The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-04-12
THE SACRED BEETLE
THE CURIOUS PERFORMANCES THAT
LED TO HIS DELEGATION.

1t Was Reverencod by the Esyptians1Dur-
Ing Life and Preserved After Desth-Ths
Great sagacitv Displayed by 1t for the
Preservation of Its Young.
As far as 1 can make out, pair of
beetles, male and female, seem usually
TO share a hole in common, and to roll
balls of food to it either alone or In
concert. l cannot say l have ever seen
much cooperation except between
such partners. Once ball Is secured
and safely landed-for here, as else.
where. there's many slip 'twiXt the
cup and the lip-the happy couple pro-
coed to eat it up, and apparently do not
emerge again from their burrow till
the supply is exhausted. Patient ma
turalists say that one ball has been
known to last a scarab as long as a
fortnight but this / do not vouch for
of personal knowledge When more
food Is wanted, the couple emerge once
more on the open sand and begin to
collect fresh dung and refuse, which
they roll into new food ball and then
dry and harden
Till very lately it was universally be-
lievcd that the female scarab laid an
egg IN some of the balls and that the
young grubs hatched within such food
stocks and began at once to devour
them. This belief has recently been
contradicted with great emphasis by a
good French observer who opened
many balls and found no eggs; but |
cannot accept his conclusion. | opened
a number of balls myself near Venice
this year, and saw in several one or
two eggs, while in one case (uncarthed
from Il hole) | discovered Il half-grOwn
larVa. / venture. therefore. in this
matter to believe my own eyes as
against those of even the most cele-
brated and authoritative entomolo-
gists. In Egypt it has been univers-
ally believed from all antiquity-and L
think quite rightly-tbat after the
scarab has laid an egg in the ball the
parents unite in rolling it to n place
Of safety, above the level of the an
nual inundaton due to the rise of the
Nile. At any rate, ScarabS abound in
Egypt.
At very early date. it would seem,
the curious action of these beetles at
tracted the attention of the ancient
Egyptians, whose worship of animals
was one of the most marked features
of their mOnstrouS religion. Hence
grew strange and widespread super
stiton. \ race which deiiied the
hawk the cat, the ibis and the iackal
was not likely to overlook the marvel
louS proceedings of the pious and
dutful scarab. SO the very early
Egyptians, we may conjecture, began
by thinking there must be something
divine in the nature of an insect which
worked so ceaselcsSly on behalf of its
behind it mp such relatively large hill
locks. Watching n little closer, as
time went on. the Egyptian diScov-
cred, no doubt, that sacred beetles did
not proceed directly from sacred bee
ties, like lambs from ewes but grew,
as it were, out of the dirt and eOrrup-
ton of the mysterious pellets.
A modern observer would, of course,
at once suspect that the scarab laid an
egg inside the ball. and would prompt.
ly proceed to pull one open and look
for it. But that cold scientific method
was not likely to commend itself to
the mystic and deeply religious Egyp.
tan mind. The priests by the Nile
jumped rather to the conclusion that
the scarab collected dirt in order to
make future scarab out of clay, and
that from this dirt the young beetle
grew. self-eXstent, self developed, self.
created. Considering the absence of
scientific knowledge and comparative
groups of scientific facts at the time
such conclusion was by no means
unnatural. Once started on so strange
set of ideas, the Egyptians proceed.
ed to evolve worship of the scarab
which grew ever and developed, as
they thought the scarab itself did,
practically out of nothing. The i'm.
mortality of the soul and the resurrec
ton of the body were the central ideas
Of Egyptian religion: the thinkers Of
Thebes and Memphis instantly per
ceived a fanciful anology between the
scarab rising from its bed of dirt and
the mummy reviving when the expect
ed day of resurrection should at last
arrive. AS consequence of this an
alogy the scarab was made sacred II
was reverenced during its life and
often preserved after It's death, like
the mummied cats and hawks and sa
cred Apis bulls which formed such spe
cial objects of veneration to the deyout
of EgyDt.-Grant Allen.