April, i9i6 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 29 



If the worship of the scarab began in Egypt it was by a race 

 long since disappeared. Isaac Myer, whose monograph* is ad- 

 mirable, believes it antedated Menes, the first king, and was preva- 

 lent among the aboriginal people of the land. The Hottentots o£ 

 south Africa still hold the insect in religious veneration, from 

 which fact it might be argued that a black race were the Egyptian 

 aborigines and when driven out or made subject by later races 

 left behind religion and language. It is true that the Hottentot 

 language is closely related to the ancient Egyptian. It is possibly 

 a coincidence and possibly an offshoot of the same origin that the 

 natives of Madagascar worship a holy cricket, especially as a 

 similar word designates both creatures. 



That the scarab is not found mummified is probably due to the 

 fact that it dries without mummification, retaining its form. The 



Fig. 5. Fig. 6. Fig. 7. 



Fig. S is from the cartouche (i. e., the signet, equivalent to our signa- 

 ture) of Shufu I, the builder of the Great Pyramid, about 4,000 B. C. 

 The Egyptian hieroglyphics are a series of pictures, each representing a 

 phonetic sound, a letter, as well as a symbolic significance. The wasp 

 signified the power of inflicting the punishment of death. Hence it is a 

 royal token. 



Fig. 6 is similar and comes from the cartouche of the son or brother 

 of Shufu, who succeeded him. Note the different shape of wings. The 

 figure to the left is a conventionalized scorpion. 



Fig. 7 is from the cartouche of Psammetichus I, the scholar Pharaoh 

 of Egypt. Note the different shape of wing, head and antenna. This is 

 about 3,000 years later than the two preceding. This same letter occurs in 

 the cartouches of all the members of his family. 



cat and the bull, both devoted to sun worship, required artificial 

 preservation. The cat expands and contracts the pupil of its 

 eyes according to the hour of the day — the position of the sun. 

 Horapollo says that one kind of scarab is Hke a cat, and irradiated 

 * " The Scarab," Isaac Myer, N. Y., 1894. 



