCTION. 13 



' Oh,' quoth the glowworm, ' hold thy hand 

 Thou puissant king of fairy land. 

 Thy mighty strokes who may withstand ? 



Hold, or of life despair I :' 



Together then herself doth roll, 



And tumbling down into a hole, 



She seemed as black as any cole, 



Which vext away the fairy." 



DRAYTON'S Nymyihidia. 



To enter upon any account of the Scarabceus, or Sacred 

 Beetle of the Egyptians, would be but to burden the 

 reader with matter with which he must be already familiar, 

 and its place in the symbolism of Egypt, where, bear- 

 ing its orb -like burthen, it represents the vivifying 

 power of the sun, is too well known to require 

 more than this passing notice. It would seem, how- 

 ever, that veneration for the Beetle tribe is not 

 confined to that ancient nation, as it is said that in 

 Sweden there is a belief that any one who shall place 

 an overturned cockchafer on his legs will have three sins 

 remitted to him. It is to be hoped that cockchafers are 

 plentiful in Sweden. 



Many more are the details which might be collected 

 of the place held by insects in history and in literature, 

 but the present chapter has already over-passed all reason- 

 able limit, and we must proceed to the more deeply 

 interesting facts laid open by an examination of the 

 objects themselves. 



