THE EGYPTIAN SCARAB^US. 315 



business in life but pleasure no habitation but among the 

 beautiful flowers, and breathing the perfumed air of summer. 

 The other, in form dark and repulsive, in habits dull and 

 laborious; its abode beneath the earth, or within the loathsome 

 substances which cumber earth's surface, and its favourite 

 atmosphere one of steaming fetidity thence exhaled. 



Yet this, the Scarabceus sacer, or Sacred Beetle, was the 

 creature which the wise and civilized Egyptians imaged on 

 their sepulchral monuments, enclosed with their embalmed 

 bodies, carved on their lofty columns, inscribed on their astro- 

 nomical tables, looked on as symbolic of the world, and of the 

 glorious sun, nay, adored as a visible deity ! 



This insect was also more especially the symbol of their 

 goddess Neith, whose attribute was supreme power in govern- 

 ing the works of creation, and whose glory was considered to 

 be increased rather than diminished by the presence of another 

 power named Phta, the Creator. As typical of Neith, the 

 insect was carved or painted on rings, and worn by soldiers, in 

 token of homage to that Power which disposeth the fate of 

 battles. 



The modern representative of the Scarabcpus sacer (imported 

 from Africa into southern Europe) is the Pill-Beetle, so named 

 from its practice of moulding round pellets of dung, depositing 

 an egg in each, and then, by the assistance of the hind legs 

 and extremity of the body, rolling them backwards into a deep 

 hole, previously excavated for their reception. If one of the 

 insects finds itself inadequate, alone, to the performance of 

 this task, it is accustomed to call in and obtain the assistance 

 of one or more of its fellows. This, certainly, is a habit suffi- 

 ciently remarkable to attract attention from the least obser- 

 vant, and, as one of Nature's uncommon wonders, it formed, 

 in times of superstition, a convenient peg whereon to hang a 

 tissue of embroidered fiction. The Egyptians, accordingly, 

 were wont to regard these insect labours as symbolizing those 

 of Osiris and the Sun ; the balls of dung were exalted into 



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