The Portland daily press., 1899-03-02
THE SACRED BEETLE.
Curfsus Acts of the scnrsbnus That
Led to His Dedication.

| Curfsus Acts of the scnrabnus That
Led to His Dedication.
Az far es can make out, a pair Of bee
ties, male and female seem usually to
shave q hole In common and to roll balls
of food to 1t either alone or tn concert. |
cannot say have ever seen much cooper
alton except between such partners. Oncs
q ball Is secured and safely laudcd-foi
here, as elsewhere, there's many u slim
'twixt the cup and tho Np--the happy
couple proceed to eat IL up and apparently
do not emerge again from their burrow
till tho supply is exhausted. Patient nat
uralists say that one ball has been known
to last n scarab as long as n fortnight, but
this do not vouoh for of personal knowl-
edge. When more food is wanted thu
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 ana harden.
Till very lately it was universally be-
lievsd that the female scarab laid an egg
In some OF the balls and that the young
grubs Matched within such food stocks
and began at once 70 deYour them. This
belief has recently been contradicted with
great emphasis by coed French observer,
who opened many balls and found no eggs,
but / cannot accept his conclusion I
opened number Of balls myself near
Venice this year and saw in several one or
two eggs, while in one case (unearthed
from hole) discovered a half grown
larva. venture, therefore, in this mat
ter to believe my own eyes Ms against those
of even the most celebrated and authorita-
tive eptomelogists In Egypt It has been
universally believed from all antiquity
and l think quite rightly-that after tho
scarab has laid an egg in the ball the par
ents unite In rolling it to place Of safety,
above the level of the annual inundation
due TO the rise of the Nile. At any rate.
scarabs abound in Egypt
At very early dafe, it would seem, the
curious action of these beetles attracted
the attention Of tho ancient Egyptians,
whose worship OF animals was one Of
most marked features OF their monstrous
religion; hence grew strange and wide
spread superstition A race which delfied
the hawk, the cat, the Ibis and the jackal
was not likely to overlook tho marvellous
proceedings OF the pious and dutiful scarab.
So the very early Egyptians, we may con-
lecture, began by thinking there must be
something divine in the nature of an in
sect which worked SO ceaselessly on behalf
of its young and rolled such big round
balls behind 1t up such relatively large
hillocks Watching little closer, as time
went on, the Egyptian discovered, no
doubt, that scored beetles did not proceed
directly from sacred beetles. like lambs
from ewes, but grew, as it WERE out Of
the dirt and corruption of the mysterious
pellets
modern observer would of course at
once suspect that the scarab laid an egg
x.t.1 81 A,gl ~,
coed to pull one open and look for 1t, but
that cold scientific method WAS not likely
to commend itself 20 the mystic and deep
ly religious Egyptian mind The priests
by the Nile jumped rather to the conclu--
sion that the scarab collected dirt in order
to make future scarab out of clay, ara
that from this dirt the young beetle grew
self existent self developed, self created
Considering the absence of scientific
knowledge and comparative groups of sci
enti1c facts at the time, such a conclusion
was by no means unnatural Once started
on so strange set of ideas, the Egyptians
proceeded TO evolve worship of the scarab
which grew ever and developed, as they
thought the scarab itself did, practically
out OF nothing The Immortality OF the
soul and the resurrection of the body were
the central ideas Of Egyptian religion
The thinkers of Thebes ard Memphis in
stantly perceived fanciEul analogy be-
tween the scarab rising from its bed of
dirt and the mummy reviVing when the
expected day of resurrection should at lasv
arrive. AS consequence OF this analogy
the scarab was made sacred 1t was rev.
erenced during It's life and often preserved
after its death like the nummied cats and
hawks and sacred Apis bulls which formed
such special objects OF veneration to tbs
devout of Egypt. Alien in Strand
Magazine.