116 THE SCARABJEUS PROPER. 



whenever an anxious merchant, whose " mind is tossing on 

 the ocean," shall look eagerly upward to "know where sits 

 the wind," he may be reminded, by an emblem of mortality, 

 that the ship Death, for which, perhaps, he is booked an early 

 passenger, may be coming from the north or south, or east or 

 west, and that sooner than any one of his expected argosies. 



The sacred beetle of Egypt is not a native of Britain, and 

 only of Europe as naturalized in its southern countries from 

 the neighbouring continent of Africa. It is only, therefore, 

 in insect collections that the Scarabasus proper can be seen in 

 its own desiccated person. Figures thereof, both sculptured 

 and painted, are, however, always on view with the Egyptian 

 antiquities in the British Museum, some smaller than their 

 original, others of gigantic size, but they are said to be, in 

 general, pretty correct representations of the thing intended. 



But though we have not a Scardbceus sacer in the list of 

 our indigenous beetles, we have an insect greatly resembling 

 it in form, as well as habits, which may be met with almost 

 everywhere, and on every day from March to October. This 

 is no other than the " great dor," or " clock " the " sharde- 

 borne beetle " of our immortal Bard, that which, on summer 

 and autumn evenings, so often with drowsy hum wheels lum- 

 bering past us, or bangs up right against us. 



Like the Scarabaeus, this clock-beetle* is, in figure, broad, 

 and short, and clumsy. His forehead has none, indeed, of 



* See Vignette : Clock Beetle, Geotrupes stercorarius. 



