SCARAB^ID^ — DUNG-BEETLES. 31 



Scarab being taken as an emblem of the sun. He tells us 

 there are three species of beetles : one of which has the 

 form of a cat, and is radiated;^ and this one from a sup- 

 posed analogy the Egyptians have dedicated to the Sun, 

 because, first, the statue of the Deity of Heliopolis (City of 

 the Sun) has the form of a cat !'^ In this, however, Wilkin- 

 son asserts, that Horapollo is wrong; for the Deity of 

 Heliopolis, under the form of a cat, was the emblem of Bu- 

 bastis, and not of Re, a type of the sun ; and the presence of 

 her statue is explained by the custom of each city assign- 

 ing to the Divinities of neighboring places a consjlicuous 

 post in its own temples ; and Bubastis was one of the prin- 

 cipal contemplar Deities of Heliopolis.^ The second reason 

 of Horapollo is, that this insect has thirty fingers, which 

 correspond to the thirty days of a solar month.* 



3. The Moon. — The second of the three species of beetles, 

 described by Horapollo, has, according to this writer, two 

 horns, and the character of a bull ; and it was consecrated 

 to the moon; whence the Egyptians say, that the bull in 

 the heavens is the elevation of this Goddess. This state- 

 ment of beetle *' with two horns" (the Copris Isidis) con- 

 secrated to the moon, Wilkinson says is not confirmed by 

 the sculptures where it is never introduced.^ 



It is said the Egyptians believed that the pellet of the 

 Scarabaeus remained in the ground for a period of twenty- 

 eight days. Ma}^ not this have some connection with their 

 choosing the insect as a symbol of the moon which divides 

 the year into months of twenty-eight days each ; or, of the 

 month itself (of which we shall notice it was also a symbol) 

 for the same reason ? I have seen, too, a Scarabeeus en- 

 graved upon a seal, the joints of whose tarsi numbered but 

 twenty-eight. 



Conformable to this supposition, the following quotation 

 may be given from that chapter of the Treasvrie of Aun- 

 cient and Modern Times devoted to the "Many meruailous 

 (marvelous) properties in sundrie things; and to what 



1 De Pauw tells us that the description of the Scarabaeus as given 

 by Orus Apollo (Horapollo) is, that "it resembles the sparkling luster 

 of the eye of a cat in the dark."(!) — ii. 10-1. 



2 Horap., i. 10. 



3 AncL Egypt., i. (1st S.) 296. 

 * Horap., Hierogl., i. 10. 



5 Anct. Egypt., ii. (2d S.) 258. 



