192 NATURAL HISTORY OF 
place to another,* the beetle has recourse to its op- 
posite extremity, and pushes the pellet backwards 
with the tip of its abdomen and hind legs. When 
the surface of the ground is unequal the labour is 
greatly increased ; both the beetle and its charge 
sometimes tumble over a declivity, or it may be 
seen struggling, like the Sisyphus of heathen my- 
thology, to push its ball to the summit of an emi- 
nence that obstructs the line of road. But when 
an obstacle of this kind occurs to an individual, his 
associates never fail to hasten to his aid, and their 
united efforts are generally successful. 
The incessant and arduous labour which these 
insects undergo, led the Egyptian priests to regard 
them as symbolical of the labours of Osiris or of the 
Sun. A singular account of them is given by some 
ancient authors, particularly H. Apollodorus and 
P. Yalerianus. All these Scarabaei, according to 
the former of these authors, have thirty fingers, 
corresponding to the number of days which the sun 
takes to traverse each sign of the zodiac. There 
are three distinct kinds of them ; the first, or scara- 
basus properly so called, presents the appearance of 
rays, and has on that account been consecrated to 
* We have been assured by an intelligent gamekeeper 
in the south of Scotland, that he has seen pheasants re- 
move their eggs to a place of safety by rolling them along 
the ground by means of their head and bill. The same 
thing has been observed of an Emu or Cassowary kept in 
the Zoological Gardens in London. 
