COLEOPTERA. | 
a ———__—— 
SCARABAUS SACER. 
SACRED BEETLE. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 
No fentelium. Front of the head divided into fix dentations. ‘Thorax unarmed, margin crenulated. 
Wing-cafes fmooth. Shanks of the pofterior legs hairy. 
ScaraBzus Sacer: exfcutellatus clypeo fex dentato thorace inermi crenulato, tibiis pofticis ciliatis, 
elytris levibus. Linn. Sy. Nat. 
Fab, Ent. Syft. 1. p. 62. 205. 

Scarabzeus Sacer is a native of China; it is alfo found in other parts of the Eaft Indies, in Egypt, Bar- 
bary, the Cape of Good Hope, and other countries of Africa, and throughout the fouth of Europe. 
A few remains of ancient monuments, and fome fragments of hiftoric information, preferved from an 
early period of the world, afford certain and interefting details of this inconfiderable creature. Thofe 

remains evince indeed but the firft dawning of natural and moral philofophy on the human mind, but, 
connected with the hiftory of the infec& before us, are too important to be paffed over in filence. 
. 
The Scarabzeus was held in profound veneration by the people of Egypt. They regarded it as a vifible 
a 
a 
deity; but a more refined fyftem of religious worfhip prevailed in their temples among the priefts and 
fages.h They deemed it only the fymbol of their god, and, afcribing both fexes to the Scarab, it became 
a ftriking emblem of a felf-created and fupreme firft caufe. } 
This infeé&t was more efpecially the fymbol of their god Neith, * whofe attribute was power fupreme in 
governing the works of creation, and whofe glory was increafed, rather than diminifhed, by the prefence of 
EL - es 
a fuperior being, PAtha, the creator. The theological definition of the two powers being independent, yet 
centering in one fpirit, is implied by the figurative union of two fexes in the Scarab. In the latter fenfe it 
fignified therefore but one omnipotent power. The Scarab, typifying Neith, was carved or painted on a 
& The fpecies worfhipped by the Egyptians is precifely noted by Linnaeus. Scarabeus facer: and alfo by Olivier. Scarabé facré. 

** Cet infeéte étoit autrefois en veneration en Egypt.” Oliv. 
h Efchenbach, Fablonfki, Savary, Ge. 
i ** The father, mother, male and female art thou.” Synefius. Hymn. Phtha.—** The Egyptian fpirit Pitha gave chaos form, 

and then created all things.” amblichus de My/fteriis, feé. 8. 
k With. The difpofer of all things, &c. Fablonfki. ** Sais,” of the Delta, “* the capital of its diftri€t, is a confiderable 
city, of which Amafis was king. Veith, the Minerva of the Greeks, is the titular divinity.” Plato in Timeo.— On the door 
of the temple of JVezth was engraved in hieroglyphics, ‘ I am what is, what was, what fhall be; mortal has never raifed 
my veil; the fun is the fruit of my womb.” Proclus Commentary on the Timaus of Plato, &c.—Thefe pafiages demonftrate Neith 
and Phtha to be two attributes of one {pirit. The third attribute is Cneph, or divine goodnefs. Savary. 

