ITS SYMBOLIC ATTKIBUTES. 113 



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 

 types of the world, and, the beetles being supposed to push 

 them always from east to west, for twenty-eight successive 

 days, their movement was made also to represent that of the 

 habitable globe. To carry out this symbolic scheme, the Sca- 

 rabasus (reckoning five joints to each of its six feet) was said 

 to have thirty fingers, corresponding with the number of days 

 in each sign of the zodiac ; while, to complete the analogy, 

 the six notches or angular projections of the insect's head 

 were likened to the rays of the sun.* 



Add to all these imputed characteristics, that of youth, an- 

 nually renovated, and we have the Scarabaeus of antiquity ; a 

 creature which, however worthless in its fancied attributes, was 



* Latreille, ' Annales du Mus6um,' 1819. ' Des Insectes peintes ou sculptes sur 

 les Monumens de 1' Egypte.' 



