AN OBJECT OF WORSHIP IN EGYPT. 69 



most colossal figure of this insect. It is placed 

 upon an altar, before which a priest is represented 

 kneehng. The beetle served as food for the Ibis. Its 

 remains are sometimes discovered in the earthenware 

 repositories of those embalmed birds which are found 

 at Saccara and Thebes. With the ancients it was a 

 type of the sun. We often find it among the 

 characters used in the hieroglyphic writing. As this 

 insect appears in that season of the year which im- 

 mediately precedes the inundation of the NUe, it 

 may have been so represented as a symbol of the 

 spring, or of fecundity, or of the Egyptian month 

 anterior to the rising of the water. The ancient 

 superstitions with regard to it are not wholly extinct, 

 for the women of the country stUl eat this beetle in 

 order to become proUfic."* 



In Denon's splendid work on Egypt, I find the 

 following passage, which bears directly on the sub- 

 ject of our present inquiry : — " Scarabees, embl^mes 

 de la sagesse, de la force, de I'industrie : son image 

 se trouve partout, ainsi que ceUe du serpent ; il 

 occupe la place la plus distinguee dans les temples, 

 non seulement comme omement, comme attribut, 

 raais comme objet de culte." — Vol. ii. p. 60. 



" The subject admits of further Ulustration by 

 reference to Plutarch. f According to him, soldiers 

 * Travels, vol. iv. p. 8. t Plutarch de Iside et Osiride, cap. x. 



